#dark angel
Asamiya Kia’s first artbook in 20+ years hit shelves this week and for once my copy arrived fairly quickly. Titlted Réunion, this book covers the artist’s entire manga career from well known 90s titles like Silent MöbiusandNadesico right through to his more recent efforts like JUNKandKanojo no Carrera. If you’re looking for any of his anime art you won’t find it here, this is exclusively for his printed media (and you can find his older anime work released under his actual name, Kikuchi Michitaka, in older artbooks like “The Next Generation”). If you’re a fan of his manga however, you’re in for a treat as this is a fairly comprehensive release.
Now when I say “if you’re a fan of his manga” that really is loaded, isn’t it? Look I’ll level with you, Asamiya’s manga art has changed significantly over the years to the point where his early works like SaimebiandVagrants look vastly different to Corrector YuiandSpe-Ope! He was also an early adopter of digital processes in the 90s and more recently increased his use of reference photos in his doujinshi releases too (like, to an obvious degree). All of which impacts how his work has evolved over time.
To put it simply, there’s 288 pages of art in here and depending on which works of his you like, you’re either going to see the 4400 yen price tag as a bargain for all the great art from series you love or a rip off for all the mediocre art from series you don’t care about. I’d have to say I sit probably between the two, while I’m not a huge fan of the way Asamiya’s art has evolved he did still help create some of my favourite series. So while a lot of his recent work just isn’t for me, I was satisfied with the amount of early artwork here that did tick my boxes.
Anyway, good things about this art book:
- A shitload of pictures. Like there is PLENTY of art here which makes it heavy to ship but worth it if you’re keen on having a lot of his art in one place.
- The book covers most major releases (manga, DVDs) from each title, including more recent ones (so you have original 90s book art from Compiler but you also have the cover Asamiya drew for the 00s DVD release of the series).
- Quality paper, quality printing – honestly the work looks good.
- Comments from Asamiya for each illustration that give you an idea on the background behind each pic (like when he was first testing out effects in early Photoshop or what inspired a particular pose). It gives you some insight which is nice.
- There are some rare pieces of art represented here that you won’t find in good quality anywhere else (the Kiddy half-naked in jeans pic, for example, has never been published in quality like this before).
Bad things about this art book:
- Not nearly as comprehensive as it could have been. Don’t get me wrong I like that Saimebi QD is included here (for posterity if nothing else) but the section on the original series is rather lacking. Off the top of my head there’s no Saimebi bunkobon covers included, no kanzenban covers included, no DVD covers included, etc. This goes for most of the bigger series featured in this book (Kanojo no Carerra doesn’t have a fraction of its overall art here). I’d honestly have preferred they split this into two books to give the bigger titles more representation because argh, we could have had it all!
- Far too many lovely pictures ruined by being placed across the spine. Why do publishers insist on doing this? There’s some incredible art for series like Corrector Yui and ALL the Dark Angel manga covers that are spread across two pages to their absolute detriment. Hate this practice (see above in the pics for a gorgeous Saimebi spread that’s ruined by this placement).
- There is some overlap between older pics from art books GAIA and VENUS, but there’s also a lot missing from this era. Again, points off in terms of comprehensiveness. (But I do have to say the quality of this book remains vastly superior to the old ones.)
Overall though look I’m very happy I purchased this to get what I got. The pictures from series I like look amazing and even the ones I don’t care about as much are nicely represented. My gripes are really just wistful desires for more of what we have and better organisation, none of which are exclusive to this release.
So my advice is that if you like Asamiya and want to own a collection that covers all his major manga releases, get this book.
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angel
•. Sephiroth .•
