Angel Beats! Official Guide Book6 min read
Reading Time: 4 minutesI normally don’t purchase anime guide books, visual books, or anything with similar words in the title. Those kinds of collections tend to have less art and more screen shots and voice actor interviews. While it’s true, Angel Beats! Official Guide Book has all of those, it also has a ton of promotional art work from the series along with illustrations by the original character designer, Na-Ga.
Angel Beats! Official Guide Book is A4-size and 240 pages, making it one of the largest visual books I’ve seen. The collection starts with a double-sided fold-out poster featuring the new illustration of Tenshi from the cover, and Yui with the band on the other side. The first section of the guide book is Characters and runs from pages 8 to 34, with one or two pages introducing each character. The next section, Story, goes from page 36 to 63, and gives summaries of each episode along with cuts from the story boards for each episode.
The Gallery section runs from pages 68 to 149 and features full page and half page illustrations. The anime art works come from a variety of sources, like magazines, CD covers, DVDs, and calendars. There are even illustrations from promotional goods, like pillow covers and Pizza Hut wallpapers.
Angel Beats! art works by Na-Ga start on page 106 and continue through 123. They all feature one illustration per page. The Na-Ga illustrations with the BD and DVDs are also in this visual book along with others done for conventions over the past year.
Starting on page 124 are Angel Beats! art works by notable guest artists like Mebae, Fujima Takuya, Atsuya Uki, Naru Nanao, Tatsukichi, Keiji Gotoh, Zekkyou, Annindoufu, Jyuu Ayakura, Sino, Shaa, Mitha and many more.
The illustrations end at this point, but there is still a lot more content. From pages 152 to 164 are cross-talks with the voice actors. There’s one with Harumi Sakurai and Shun Takagi, another with Ryohei Kimura and Hiroshi Kamiya, and a third with Michael Rivas and Hana Kanazawa. There’s another interview section with Na-Ga, followed by the Sound section, which goes over the music in the show. There is also coverage of the Girls Dead Monster Starring LiSA. The last section is Design and focuses on the background art, instrument designs, and weapons.
The last 28 pages of Angel Beats! Official Guide Book feature the super deformed comics that ran in Dengeki G’s magazine from 2009 to 2010. Although I wouldn’t normally recommend a guide book, Angel Beats! Official Guide Book touches all the bases and still provides an art book’s worth of illustrations in this 240-page collection. It’s definitely a great purchase for any Angel Beats! fan.
Title: Angel Beats! Official Guide Book タイトル: Angel Beats! オフィシャルガイドブック Author: アスキー・メディアワークス Publication Date: 12/22/2010 Size: 240p NDL: https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/000011086796
