Akihiro Yamada

 (born February 10, 1957) is a Japanese illustrator and manga artist. He was born in Kōchi, Kōchi Prefecture on the island of Shikoku in Japan, and now resides in Kyoto. Yamada is known for delicate images reminiscent of suiboku and depiction of fantasy subjects. He is the 1996 Seiun Award winner in art category.
Biography.
While he has created many manga, Yamada is widely known as a novel illustrator and as a character designer. As an illustrator his best known works are Fuyumi Ono's Twelve Kingdoms series and Mizuno Ryo's Record of Lodoss War. His character design credits include concepts for the anime series "RahXephon" as well as a variety of video games. He worked on concept design of the movie .
Yamada's character design credits for anime include "RahXephon". His work on video games includes "" for PlayStation, various Might and Magic and Wizardry titles for the PC Engine, both entries to "Mystic Ark", Enix's role-playing video game for the Super Famicom and PlayStation and character designs for "Shinkai Densetsu Meremanoid" and "Terra Phantastica". Yamada also worked on a game called "Chaos Gear" and a PC game, "Black Rainbow".
Yamada's designs can also be found in "" for the Super NES and in "Front Mission 3" for the PlayStation. Yamada has produced many anime artbook compilations.
Yamada drew the manga "Record of Lodoss War: The Lady of Pharis" in conjunction with writer Ryo Mizuno, and is currently working on an Asian-themed solo manga, "Beast of East".
Yamada attracted attention outside Japan through his illustrations of Fuyumi Ono's long-running "The Twelve Kingdoms" light novel series. He specially designed the rich cover illustrations for the home DVD releases of the anime adaptation of this series. Within Japan he has illustrated covers for numerous translated anthologies of Cthulhu Mythos literature, and is currently working with Kurodahan Press on their translation of a four-volume Japanese anthology of Cthulhu Mythos literature, . Yamada is drawing covers that are exclusive to the English translation.
His work is also seen in the non-verbal theatre show GEAR, in Kyoto. His character designs and aesthetic are the basis for the costume design and set design of GEAR.