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Title: NieA_7 SCRAP
Distributor: Kadokawa Comics
Artist: yoshitoshi ABe
Suggested Retail Price (SRP): ¥1,400
(£6.70 approx.)
Number of Pages: 80
ISBN: 4-04-713434-1
Reviewed: 31st January 2006
Reviewer: Tom (Webmaster)
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Although I have never been a great fan of the anime series
NieA_7
I did admire the detailed and unique art of the series throughout. Here
was an artist which did not stick to the usual bright bold colours of anime and
was not afraid to use duller tones and limited colours to bring his remarkably
detailed visions to life. This 'scrapbook' brings together a small
selection of ABe's (not a mistype, that is how he writes his name)
images.
The book opens with an impressive gallery of beautiful art which shows the
original line-art drawing as well as the full-colour version. Sadly these
images are not all full page but nonetheless still highlight ABe's talent
well. Full descriptions of each picture are also included, albeit in
Japanese only, but you do not need to be able to read these descriptions to
appreciate ABe's accomplished style - being able to feast on his artwork
was enough for me.
Also included are an original manga and 'how to NieA_7' (a guide to drawing a
Niea_7 picture), although these are both in Japanese I doubt that they would
make much more sense in English. The manga is particularly bizarre and
seems to involve NieA coming across a bowl which the cast then decide to cook
dinner in, only for the bowl to fly out of the window. A living carrot
also makes an appearance but I was not certain what it's role exactly was and I
doubt that, even had the manga been in English this could have been
explained. The manga is remarkably drawn in a great 'rough' style however, that
still manages to showcase ABe's talent wonderfully. The 'how to
NieA_7' section is also hard to follow as the guide does not tell you how to
produce the incredibly detailed piece of line-art that the first step gives, it
expects you to draw it without instruction! The guide instead begins with
these piece of art and then goes through the process of how the image is
coloured using various layers. On reflection this section is probably
showing how the creative process takes place rather then inviting the reader to
actually draw the image, but if you want to give it a go the instructions are
there. In Japanese.
The final section of the book contains a number of concept sketches, line-art
and mini-mangas which showcase ABe's talent more then other section.
The concept sketches highlight ABe's talent for comedic impressions
whilst the magnificent monochrome line-art shows his ability to capture the form
and also to display all human emotions. The mini-mangas are more
bewildering then the main manga, containing cowboys, censored faces and
cannibalism. I had no idea what was going on in any of them but the
artwork was top notch as usual.
Despite being a small art book, NieA_7 SCRAP showcases ABe's
talent wonderfully and is an ideal choice if you want to pick up a cheap import
art book featuring his art. The import price is approximately £15 for the
UK which is good value for an art book and is worth purchasing as the bigger
ABe art books can cost up to £50. Also ignore the fact that text is
predominantly Japanese, the artwork on offer here is too sumptuous to pass up.
Extras:
A bibliography is included but is unfortunately all in
Japanese. A list of ABe's machine spec is not however, and makes
for interesting reading.
Ratings
Product: 
Extras:
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