Japanese art book publishers don’t always choose the most fitting names for their publications, but you can’t judge a Japanese art book by its title – Heroes and Heroines compiles a superb collection of art work by the top character designers working in the Japanese game and animation industry, a whopping 69 in total, actually.

Besides the fantastic artwork found within there’s the added bonus of captions in English, as well as an interview with Soejima Shigenori, character designer for Catherine and the Persona series, also in English.

(above) I’m a big fan of Nishimura Kinu’s work – check out more in the Street Fighter Artworks book. (below) Character designs by Kato Hiromi from the anime Guilty Crown. I chanced upon the art exhibition for the series at Broadway Nakano back in November last year and took some pictures here. The title image right on top is also by him.

(above) Some very badass character designs by Kozaki Yusuke. ( Speed Grapher )

(above) Character design for legendary swordsmaster Miyamoto Musashi, by Nakazawa Kazuto of Production I.G.

(above) A handy index at the end of the book should you want to find out more about the games/anime featured.

With so much content packed in a single volume, this book is a definite value for money and valuable resource for aspiring character designers. Highly recommended.

“Heroes & Heroines Character Design” art book details :

– Dimensions – 10.3 x 7.3 x 0.9 inches
– Softcover, 208 pages
– Full color, in Japanese language / English captions with select pages in English

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