西又葵です。
As a somewhat rabid fan of the illustrator Nishimata Aoi, I follow her blog quite regularly. I should note that when I say “follow”, I mean “look at the pictures.” I do have some Japanese under my belt, but not enough to casually look down at some text and extract substance from it. As such, I kept thinking that this book she’s been pimping over the past couple of months was an art book, but it turns out I’m terribly wrong! According to Our Man Zepy down at Canned Dogs, the book–entitled Nishimata Aoi Desu。–is actually a book of essays by the woman, and seems to be something of an autobiography. Since there’s about 30 pages of illustrations, I’ll still buy it, but I won’t be able to get much more out of it until I get my JLPT1 in the far-off year of 2071.
The main point of interest here is Nishimata’s opinions on her own work (which can be found in the Canned Dogs link.) As a big fan of her’s, I do agree with her analysis. I really like her work, but at the same time I think there is room for improvement. I’m glad she acknowledges this, but at the same time it doesn’t look as if she has much desire to push forward. I think for her it’s simply a matter of throwing together more dynamic poses, and adding a hint of variety to her character design. That said, she has really improved a lot over the years.
I always get the feeling that Nishimata Aoi perfected one style of drawing not to make pretty pictures, but to play dress-up with her characters. Not unlike dolls, she just changes some individual characteristics like clothes or hair, then renders the picture. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Her style is very consistent, which is worthy of praise, but it always seemed a bit boring for me. Not to mention that even if it is well polished, I really dislike her character design style.
I’ve never heard of a Japanese artist who doesn’t say how much they think they should improve. I always chalk it down to good ol’ Japanese modesty.
Actually, I think you’d be able to read it pretty fluently with a good JLPT lv2. Reference: Friend with JLPT lv2 reading Kara no Kyoukai and playing H games.
Isn’t she a stamp craftswoman?
If your only after the illustrations, they’ll probably appear on Perfect Dark a week or so after the book comes out. It seems like kind of a waste to buy a whole book of essays just for 30 pages or so. Even if it is only $18, shipping is gonna be murderous.
I’m planning on buying it when I’m in Japan.
>>Actually, I think you’d be able to read it pretty fluently with a good JLPT lv2.
Ok so only 2050 then