© Yoshitaka Amano
Dark Horse announced during artist Yoshitaka Amano’s panel at Anime Expo on Friday that it is releasing a second edition of Amano’s Deva Zan artbook novel. Amano is illustrating a new cover for the release. The company initially released the first edition in English in hardcover in January 2013 with the cover pictured right.
ZAN, artist Yoshitaka Amano’s anime project based on his DEVA ZAN art, features several mecha anime veterans, including Ryōsuke Takahashi, Masashi Ikeda, Tōru Yoshida, and Moriyasu Taniguchi, and Kunio Ōkawara — all of whom worked together on Armored Trooper Votoms, among other projects.
Ikeda (Samurai Troopers episodes 1-19, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Inuyasha) and Yoshida (Blue Comet SPT Layzner mecha animation director, Mobile Suit Gundam Seed character animation director) are directing the anime. Votoms creator and director Takahashi (Fang of the Sun Dougram, Blue Comet SPT Layzner, Gasaraki) is in charge fo series scripts. Moriyasu Taniguchi (Fang of the Sun Dougram, Armored Trooper Votoms, Blue Comet SPT Layzner animation director) is the chief animation director. Kunio Ōkawara, who aside from Votoms, has also worked on many installments in the Gundam franchise and other mecha anime, is the mechanical designer. Minoru Nishida (The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Thundercats, The Last Unicorn) is the art director.
Amano (Vampire Hunter D, Final Fantasy) announced on June 17 that he had established the Los Angeles-based company Yoshitaka Amano Inc., which revealed that production has begun on the anime. The project is now listed as a limited anime series.
The series was previously listed as a theatrical project, and was initially announced as a film in 2010 before being rebooted into a series in 2022. The theatrical project was previously announced to screen in 2026 or later.
Jaymen Tokyo and Good Win were previously listed to produce the project. Mariko Suzuki from M’s Management Studio, film producer Hiroaki Ikegami, Kazuhiko Yusa (representative director of Jaymen Tokyo), and Shin Koyamada (CEO of N LITE Japan) were listed as producers on the project. Dark Horse Comics and SOZO Comics were credited with “special cooperation.”
Image via press release
© Yoshitaka Amano
The anime is part of a larger ZAN project, which includes a P2E blockchain game and NFT art. Singaporean blockchain system development firm Trophee will contribute to these two projects.
The project was originally announced in 2010 as an anime film, with Amano making his directorial debut on the film. Amano had established his own production studio, Studio Deva Loka, to create the film. The film was originally slated to debut worldwide in 2012, but was never released as that earlier incarnation. Amano had said in 2010 that he had created the concept for the film in 2000 and had been developing the project ever since.
Yoshitaka Amano Inc. focuses on film and animation production, artist management, licensing, art events, and galleries. “AMANO,” an exhibition inspired by Amano’s artwork is also expanding with experiences planned for the U.S., Europe, China, Southeast Asia, and Japan starting in 2027. Medicom Toy Corporation, Milestone Inc. of the Good Smile Company Group, and Twin Planet Co., Ltd. are serving as partners on AMANO.
Amano is most well known for his contributions to Vampire Hunter D and the Final Fantasy series, as well as his collaboration with English graphic novelist Neil Gaiman on Sandman: The Dream Hunters. He has been in the anime industry since he was 15, when he joined the veteran studio Tatsunoko Production, and has contributed to many anime and video game projects.
GIBIATE PROJECT, a global IP development group that includes Amano, developed the Gibiate series. The group announced the anime at Anime Expo 2019. The anime premiered in July 2020. Amano also drew the character designs for the Exception Netflix anime, which debuted in October 2022.
Source: Yoshitaka Amano’s Anime Expo panel (Alex Mateo)
