![]() Each in their own way, the two books are a visual tour de force. AN OMNIPRESENCE IN WIRED FULLWith not much text at all, omnipresence contains page after page of gorgeous illustrations, many of them full page or even spanning two pages. The layout is simple-not as interesting as Visual Experiments Lain-but the content is rich. The various illustrations that appeared in AX Magazine, all the cover art, PSX game art, stuff from the various omake (LD and DVD extras), design sketches, a beautiful and creepy full-color 's all there and more. The variety of illustrations and drawings is excellent as well. Most of the art is full-color, but even the few black and white drawings are stunning. Hardcover with a plastic slip-case and containing 128-pages of art on high quality paper, the package is irresistible. If you're a fan of lain, I give VEL my highest recommendation.Īn omnipresence in wired by yoshitoshi ABe is surely one of the greatest anime artbooks ever made. This book seems readily available at various online anime stores or on ebay, and is relatively inexpensive. On the other hand, it does includes some excellent full-color illustrations by Takahiro Kishida, who drew the animation character designs. VEL is not a book of original illustrations, so the work of Yoshitoshi ABe (original character designer) is not heavily featured. AN OMNIPRESENCE IN WIRED SERIALserial experiments lain is a visually interesting anime, so it's no wonder that the book devoted to it is also visually interesting, living up to its billing as a "visual experiment." The progressive layout reminds me of Mondo 2000 or other postmodern mags not your typical use of white space.and it looks nice.very nice, in fact. What sets VEL apart from other artbooks is its incredible layout. Text aside, VEL is simply great to look at. In addition, there's a decent amount of English text to help readers navigate the book. If you can read Japanese, there's more than enough text to make this book worth buying. Of course, I can't read Japanese, so I am judging the book purely by its aesthetics. Like artbooks for other anime series, the 80-page VEL includes plenty of screen shots, conceptual drawings, original illustrations, and informational text in Japanese. ![]() (It's also on Amazon for $50 right now, but you can definitely get a better price elsewhere, so I recommend poking around.Visual experiments lain is one of the nicest artbooks I own, and I own a decent number (41). I regularly see it pop up at conventions for around $20-$30 so if you want to get it for yourself it's fairly easy. AN OMNIPRESENCE IN WIRED SERIESThis book is fairly widely available, since it's an English release and the series wasn't too popular. Others seem to be simply design exercises not used anywhere outside of the book.Ībe's illustrations are lavish and very detailed, and really capture the grungy feel of Lain's world. Some illustrations depict outfits from the series and some are only found in the game. There is also a small manga in here, the concepts in which will be very familiar to any fan of the series. ![]() There are numerous color illustrations and also very detailed pencil/black and white drawings. Yoshitoshi Abe's gift for soft lines contrasting with dizzying industrial details is represented beautifully. Two pages at the front and back of the book are a "frosted" acetate paper which is hard to capture in pictures but produces a very neat effect when layered over the background page underneath. The cover is very simple and you can just barely see the text on it in a shiny embossed black. I don't hear of English-only exclusive items much usually it's the other way around. The illustration on the slipcase is also the illustration you get on the small poster inside, which was only included with the English release, strangely enough. It's a beautiful book, hardcover and comes in a decorated slipcase to protect it. The book is NOT flipped, however, still oriented right-to-left. ![]() Probably the most well-known Lain merchandise is this artbook, comprised of hundreds of illustrations by series creator Yoshitoshi Abe, called Rebuild an Omnipresence in Wired.Īpart from its Japanese release, this artbook actually got an English release and this is the version I have, so all the text in it is translated. The visual novel, which came first, never got an official translation (and the game itself is incredibly expensive to acquire even if you are fluent AND have a Japanese PlayStation on which to play it.) My very first blog entry was a review of the Vice 1/8 Lain figure, the only scale figure produced for the series discounting garage kits and a personal favorite in my collection. The series never enjoyed more than niche popularity (even in Japan) and consequently it doesn't have much in the way of merchandise. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |