Longtime Final Fantasy character designer Yoshitaka Amano has set up his own film production studio, named Studio Deva Loka. Amano is currently directing his very first movie, scheduled for a worldwide release next year, according to a report at Anime News Network.
In Indian religions, “Devaloka” is a plane of existence for Gods. One of the many meanings of “attaining salvation” refers to your soul moving on to reside there. It also means you have nothing more to learn by being reborn into the mortal plane, which could possibly mean Amano feels his new studio is the culmination of all his past experiences. Clearly, he has high hopes for this new venture.
His first film, Zan, is in 3D and involves a samurai in the 19th century transported to an alternate dimension to fight evil. Zan — which is also the name of the protagonist — has a steel panther (named…Panther) to assist him, whose final design you can check out at the source. The image to the right is concept art for another cyborg panther — Amano seems rather fond of them — that appears in a print series created by him, named Hero.
