Walt Disney Archive Series - Story

We’ve all heard of Disney and have our own opinions on its films, history and practises, but regardless of what we think of their output there’s little denying the quality work that goes into their films.  The Archive Series of books is made to highlight this fact, and present a visual overview of its entire catalogue.  It’s no small task.

‘Story’ is the first of the series and focuses on the storyboard process of depicting plotline ideas before starting work on the animation process.  Aside from a brief introduction by John Lasseter the book is presented entirely without commentary, allowing you to browse through at your own pace.  Works are presented chronologically starting out with Steamboat Willy in 1928, and picks its way through the Disney catalogue before ending with 2002’s Lilo and Stitch.

It would be impossible to have all titles represented and so is an incomplete survey.  There is, quite rightly in my opinion, an emphasis on early shorts.  About a quarter of the book is dedicated to pre-Snow White works.  Also the period between Jungle Book (Walt Disney’s last film) and The Little Mermaid (the start of what some people terms as the Disney Renaissance) is very under-represented, as over 20 years of output is surmised with only a brief entry by Fox and the Hound.  Maybe the material was simply unavailable, but it does unfortunately encourage the general belief that this was a bad era of Disney films.

This is a great book for anyone interested in Disney and their story-building processes, or just wanting to look at quality illustrations.  It’s a very large chunky hardback, and once you’ve made the space for it will sit proudly on your shelves.

Sherlock Hound / Art of Holmes

 I have a soft spot for Sherlock Hound (名探偵ホームズ (Detective Holmes)).  It’s a lovely little series of exciting Victorian adventures, appealing canine character designs and beautiful background art… for 6 of its 26-episode run anyway.

Sherlock Hound was the last television series that Hayao Miyazaki worked on in the early 1980s.  He directed 6 good quality episodes before production was halted by Sherlock Holmes’ owners at Doyle estate, and by the time the issues were resolved Miyazaki had since moved on to making movies full time.  A gap of 20 episodes needed to be filled, and  so stepped up Kyosuke Mikuriya.  He was a promising director who’d previously been in charge of the well regarded Ulysses 31 but was sadly later fated to make crap like Legend of the Four/Dragon Kings.  The result was a varying bunch of episodes that by all measures do not hold up to the spark of the original run.

The Miyazaki episodes however were pretty well regarded at the time, with compiled versions being double billings with Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind and Laputa on the big screen.  Any and all printed material I’ve seen on the series has related specifically to Miyazaki’s work, and the artbook is no exception.  Sorry, but the rest of the series is largely ignored.

Despite being made before the studio even existed, Art of Holmes is published in same line as the regular Ghibli artbooks in Japan.  Hints at its troubled history are implied as all pre-production artwork depicts Sherlock as a floppy-eared hound, and not the tall cropped-eared character seen in the final work.   The rest of the cast evolve much more naturally inside the book (aside from Mrs. Hudson who spends a brief period as a human), but there is very little content on the final design of Sherlock.   This may come as a disappointment to those specifically wanting production artwork on Sherlock’s final design.

As a side note a similar instance occurs in the collected storyboards of Sherlock Hound.  The episode ‘A Small Client’ is sketched entirely with an unfamiliar long-eared protagonist, whereas the other 5 episodes have the familiar design.  Perhaps indicates the moment at which the alteration was made in the production?

Aside from that note this is a lovely artbook.  The book is divided into chapters labelled as Image Boards, Character Design, Backgrounds, Story and Animation Technique.  Pretty much everything is covered to some extent.  About half of the book’s content is dedicated to delicate watercolour sketches, with the rest used for either background studies or images from the final product.  There isn’t all that much text going on, so you get a lot of artwork within its sub-150 pages.  These days the book can prove a little difficult to find, so if the opportunity ever presents itself it’s very much recommended to fans of either the Hound or anyone into Miyazaki’s pre-Ghibli work.

Ni No Kuni - Wizard's Companian

For those who own a Playstation 3, Ni no Kuni is the game you need to be thinking of owning if you don’t have it already.  Co-produced between Level 5 (of Professor Layton fame) and Studio Ghibli (of Studio Ghibli fame), it’s something of a dream team solution in making an RPG that feels right to play and looks beautiful.  It’s a worthy addition to any gamer’s collection.  I’m not here to talk about the game though.  I’m here to talk about the book.

As the game progresses the main character is given a magical tome, the Wizard’s Companion Book, which contains over 300 pages of information about monsters, weapons and all other kinds of other info in the game.  You can browse through it for hours reading up on all the details of the game’s world, while collecting extra pages as the game proceeds.  The book is translated in its entirety within the game and as an additional bonus was included as a hardcopy with the limited ‘Wizard’s Edition’ of the game.  It’s a lovely little book, and well worth owning for those who want to enjoy the game as much as possible.  However things were a little tricky for some fans…

Only those who were particularly clued in, organised, or just plain rich were able to get the book as it was only made available at a premium price, and in quantities that meant it sold out on pre-orders alone.  Many people missed out and are now forced to squint at the book through their screens as opposed to being able to casually leaf through a real one.

I can’t help but feel someone missed a trick with this situation.  The game was heavily promoted from around 8 months before the game’s release, and fully successful in getting everyone interested and wanting to buy the game.  But once having successfully created near ravenous demand, why not try and fulfil it by supplying enough of your product?  The publisher consequently made less money than they could have done, while auction dealers now reap massive rewards as fans fight over the remnants.

As a final blow there is also a DS version of this game in Japan, unreleased in the west.  This game was reportedly deemed too financially prohibitive for release as the game is only playable with the book and could therefore only be sold as a bundle pack.  I guess throwing money at publishers is not enough proof that there is demand for this game at any price.  Sadly the DS boat has since sailed for pastures new (3D ones anyway), so I don’t see it happening now.

I don’t mean to moan as it’s a fantastic game.  Go buy it now and accept the compromise, it’s all you’re going to get.

Whisper of the Heart Art Book -「バロンのくれた物語」の物語

It’s no real secret that I’m a big fan of Ghibli, and any excuse to talk a bit about them makes my day. I love their work, and I especially love their artbooks in all their various shapes and sizes (I’m a sucker when it comes to pencils and watercolours). Alongside the recent Arrietty, the next few days will see the release of Whisper of the Heart on Blu-Ray. It’s a sublime film and if you haven’t already seen it I strongly encourage you all to seek it out. As for the artbook for the film, it’s a bit of a weird thing.

I could be wrong, but after hours of hunting through places such as Ebay and Amazon Japan, I couldn’t actually find an artbook specifically for Whisper of the Heart. None of the film’s depiction of Japanese suburbia exists in book form or even character sketches of the main cast were available to me (if there is such a book please let me know!). The volume I was able to come up with though focuses solely on the Baron – the cat figurine that features briefly in the film. This book is dedicated entirely to around 5 minutes of the entire film in miniscule details, so fans of the Baron who want to check out his origins will get a kick out of this book. I’ve taken a couple of photos but please forgive the blur:

What you get inside are watercoloured and pencilled storyboards for the Baron’s sequences, about 20 pages of content, with the rest presenting an extensive look at the fantasy backgrounds. The reproduction is lush, but anyone originally after any content even vaguely relating to its parent film might be a little disappointed at this somewhat slender 96-page offering. I’m proud to have it on my shelf as it opens a window to something that passes so fleetingly in the main film (and I’m a fan of the Baron too which helps), but these books don’t exactly come cheap so it’s always good to give a heads up to anyone who might be tempted so they know what to expect.

Sadly Whisper of the Heart turned out to be the only film directed by Yoshifumi Kondo before passing away. For those interested in his work I recommend checking out his artbook ふとふり返ると―近藤喜文画文集, perhaps even more so than the Whisper of the Heart book.

Naturally as a non-Japanese reader I can’t tell you much about the book’s real intentions, but inside is page upon page of delicate drawings made with coloured pencils. Everyday scenes or people riding bikes, getting caught in the rain or just having fun are depicted. It has about 100 pages and is a sturdy hardback. While it has no actual relation to Whisper of the Heart at all, the vibe of the gentle nondramatic instances of life this is really worth checking out as a spiritual accompaniment to the film.

Fruits

This is a book about Japanese street fashion, or for more cynical readers, a book that feeds vulnerable otaku minds the idea that everyone in Japan dresses up in crazy handmade clothes with fluorescent colours every weekend. Scratch that last point, this book is gorgeous.

Dispensing with lengthy explanations or essays on Japanese street culture, Fruits jumps straight into showing the more experimental styles of Japanese fashion as it’s encountered on the street. Each page is a full colour photo of a one or two people who list their name, notable items of clothing and areas of influence on their style, and with a the book comprising over 250 pages of that there’s a lot of content in here. (If you want to see the more everyday side to Japanese clothing then it’s probably better to look at the people in the background)

The photos are excellent and a simple glance inside soon turns into half an hour of exploration. It’s definitely worth checking out for those interested in design or simply because you want something bright and energetic on your shelf. A second book entitled ‘Fresh Fruits’ is also out for those who want more of the same and Phaidon also released a similar book that focuses specifically on Gothic and Lolita styles (which I can’t comment on as I don’t own it). A great novelty item that still retains its value after all the years I’ve had it.