132
pages, Walsworth Publishing Co., ISBN-13: 978-0898654172
Before
the days of online forums for fan art such as Deviantart and Reddit, books like
this were a delight, especially for those of us who felt isolated in the
Robotech and anime fan community. But Walsworth Publishing Co. was rather overwhelmed
by the popularity of Robotech Art 1: The
Official Guide to the Robotech Universe (see below), and so Robotech Art 2: New Illustrations &
Original Art from The Robotech Universe was published almost as an afterthought
in order to capture some more consumer dollars before the popularity of
Robotech began to wane – which in a way is odd, for of all of the Robotech Art books, it is this one that
has the most “art” within: Robotech Art 1
is an episodic overview of the original series, along with an introduction
to the world of anime, while Robotech Art
3 is an overview of the failed Sentinels series along with a long,
informative essay on the business-end of the Sentinels production. Robotech Art 2, however, concentrates on
fan art, and the results (as might be expected) are highly varied – there are
some excellent artists represented (many of whom are professionals in the comic
book industry) along with many rather amateurish works. The book also contains
reprints of various cells, background paintings, character sketches, and
paintings by character designer Haruhiko Mikimoto, one of the top anime character
designers of the 80s; however, most of this work is available elsewhere.
Finally, there is a short essay on robots in Japanese culture by Frederik L.
Schodt, an American translator, interpreter and writer which, while
informative, seems out of place in this particular volume.
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