Artbooks!

[Mave]

Hello everyone,

Just want to share my expensive love for anime/manga artbooks. ^____^ Anyone else into this habit of collecting them as well?

I've included reviews of some of the artbooks I own, just in case you are considering to purchase them. If anyone would like to share their experiences with their own artbooks, PLS DO! I am always looking out for lovely artbooks! XD XD


Disclaimer:
One or two artbook titles are from the do-not-discuss anime series. Pls refrain from discussing any of the titles here apart from the quality of the artbook. Descriptions are mostly taken from AnimeNation.com


TITLES

Takeshi Obata - Hikaru No Go Illustrations
Description: The hardbound book features 200 pages of high quality color illustrations along with Japanese text. This hardbound book measures 14.25" X 10.25".
Personal Opinion: Quite pricey but no regrets! ^^ The book is by far one of the largest hardcovers books I own (points at book dimensions). The art inside is excellent and just like the manga, it is clean (i.e no nudity, violence). I can't really tell what medium he used but it looks like it's water colored or color inks. Consist mostly of drawings of Hikaru and Sai, plus other characters randomly scattered around throughout the book. There is also one fold out poster of Sai and colored manga pages. Highly recommended, I won't part from it. ^_^
Source: AnimeNation
Price: erm…~$50

DER MOND (Newtype Illustrated Collection)
Description: A collection of Evangelion and color cover artwork from other sources including Wings of Honneamise, (Blue) Uru, and Nadia done by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (mangaka of EVA). As the focus is on Sadamoto's skills rather than Evangelion per se, the illustrations are of what appear to be the gouache and airbrush variety, rather than cel art. ~118 colored pages.
Personal Opinion: I bought the domestic version released by Viz and must say I'm very pleased with this purchase. It contains mostly manga EVA artworks images (manga covers, manga colored pages, character concept art), all clean except for one nude winged Rei image (unless you can't stand ppl wearing tight fitting body suits, this is very good). Most of the images were large, covering one A4 page per image. The only thing that bothered me was the last 2-3 pages featuring another series about car racing (?) which featured tight body suits with a lot more body details (that's about all I'm going to say about that ^^; ). Still, I like Sadamoto's style.
Source: Local Comic Store
Price: $29.99

Neon Genesis Evangelion Illustration: Die Sterne
Description: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's follow-up for his "Der Mond" book. Packed with over 200 Evangelion related images and illustrations. 121 pages.
Personal Opinion:
Focused on Eva, there are many official anime illustrations along with a good mix of traditional medium stuff. It is super loaded with a fair share of pics that have been scanned to death on the Internet and those that I've never really seen before. Some pages may contain 4-5 pictures while some images take the whole page. Along with characters, there is a good dose of mecha/evangelion unit/illustrated battle scenes (non cel types) and colored manga pages. The nudity wasn't as bad as I expected. Only one blatantly nude Rei pic (looked a bit like a fanart 0.o) and a few random nude/swimsuit scenes here and there, which didn't bother me. There wasn't any EVA-morbid/violent scenes, which was a pleasant surprise. I have no regrets with this purchase.
Source: AnimeNation
Price: $29.99

The Art of Ceres: Celestial Legend
Description: Illustrations book of Ayashi no Ceres, by Watase Yuu (Fushigi Yuugi). Measures 8.25" X 11.50". ~90 colored pics
Personal Opinion: I own the domestic version. I bought this way earlier before I started to get annoyed with Watase Yuu ^^;. There is nudity (one or two pretty graphic) and ehh...compromising love poses, so you might wanna avoid this artbook if that's your weakness. Apart from that, the manga art is lovely, with a mix of color pencils, water colors, color inks. The characters and backgrounds are beautiful and detailed. As expected, most of the artworks focus on Aya and Touya in romantic poses but there is a decent showup of other characters as well. Everyone knows Watase is really good at creating bishies and bishoujos. The last few pages consisted of character profiles, chronology of events, maps, and an interview with Watase herself. It is worthed the purchase only if you can tolerate the nudity in it.
Source: Local comic shop
Price: $29.99

BackGammon
Description: Hardcover, 94 pages, full page colored illustrations of Kazuya Minekura (mangaka of Saiyuki) but also contains some colored images from other mangas such as Wild Adapter, Just! and Bus Gamer. The last pages (6-8 of ‘em) consist of black and white rough character sketches and illustrations.
Personal opinion:
Minekura’s style isn’t exactly one of the prettiest bishie drawings out there in comparison to other manga titles but there’s something very appealing about her works to me. I fell in love with her stuff, thanks to Saiyuki. Her works are detailed and the poses are quite creative and cool-looking. I’m not sure what medium she used (water color?) but the colors are bright and strong. I would caution this though: Minekura tends to allow mild shonen-ai elements in her works so some male characters do get “closeâ€

[Mangafanatic]

Gee, I really want to buy some Fruits Basket art books. But I'm afraid there will be spoiler stuff. (Showing couples that I don't know about yet-- I mean, I've only read upto volume four in the manga.) Could any one tell me if they have any spoilers?

[Ashley]

I'm also very much into artbooks, Mave! I only have 2 in my collection at the moment, but I have my eyes on 3 more (anyone take a gander at the mangaka I want? )

Gundam Wing Memorials II: The Legend of Forever-- softcover, 95 pages. Mostly Endless Waltz images. I thought it was a pretty great find in my gundam fangirl days, but looking back it was ok--I had seen a lot of the images already but I was ok with that. Price--I think about 30 dollars? Source: http://www.chibitokyo.com

Yorodien Samurai Troopers Illustration--softcover, ~25 pages. I was so excited to get this! It's quite a rare find from what I've been told. About 10 color illustrations, then a few pages of seiyuu pictures, some backgrounds to go with the cels that came with it (though I don't have them), and even a few pages of postcards you cut out. Most of the images were from Kikoutei Densei, but I loved it nonetheless. Price: $10 Source: private vendor

My to-get list--all 3 artbooks by Tanemura Arina (KKJ, Illustrations, and Manga (or is it Complete?) Collection)

[Debitt]

ah,I have the same GW artbook, Ashley! the illustrations are so pretty! *_*

I also own:
FEDER - DNAngel, Yukiru Sugisaki
The Comedy of Errors - Matantei Loki Ragnarok, Sakura Kinoshita (my all time favorite)
Outlaw Star animation artbook
Escaflowne - The Movie animation artbook
The Art of Fushigi Yuugi - Yu Watase

To get:
Much Ado About Nothing - Matantei Loki Ragnarok (yes, I am a shameless Loki junkie)
******(undiscussable title), TV artbook
Neutral - collective Yukiru Sugisaki works

[SwordSkill]

Lol, I've given up even entertaining the thought of buying artbooks. Everytime I see the price, a little piece of me disappears. ^^;; They just take too much from my wallet. So I normally just content myself with looking for pictures in the Internet.

Still, it is nice to browse at the store and look at the covers. Take the book, look at it, and put it back again. XD

[Kireihana]

Ooooh, I'd love that Hikaru no Go artbook; Obata is one of my favorite mangaka! But it's very expensive, and the main reason I choose to collect manga more so than anime is because it's so much cheaper.... well maybe I'll ask for it for Christmas or something.

Hmm, I'd also love a Kenshin artbook, and I agree with Mangafanatic, a Furuba one would be awesome, but I don't want any spoilers.