Yoshiyuki Sadamoto Evangelion Character Illustrator
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (born January 29, 1962) is a Japanese illustrator and manga artist born in Tokushima city, Yamaguchi prefecture. He has a number of members in his family that work in the anime industry. His wife is the manga artist, Takaha Mako. His cousin is Tomoshi Sadamoto, a producer at CAPCOM who has worked on STREET FIGHTER III.
About the Illustrator
Sadamoto is best known as the artist behind Neon Genesis Evangelion manga adaptation. He also worked as the main character designer for original Evangelion's film series. He has also designed characters for other recent and very popular films: The Girl Who Leaped Through Time (2006), Summer Wars (2009), and Wolf Children (2012). As an illustrator, his style of drawing has been a profound influence to the Otaku scene and culture in Japan since the 1990s. His unique drawing lines and human body lines are referred to as the "Yoshiyuki Touch". With his influential drawing skills, he has received high accolades as an animator.
History
When Sadamoto was a student, he did not dream about becoming a professional manga artist. He had an ambition to become an art teacher after graduating from Tokyo Zokei University. While he was focusing on studying art, he made an entry to the "Shukan Shonen Champion New Star Manga Award". His main intention to enter the competition was to win prize money in order to purchase a motorbike. He eventually won the prize for his car racing manga, FINAL STRETCH Saigo no Shissou (1981). He then was in charge of the original picture for the animation, Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982) in a part-time position. As he became busy, his attendance to university classes started decreasing. With a decrease in interest in university, he naturally focused less on his studies. To a point where he even painted over a previously drawn picture and submitted it for a university class.
After he graduated from university, he joined the Telecom Animation Film Co., Ltd., and learned animation under the wing of Yasuo Otsuka. Soon later, he transferred to GAINAX with his ex-university classmate Hideaki Anno to serve as a character designer and animation director for the film, Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise (1987). By working at GAINAX and his work with the Evangelion franchise, he made his first steps into becoming a world-famous artist.
Sadamoto and Anime
One of the character designing works done by Sadamoto is NERV, which he is famous for. NERV is an organization featured in the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series. The following are the famous leading characters Sadamoto illustrated: Shinji Ikari, Rei Ayanami, Asuka Langley Soryu. These teenagers are Evangelion pilots that battle against Angels. Also who struggle with their personal problems and traumas. The audience are able to relate to them on a personal level, while others may interpret them as philosophical, historical, or religious symbols.
Sadamoto designed the visual appearances according to the personalities of each character. He wanted the audience to have a grip of understanding of what kind of person each character is at a glance. His creative designs of female lead characters led to high sales of Evangelion merchandise. The design of Rei was especially popular as the media renounced her character as "Premium Girl". Whenever Rei was on the cover of books, the sales went high.
However, Sadamoto had difficulty distinguishing his characters from each other. He could only illustrate their differences by changing their hairstyle and clothing, which he admitted. When we he was nervous about designing the famous "plug suit" (a suit worn by Evangelion Unit pilots) he created a model figure himself to use as a reference.
More of Sadamoto's Anime Works
Mari Illustrious Makinami is a character that appears in Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance (2009). She is an Eva pilot, the only one who admits the enjoy of piloting. Yoshiyuki designed her character as energetic and optimistic. The special thing about this character is her sexy looks. She has a style of brunette with twin tails and red frame glasses. This illustration continues to inspire many illustrators around the world.
Sadamoto’s Evangelion Manga
In addition to the Evangelion character designs, Sadamoto released an official manga series based on the characters and story of the original series. This manga was published by Kadokawa Shoten from December 1994 and concluded in November 2014. The manga had been adapted to differ from the original TV series and Sadamoto insisted that it was only a ‘supplement’ design to promote the series franchise. The manga had 14 volumes in total with the first 10 volumes that sold over 15 million copies.
Art Book Publications
Der Mond: The Art of Neon Genesis Evangelion (English, Hard cover)
2006,10,10
Evangelion Artbook illustrated by: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto