Puella Magi Madoka Magica KEY ANIMATION NOTE Vol.2 - review

Returned home pretty late again today so will have to try and speed through this.  My Kalafina "to the beginning" singles have shipped and I would probably get them sometime this week. Yay!! :)  Before that happens, I would really like to get a few planned posts done.  This is one of them.  So... here we go. :)


The front and back cover still in their shrink wrap.



When you put the scans of the front and the back cover side by side, they almost make one continuous visual. This was also a feature of Vol.1 and I think will be the standard for all volumes.


I think I've managed to show you how shiny the book cover is.  Even Donkey Kong approves. :D



The above are the photos of the bonus items.  It comes with some kind of cardboard printing of some of a drawing of some of the witches.  I had mistakenly thought it was a mouse-pad in my review of Vol.1 because I did not remove it from it's shrink wrapping.  This time, I took a closer look at both cards and they aren't mouse-pads.  They are drawings of the witches printed on textured paper.

The envelope contains 4 sheets of drawings.  One of them is designed for the Vol.2 Animation Note and the others I think maybe replicas of some of  the actual drawings from the artwork for the anime.  They all follow the idea behind the Key Animation Note series and all 4 sheets have the "registration holes" printed on them.  I kind of like this bonus item.  I think they were trying to replicate what an actual envelope containing the artwork for the anime would look like and I think that's kind of cool. :)


(i just noticed this morning that i used the wrong photos for the white book cover and tomoe mami is out of focus... will fix that later tonight... need to go to work now)

A shiny book cover's side sleeve has a drawing of Tomoe Mami's soul gem.  I thought that was a nice touch.  Also, once the shiny book cover comes off, you'll see that this time it's Tomoe Mami who graces the cover of the book itself. I shows up better than Kyubey did on Vol.1.

Vol.2 of the Key Animation Note series covers episodes 1-3 of the anime and focus on Tomoe Mami.  I expect that the next few volumes will follow this kind of design for each of the remaining magical girls.

The binding is like Vol.1's binding. It's a pretty standard type of binding and will almost certainly remain a feature of the rest of this 6 volume release.


The above are sample pages from the artbook itself.  And one of the reasons why I think this is a nicer release than Vol.1, is because there are several full coloured pictures of the witches and the witches world in this release.  I also like how they show the initial sketches next to the final full coloured versions. Also, I personally think that there seems to be more dynamic drawings detailing the different expressions and poses of some of the characters in some of the scenes and I liked more.


Finally, here are the 2 volumes side by side. Vol.2 is thicker than Vol.1 but other than that, the other dimensions remain the same.

Okay... I really need to go to now.   I'll be ordering vol.3 and vol.4 tonight before I head to bed.  Also, I'll be bundling them together, I won't be doing vol.3's review till a month after it's release.  I considered shipping them separately but it just didn't make economical sense and didn't fit that well into my monthly budget.  So... I'll just have to wait.  :(

For those who are interested... I'm getting these artbooks from CD Japan and here is the quick and easy link to the 6 volumes if you should decide to get them too.... click me.

K... that's it for now... good night. :)