Yasushi Nirasawa, Illustrator, sculptor and character designer Hailing from Japan. Nirasawa’s art style is a bizarre mix of organic and mechanical phantasmic creatures, elaborate costumes, and beautiful but unearthly women. His art would go on to be featured in many magazines, video games, films, tv shows and anime. He’s contributed concept art for Men in Black (1997), Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust (2000), Hellboy (2004), Godzilla Final Wars (2004) and popular Japanese tv series like Kamen Rider and GARO.

Hobby Japan Magazine

Nirasawa’s career began in the late 80’s when his Gundam illustration and model was featured in the Autumn 1987 issue of collectible magazine Hobby Japan. Amongst the more colorful robot mech designs his darker and organic style stood out. He would go on to have his own column in Hobby Japan Magazine titled “Creature Core” which would feature one of his sculptures in every issue.

Dark, Retro, Cool

Niraswas style is very much a product of the time in the late 80s and early 90s when many older characters and series that were once centered around children were being rebooted for adults. The idea was that many of the adults who were kids when these ip’s were at their peek would then have nostalgia for those characters. A concept that is still used in entertainment today.

Yasushi would gain popularity around this time with influences from popular Japanese characters from the 60s and 70s but mixed with his own unique darker edge. He also had an appreciation for western films as well like, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Frankenhooker, Hellraiser, Midnight Cowboy, Dune, and Liquid Sky. With his all time favorite being Brian De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise (1974).

Judging from his taste in film it seems Yasushi enjoyed movies that deal with mature themes with high level storytelling but could also appreciate a schlocky B movie. Which reflects in his work, paying homage to these films in his sculptures through out his Creature Core column.

Creature Core

1988 the year Yasushi would finally have an art book completely featuring only his work. Fantastic Creature World a Monster encyclopedia for an RPG game.

In 1992 his most known art book Creature Core was released. The book featured his Manga art, models that were featured in his Hobby Japan magazine “Creature Core” column and some of his illustrations from the RPG manuals he’s worked on.

Creature Designer

Throughout the Mid 90’s to early 2000’s Nirasawa would work on a variety of films, animations and video games. Such as Men in Black (1997), Deep Fear (1998), Archangel Thunderbird (1998), Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust (2000), Hellboy (2004), Godzilla Final Wars (2004) and popular Japanese tv series like Kamen Rider and GARO.

While his time working in Hollywood was short lived Yasushi Nirasawa was still highly regarded in Japan and those in the know until his untimely passing in 2016.