Yoshitoshi Abe (安倍 吉俊, Abe Yoshitoshi, born August 3, 1971), also stylized as yoshitoshi ABe, is a Japanese graphic artist who works predominantly in
anime and
manga. He first gained fame in his work on the
avant-garde anime Serial Experiments Lain. He is also responsible for the concept and character design for the series NieA_7. He is the creator of the
dōjinshiHaibane Renmei, which was also adapted into an anime.
He is a colleague and friend of
Chiaki J. Konaka, with whom he collaborated on the series Serial Experiments Lain and Texhnolyze. He usually uses the
romaji form of his name instead of the
kanji, with the "B" in "ABe" capitalized, as a reminder of his early works, for which he used the pen name "AB".
Abe first began his career as a teen in Tokyo who was first recognized as a
graffiti artist, who regularly got into legal problems with his art. His concepts for all his later works are said to be inspired by this time of his life and has projected a dark theme into his
animecharacter designs.
He is known to be a fairly tech-savvy manga artist,[1] drawing a sketch with just his finger and an application on an
iPad.[2] He released self-published dōjinshi on digital support bypassing the traditional print publishers with Pochiyama at the Pharmacy in 2008 aimed at
iPhone and
iPod Touch and I am an Alien, I have a Question in 2010 for
Kindle.[1][3]
Personal life
On November 11, 2011, Abe married artist Sasaki Yukari, his manga assistant since 2010.[4] Their daughter was born on September 21, 2012.[5]
^
abABe, Yoshitoshi.
"Lain Men: Yoshitoshi ABe" (Interview). Interviewed by Anime Jump. Archived from
the original on September 26, 2007. Retrieved August 10, 2019.