To Be Continued is a 240 paged art book showcasing the manga illustration works of Japanese comic artist Masami Yuuki (ゆうきまさみ), most renowned for The Mobile Police : Patlabor comic series which spawned a hugely successful and well-loved franchise.
The book was released in conjunction with the art exhibition held at Gallery AaMo in Tokyo in late 2020/early 2021 to celebrate Masami Yuuki’s 4 decades of work in the manga industry, showcasing illustrations work from 8 of his manga including Ultimate Superhuman R, Birdy the Mighty, Jaja Uma Grooming Up! and more. Most, if not all the art work on display at the exhibition are collected in this book.
Admittedly Patlabor is the only manga by the artist that I’m familiar with, and is the primary reason why I picked up this book. My guesstimate is that the Patlabor art work takes up about 1/4 of the book’s page count; and they’re all delightful and well worth the price of the book.
(image above) This illustration can also be found in the Vol 1 new edition of the manga released back in 2019. Most of these color illustrations are either used as chapter dividers/starters in the manga to drawn readers in.
New editions of popular manga like Patlabor are re-published sometimes to re-invigorate the brand and garner new readers; the new edition of Takehiko Inoue’s SlamDunk manga was re-released back in 2018 to quite a bit of fanfare, with the artist illustrating new cover art for the edition.
One might be hard-pressed to tell the difference between Masami Yuuki’s Patlabor art work with that of another Japanese illustrator/concept designer Akemi Takada, who served as the character designer for Patlabor’s anime series and feature films; they bear a very close resemblance albeit with subtle differences. In either case, they’re all beautiful work.
Patlabor is one of my most beloved anime series of all times, and the original manga art work created by Masami Yuuki are delightful as well. These illustrations have never been collected or published till now, and I’m so glad they are available for everyone to enjoy. Even though the Patlabor illustrations only take up about 1/4 of the book’s content, the book is still well worth picking up in my opinion. If you enjoy all of Masami Yuuki’s other manga work, that’s even better ! Highly recommended.
“To Be Continued – Masami Yuuki Art Book ゆうきまさみ画集” details :
– Dimensions – 18.2cm x 25.7 x 2.3 cm
– Softcover, 240 pages
– Full color/B&W, in Japanese language
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Patlabor – The Mobile Police ( New Edition ) Vol 1 Manga Review
Patlabor 25th Anniversary Memorial Book Review
Patlabor Pulsation – Akemi Takada Art Book Review
Patlabor 2 : This Is Animation – The Select Art Book Review
July 4th, 2021 at 5:14 am
This looks amazing! I’m familiar with PATLABOR as well as BIRDY THE MIGHTY, another one of Yuuki’s manga titles that was turned into two great anime. I might give this book a look or perhaps even a buy.
Oh, and yes, Yuuki and Takada’s work do look similar–plus they were both members of “Headgear”, the team behind the Patlabor franchise which included Mamoru Oshii, Kazunori Ito, and Yutaka Izabuchi.
July 6th, 2021 at 5:45 am
Marc – Oh yeah, there are so many talented artists in Headgear ! I hope they will publish a new art book collecting all the Patlabor illustrations by Takada some day ! Her older art books are all sold out and out of print.