村田蓮爾さんの本としてはかなりリーズナブルな価格設定。
★★★★★
Amazonでの商品登録と消滅を繰り返して幾星霜。
紆余曲折の末ようやく村田蓮爾さんのアニメーションアートワークス「PRISMTONE」が発売されました。
アニメーションアートワークスというだけあって自身が携わった『青の6号』・『LAST EXILE』。
そして制作途中で頓挫してしまったGONZO版『マルドゥック・スクランブル』のキャラクター&プロダクトデザイン、そして各種販促イラストなどが収録されています。
(収録作品は1998〜2006年までなので『シャングリ・ラ』は未収録)
内容の大部分は個人誌の再録といった感じですが、今では殆ど入手困難なので1つに纏めてくれた事は大変有り難く、344ページという大ボリュームで資料的価値も十分!!。
値段に関しても毎回凝りに凝った画集が1万円近くする事を考えれば大分リーズナブルです。
各作品のファンは勿論、村田さんの描く「ぷにっとして女の子」と「渋いオッサン」と「無骨なデザイン」に萌える者にとっては堪らん1冊になっていると思います!!。
Excellent character collection
★★★★★
This book collects sketches and finished work from all of the work I'm familiar with. I'd missed out on the Last Exile Aerial Log and dispaired getting anything to do with that book. If you have other collections, like the Blue Submarine Number 6 book, then you'll see some overlap, but here the art is much bigger. Not enough art books provide this size. I don't feel my collection diminished at all.
An interesting note about the paper used: It alternates between a heavy sketchbook type to glossy poster type, so that each of the respective works is in an appropriate medium--a very nice touch.
In addition to the art (sketches and finished), there are the original comments attached to most of the sketches, with additional comments added. The arrangement of the book is by series and character name, and I found it easy to find everyone. A nice addition was a kind of retrospective of tie-in products to the films--though seeing what else I missed wasn't so fun. Fold out posters are included, and whenever I see this kind of thing I wish that they would include two copies!
It should be noted that included here are character sketches ONLY--no devices, aircraft, backgrounds or buildings. This is the only omission, and I didn't even notice it at first. I like the character focus, but I hope that in the future a similar work for those other things will be released!