#toshiyuki itahana

[the-crystal-in-chronicles]

Did you know that Toshiyuki Itahana still does Crystal Chronicles artwork (fanart?) on his Twitter account? I'm probably missing a lot more but here is a sample of some of his work!

[nester-the-lark]

New official artwork by Toshiyuki Itahana for the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Artwork belongs to Square Enix. (Source)

Honestly, I'm not really into Final Fantasy, but I love the Crystal Chronicles series. Also, I might be in the minority, but I loved the remaster even more. I'm also a big fan of Mr. Itahana's cute artwork, as well as Kumi Tanioka's beautiful musical scores.

In his message to fans for the anniversary, producer Akitoshi Kawazu also promised to one day make an entirely new FFCC!

[marvin-norde]

Ich wünsche euch heute Abend, am letzten Tag des Junis, noch einen schönen Happy Pride Month mit meiner Version der Pride-Flagge und Square Enix Pride-Maskottchen, Mina, von Toshiyuki Itahana. Bleibt tapfer und standhaft, lasst euch nicht alles Angesprochene gefallen, unterstützt und helft Gleichgesinnten und macht weiter so der Diskriminierung auf allen angesprochenen Ebenen einen Strich durch die Rechnung!

Bis zum nächsten Pride Month!

[kechichronicles]

I took these photos near the launch of FFCC remastered, when everyone on twitter was talking about their love of the game and how excited they were for the re-release. Thanks to @heebiejeebiejade's relentless peer pressure, I got the courage to @ Toshiyuki Itahana on twitter, showed him my collection and told him how much I loved FFCC! He actually replied and I basically died right then. That's right, I've been a ghost this entire time but I digress XD

[sack-thing]

Word count: 4,719

Chapter 2 of the third year is up! Time for the party's first dungeon.

Thanks to @crookedvoidbird for proofreading again!

(Official pic by Toshiyuki Itahana. The landscape looks like it could be Shella lake!)

[cyrus-uhwo-capstone]

Tumblr Progress Update #1

Hey everyone!👋 I bring you an update on my recent endeavors over the past few weeks:

1️⃣ Progress Overview:

Embarking on the convergence of 2D and 3D art, a journey that breathes new life into my existing 3D environments. Delicately layering intricate 2D elements atop, I've honed in on impeccable posing. The current focal point? A captivating rendition of Popola from "Nier Automata." TLDR: I'm trying to join 2D and 3D art in a way that doesn't make either of them worse.

2️⃣ Next Steps:

Setting my sights on the next two weeks, my aim is to bring this composition to fruition. The vision entails an animated 3D background, complemented by subtle 2D animations.

3️⃣ Reflections and Insights:

Amidst the creative process, a moment of revelation surfaced. A revisit to After Effects led to the rediscovery of puppet pins—an invaluable tool for the upcoming animation phase. However, animating on top of a mannequin seems to be a bit difficult at the moment. the prospect of frame-by-frame illustration now demands thoughtful consideration.

5️⃣ Sneak Peek / Reference (WIP):

^ The last image is what inspired me to use Devola as my focus for this piece. (Toshiyuki Itahana) Song of the Ancients - (Composed by Keiichi Okabe)

(Amazing music from the Nier series using the vocals of these two characters)

📅 Project Timeline Update:

As of the latest checkpoint, I find myself navigating through the project landscape, standing at approximately 3/4ths completion. The culmination of this phase is within sight, and the anticipation for the finished piece intensifies.

Your presence in this creative journey is valued, and I look forward to your thoughts! 🎮

[mekatrio]

NEW TOSHIYUKI ITAHANA ZIDANE WAHOOOOOOO

[sir-fratley-irontail]

My only official artwork, by Toshiyuki Itahana.

I wonder if Amano ever did a drawing of mine. Who knows?

[hrcbfmpl]

NieR Automata:

Game:

NieR Automata is a 2017 action, single player, role-playing game from the Drakengard series. It is developed by Platinium Games and published by Square Enix. The game was originally released for the Playstation 4 and Windows via Steam, the following year an Xbox One port was also published. A Nintendo Switch port was also released in 2022.

The Artist for this game is Akihiko Yoshida A Journey through Akihiko Yoshida's Art Style (youtube.com) , known for his work in the Final Fantasy series, and the lead for character design, Uuya Nagai and Toshiyuki Itahana.

The story explores the themes of finding value in life and looking at the reason people kill. It fits into the theme of dreams and destruction or gods, as humans in the game are represented as 'gods' which the Androids are fighting for and it covers the destruction of those gods (humanity). It takes place in a post apocalyptic setting of 11945AD where there is a war between the human-made androids and an invading army of machines created by plant-like Aliens.

The plot revolves around two main characters, 2B and 9S. The two are sent to clear machine threats and discover, on their mission, that the machines are replicating human societies and concepts. There is a God type theme here, in that they have to battle Machines that have named themselves Adam and Eve and, in doing so,2B and 9s learn that the Aliens have been dead for a long time and were killed by the machines they had created after the Machines' intelligence outgrew their own and that Humanity has also perished. Humanity's only hope is a Moon-based server, which holds their genetic remains. 2B syncs with YoRHa, called A2. YoRHa plays a big part in providing the myth of the teams survival to maintain a morale and give androids a god to fight for. 'Become as gods' is a narrative theme in both the game and anime, referring to the humans and the aliens who were the creators of the androids and machines and their progression to becoming more like their creators as they gain emotions.

Anime:

A-1 Pictures animated this. It was directed by Yoko Taro and Ryouji Masuyama. The character designer and animation director was Jun Nagai, and the art director was Hirofumi Sakagami. The artists were Akihiko Yoshida and Kazuma Koda.

In the anime the story is that Earth is invaded by aliens and their Machine Lifeforms and nearly drive humanity to extinction. The humans take refuge on the moon, where they build androids to enable them to retake Earth. I found a really good poster for the anime:

YoRHa No. 2 Type B (2B): I have included images of this character from the game and the anime.

2B is one of the main protagonists, and a soldier for YoRHa, and android task force fighting against alien made machine lifeforms. She wears a blindfold, which i believe may be to indicate how she was brainwashed to not show emotions and follow all orders unquestioningly. The black colours of her design suggest that she is limited to a 'black and white' view of the situation since she firmly believes in what YoRHa command are telling her. When crating 2B, Akihiko was asked to design a character which would be fun to cosplay. 2B is equipped with two weapon slots and an array of weapons to find within the game.

2B in the game:

2B in the anime:

9S:

9S is another one of the main protagonists in Nier, he is the male equivalent of 2B however, he focuses less on melee combat and more on hacking the enemy. 9S is a scouting unit compared to 2B, who is a unit specially designed for combat. This comparison is shown in the game as when you play as 2B, you have two weapons and do not have the ability to hack enemies, however when you play as 9S you only have 1 weapon but can hack enemies to explode, control, pilot, or alternatively; damage them if they have too much health to be destroyed in one hack.

9S in the game:

9S in the anime:

2B's main swords Virtuous Contract and Virtuous Treaty:

These are the two weapons that 2B uses in the starting tutorial and cutscenes, they are also the weapons that are directly tied to her and are used on most of her figures and fan/official artworks.

9S's swords Cruel Oath and Cruel Blood Oath:

These are 9S's main weapons which he is also shown with in most cutscenes/artwork, although it is mainly the Cruel Oath that he is shown with since he only wields one weapon at a time.

Weapon stories:

All weapons in the game have stories in their descriptions which tie either to the characters or to some other background. The main weapons used by 2B and 9S have weapon stories that fit together as if telling the same story from different view points, although 9S's weapon stories show more detail as he shows more emotion in the game and 2B shows much less emotion as all androids are told not to show emotions and she feels she must follow the rules. 9S doesn't care about showing his emotions though.

[esportschimpnews]

Square Enix could be working on a remake of Final Fantasy IX

Square Enix could be working on a remake of Final Fantasy IX

Credits: Disclosure/Square Enix Square Enix could be developing a remake of Final Fantasy IX. Amid rumors of the game’s relaunch, one of the game’s designers, Toshiyuki Itahana, has revealed that he is working on an illustration for an unannounced game. The announcement gave the community some hope to play a newer version of the 2000 release. Rumors about a remake of Final Fantasy IX started…

[the-crystal-in-chronicles]

Artwork of Yuri and Chelinka from Toshiyuki Itahana's Twitter account! Amazing how he's still passionate about the Crystal Chronicles series many years later!

[jonasis-like]

Tribute art to my favorite Final Fantasy, IX. Played this back when I was a kid and it still has a special place in my heart. Everything about IX resonates with me from world, story, artstyle, characters etc. Garnet, Vivi and Zidane stand in particular as my favorites as they overcome strong personal dilemmas that can be deeply rooted in life as well as how intrinsic they are in each other’s character development. Those aspects made them truly authentic and relatable to me. 

[marvin-norde]

Mit der Veröffentlichung meiner Version des Square Enix Pride Maskottchens, Mina, von Toshiyuki Itahana (mit dem DeviantArt-Wasserzeichen), wünsche ich euch allen Angesprochenen einen schönen Happy Pride Month!

Mina (c) Toshiyuki Itahana

Art (c) Ich

[fancypantsrecords]

Various Artists - Chocobo & Friends 2: Select Tracks From The Final Fantasy Series Compi Vinyl | Square Enix Music | 2022 | Black

[sack-thing]

If the hands of the human-birds like in the first two pics aren't somewhat similar to the ones of Yukes below, I'm not a fan of FFIX and FFCC anymore.

Toshiyuki Itahana is the same chara designer for those games btw.

Speaking of Yukes. I know that even in canon there's some sayings about them not having actual bodies and being just souls in armors (they're not in full armors but whatever), the thing is I'm too much of a pragmatic for my own sake (ok I guess it's not good or bad). And if they all look bird-y like that —I mean there's the beaks, the wings, the feathers, the morphology in general that is identical for everyone— then they can just be human-birds beings with actual physical forms? Just like Lilties are somewhat half plants.

I don't have enough imagination to go into that kind of surreal stuff in particular, don't ask me why. Especially that there's nothing more in canon (in the original FFCC at least) that could help me develop stuff. So they do have a physical form in my world. But I have some more headcanons about Yukes now, which could explain some things.

The rumor about them not having a real body would come from ancient times, before miasma was a thing, when Yukes were able to use a special magic or maybe even alchemy, to dissociate their soul from their body for a moment. And maybe when they did that, sometimes they put their souls into armors for a reason or another. What do you mean it's a FMA easter egg, not my fault if the rumor about Yukes is about souls in armors. Ok yes I'm actually glad about it and have no shame.

Speaking of ancient times, I want to imagine that Yukes were also able to grow the tiny wings they have in their backs, thanks to a special magic again. And when doing that they could learn how to FLY. Imagine flying Yukes, that's awesome. But the magic was lost after the meteorite disaster, the miasma and the mass extinction. Maybe there's some remnants of that somewhere… (I'm definitely planning to go for that in post-game).

Now the helmets. This is kinda taken from the game, but the helmets could enhance their magical abilities. At the same time I'm not sure what to think about that 'cause I also want Yukes to just have genetic affinity with magic. So idk maybe they're adding that accessory ON TOP of being already good at magic.

It doesn't explain why they're constantly wearing the helmets though, and not just when they use magic. I'm not set on a definite answer for that yet. I'll probably go for an old tradition but I don't know what exactly. Probably something tied to those ancient times when Yukes put their souls into armors. Maybe something positive/memorable happened with that, and as such they kept the helmet as a symbol, and made it a magic enhancement accessory. At the same time, that was before miasma, and the disaster after probably wiped away a lot of traditions, since it wiped away many places and people's memories. But maybe it was partially remembered from ancient papers and kept somehow.

Also the helmets can't enhance just anyone's magic abilities. They're custom made for one specific Yuke and with the use of alchemy. I guess it can't be done for the other tribes because they don't have the natural affinity with magic that Yuke have and uh yeah something like that.

So yeah. I can't headcanon things if we talk about living beings that are only souls, but I can if we go back into the material world. :')

[ipsens-castle]

Beatrix, by Toshiyuki Itahana