Takato Yamamoto is a Japanese painter and manga artist. He is most known for developing a unique style that he termed "Heisei aestheticism", which blends influences from Japanese ukiyo-e painting with Western gothic art to create a singularly dark but beautiful style. His work is highly detailed and surreal, often juxtaposing images of death and sexuality and featuring copious amounts of Body Horror along the way.
Tropes:
- Ambiguous Gender: Many of the people he paints are highly androgynous.
- Body Horror: His paintings often feature strange constructions of flesh and bone that often take up the majority of the image. That's not getting into the regular violence and mutilation that often appears.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: There are frequently eyes woven into the backgrounds of his images.
- Fanservice / Fan Disservice: His images often feature rather explicit sex and nudity... alongside heaping helpings of Scenery Gorn and Body Horror. He also frequently portrays men and women tied up or in bondage gear.
- Flower Motifs: Roses show up quite a lot.
- Gorn: Some of his paintings, particularly those inspired by history, can be incredibly bloody.
- Gothic Horror: A definite influence on some of his work.
- Mind Screw: Many of his paintings are rather surreal and abstract.
- Scenery Gorn: He often portrays abandoned and decrepit settings, and has also painted bloody battlefields a few times.
- Surreal Horror: In the sense that many of his paintings resemble actual nightmares.
