This book collects the complete storyboards used during the production of Hideaki Anno’s Evangelion : 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone, the first of the three Rebuild Of Evangelion anime films. The storyboards are drawn by 4 different artists, including Anno-san himself and the quality of the art work does vary.
These storyboards were also previously included in the Evangelion Complete Records art book, but this is the first time they are published as single volumes.
This will surely be of interest to Evangelion fans, but for those who are used to the high quality art of Miyazaki Hayao’s storyboards this might be less impressive. Storyboards are ultimately a pre-production tool so the quality of the drawings really isn’t of top importance. There’s are some drawings in this volume, though not consistently through the entire book.
The storyboard books for Evangelion 2.0 and Evangelion 3.0 are also available, I might pick them up at a later date.
For those looking for beautiful Evangelion drawings, I highly recommend the Groundwork series of art books.
Evangelion : 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone Storyboard book ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版:序 画コンテ集 details :
– Dimensions – 21 x 14.8 x 2.5 cm
– Softcover, appr. 500 pages
– Black & White, in Japanese (book contains mostly images)
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April 16th, 2017 at 2:35 am
looks like excellent study material. been meaning to watch the Evangelion films, they look impressive. only seen the 1st few episodes way back in the late 90s.
April 16th, 2017 at 4:34 am
Martin – I highly recommend the Rebuild series of films, they’re in my opinion some of the best anime in recent times. :]
April 16th, 2017 at 6:38 am
Skip the movies and go straight for the TV series. The Rebuild movie series will have 4 movies (and it might be years before the last one is actually finished), so it’s a time investment either way. The new movies are an interesting alternative, but they’re only worthwhile (imo) in the context of the TV series, and I don’t think they’re particularly good movies in their own right. The TV series has many layers of depth and complexity and it’s fun to think about and be a fan of.
But I think having alternate retellings of the same story is very interesting. There’s the TV series. Then there’s the End of Evangelion movie which is actually an alternate retelling of the end of the TV series. Then there’s a manga by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. And then some video games and side manga off to the side as well. I think each retelling fills in and reinforces the other, making everything a lot more rich than if it was just one linear thing. Especially because there’s different mediums, so the anime has music and motion which informs the manga but the manga has a level of abstraction that anime doesn’t.
I have to admit that I don’t like miyazaki’s full watercolor storyboards. I don’t think they really communicate more information than normal storyboards, and with production as busy as it is it’d be better if he spent that time on making the film itself better. Or he could put that time into making a manga or something. Maybe he just likes doing watercolors, but I think they’re done to artificially increase the reputation/prestige of the studio. I really love Mamoru Oshii’s goofy cartoon storyboards. They’re good at communicating what he wants while leaving things open enough for the rest of the staff to apply their own expertise.