Review: The Art of the Boy and the Heron

As you would expect from Studio Ghibli

This a beautiful large format hardcover companion artbook of The Boy and the Heron. The book is the English translated version of the original Japanese artbook The Art of 君たちはどう生きるか. The English edition is published by Viz Media and is satisfying thick at 320 pages.

If you have owned any Studio Ghilbi artbooks, you'll know to expect here.

This book is packed with beautiful concept art for the animated film. There's a good mix of hand drawn storyboards, background paintings, character designs, film stills and commentary.

The back of the book has interviews with supervising animator Takeshi Honda, art director Yoji Takeshige, background artist Noboru Yoshida and key animator Shinya Ohira. There'a also the complete English dub script provided.

The artworks as always are gorgeous. I love the pencil watercolour sketches. The setting and environment though simple are still painted so beautifully. You'll get the Japanese-style countryside vibe. Almost reminds me of designs from Spirited Away for some reason.

Studio Ghibli is still on top of their game. Despite the popularity of 3D animated films, Studio Ghibli still sticks to 2D hand drawn animation and that shows how much they believe in their craft. That is admirable.

This is a great artbook for all fans of Studio Ghibli and of the film.

Here are direct links to the book:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.es | Amazon.com.au | Amazon.co.jp

This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook.