Puella Magi Madoka Magica KEY ANIMATION NOTE Vol.3 - review

Finally, here is my review of vol.3. of the Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Key Animation Note artbook series.  Both vol.3 and vol.4 were shipped sometime ago and were waiting for me to pick them up from Manami when I visited Japan in July.  So although, I already bought these artbooks, the un-boxing had to be delayed till they were actually in my possession. :)   It will be the same situation for vol.5 and vol.6 of this series of artbooks.  Both will be making their way to Manami and I will pick them up from her in the early part of September.

I think the format of these artbooks have been quite clearly established in the vol.1 (link to my review) and vol.2 (link to my review) releases.  Unlike the Production Note (link to my review), these Key Animation Note releases are a condensed version of each episode's "key animation" drawings.

Vol. 3 features Miki Sayaka and episodes 4-6 of the anime.



As with the previous releases, one of the extras packed with the artbook, is an graphical illustration printed on textured paper.

The other bonus item packed with this release is really kind of cool.  It's a notebook with different drawings printed on each page.  The binding of this notebook is reminiscent of the style of binding used in the Production Note.

This is no ordinary notebook and I doubt if anyone would want to use this notebook to write notes because when it is flipped, it acts like a flipbook animation.  It's really very cool and I even tried to shoot a video of it.  It's not terribly well flipped or well shot but I was holding my phone camera with one hand and trying to flip the notebook with my other hand so... yeah... it's less then ideal. :)

(hmmmm.... I may re-upload this to youtube... I forgot that the compression that Blogger uses is very unforgiving.)

The artbook itself is designed in a similar style as the previous artbooks.  It's very shiny and very reflective. When the cover is stretched out in full, it'll form an almost continuous picture of whichever character is featured for the release.

When the removal shiny cover is removed, there is a different illustration on the actual cover of the artbook itself.  This time, since the focus is on Sayaka, the drawing on the cover is of Sayaka..  The binding is pretty standard stuff.



The pages of the artbook also follow what has come previously.  There is a reverse silhouette of Sayaka and a pull-out illustration by Inu Curry.  The first few pages are the usual coloured illustrations with the accompanying line drawings and the rest of the artbook contains the key animations drawings used in the anime.



A very nice release for fans of the series.  If you're a Miki Sayaka fan and you don't wish to purchase all 6 volumes of this series, it is really worth considering picking just this volume up. :)

I got mine, as usual, from CDJapan and here is the link to direct product page. :)

Alrighty... it's time for me to go to bed.  Blogger hasn't been playing nice with me and it took me forever to upload these photos... the Lisani Vol.9 post will have to wait till tomorrow. :)



Oyasumi. :)