Halcyon Realms - Animation.Film.Photography and Art Book Reviews » Anime

The Art Of Last Exile Book Review

yonghow — Sun, 20 May 2012 08:36:29 +0000

I’ve always liked illustrator/concept artist/character designer Range Murata’s work ( with the notable exception of his overtly Lolita stuff ) so this book wasn’t hard to pick up at all. It’s a really comprehensive collection of the character design sheets for Gonzo’s hit anime series Last Exile.

Although the original character designs were done by Murata-san, most of the design sheets are credited to Horiuchi Osamu, an animator/character designer from Gonzo. My guess is that the art pieces found in the book are redrawn from Murata’s original designs for animation purposes – but please anyone correct me if I’m wrong.

(above) Great references for studying posing and costume designs as well.

(above) A suit that bears almost too much of a resemblance to the one in Blue Submarine. ( read the book review here. )

(above and below) The last section of the book covers some mecha, props and set design.

Fans of Murata-san’s work will probably want to get this one. If you’re new to his work, I highly recommend his other art book “Prismtone”. ( read the book review here. )

“The Art of Last Exile – Range Murata” art book details :

Dimensions – 29.7 x 21 x 1.2 cm
Soft cover, 100 pages
Black & White, in Japanese

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Visiting The Otomo Katsuhiro Genga Exhibition

yonghow — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:23:39 +0000

Running from the 7th of April to the 30th of May 2012 the Otomo Katsuhiro Genga Exhibition is a celebration of the famed manga artist/anime director’s superlative body of creative work, with about 3000 original art pieces spanning over 3 decades on display. The exhibition venue is at 3331 Arts Chiyoda Centre, located about 5 minutes walk from the Akihabara Electric town.

I arrived on a rainy Wednesday afternoon right smack in the middle of the Golden Week and was expecting a huge crowd, but thankfully it wasn’t too bad and I had a comfortable time looking at the exhibits.

(above) The information booth in the main lobby of the building, just before the entrance to the exhibition on the right. Photography within the exhibition hall (art pieces section) was prohibited, but here are some press pictures I found, courtesy of Gizmodo Japan and Radiokaikan :

Needless to say it was an absolute thrill to see so many of Otomo’s most iconic pieces of artwork in their original, unvarnished splendor, right down to the individual brushstrokes. The art pieces were broken up into 2 main sections – his colored illustration works and the full collection of all his original Akira manga panels. Yep, every single one of them that make up the 6 complete tankobon volumes. (images below)

During the exhibition I was poring through many of the above B4 sized Akira panels looking for little imperfections/misaligned screen tones ( stickers with varying shades of gray that pre-digital comic artists used for applying textures and shades ). I was not able to find a single one- a true testament to the amazing technical quality of these manga panels.

(above and below) An empty white wall serves as a giant sketching board for visitors to leave their impressions. Earlier sketches have already been taken down, some drawn by notable manga artists like Inoue Takehiko ( Vagabond ), Katsuya Terada ( Monkey King ), and more. I hope the exhibition organizers archived them.

(above) A life size reproduction of the wall crater in Domu for visitors to pose and take pictures with. (below) A Kaneda wannabe dons the red jacket. It’s 500 yen a pop to sit on the bike and have your photo taken.

(above) A quick doodle that Otomo-san drew on the wall the day I visited. (below) The exhibition merchandize shop. The physical size of the store was really small and couldn’t really accommodate the steady flow of customers so only a limited number was allowed at one time – the rest of us were waiting patiently in a long line for our turn to go in.

(above) A huge stockpile of posters. There were 3 different designs, 2 of which were created specially for the exhibition. I ended up buying all three.

For those who are unable to attend the exhibition in person, I highly recommend the exhibition catalogue ( image above – read the review here ), which collects most of the art pieces that were on display. I dare say by the sheer size and wide gamut of its content that its possibly the best Otomo art book ever published.

The exhibition runs till the 30th of this month, so if you are in Tokyo or plan to visit sometime in the next 2 weeks, you know where to be. :]

Genga – Otomo Katsuhiro Original Pictures Art Book Review

yonghow — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:33:59 +0000

It’s true, what many of you have heard – Otomo’s catalogue for his Genga Exhibition is even more wicked than his latest art book Kaba 2. From cover to cover, its a grand celebration of artist’s 39 years of superfluous art work.

To begin, check out how this monster trumps even Otomo’s own giant art book Kaba in sheer size and volume :

And now to address a question that many Otomo fans have been asking – how much content is actually as yet unpublished art work ? From a cursory browsing of the book, my guesstimation is that most of the art work contained within have been published in one form or another.

This I am pretty certain with regards to the 2nd half of the book, because they are relatively more “recent” work which I am more or less familiar with; but the content in the first half of the book ( images below ) are really old work which will be much harder to track down I think. ( Otomo experts out there, please correct me if I’m wrong. )

All that said, there are 2 things that are worth mentioning.

The first is that even though many of the art work aren’t new, its the first time they are presented in their “raw” and unvarnished form, uncropped too, lending a pristine quality to the work. It’s as if Otomo himself dug out all his original pieces of art work, stacked them in a neat and tidy pile and then diligently reproduced them with a giant flatbed scanner.

Which is probably how it was done, only it was a couple of his jimusho (office) staff slogging away and not him, no offence intended sir. )

The 2nd is size – the prints are humongous and delicately reproduced, the colors vibrant and eye-popping, the sharpness spot on and crisp. One might need to inspect the book in person to tell the real difference, but its definitely there.

I don’t think Otomo fans will want to miss out on this one. It’s a good thing Amazon Japan is selling it, which makes the book available to his fans all over the world. And because I won’t have to lug this big and heavy book all the way back home after the exhibition.

Highly, highly recommended. ( folks who already got the book, I’ll love to hear what you think. :] )

“Otomo Katsuhiro Genga Exhibition Catalogue” art book details :

- Dimensions – 36.2 x 25.6 x 2 cm
- Softcover, 256 pages
- Full color/Black & White, in Japanese language

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The Art Of Kari-gurashi (Arrietty) Book Review

yonghow — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 13:31:46 +0000

I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf for the longest time now but with the US release of Arrietty’s blu-ray coming soon it seems like a good time to finally review it. Kari-gurashi ( named The Secret World of Arrietty in the US ) is a Ghibli animated film based on Mary Norton’s novel The Borrowers and is directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, a veteran Ghibli animator.

As with all of Ghibli’s other “Art Of” books this volume is replete with gorgeous art work from character design and concept art, layout boards, and lots and lots of background art plates. There is also a digest version of this book that covers more interviews with cast and crew members but for pure art work this is the one to get.

The way the material is presented the book has changed though – in previous Ghibli “Art Of” books the content was categorized by the type of art work, for example character design sheets, background art, layout all have their own chapters but in this book they follow the chronological order of the film.

I’ve had quite a few friends complain about the how slow the film is ( read : boring ) but I found the pacing and mood perfect for the intimate and introspective nature of the piece. I also loved how the background artists and art director maximized the dramatic effect of the “giant” props found in Arrietty’s minature world, each background plate exploding in a brilliance of vivid colors and intricate patterns.

Note – The book I’ve reviewed above is the original Japanese version - there is also an English version with pretty much the same content, minus the full Japanese screenplay.

“The Art of Kari-gurashi (Arrietty)” art book details :

- Dimensions – 11.6 x 8.3 x 0.9 inches
- Softcover, 253 pages
- Full color, in Japanese language

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Tatsuyuki Tanaka’s Animated Opening For Japacon TV

yonghow — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 16:37:35 +0000

Tatsuyuki Tanaka animates a beautiful opening sequence for BSFUJI’s program Japancon TV, here are some screen caps from the video :

If you are new or unfamiliar with Tanaka-san’s work he’s a veteran animator/concept artist/illustrator/genius who animated Tetsuo’s mutation sequence in Otomo’s masterpiece Akira, and also the artist behind the beautiful art book Cannabis Works, (read the book review here) amongst other cool stuff.

I was unable to find the video on Youtube to embed on this post, so head down to Catsuka’s page to view it in HD.

A big thanks to Catsuka for the heads up !