Today, we’re throwing the spotlight on Stella – a hardbound artbook featuring the work of ARIA manga author and illustrator Amano Kozue.

CONTENTS

Note to readers: Click on the images to enlarge. Requests for larger, high-quality reproductions/scans will not be entertained. If these low-quality samples succeed in piquing your interest, please support Amano-sensei and the publishers by purchasing the artbook.

Stella‘s first course consists of scenes set in the world of Amano-sensei’s popular manga series ARIA. There are sixteen pages of art in this section, several of which are shown below.

The rest of the book features artwork prepared for Amano-sensei’s other manga series. We are served sixteen pages from Roman Club . . .

. . . followed by a whopping 34 pages of art from Crescent Noise . . .

. . . and eight pages from various other works.

Amano-sensei’s visual feast concludes with a rich dessert: fourteen pages from ARIA‘s prequel, AQUA.

MY THOUGHTS

Neo-Venezia is clearly meant to be the star of the show. The book opens with art from ARIA, ends with art from AQUA, features art from AQUA on its covers and bears a title that fits comfortably into the quasi-Italian world of these series. In terms of quantity, however, Neo-Venezia plays second fiddle to the less well-known series Crescent Noise, which claims 34 pages for itself in this book (versus just thirty for ARIA and AQUA combined). A little disappointing, but then again the book’s sub-title reads “KOZUE AMANO Illustration Works II” – not “KOZUE AMANO Aria Illustrations (plus a few extras)” – so I can’t really complain.

There are few – if any – discernible stylistic differences between the art featured in Alpha and the works collected in Stella, so I’ll simply quote what I said in my review of the first volume:

Like the manga series and its anime adaptation, the art of ARIA and AQUA seems to have been designed specifically to induce a sense of calm refreshment on the part of the viewer. Amano-sensei’s style favours a soft palette – mainly in shades of blue and green, the colours of the sea – and a masterful use of shading to create vistas that are both strikingly beautiful and remarkably easy on the eyes. Human figures are usually drawn in poses that suggest not action, but relaxation: sitting serenely on the edge of a canal with the sea lapping at their feet; perched on a high spot gazing up at the azure sky, with the ocean’s gently rippled surface spreading out underneath; walking in an open arcade at sunset within sight of the sea-green harbour. It’s enough to make one want to lie in bed and sleep peacefully through the afternoon, or even fly straight to Venice itself and experience the joy of leaning back in a gondola borne upon the calm waters of the Venetian lagoon. (I wouldn’t recommend dangling one’s feet in the waters of the real Venice, though. The crystal-clear seas of Amano-sensei’s Neo-Venezia are a pleasant fantasy that its real-life counterpart on Manhome can only wish for.)

The other manga series represented in Alpha call for similar character designs, but a markedly different style of art execution: less depth, a simpler scheme, a palette with fewer pastels and more primary hues. I was not as impressed with these earlier works as I was with the art prepared for ARIA and AQUA, though I imagine fans of Amano-sensei’s other series will find something to their liking in these sections.

Like its predecessor, Alpha, this hardbound artbook comes in a transparent plastic slipcase – a feature I’d like to see on more artbooks, mainly for the added protection it gives. In this case, the title of the artbook and the standard back cover details (price, barcode, etc.) are printed on the slipcase, which leaves the covers of the book itself mostly unmarred by text.

AVAILABILITY, COST, ETC.

Stella was first released in 2005, but a reprint was issued in 2008 so availability shouldn’t be a major concern.

Here are the acquisition details for my copy (mostly from the original sales receipt):

Place acquired: Animate, Akihabara (Tokyo) branch
Date and time acquired: 26 March 2009, 8:46 PM
Acquisition cost: 3,130 yen (including tax)

In addition to Animate, I remember seeing all three Amano Kozue artbooks in the Akihabara branch of Comic Toranoana (artbook section, ground floor of the doujin wing). AsoBitCity, Mandarake and other stores – including major bookshops – should also have copies on stock, but I can’t attest to that personally.

If you’re based outside Japan, consider ordering the book from an online retailer. Amazon Japan, for one, is selling Stella at the prevailing Akiba street price and will ship internationally, although the shipping costs can be ruinous: from 2,200 yen (including the per-item handling charge) for Asia to 4,700 yen – which exceeds the price of the book itself! – for South America. As always, poke around for the best deal (list price and postage) before buying.

THE LAST WORD

Must buy. Even though there are less of them here than in the first volume, the beautiful illustrations in the ARIA and AQUA sections alone are worth the price of the book.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 14th, 2009 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Anime, Manga, Reviews.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.