Book Review: Yoshitoshi Abe Lain Illustrations

Yoshitoshi Abe Lain Illustrations

This art book is for Serial Experiments Lain, an anime with a very complex plot on reality.

If you've watched the anime before, you probably remember the bleak, dark and seemingly apocalyptic style of art used. Colours are very limited which is quite apt for the anime. This book focuses on the character Lain and contains many full page illustrations, sketches and even a short manga section.

I thought the character design for Lain wasn't strong enough. The only distinctive part about here besides the disturbing eyes is probably her lock of hair by her left. Without that lock of hair, she's indistinguishable from another other typical manga style girls. And since the book is only about her, the variety feels rather limited.

The quality of art isn't as high as many of the Japanese art books I have. It's certainly not the type of book I'll find myself constantly referring to.

Right at the back is a short walkthrough on how the art was created as well as some photographs from the artist.

Yoshitoshi Abe Lain Illustrations is an average art book for me, maybe fans of the anime might appreciate more.

I recommend taking a look inside the book, if you can, before purchasing it.

Yoshitoshi Abe Lain Illustrations - 01

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Yoshitoshi Abe Lain Illustrations - 10

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3 Comments

I've owned this book for a

I've owned this book for a few years now, picking it up at a Barnes & Nobles. The quality isn't bad at all. ABe does have a tendency to have similar designs, but it was his first project after all.

There are quite a few gorgeous illustrations in the beginning portion of the book, as well as the previously unreleased Lain manga (all sketched and colored in one day in Photoshop 7). However, as far as Parka stated, it's a book best left to the fans, as it really isn't impressive by art book standards.

The end cap of the book does have multiple photography shots (very small) of references that ABe uses in his work, as well as some of his thought patterns for the visual stylings of Lain's universe.

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