For my first review I’ve got Advent Children – Reunion Files (the artbook)
Price: US$32.99 (inc. Shipping) from YesAsia.com
Artist: Square Soft //Testuya Nomura
The book is slightly larger than A4, and has a grey-toned dustcover featuring the fallen angel Sephiroth. A shiny white and blue obi is placed on top of this. Under the dust cover is a metallic cover with Cloud’s symbol placed on it in white. When you open the book, you are greeted to a gorgeous dedication page, and then the index.
Now, you jump right into the art.
Page after page of gorgeous artwork, coupled with detailed information on all of the main characters – it’s riddled with quotes from the voice actors; their thoughts on the job, how they thought they performed. It also features reactions from the director (Nomura) and various anecdotes from Kazushige Nojima (writer) detailing us on how he developed the storyline for the characters.
After the character profiles you are greeted with the “Count down to Reunion” section of the book, which features production sketches, and a section, and initial production designs – this is all accompanied with commentary by Shinji Hashimoto (producer), Nomura, Nojima, Nozoe (co-director), Takayuki Takeya ( Creature design), and various others from the production team.
We are then treated with a low-down of the “Last Order” which was a short anime released with the Japanese version of the DVD, and also an introduction to the new game FFVII game “Before Crisis” and “Dirge of Cerberus”. After this, there are around 2-3 pages on various Advent Children products – figures and such.
The very last section of the book is the “Story Digest” which is absolutely gorgeous. It’s full of colour and well-placed quotes that retells the events of Advent Children with stills and image captures. It’s another take on the movie, but you don’t have to press pause to admire the art.
What I love about this book is that it’s in English as well as Japanese. It’s in fluent English – not the strangely translated variety. There is quite a bit of text, but all of it is interesting. It does not in any way get in the way of the illustrations; in fact, the quotes are placed in such a way that it brings you to reminiscing about that scene in the film. The book is presented in high-quality glossy paper that really brings to life the renders. My only complaint is that sometimes, the layout of the text boxes makes the book seem cluttered.
I highly recommend this book for any FFVII fan – or fan of stunning visual 3D art. It is absolutely gorgeous.
Rating 4.5/5 Stars
