Artist Yoshitaka Amano, 58, is a world-famous creator of manga, anime and game characters. At age 15, he launched his professional career with the popular "Speed Racer" anime and has since worked on many hit shows, such as "Time Bokan," "Gatchaman" ("G-Force"), "Tekkaman" and "Honey Bee." He also illustrated Hideyuki Kikuchi's "Vampire Hunter D" novels and designed the characters for its anime movie adaptation. Always testing his own talent by moving from one genre to another, Amano created the title logo and the characters for the worldwide hit role-playing video game Final Fantasy, and right now he's focusing on painting as well as an upcoming new anime.
Without a deadline, projects just die. I wanted to create my own anime, "Deva Loka," more than 10 years ago. But I had no deadline, so it's still not done. Now we have a schedule and we're sticking to it, so we're making progress. If you want a project to live, have a deadline.
The best way to relax is to work more. I never want to be off work. When I feel tired from drawing very detailed characters, I move to another table and I start doodling with colors — like when I was a child. That's how I relax. I heard that when Madame (Marie) Curie got tired with chemistry, she would "recharge" by doing physics or math problems. I totally get that!