As promised to someone who left a message on the blog, I'll be doing this "unboxing" first. :)
This is the Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] Background Art Book which was a book I did not wait to order at all. I actually rather like background art and I often like it more than the character design actually which is probably a little unusual. Most anime fans probably prefer character design, even if they really liked background art, they still tend to prefer character design.
I'm not sure how many background art books ufortable has released. I only know of one previous release. Theatrical Anime Kara no Kyokai Art Works was released in October 2014. And it is to my eternal regret that I hesitated about when would be a good time for me to order this release. It sold out pretty fast and that was it. I kept hopping for an extra print run but that never happened. :( Now, you can only find 2nd hand copies and they are mostly selling at some really ridiculous price. Way, way out of my reach. :(
Kara no Kyoukai still remains my favourite work from ufotable. I loved the story, the way it was told, the characters, the background art etc. And then there was also the music. It was from KnK that I fell so deeply in love with Kajiura Yuki's music that there was no turning back for me. It was also KnK that gave us Kalafina. So KnK is a really special anime to me. For me to miss out on getting the KnK book due to indecision on my part made the decision to buy FSN [UBW] Background Art Book a very easy one. I didn't hesitate at all. :P
Anyway... photos first. :)
To try and give you an idea of the dimensions of the book, I placed two Kalafina CDs next to it. As you can tell, it's not a very big book but it's good enough for me. :)
These are photos of the dust jacket with and without the obi strip. This isn't a hard cover release and the dust jacket is matte and not glossy.
Here are photos of the book itself, without the dust jacket and obi stripe. I also shot a photo of the binding. Nothing fancy. It's a pretty standard paper back binding
The illustrations are slightly glossy but not too glossy. The artwork is split up into three parts with the first part taking up the bulk of the 168 pages in the book. There is not a lot of text. Mostly just about a half page of text to introduce each section. There is also a three page cross talk between the Art Director Eto Koni and ufotable representative Kondo Hikaru. Then there is a credit page and that's about all the text that we have in this release.
I'm pretty happy with this purchase and have already pre-ordered their next release which would be the background art work for Fate/Zero. This is the announce for the Fate/Zero Background Art Works book.
If you're thinking about ordering these books, don't take too long about it. The FSN [UBW] book was OOP for a while and I suspect this is the second print run that they're selling now. So you can still get it at the retail price. I'm not sure if they have extra print runs after this. They didn't for the Kara no Kyoukai release.
I usually get mine from CDJapan and the links I've given above are all to CDJapan's product pages but you can get them from Amazon JP and several other online places too if you like.
Okay, that's it from me. :) I'm off to bed. :) Good night. :)
6 comments:
Thank you so much for you the unboxing and your impressions. Really appreciate it. Went ahead and placed my order for both books. I still regret missing the KnK book too myself. Thanks again!
You are welcome. I'm glad it came in useful. :) I still look at listings of the KnK book on Amazon Marketplace and sigh with regret. :P
Hi!
Just came across your blog and while going through the archives I came across this post. Just letting you know I actually got in the Kara no Kyoukai background artbook last month and did a blog post on it with lots of photos. You can find it on my blog if you wanna check it out from my username.
I too had been waiting to order that artbook when I first found out about it, but always put it on the backburner for other anime stuff I wanted to get, although I found a few used copies on Mandarake for about 10,000 yen, but they were all bought before I could buy it! It wasn't until I found one seller on Yahoo Japan Auctions selling it brand new with a limited exclusive postcard signed by one of the art directors that made me decide to finally buy it (albeit for a very expensive price! 25,000 yen).
These background artbooks from ufotable seem to be really high quality and great additions for artbook collectors though. Never realised how expensive the Kara no Kyoukai ones on Amazon Japan are selling for however! I would suggest you keep an eye for it on Mandarake as it might pop up from time to time again for a more cheaper price. :)
OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you sooooooooooooooooooo much for leaving me a comment on how I could possibly get my hands on the KnK artbook.
I will take a look at Mandarake too. I didn't even know they had a website that lists used stuff. I will go keep an eye out from now on. That's really cool that you got one brand new and with a limited exclusive postcard too!
Yeah, the artbooks are pretty nice and I just received my ufotable Fate/Zero background artbook last week. I was thinking of doing an unboxing sometime this week. I haven't picked up too many artbooks because I keep spending a large part of my spending money by going to Japan to watch Kalafina & Kajiura Yuki lives. :P Which is partially why I hesitated on that KnK one and thought I could pick it up another time. :'( Alas.... no extra print run.
I did check out your photos. Thanks!!! They look lovely. Ahhhhh.... I want this artbook so much now. :P
BTW....I see that you've quite a few Ryougi Shiki figures. Did you pre-order the Aniplex+ release of KnK 3D Fukan Fukei BD that comes with the Ryougi Shiki figure. I pre-ordered it already. Hoping it will go through okay because I had to change my credit card in between when I pre-ordered till now. Fingers crossed. :)
Yeah, I pre-ordered that figure on ANIPLEX+ Japan's site last year but the figure won't come with the 3D blu-ray of the first film though, it was originally planned to be bundled with it but then Aniplex decided to sell them separately. I've also put in a pre-order for that 3D blu-ray through a proxy on Ufotable's web shop since Ufotable doesn't ship internationally or accept credit card payments. Reason why I pre-ordered from them is because only their store listing will come with a deluxe artbook with the blu-ray as well as a DVD of the Fate/ZERO Cafe opening short.
If you've changed your credit card details since putting in your pre-order, I would suggest you try and update your credit card details from where you pre-ordered it from otherwise your order might get cancelled or delayed if they cannot charge your card when it comes time to ship the item.
Ahhhh.... I didn't even realise it when I pre-ordered it that it's no longer bundled with the 3D BD of the first film. LOL!! Well, this is fine for me too because I didn't want the 3d version of the film. I don't have any means of watching it anyway and I already own the DVD of it. I ordered it for the Shiki figure. :)
I have wanted to order many things from the ufotable web store before but no CC payments makes it difficult. :( The deluxe artbook sounds so nice to own. Too bad. :(
Thanks, I think you're right, I should update my CC details with them. But I think I will need to write in. I tried to change it last night but they only allowed me to change my address and shipping timings but I couldn't update payment. :(
But you're right, I should write to them.
When your stuff comes, if you do take photos of that deluxe artbook, if you remember, please drop me a line. I would love to check out that post. :)
Thanks!!
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