ARS MAGNA the new artbook from YK

[AR-99]

^Thanks for the review. I realized that to expect new material in art books tends to be wishful thinking, since they collect what the artist has released elsewhere over time. The benefit is that you get it all in one place.

Bugbuster was a doujin that Kishiro released in 1988 and was used as the basis for Aqua Knight. Hopefully this means the rest of his earlier works will start to get rereleased (the Kodansha Comics USA omnibuses are already including his one shots).

The belt you mentioned is called an obi, just like the kimono obi.

[kamugin]

The belt you mentioned is called an obi, just like the kimono obi.

Thank you for the info. Such obi is very common in Japanese books, so it's useful to know the right term. Also thank you for explaining the matter regarding Bugbuster, let's hope that his previous works get republished in the near future. When, and if, Yukito finishes Alita, I would like to see he taking again Aqua Knight since its ending was awfully rushed.

[Silvery]

I don't recall seeing at least one-fourth of these illustrations. I also know all of the post-Alita ones only as rather low quality images either posted on his webpage or as a part of the Last Order and Mars Chronicle scanlations. Also, in the Polish edition of Alita (the only Kishiro manga that was published here...) all the colour pages were printed in grayscale, and the first couple of volumes omitted the back half of the cover art. So, even though I don't particularly care about Aqua Knight, and even though I prefer his earlier style, this artbook is easily one of my favourites when it comes to the artbooks/mooks I own.

My only nitpick is the lack of descriptions for the individual pieces. I do appreciate the quality of the English blurbs, of course.

I agree with kamugin, though; I've always thought that his 3D graphics looked atrocious, and even as a high quality print they aren't any better...

[kamugin]

I don't recall seeing at least one-fourth of these illustrations.

The only ones I hadn't seen before were the covers of the new Japanese edition of Last Order, of course I too only saw many of them in scanlations and in black & white (regarding the color, I didn't know until I got the book that Elf's and Zwölf's costumes were actually red when they first appeared, as well as the red version of Alita's Tuned Agent suit. Plus it's interesting to see that Mbadi is so dark skinned, although I wouldn't call him "black" in the sense that Zazie is). The artbook is without a doubt the best printed version of the majority of those images so far although the binding compromises the full appreciation of the illustrations that span for two pages.

[SightlessReality]

Is it possible to get this shipped to the US? I tried amazon JP but couldn't get passed the language barrier for submitting my address.

[AR-99]

Have you seen this? http://www.amazon.co.jp/In-English/b?ie ... de=1094656

What I didn't like when I ordered from Amazon.jp years ago was that they charge an initial shipping fee and add an additional fee per subsequent item.

CD Japan is another possibility.

[SightlessReality]

Have you seen this? http://www.amazon.co.jp/In-English/b?ie ... de=1094656

What I didn't like when I ordered from Amazon.jp years ago was that they charge an initial shipping fee and add an additional fee per subsequent item.

CD Japan is another possibility.

Thank you very very I had no idea they had an English view. No issues after.

[Silvery]

CD Japan is another possibility.

It's been sold out there for a while.

[SightlessReality]

Received my copy yesterday. Only real complainant is that the cover is a bit to flexible.