Akemi Takada: Timeless Character Art
Anime
If there's any person who defined the archetypal 80s anime character art style, Akemi Takada would be a strong contender. Debuting in the industry as a guest character designer for Ippatsu Kanta-kun, Takada would be assigned as the main character designer only a year later for the sequel of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, a show she was a fan of during her university years. After four years of working for Tatsunoko, Takada went freelance and truly hit her stride with her involvement in the adaptation of Urusei Yatsura, adapting Rumiko Takahashi's art style to an anime format (she was responsible for turning Lum's rainbow-colored hair into the trademark teal it is known today). Takada would later work on another Takahashi adaptation, taking after Yuuji Moriyama stepped down from the character designer role in Episode 28 of Maison Ikkoku.
Takada has a quite interesting evolution in her art style over the years. One way of comparison is through how different her character design of Lum looked from Episode 1 in contrast to her appearance in the later episodes of the series. Over time Takada's style would get more individuality, her characters more model-like, their eyes getting softer and gentler, their fashion sense more pronounced and elegant. This is most evident in her character designs for Kimagure Orange Road in 1987, which can be considered a culmination of her style and possesses many of the features that her characters have had ever since.
Like other interest stacks I have created, the following list is a selection of her most important works in chronological order. She is one of my favorite character designers ever, so I hope you consider checking them out. Or at least buy one of her artbooks.
Halcyon Realms's La Madonna artbook review - http://halcyonrealms.com/anime/la-madonna-takada-akemi-art-book-review/
Character design sheets for Maison Ikkoku - https://www.catsuka.com/gengal/artworks//maison_ikkoku
Lum's character design + a podcast about Urusei Yatsura in the thread - https://twitter.com/bunnycartoon/status/1260227769298026503
Takada has a quite interesting evolution in her art style over the years. One way of comparison is through how different her character design of Lum looked from Episode 1 in contrast to her appearance in the later episodes of the series. Over time Takada's style would get more individuality, her characters more model-like, their eyes getting softer and gentler, their fashion sense more pronounced and elegant. This is most evident in her character designs for Kimagure Orange Road in 1987, which can be considered a culmination of her style and possesses many of the features that her characters have had ever since.
Like other interest stacks I have created, the following list is a selection of her most important works in chronological order. She is one of my favorite character designers ever, so I hope you consider checking them out. Or at least buy one of her artbooks.
Halcyon Realms's La Madonna artbook review - http://halcyonrealms.com/anime/la-madonna-takada-akemi-art-book-review/
Character design sheets for Maison Ikkoku - https://www.catsuka.com/gengal/artworks//maison_ikkoku
Lum's character design + a podcast about Urusei Yatsura in the thread - https://twitter.com/bunnycartoon/status/1260227769298026503
