This post was first published in Oct 2012 and is updated whenever I review a new background art book. The latest addition is the Suzume – Makoto Shinkai Anime Background Art Book ( reviewed on June 2023 ).

Total titles : 25

More than just beautifully painted pictures of landscapes and skies, background art is an integral and crucial component of anime, setting the stage for the performance of all characters in the film. A skillfully painted background plate can really accentuate the mood and atmosphere of any given scene, at the same time elevating the aesthetic quality of the film.

Here’s a list of art books featuring the background art from various anime films that I highly recommend ( In the order of date reviewed; oldest to latest ):

1) Memories Of The Sky – Makoto Shinkai

A compilation of plates from Makoto-san’s earliest short films like Memories Of A Distant Start, The Place Promised In Our Early Days, and his first animated feature 5 Centimetres. There’s A LOT to like in here.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

2) Tekkon Kinkreet White (Shiro) Book

Michael Aria’s anime rendition of Taiyo Matsumoto’s manga of the same name. The film is a dizzying display of art director Kimura Shinji’s astounding background art from start to finish, and is a must see for anyone remotely interested in anime, film or illustration.

Note : Two art books were published for Tekkon – White (Shiro) features the background art, while Black (Kuro) covers image boards and concept art. Both are excellent.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

3) Kazuo Oga Animation Artworks

A veteran background artist with Ghibli, Oga-san has created countless pieces of mesmerizing art for many of the studio’s most iconic films. In 2007 his solo Background Art Exhibition was held at the MOT and was exceptionally well received.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

4) Of Light & Darkness : Ogura Hiromasa Background Art Book

Dark and moody background plates are Ogura’s forte, as seen in his work for Mamoru Oshii’s films like Ghost In The Shell and Innocence, and Hiroyuki Okiura’s Jin-roh – The Wolf Brigade.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

5) The Background Art Of Yamamoto Nizo

Yet another Ghibli veteran, Yamamoto-san has also created background art for Madhouse’s hugely popular The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

6) The Art Of Steamboy

Art director Kimura Shinji (Tekkon Kinkreet) flexes his artistic muscles in Otomo’s epic Steamboy. While the film was not quite what we had hoped it’ll be, the staggering amount of gorgeous background art generated for this film is just mind-blowing.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

7) The Art Of Children Who Chase Lost Voices

Art book for Makoto Shinkai’s 2nd animated feature. Personally the film wasn’t to my liking, but the quality of the background art in this one is truly exceptional.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

8) The Background Art Of Wolf Children

I really enjoyed Mamoru Hosoda’s Wolf Children, and this whopper of an art book is one of the best I’ve seen this year. While many of the background plates are still painted in traditional (2D) style, CG now plays a bigger and bigger role in anime films and the book elaborates on this as well.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

9) Garden Of Words – Makoto Shinkai Art Book

Makoto Shinkai’s animated short film Garden Of Words (言の葉の庭) is my favorite of all his works, in part because the story is set around the area of Shinjuku in Tokyo, an area where I used to hang out alot as a film student. This is not actually a proper “art of” book in that it showcases no concept art nor raw background plates, but the images still allow us to appreciate the lovely art that the filmmakers painted.

UPDATE AUG 2021 – A proper background art book for this film is now published; see entry no. 20 below or go here to read the full review.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

10) Ono Hiroshi Background Art Book

Ono Hiroshi is a veteran background artist and art director who has worked on films like Kiki’s Delivery Service, Akira, Jinroh, A Letter To Momo, Wolf Children and a lot more. This book is a collection of his background art pieces from some of these films.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

11)Ping Pong Anime Complete Artworks

Masaaki Yuasa’s most excellent anime adaptation of Taiyo Matsumoto’s manga Ping Pong is one of my favorite animation series in recent years. This art book features a good collection of the painterly, pastel colored background art plates seen in the film as well as colorscripts, character designs sheets and more.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

12) The Background Art Of The Boy And The Beast

The Boy And The Beast is Mamoru Hosoda’s follow up film after Wolf Children. While not exactly a dedicated background art book per se, The Boy And The Beast art book showcases a staggering amount of stunning background plates ( collated by scene and cut number ), featuring work from some top talent in the field like Kazuo Oga and Ono Hiroshi.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

13) Your Name – Makoto Shinkai Anime Background Art Book

Makoto Shinkai’s epic anime hit Your Name likely needs no introduction. Just like his previous art books for Lost Voices and Memories Of The Sky, this background art book for Your Name showcases a wealth of spectacular background art featured in the film. Pure eye candy.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

14) 100 Views – Yamamoto Nizo Background Art Book

This is actually a revised edition of The Background Art Of Yamamoto Nizo as listed above, published in 2018. It has expanded material and features more of the artist’s personal works too. Depending on which version is available to you, I would recommend this new edition if possible.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

15) Children Of The Sea Background Art Book

Studio 4 °C’s visually stunning anime adaptation of Daisuke Igarashi’s manga Children Of The Sea is made gorgeous in no small part thanks to background art director Kimura Shinji’s beautiful paintings. 250 pages of background art goodness.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

16) MFKZ Background Art Book

Yet another whopper background art book by Kimura Shinji, who served as art director on MFKZ (Mutafukaz/ムタフカズ), the 2017 adult animated science fiction film based on the comic series and the short film of the same name. Kimura-san’s vibrant and impossibly detailed background paintings of a colorful Miami-ish city is certainly one of the top visual highlights of the film.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

17) Weathering With You Background Art Book

Makoto Shinkai’s latest animated film Weathering With You (2020) is in my opinion his most visually stunning work to date, and the painted background art work for the film is really, really gorgeous. The Shinjuku area of Tokyo is one of my favorite haunts as a film student and it is featured prominently in the movie, so the film resonates strongly with me. This is an absolutely beautiful book and I give my highest recommendations for it.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

18) In This Corner Of The World Background Art Book

Katabuchi Sunao’s sobering but uplifting anti-war animated film In This Corner Of The World showcases beautiful background art pieces depicting everyday scenes of pre/post WWII Japan, in particular the city of Hiroshima, which suffered devastating damage by an the atomic bomb. The film was released in 2016, but this background art book was only published in early 2020 in conjunction with a new extended theatrical edition of the film. More than 300 pieces of art work are collected in this book, all of them stunning work.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

19) Anime Architecture : Imagined Worlds and Endless Megacities

Anime Architecture : Imagined Worlds and Endless Megacities is the first and only English language art book that has been added to this list. Using case studies from some of the most influential anime ever made like Akira, Ghost In The Shell, Patlabor The Movie / The Movie 2, Tekkon Kinkreet and more, author Stefan Riekeles crafts an engrossing read that illuminates the production details and stories behind some of anime cinema’s most iconic backdrops.

The scholarly text is greatly complemented by the many background art reproductions, some 400 in all with many that are seldom or have never been seen in print before, like the numerous pieces from Akira and Ghost In The Shell, for example. There are a few Japanese art books out there like Akira Animation Archives and Of Light And Darkness : Hiromasa Ogura that do contain similar art work, but they lack the added clarity and informative prose presented here, unless you are adept in Japanese.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

20) The Garden Of Words Background Art Book

The Garden Of Words (Kotonoha No Niwa/言の葉の庭) is a 2013 animated film by Makoto Shinkai of Your Name / Weathering With You fame. It is unclear why this art book is only now published, some 8 years after the movie’s release, but I’m nonetheless elated that it is. A picture book was released back in 2013, which I reviewed here, but only a proper, dedicated art book can do justice to the sheer volume of art created for the film.

Which this book delivers, and then some; the background art pieces are nothing sort of stunning. A total of 140 pieces are showcased in this book, together with a small collection of select storyboards, character and color design sheets and more.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

21) Deho Gallery – Anime Background Art Book

Founded on July 1st, 2015, Deho Gallery is a joint business venture by Japanese anime studios Dwango, Studio Khara and Studio Ponoc. The company’s mission statement is to preserve the art of hand-painted backgrounds for works of animation as well as video games and commercial advertising.

Evangelion director Hideaki Anno is among the board of directors, and veteran Ghibli background artist Kazuo Oga serves in an advisory role. The list of background artists that make up Deho are cream of the crop talent that have worked on top anime films; this art book is the first published collection of the studio’s expansive body of work and includes titles like Mary and The Witch’s Flower, Promare, In This Corner Of The World, Hirune Hime, Mirai, The Rebuild Of Evangelion films and many more.

Running at 240 pages, this is a pretty hefty book; the landscape format allows for most of the background plates to be fully reproduced on each page, escaping the ugly fate of many other art books where the work is butchered when printed across the spine. As such, the reproduced illustrations are huge and of excellent quality; plenty of eye candy from cover to cover.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

22) Kusanagi Studio Background Art Vol 2 ( Sci-Fi )

Kusanagi ( 株式会社草薙 ) is a prolific animation background art studio located in the Nerima area of Tokyo. Founded in 1990, it has contributed background art work for a huge number of animation and video games. This book is the 2nd volume from a long running series of art books dedicated to the showcase of studio’s impressive background art portfolio.

With a special focus on background art for the science fiction genre, I chose to pick up this particular volume for review also because of sentimental reasons; one of the anime series featured in this book is Katsuhiro Otomo’s Freedom, for which I worked on at Sunrise Ogikubo for about 2 years from 2006-2007.

Besides Freedom, the book also includes excellent background art from animation films like Appleseed, Sol Bianca, Merty Lancer, Bakuretsu Tenshi ( Burst Angel ) and many more.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

23) Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko Art Book

Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko is based on the novel of the same name by Kanako Nishi, and is directed by Watanabe Ayumu who previously helmed the beautiful film Children Of The Sea. While a large part of the book is focused on the stunning background art plates painted by Kimura Shinji, it also includes character designs as well as some select genga and layout pieces.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

24) Kaneko Yuji – Animation Background Art Book

Kaneko Yuji (金子雄司) is a veteran background artist and art director at Japanese animation art studio Aojashin (青写真). This sumptuous 256 pages art book showcases his extensive background art portfolio that includes work for titles like Kill La Kill, Ranking of Kings, Mobile Suit Gundam: Cucuruz Doan’s Island, Patlabor Reboot ( animated short ), POWER PLANT No.33 and many many more.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

25) Suzume – Makoto Shinkai Anime Background Art Book

While the premise for Suzume is rather formulaic and quaintly familiar with many of his earlier films, that of high school students embarking on fantastical adventures that eventually prove to be journeys of self-discovery leading to their coming of age, the stunning background art continues to impress and is pretty much the biggest highlight of the movie for me. I vaguely remember mentioning this in a previous post before, but Makoto Shinkai’s ( and his super talented art team ) ability to romanticize seemingly mundane vistas of Japanese scenery is certainly one of the reasons why his films are so popular.

Read the full review with more pictures from the book here.

In addition to the books that I’ve listed above, all of the “Art Of” books by Ghibli also contain a substantial collection of background art created for each film. Take for example, the Art Of Arrietty, Kiki’s Delivery Service and Ponyo.

I also recommend the series of background art books published by Studio Kusanagi, here, here and here. When I was working on Freedom Studio Kusanagi painted background plates for us regularly and I was always impressed by the quality and speed of their turnovers.

I’m sure there must be other great background art books out there – if you know of any worth picking up, please share with the rest of us here. :]

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