Customer Reviews

Art Of Spirited Away

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book is fantastic, shows great hand drawn pictures of landscapes and characters, lots of information. If you're an animator, illustrator, painter, drawer, what ever get this!

Je ne regrette pas d'avoir acheté ce artbook de mon film préféré d'Hayao Miyazaki! je le recommande à tous ceux qui ont aimé se film !

This is a large book that will take more than one look to completely enjoy the scope of Spirited Away. The book opens up with a introduction by the Master himself, Hayao Miyazaki, a small picture of him, and a large sketch of Chihiro with her parents who were turned into pigs. Mr. Miyazaki strives to make animation accessible to everyone, which he is highly noted for. He tries to bring all viewers, no matter of age or locale into his extraordinary storytelling.

After the introduction is a large chapter on watercolor pencil sketches and concept art, this chapter is full of character, architecture, and design sketches. This chapter will blow you away, if you love concept art.

The next chapter is concept art but it is the actual art used in the movie; backgrounds, characters, and paintings of the scenes used. Also cel art is shown. It also has information on thoughts of the animators. Like one page discusses the "color design based on red", why red was used, what it symbolizes etc. This is a huge chapter, so it is broken down into pieces like the Bathhouse, The Frog Men, Haku etc. Each character or element is discussed.

The last chapter discusses computer generated art, its place in the making of the film, and how they created certain elements in the film. Remember every chapter is full of art and inspiration. The book is so well created, you can cut some of the art out and frame it!

Last but not least is the total script to Spirited Away! So you can follow along while you are watching the film.

Viz did a tremendous job on this book, and it will be a collectors item on your bookshelf!

I ordered this item after seeing the movie cause I knew right off that it was going to be amazing, and I was correct. This guy is amazing! I hope that he comes out with lots more movies and art books that are just as great as Spirited Away. When reading and looking over this book it was like I was watching the movie all over again. But enough of my blabble, buy the movie and book, and you'll see for yourself just how amazing both really are.

After watching "Spirited Away", I bought the art book companion as an impulse buy. However, now that I think about it, I find myself constantly turning through its pages, even more so than I watch the movie. Hayao Miyazaki created a masterpiece in "Spirited Away", set in a wonderland-esque realm - a Japanese Bath House for the gods and spirits of Japanese mythology. This guide takes its reader through the Miyazaki's creation with great artistic detail and intriguing notations and comments.

For those who have fallen in love with "Spirited Away", as I have, this book offers insight to the multi-layered plots and characters of the film. Readers are graced with early archetural diagrams and sketches of the film's settings, along with galleries of the breath-taking final products. Also, we are offered conceptual drawlings of the cast of characters, from the early images of Yubaba and her gigantic baby to some of the minor characters and apparitions: the No Face, the bouncing heads, Haku and the silver dragon, etc.
The art and designs are a treat for both young and old, whether you have seen the film or not. As an added bonus, the collection also offers the American screenplay dialogues and detailed descriptions of the Spirit World.

This is a must have for fans of the movie, fans of anime or fans of mythology and Asian folklore. Miyazaki's true gift is creating limitless images that spark the imagination. His work in this book rivals the original fantasies and concepts within Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass". There is nothing disappointing about it.

Although I am not a big anime fan in general, I am a huge fan of Miyazaki Hayao's work. The highlight of his movies and comic books is usually the story itself, but in the case of Spirited Away, I think it would be fair to say that the sheer beauty and imagination of the film is just as amazing as the story itself.

For me, Spirited Away was by far the first, and to date only, animated movie that I could call visually stunning. The viewer, be he or she 5, 25, or 65 is as drawn into Miyazaki's world as the protagonist Chihiro is. This book allows you to revisit the movie through its art. Full of concept sketches, character designs, and backgrounds from the movie, this book also includes an introduction by Miyazaki himself as well as frequent commentary by the artists that worked on this film and even an explanation of some of the technology that helped make this such a visually appealing film. The book's price may seem a bit steep, but at around 250 full color, high quality pages I felt I more than got my money's worth.

There has been talk of Miyazaki retiring, but I hope this is not the case. With Spirited Away gaining such popular and critical acclaim in the United States, I hope he continues to work his magic for years to come, continuing to make his impression left not only on Japan, but to the global audience. With the increase in animation technology and the continuing strength of Miyazaki's imagination and storytelling power, it seems that the best is yet to come.

I am speechless, I really am. I've never felt more compelled to write a review until now. This book is, in two words, ESSENTIALLY HOT!!! I am not gonna blabber much about this book since what I would say has been mentioned by previous reviews and they are soooooo true!!! The print and colour qualities are superb. I've fallen in love with this book right from the start. I don't understand why I couldn't rate it higher than five stars because that is what this book truely deserves...... A MILLION STARS! I feel that the world is really fortunate to have unparallelled artists such as Mr. Hayao Miyazaki. I am such great fan of his.

I love Miyazaki's original sketches for things. They are always have such a sweet and mysterious sense at the same time. And they are in such good detail. His archetectual drawings are always my favorite. In nice hardcover.

Although I do have a few complaints about the book, I really liked it. Most of my complaints involved wanting more - more artist commentary, more concept drawings, that sort of thing. The book has an introduction written by Hayao Miyazaki, a section with concept sketches, a section with concept sketches, backgrounds, and character designs, and a section explaining how computer graphics were used in the movie. This book even has the movie's screenplay. I really enjoyed the concept sketches, which show how original ideas changed to create the final product. For instance, a sketch of Zeniba and Yubaba shows how much Zeniba's design changed - she looks more normally proportioned than her sister. Later in the book, there is an explanation for why the change in Zeniba's design occurred. I also enjoyed the computer graphics section, because I would never have noticed any of the things they pointed out on my own. I foudn it fascinating, they way they blended cel art and digital art so well.

Other anime never has moved me the way Miyazaki did. It is an emotional experience to see the art of Miyazaki. Those lucky few will have a chance to get this book!