The JRPGs’ bizzare fashion and where it comes from

Many JRPGs characters are designed weirdly and outstanding, but that wasn’t always like this. Years before JRPGs grew from all that western-style creativity, as Dungeons & Dragons, which included large amount of knights in armor. The Final Fantasy franchise changed this state of affairs, and we should thank a character designer Yoshitaka Amano for that.

Amano’s artwork has a long way of transformations, starting with Art Nouveau and coming to ukiyo-e, the Edo period style of Japanese woodblock printing. The ukiyo-e characters are usually highly noticeable figures like kabuki actors or geishas. Hair and cloth style were an important part of everything — that’s what Amano was based on while creating his arts.

Talking about Amano’s successor, Tetsuya Nomura, he takes his inspiration from streetwear fashion. Streetwear was a notable style in Japan in the 1980s, developing more of them like Lolita or body-con each year. Also there’s the influence of eminent designers, like Rei Kawakubo and Vivienne Westwood, if you look at the Final Fantasy characters design.