Book Review: 宇宙ショーへようこそ設定資料集 (Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW Design Works)

There are three art books for the Japanese animated movie 宇宙ショーへようこそ (Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW). One's this book I'm reviewing which covers the design for characters, props and storyboards. The other two books cover the background art.

This is a small book but thick book at 304 pages. I thought I had bought the wrong book because of the size, like the novelization of the animation - if there is one.

This art book features lots of wonderful art. The character designs are mainly the line drawings used for animation. There are lots of expressions, poses, little props and gadgets. The characters are well designed especially the non-humans like animals and space creatures. They look nice and cute.

About half the book is on storyboards. They are really detailed sketches of the scenes and characters. I believe they are the roughs for the actual background paintings.

And then there are some background paintings as well, which are also the only coloured pieces in this book. They are gorgeous, but small. You should definitely check out the other two art books dedicated to the background paintings.

This little book packs in a lot of information and art, as expected for an animated movie that runs over 2 hours. If you know Japanese, you might enjoy reading the captions and scribbled notes (really small).

It's a wonderful book. I wish more animated movies would come up with books like this.

This book is available at:
Amazon Japan | YesAsia USA

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Here's Amazon Japan shipping rates for your reference.