Book Review: 男鹿和雄画集 (Oga Kazuo Art Collection)

Submitted by  Teoh Yi Chie on  August 25, 2009 - 10:20 am

男鹿和雄画集 (Oga Kazuo Art Collection)

男鹿和雄画集 (Oga Kazuo Art Collection)

Kazuo Oga (男鹿 和雄) is an art director and background artist for many Studio Ghibli anime films. This is his first art book which contains the background paintings for several titles, namely Letters, My Neighbour Tororo, Only Yesterday and Pompoko.

Most of the illustrations are water paintings of Japanese countryside, idyllic setups for imaginary worlds. The art speaks for itself.

About half of the book writeup with two interviews with Oga Kazuo, commentary with Isao Takahata (co-founder of Studio Ghibli) and an interview with Hayao Miyazaki, all in Japanese. On these pages are also printed with background sketches of more natural settings, including traditional Japanese houses.

This is a great collection to the other Studio Ghibli art books around.

男鹿和雄画集 (Oga Kazuo Art Collection) - 01

男鹿和雄画集 (Oga Kazuo Art Collection) - 02

男鹿和雄画集 (Oga Kazuo Art Collection) - 03

男鹿和雄画集 (Oga Kazuo Art Collection) - 04

男鹿和雄画集 (Oga Kazuo Art Collection) - 05

男鹿和雄画集 (Oga Kazuo Art Collection) - 06

男鹿和雄画集 (Oga Kazuo Art Collection) - 07

男鹿和雄画集 (Oga Kazuo Art Collection) - 08

This book is available at:
Amazon Japan | CDJapan.co.jp

If you buy from any links on the blog, I get a little commission that helps me get more art books to feature.

Here's the Amazon Japan buying guide for your reference.

Tags
studio ghibli
art book reviews
anime
asian art books
kazuo oga
background art
anime art books

Comments

nysv (not verified) Tue, 25 Aug 2009 - 15:04

Man... I still haven't bought this or his other books, even though he's one of my absolute favorite japanese artists. Those amazon.co.jp postage costs are killing me!

The art looks great, although slightly disapointing that the book itself is a bit on the small side(width/length) for an artbook.

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 26 Aug 2009 - 10:11

@nysv
Actually the book isn't really that small. The book is the size of normal Studio Ghibli art books — slightly larger than two DVD disc boxes.

There are 104 pages, of which 55 are coloured illustrations. The rest are the black and white sketches with interviews.

@Sukh
You should also check out other background painting art books on the blog.

Shadytrees (not verified) Sun, 27 Sep 2009 - 17:33

I absolutely loooove your reviews!!! I think they're so insighful and fun to read and watch!! I've been trying to order a few of the art books from amazon jp! But I can't seem to get past the login page. When I try to login they say that my password is incorrect which I know for a fact is not true-

Any ideas on how to get past this would be amazing and truly helpful as I'd like to buy this book and a few others as soon as possible!!

MANY THANKS!
ST

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 27 Sep 2009 - 19:26

@Shadytrees
Thanks.
The login name is actually your email address. Or maybe your Cap Locks button is on?

If they both can't work, you can go to the Forget Password page (link under the orange Sign In button) and have them email you a new password. (Two boxes for email and the bottom box for the image captcha you see).

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