Yet Another JP Art Book Haul
Yes, I've got quite a bit again. But hey, these purchases have been spread out across a month-ish and weren't that expensive (all things considered). So I'll break it down.
Return To Avalon Fate Art Works
Originally, I wasn't planning on buying this art book. It was an additional piece of another auction I was bidding on for all the Heaven's Feel production materials, but the auction ended up skyrocketing to around 400 dollars which I really wasn't looking to cough up for some art books. Instead, after the auction ended I found this art book by itself for around $25 which is a pretty decent steal when you consider it's a whopping 12 inches high and 8.6 inches wide.
It's just full of full color artwork and illustrations from all over the place, and it has a full timeline of the art works featured in the book at the end. It's a super cool look at the history of Fate (and Type-Moon) that I'd definitely recommend to fans of the series. Just don't get suckered into the eBay listings that can cost well over double and even into triple of that $25 price tag.
(Side Note: The art book is available in English, though at the very steep price tag of about 73CAD)
Heaven's Feel: Presage Flower and Lost Butterfly Key Animations
Let me just say, Spring Song Key Animations is a pain to get. Nobody sells it, and those that do charge an arm and a leg. Despite that I'd still love to own it one day (alongside all the materials for Heaven's Feel). Regardless of wants and desires though, these books are pretty, very pretty. Getting to see under the hood of Ufotable's stunning work is just amazing. Also, a quick side note (and one I really should have taken pictures of), all the pages have an outline in the color of their cover so the edges of the pages appear the same as the cover. Also, the covers get lighter with each volume. They're very well thought out and beautiful books.
(Image borrowed from this incredible blog-meets-archive site for art books)
Record of Lodoss War Anime Guide & Art Books
It's still crazy to me just how old these books are. The OVA for Lodoss came out in 1990. Now I don't think I'm that young, but it came out before I was born. And here I have these books that look like they haven't aged a day, it's crazy.
Now truthfully, there's not a huge amount of real art to these books. They're very much guide books before they're art books, but what it does include in terms of explicit art is incredibly interesting and appealing.
Dagashi Kashi Key Animation
I am a big Kotoyama fan, I love both of their works and really hope that the Dagashi Kashi manga can make it here. So of course I'd jump on a Dagashi Kashi art book. It was interesting though, it's incredibly difficult to find listings for this art book anywhere on the internet. Just one of those items that hardly seems to exist, but it wasn't even that expensive. I was at the mercy of a single seller, but I got this for around $55 which isn't the end of the world.
It really is cool though, it reignites hope in me for LidenFilms to drop an art book for Call of The Night. But until then I'll happily enjoy my Dagashi Kashi art book.
(Also, cool enough they include both the OP and ED in this art book, and it reads left to right. Weird, right?)
Now for the big guns
Bakemonogatari Production Note & Key Animation Note Vol. 1
This was a bit of a shock, to say the least. The Bakemonogatari Key Animation Notes typically go for around $100, so getting it and the Production Note for half of that was wild. Of course, I'm fighting an uphill battle with the latter volumes of the Key Animation Note almost exclusively going for that $100+ price tag.
Anyways, really impressive work as expected, and one of my favorite approaches for a Key Animation collection as it adds a small screenshot of the finished product at the bottom corner of each page. Also, the sheer volume of these production notes is wild. There's 3 whole books in the first one with over 1100 pages total. Crazy stuff.
(First image is Production Note, Second is Key Animation)
The Garden of Sinners Storyboard Collection
This was a big find. I'm a massive sucker for storyboard collections (have even more bought/ordered), so finding the 7 volume run for Garden of Sinners is awesome. For first time buyers though, it might seem a little odd. The books are oddly small. Like a regular JP manga volume kind of small, in contrast to the massive scale of various art books.
Regardless of size though, these things are really amazing to see the differences between the staff of each movie. How they approach the essence of storyboards and how direction is reflected in it, and plenty of other things. It's just so incredibly fascinating to me.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOHSAKA SAKURA – my forever girl 💙
Source || TL by me
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For those who might be confused: Sakura was born with teal blue eyes just like Rin's, but ever since she came to the Matou's and was parasitised by Zouken, her eyes turned deep purple and her pupils disappeared. Only at the end of HF3 when Zouken has died for good, did the pupils come back and her irises gradually revert to blue.
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