The ultimate illustration collection of Haruhiko Mikimoto, one of the greatest character designers in Japanese animation, now available in an updated English edition! Haruhiko Mikimoto is a Japanese illustrator, manga artist, and character designer who has led the Japanese animation industry for more than 35 years. He has participated in the creation of a number of masterpiece animation works that have gone down in the history of Japanese animation, and has created numerous unique and beautiful characters that have become an indispensable element in each animation work. His work is not only historically valuable, but it also influences young animators who are active in the modern anime industry, along with people who aspire to be part of it. This book offers a thorough introduction to the process of creating various masterpiece characters from "KABANERI OF THE IRON FORTRESS" to "Mobile Suit GUNDAM: 0080 War in the Pocket", "Gunbuster", and "Mobile Suit GUNDAM Hathaway". Handwritten comments by Haruhiko Mikimoto are featured next to some character images, which help the readers to know more details of the character designing process. In addition to original character drawings, this book also contains character design rough sketches, character illustrations, and original cell illustrations of animation masterpieces that Haruhiko Mikimoto has contributed. Until now, this book was only available in Japan. Now it has been revised and updated, making it available for all the Haruhiko Mikimoto fans in the world. Why not discover the origins of Haruhiko Mikimoto's imagination yourself?

This book features illustrations from Mikimoto's most famous science-fiction animations, including Macross, Orguss, and Gunbuster.

Hiroshige. Shaping the Image of Japan is a comprehensive overview of Utagawa Hiroshige's work as a woodblock print artist. Hiroshige (1797-1858) is one of the great masters in the history of Japanese printmaking and has worked in virtually every genre of ukiyo-e or 'images of the floating world'. He achieved his greatest fame through his depictions of the Japanese landscape, which were not only popular in Japan, but also found favor with European artists at the turn of the 19th century.

Asia is now the center of comic illustration. This cutting-edge collection showcases the work of illustrators from Asia. Many new artists have been emerging recently from Asia, taking their place in the international comic illustration industry through social media. Although their work shows influences from Japanese anime and manga, the superior drawing skills and pursuit of originality in each of these artists' work results in a fresh and intense take on traditional styles. This book showcases 46 illustrators focusing mainly on young up-and-coming artists and collects over 250 illustrations in total. Each artist is introduced in 2 to 6 pages. Most artists does digital drawing but there are some who does watercolor and ink painting. Immerse yourself in the work of these artists working at the forefront of the creative world of Asia. The Cover illustration was done by a Singaporean artist Guweiz.

Closely examining staged images of Japanese femininity, this study centers on the mid-Meiji souvenir photography of Kusakabe Kimbei, approaching from the artist’s perspective while referencing his culture’s visual and traditional practices. The analysis attempts to construe visual material in its original context using various points of departure, including the sociocultural significance of the staged models, the visual display of the photographic models in relation to the visibility problem of Japanese women in Meiji visual media, and Kimbei’s visual encodings of Japanese femininity. By means of contextualized analysis, this survey seeks to illuminate the intricate structure of significations embedded on the visual plane, ultimately demonstrating how Kimbei’s female images present a locus of multilayered meanings.

"In the worldwide circulation of the products of cultural industries, an important role is played by Japanese popular culture in European contexts. Marco Pellitteri shows that the contact between Japanese pop culture and European youth publics occurred during two phases. By use of metaphor, the author calls them the Dragon and the Dazzle. The first took place between 1975 and 1995, the second from 1996 to today. They can be distinguished by the modalities of circulation and consumption/re-elaboration of Japanese themes and products in the most receptive countries: Italy, France, Spain, Germany and, across the ocean, the United States. During these two phases, several themes have been perceived, in Europe, as rising from Japan's social and mediatic systems. Among them, this book examines the most apparent from a European point of view: the author names them machine, infant, and mutation, visible mostly through manga, anime, videogames, and toys. Together with France, Italy is the European country that in this respect has had the most central role. There, Japanese imagination has been acknowledged not only by young people, but also by politicians, television programmers, the general public, educators, comics and cartoons authors. The growing influence of Japanese pop culture, connected to the appreciation of its manga, anime, toys, and videogames, also urges political and mediologic questions linked to the identity/ies of Japan as they are understood--wrongly or rightly--in Europe and the West, and to the increasingly important role of Japan in international relations."--Back cover