Best anime artbooks?

Flagshiphero

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So I'm looking into some artbook purchases, what are the must have anime artbooks?
 

Taiso

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So I'm looking into some artbook purchases, what are the must have anime artbooks?

Most of them, really. I own probably about 400 different anime art books that I've collected over the course of nearly 30 years and I've been satisfied with nearly all of my acquisitions.

I'd avoid the compilation books however. What I mean by this is the stuff like '25 Years of Gundam' and so forth.

What they do with these compilation books is take a lot of great artwork and reduce the sie to 15 percent of the total page size, so you miss out on a lot of detail.

Also, in general, avoid the ones with low page counts. There are a few exceptions, but for he most part these usually have a very small section on artwork and the rest is interviews with the creators. Which are interesting if you can read Japanese but just about worthless if you can't.
 

xb74

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I dont own many but the one that I can recall is mecha and gal orientated - Shirow Masamune's Intron Depot (a lot of Appleseed and GITS). Is that sort of what you are looking for?
 

SouthtownKid

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Most of them, really. I own probably about 400 different anime art books that I've collected over the course of nearly 30 years
Geez, that's probably more than me! I stated with Yamato, Gundam, and whatever super robot books I could find in the early-'80s and went on from there...
 
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Wachenroder

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I dont own many but the one that I can recall is mecha and gal orientated - Shirow Masamune's Intron Depot (a lot of Appleseed and GITS). Is that sort of what you are looking for?

Took the words out of my mouth. I used to work at an anime store in Little Tokyo so I got dibs most of the times. Got some nice game and anime books while working there. Don't have a whole bunch but I did acquire the some Capcom, SNK, Rumiko Takahashi, Daisuke Ishiwatari, Shirow Masamune, Yuzo Takada, Katsuya Terada and a whole bunch more.
 

Moon Jump

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I've got a few of the Sailor Moon ones. Some from the Anime and others are artworks that the artist, Naoko Takeuchi.

The ones that Naoko Takeuchi did are her watercolor works of the different characters. Some are easy to find, however there's one really rare one called Infinity that goes for big bucks because there weren't many printed. My friend was able to get one early on and got it autographed by the Sailor Moon anime's character designer and he was really shocked to see he had it. The ones from the anime have character design specs and each episode has a section on it. Wish I could read Japanese for some of the artist's notes.
 
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Renmauzo

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I really like the Gainax books. I picked up the Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann books and they are phenomenal; tons of sketch work, scenes (rough pencils) broken down frame by frame, line drawings, backgrounds, vehicle design, etc.
The other series of books that are hard to find and worth every penny are the Eureka Seven design books. There are a few (one each for characters and mechanical designs broken down into first and second half of the series; 4 books total) and have the same things that I mentioned before that make the Gainax books so good.
I often go back to these books when I'm looking for reference material or just inspiration when I'm working on a project.
Good luck on starting into artbooks!
 

SNKorSWM

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I remember buying artbook for Fate Stay Night, but when I received the book, it contained Hentai. Apparently they shipped the artbook for the Visual Novel by mistake. XD
 

fake

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The only one I have is a collection of douga drawings from the original Gundam series. I'd like to get more though, specifically from Eva, Bubblegum Crisis, and Macross. Does anyone know where to get good ones online or in NYC?

Edit: I just remembered I have an Otomo book. It includes stuff from his manga and anime. Good stuff, but the newer Otomo book is amazing - I've paged through it at a book store in NYC but it's $100: link.
 
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Dr Shroom

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Shirow Masemune's stuff is a must-buy if you're into those designs.
 
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The only one I have is a collection of douga drawings from the original Gundam series. I'd like to get more though, specifically from Eva, Bubblegum Crisis, and Macross. Does anyone know where to get good ones online or in NYC?

Could you be a little more specific, please? There are literally well over a hundred Eva art books out there (heck, I even owned an Eva book that covered every piece of official merchandise from 1995 to 1997).

As for Bubblegum Crisis, are you referring to the 80's OVA series, or the (awful) 90's TV series? (I used to own an artbook by Kenichi Sonoda that contained all his illustrations from BGC and Gall Force.)

Also, which Macross series are you most interested in? (The first one? Plus? Seven? Zero? Frontier?)

The (Sailor Moon) ones that Naoko Takeuchi did are her watercolor works of the different characters. Some are easy to find, however there's one really rare one called Infinity that goes for big bucks because there weren't many printed. My friend was able to get one early on and got it autographed by the Sailor Moon anime's character designer and he was really shocked to see he had it.

I remember seeing it on sale for $500 a dozen years ago (can't remember which web site... possibly Anime Asylum or Nichibei Anime?). Even a dozen years later, I still can't believe it's going for a small fortune.
 

fake

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Could you be a little more specific, please? There are literally well over a hundred Eva art books out there (heck, I even owned an Eva book that covered every piece of official merchandise from 1995 to 1997).

As for Bubblegum Crisis, are you referring to the 80's OVA series, or the (awful) 90's TV series? (I used to own an artbook by Kenichi Sonoda that contained all his illustrations from BGC and Gall Force.)

Also, which Macross series are you most interested in? (The first one? Plus? Seven? Zero? Frontier?)



I remember seeing it on sale for $500 a dozen years ago (can't remember which web site... possibly Anime Asylum or Nichibei Anime?). Even a dozen years later, I still can't believe it's going for a small fortune.

I'm just saying I'd like to eventually pick some up. Nothing in particular, but that book with merch photos sounds amazing.

For Bubblegum Crisis, I'm talking about the 80s OVA.
 

mainman

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I can not say much for anime but I'm a hardcore udon game art book collector. I have just about every book they released and it's funny I should see this thread right now as my soul caliber book just came in the mail right now this Sunday.
 

Phyeir

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I tend to stick towards the series I actually like, so I have a few Vocaloid books, Senran Kagura books, but those are nothing special if your not a fan of the series.

One of my newer favs is the Norihiro Yagi Claymore artbook. It comes in a real nice sleeve and it's cool to see some different full page art he has done around the characters from Claymore. I have to look to see if he has done or is doing a newer one. The series has come a decent way since then, I'd like to see more of his art, especially around the awakened beings.
 
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I'm just saying I'd like to eventually pick some up. Nothing in particular, but that book with merch photos sounds amazing.

For Bubblegum Crisis, I'm talking about the 80s OVA.

Here's the Kenichi Sonoda artbook I mentioned earlier:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-s_hXazHH...s1600/Kenichi+Sonoda+-+Artworks+1983-1997.jpg

And here's the Eva merchandise book also previously mentioned:
http://otaku.com/files/images/items/12006A.JPG

I know I purchased the Eva book at Tate's Comic Shop somewhere in West Palm Beach/Ft. Lauderdale, FL a baker's dozen years ago. The BGC artbook I can't remember where exactly I found it (maybe it was otaku.com or a number of now-defunct web stores).

Hope that helps.

So I'm looking into some artbook purchases, what are the must have anime artbooks?

Are you looking for artist-specific titles or books based on various series?
 

Taiso

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Geez, that's probably more than me! I stated with Yamato, Gundam, and whatever super robot books I could find in the early-'80s and went on from there...

Once I discovered art books in the early 80s, I pretty much went wild buying them. The ones i was buying were all so nice, with large full color photos on high quality paper, and a lot of rare art that I hadn't seen anywhere else. I was so blown away by the consistently high production values on the books i was seeing that I just started buying everything I could find if it had anime artwork on it.

In time, as I got older and started going to conventions and finding numerous avenues for purchasing the ones I wanted, I toned it down for a while. And then, when I wasn't looking for anything specific, I would eventually get an irrational need to just buy an art book. Didn't matter if I was a fan of the anime in question or not, or if it was artwork from an artist I liked but the work was unfamiliar. It even got to a point where if i saw something had a nice cover and was a decent page count, I just bought it expecting not to be disappointed.

And in truth, I was rarely disappointed with the quality of the book. Most of the time, the books were great. But I realized that I'd become addicted to acquiring them and had to tone it down.

I still buy them now and again, but now I stick to subject matter I am legitimately interested in and not just buying anything that looks nice. But I still love 'em.
 

LoneSage

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i bought a nice studio ghibli book and looked thru it for MAYBE 30 seconds and never looked at it again

but i feel all sophisticated and shit because hey i have an artbook

so there you go
 

terry.330

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Yoshitaka Amano: Coffin
Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy
Yoshitoshi Abe: Lain Illustrations
Sunrise Artworks: Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop Illustrations: The Wind
 

fake

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Here's the Kenichi Sonoda artbook I mentioned earlier:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-s_hXazHH...s1600/Kenichi+Sonoda+-+Artworks+1983-1997.jpg

And here's the Eva merchandise book also previously mentioned:
http://otaku.com/files/images/items/12006A.JPG

I know I purchased the Eva book at Tate's Comic Shop somewhere in West Palm Beach/Ft. Lauderdale, FL a baker's dozen years ago. The BGC artbook I can't remember where exactly I found it (maybe it was otaku.com or a number of now-defunct web stores).

Hope that helps.



Are you looking for artist-specific titles or books based on various series?

Thanks. Found the Eva one for cheap on eBay. The macross one is 100 so I'll hold off or maybe sell my famicom book to buy it.
 
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