Book Review: The Art of Spirited Away

[Krystal109]

The Art of Spirited Away
By Hayao Miyazaki

   

Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Format: Hardcover (240 pages)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1569317771
ISBN-13: 978-1569317778
Dimensions: 12" x 8.5" x 1"
Price: $34.95 (USD)


Miyazaki's Spirited Away is by far one of the most beloved works produced and released to the US and this book does the film all the justice it deserves.

The introduction of the book gives the reader insight into both Miyazaki's life and his view on what Spirited Away was about to him. These 2 pages are the majority of text the reader will view for the first 181 pages of the book. From there the book covers Miyazaki's concept art sketches that the whole film was based on, the concept/finialized art for almost all characters and environments, insight into the production process (such as how the digital technology was used to fuse 3d work with traditional work to create the world), and then has the original screenplay printed in the back on none glossy paper.

Overall, the book is great if you want to see more artwork from the film without a lot of reading or you are interested anything about the production. As for information or insight from Miyazaki himself, the introduction is all you're really going to get. The hardcover format is nice and steardy with great binding that should last no matter how many times you flip through it.

Pros

• Covers the whole film in order, leaving nothing out
• Tons of finalized artwork and sketches
• Few screencaps from the film, all new content
  

Cons

• Little to no actual information about the films inception
  

Review by: Krystal109 (krystalnexus (at) yahoo.com)

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