warfreak
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« on: July 07, 2008, 06:42:25 am » |
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We've seen her work. We all love it. But how much do we actually know about the artist herself? Her biography isn't easily available on the net; This is all I could get from a Google Search: Ayami Kojima Biography If you look back to virtually any top-tier Castlevania art in the last decade, chances are you're staring at the work of Ayami Kojima, artist and character designer for the Castlevania series. Beginning her works on Symphony of the Night, Kojima is a self-taught artist whose style is perfect for the world of Castlevania.
Focusing on strong shading, monochrome colors, and an overall pastel-like technique, Kojima has created some of the most elegant and haunting character designs in gaming today. Since the release of Lament of Innocence and Curse of Darkness for PS2/Xbox Kojima has worked specifically on the console Castlevania titles, though she worked on Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) and Aria of Sorrow (GBA) as well. Hmm. Oh well, she's no celebrity (not in that sense) so we're not likely to find much about her personal life, but is there even a list of all the things she's worked on? If anyone has any info on our goddess, then please post in this thread. Or we can just discuss the information we have on hand. If anyone wants to list down the titles of the stuff she has on Vampire Killer, then please do so (I'm rather..busy x_x). A picture: EDIT: see this this http://castlevania.armster.org/scans_kojima2.php and look at the color kingdom 3 section. There's apparently an interview there with lots of info, but.. ...Can anyone understand it?
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"Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make..."
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angevil
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Angel of deadly kiss..or was it the deadly sword??
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« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2008, 06:56:41 am » |
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Here are Castlevania games that she worked on, with a timeline:
1997 Symphony of the Night (PS) 2001 Chronicles (PS) 2002 Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) 2003 Aria of Sorrow (GBA) 2003 Lament of Innocence (PS2) 2005 Curse of Darkness (PS2) 2007 The Dracula X Chronicles (PSP)
EDIT: sorry, I am not very familiar with the names of her other works, so I posted what I knew best. And that is CV, of course. I also made this timeline for the dicussion about Ayami`s dissapearance from some of the latest CV games.
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warfreak
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« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2008, 06:57:57 am » |
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Yep, thanks. But what about all the other stuff? There's the majin series and the ranken series (which are novels, I think?) and loads of other stuff. *sigh*
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"Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make..."
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Heeeeeero
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« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2008, 07:00:30 am » |
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She's perty. Slightly. They make it sound like the only thing she's ever done is Castlevania.
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warfreak
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« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2008, 07:23:36 am » |
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Exactly. Unfortunately, we don't even get to learn much about all the other things she does, and I'm sure there are a LOT. >.<
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"Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make..."
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CVfan13
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« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2008, 10:22:54 am » |
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Yep, thanks. But what about all the other stuff? There's the majin series and the ranken series (which are novels, I think?) and loads of other stuff. *sigh* She also did the work for a Sega Saturn RPG of some sort called "Snolderschild". It was pretty cool, and may convince me to get the game someday, if I ever get a Saturn. You mentioned the novels, and yes, shes done plenty of those, but I think a lot of her other stuff is just for fun, or just for her own practiice/ personal pleasure. She really needs an official artbook collection, that's not just her CV work, but all of it.
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"If you want to know, beat me!" -Joachim Armster
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warfreak
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« Reply #6 on: July 07, 2008, 10:26:12 am » |
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Well, many of her stuff are also for phone cards and other items.. She does this for a living, right? I'm sure there are lots more paintings we never get to see... You're right, she should have an official artbook collection. >.< Then again, if her fans will just buy all her different artbooks, phone cards, novels, etc. wouldn't that make more money for her and the companies she works for? *sigh*
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"Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make..."
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CVfan13
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« Reply #7 on: July 07, 2008, 10:38:23 am » |
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Well... she doesn't have any artbooks, besides the CV ones, and some manga, and everrything else containing her work is nearly impossible to obtain.
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"If you want to know, beat me!" -Joachim Armster
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Heeeeeero
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« Reply #8 on: July 07, 2008, 11:33:28 am » |
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What are you talking about? Those pulp-fiction novels are extremely cheap and common. About $5 at some places. It's just a question about importing fees. She's only done two 'manga', which are the intros to SotN and CoD.
Not only that, her work has been featured in quite a few exhibits. They even sold those little prints at that Yaso convention. Just because Vampire Killer hasn't scanned them yet doesn't mean her work is extremely rare; it's just difficult for non-Japanese citizens with little coin to spare to go through the effort to track them down.
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CVfan13
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« Reply #9 on: July 07, 2008, 12:04:52 pm » |
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Well... I'M NOT IN JAPAN!!!! How am I supposed to find this stuff? They aren't listed anywhere on eBay, or Amazon.com, or even Barnes & Noble, or any other site I could possibly find them, I can't possibly go to a Japanese Auction site, I can't read Japanese and neither can my computer, I'd have to fly all the way to Japan, or find some lucky bastard who's willing to sell his!!!
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"If you want to know, beat me!" -Joachim Armster
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Heeeeeero
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You're looking in all the wrong places. Fo' realz.
Importing from Japan usually seems to start around $30. Ironically, it seems to cost more to import books than, say, games or soundtracks.
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marto
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I know not much about Ms. Kojima-sensei, but I do know that she's first and foremost a novel illustrator, highly akin tot he likes of Yoshitaka Amano. In Japan, her fame is probably only beaten by his in sense of ability. We just don't see it, since we don't live there.
The reason Iga even chose her was because he was a huge fan of her work for various book covers, and he thought that she would be the perfect new look for the botox that Castlevania needed so desperately back then.
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And damn, after accidentally skipping Watsa's post, I thought for a moment that Warfreak had joined us here in Rainbow Valley. But no :'(
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Mercurius
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Maybe if we recruit a japanese member...
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Atreicni aroh us, atreic se etreum al. Niatrecnu ruoh sti, niatrec si htaed. Maria Renard fanlistingNo, I mean, I know a hot guy when I see one, but I'm not like "OMG, f*ck me, Trevor!" You know what I mean?
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Lotus Petal
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Raven-kun!!!! We need his help. The closest thing we're (and by that, I mean, those who don't live in Japan) going to see to an official artbook is her illustrations in magazines like Comickers and Color Kingdom. Sad, but true. I wonder if anyone has come to Ms. Kojima with the idea for an artbook? Because I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
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warfreak
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It would be weird if people never thought of having an Ayami Kojima artbook. o_O I wonder WHY there isn't one though.
Is there any way we can contact Raven-kun?
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"Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make..."
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