Puella Magi Madoka Magica KEY ANIMATION NOTE Vol.4 - review

Looks like I'll be moving on to another project starting tomorrow and I was told during the briefing today that we might be looking at some late nights and weekend work.  I'm okay with that but I thought I should try put up at least one more of the Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Key Animation Note reviews before I run out of time.

It's taken a while but here is vol4. :)

As has been the case with the vol 1, vol 2 and vol 3 releases, this comes with the illustrated card and a bonus item.



The bonus item on this occasion are the storyboards for the OP/ED of the anime.  Several replicas of some of the key cells used in the OP were already included in vol.1 of this release.  This is the storyboard of OP, hence, the drawings in this will naturally not be that pretty.  But for those who studied animation or those who studied film/t.v. or those who are in the industry, this is quite a neat bonus item.  Who draws up these stroryboards depend on the structure of each company, the industry, what the final product is etc.  I've had to do them before and I completely suck at them but for my company's purposes, my stick figures wit poor proportions and lack of perspective drawing was good enough. :)  So yeah... I like these storyboards mostly because I appreciate them. :)




These bonus item is nice.  It doesn't feel cheap at all.  The cover has a nice texture to it and the paper quality is pretty good.



The OP and ED storyboards are differentiated by the color of the paper.  The above are sample pages.



This volume features Kyoko Sakura and ep7-9 of the anime.  The dust cover is nice and shiny as usual and has a nice illustration of Kyoko Sakura that stretches all the way across when the dust cover is laid out entirely.

The drawing on the actual book cover is yet another nice illustration of Kyoko Sakura and the binding is the standard binding.

Below are more sample pages from vol.4.  You have the silhouette of the featured character in white.  Then an pull out illustration, key visuals and sample cells.



That's it for this release.  It a really nice release and I've so far been very happy with the Key Animation Note series of releases.  While I still think that the Production Note is a better buy for most fans of this anime, for those of us more devoted fans and for those who have studied animation, these Key Animation Notes are worth considering.

For those who wish to get this art book.  Here is the direct link to the product page on CDJapan where I got it from. :)

K... it's super late now... I need to sleep. :)

Good night!!! :)