YASUSHI NIRASAWA -

Character Designer & Manga Artist

Nirasawa-san is one of Japan’s best-known and most popular manga artists and character designers. His designs and concepts have graced such productions as Hellboy and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and his animation character designs have appeared in Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust and Devilman: Amon.

Nirasawa-san first came to prominence with the manga series Phantom Core, serialised in Hobby Japan magazine. This led to Creature Core, a book featuring his many original sculptures and models based on characters from his unique imagination. A huge hit around the world, the designs of Creature Core have been highly influential on a great many creators and designers.His unique style has grabbed the attention of audiences from both East and West, especially with his stunning creature designs for 2001's top animated movie "Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within".

Manga works include Guillotina and Punishmenter: Sodo, recently collected in the Doesn’t graphic novel. Other work has included character designs for the video games Deep Fear and Virus, and the stunning Goldva manga for Super Model Hobby magazine. Animated work includes a Phantom Core stop-motion adaptation and the Perfect TV short Digital Figures. In 1997 he designed the titular characters for Renga's Archangel Thunderbird, the result of his meeting Tony in 1996 whilst the latter was working at Kodansha in Tokyo. In 2000, he revamped the Lady Violator character from the Comic Afternoon incarnation of Dominator for the new animated movie (pic below), and in 2004 he assisted Tony in the visual overhaul of the Dominator characters for the next movie (see elsewhere on this site).

Nirasawa devotees should pick up "The Art Of Hellboy" to get a very special look at his Abe Sapien designs (very nice!), and his latest graphic novel compilation "Doesn't", which brings together the manga stories of "Guillotina", "Punishmenter Sodo" and "Goldva" in one gorgeous edition; get hold of a copy from the usual outlets now! Also out now is the full-colour volume "Chameleon", which features character art from "Archangel Thunderbird" and an exclusive look at the colour version of Lady Violator...

Nirasawa-san's studio in Tokyo is festooned with memorabilia from the worlds of comics, manga and horror movies from all four corners of the globe - toys, posters and models are stacked in every space available. Many of his most famous characters - including Nina Dolono from Phantom Core - are available as toys and model kits, many originally sculpted by himself, via Fewture Models, purveyors of all things weird and wonderful... A committed fan of The Damned, he is the proud owner of a Captain Sensible autograph obtained for him by Tony one dark night in a Brighton pub.