[EVA] [review] Groundwork of Eva: The Movie 1 [spoilers for EoE] and FLCL Design works

[e]

Here's a couple of GAiNAX related book
reviews/descriptions:

Groundwork of Evangelion: The Movie 1
(Shin Seiki Evangelion Gekijoban Genga Shu)
Published by GAiNAX
No ISBN, but tashi number on the back is
4-984841-015934
364 pages, 28 in colour
Price 3 500 yen (excluding tax)

This is the thickest Groundwork book yet, and feels
pretty hefty in the hand.  This book deals with the
genga for Death and Air.  The format of the book is
the same as with the previous Groundwork books.  The
jacket cover is pencil work of Asuka this time.  Under
the cover is another line-art work of Asuka, half
naked on the hospital bed.

As with the previous books, the first section is made
up of colour works, this time mainly posters, R2 DVD
artwork and artwork from the 3 volumes of the
Evangelion Original script books.  Again, there's then
a one page forward by Anno (in Japanese only, of
course).

On to the genga.  Of the remaining roughly 330 pages,
scenes from Death take up only about 20 pages, mainly
revised scenes such the train station scene between
Shinji and Misato after Shinji runs away.  The focus
in this case is the revised scene from episode 6 when
Shinji open's Rei's entry plug manually after the 5th
Angel has been defeated.

The rest of the book are taken from Air.  It's fitting
that Asuka's on the front cover of this volume because
roughly 210 of the pages in the book are then taken up
with Asuka's battle with the MP Evangelion units. 
Other scenes getting significant coverage are Asuka in
hospital, Misato saving Shinji from the JSSDF
soldiers, Misato's death/kiss scene (roughly 20
pages), Ritsuko's death (8 pages).

There's of course nothing really new in this book, but
the pictures are often relatively large, allowing the
detail of the artwork to be observed.  The progression
of cels for various scenes of animation are also
depicted (although of course in much smaller
pictures).

If you're looking for artwork (albeit pencil artwork)
from the movie, this book is highly recommended.  This
is my favourite of the Groundwork books which has been
released this far.

The concluding volume is due out in December 2001.


FLCL Design Works/FLCLSM
Published by Kadokawa Shoten
ISBN 4-04-853208-1
120 pages, 55 in colour
Price 3 100 yen (excluding tax)

There appear to be 2 titles for this book: "FLCL
Design Works" and "FLCLSM".  The "SM" may perhaps be a
reference to "zoom", there being some zoom photos by
Ninagawa Mika in the artbook.

Whereas the Groundwork of FLCL book was a bit over 200
A4 pages, this work is actually 2 books - an "art"
book and a "text" book - each 60 pages in length,
about 2/3rds the size of a A4 page.  There's only one
bright plastic cover for the two books, which wraps
around the front of the art book and the back of the
text book.

The art book is somewhat strange mix of photographs by
photographer Ninagawa Mika, background artwork from
the anime, photos of scenes from the anime (where the
lines of resolution on the TV are clear), artwork
published in Animage and Newtype, colour rough
character designs, artwork from the R2 DVD boxes and 
posters.  The last was also reproduced in the
Groundwork of FLCL book, but generally in a larger A4
size in that book.  In this art book, there's one
picture per page and most of the pages are in colour. 
I'm not sure what to make of the photos by Ninagawa,
which at times don't appear to have much connection
with FLCL other than associations of shapes or colours
to particular scenes.

The text book is entirely in black and white and
comprised of line design work and commentary.  First
up, the 6 episodes are dealt with separately, with
there being 3 pages of linework and 1 page of
commentary for each episode.  The format of the book
is then basically as follows:
- 2 pages with 100 short (one line) questions and
answers with director Tsurumaki.
- 4 pages of early rough sketches and notes
- 6 pages of answers by roughly 40 main staff to 10
questions.
- 6 pages of more early designs and commentary
- 2 pages of production data for the 6 epsiodes
- 4 pages of an interview between Imaishi Hiroyuki
(who had various roles in the series, including some
directing and storyboarding) and Koike Takeshi of the
company Madhouse

Although I can't speak Japanese, the staff answers to
10 questions seem interesting.  Question 1 is (I
think): "Once and for all, what is FLCL?".  Some of
the responses (from what I can tell) are:
- Frisbee Christmas
- Frisky Crispy
- Freestyle Clint Eastwood
- Free Creation
- W Freidkin Christopher Walken
- Frying Creeman? (suggested by Sadamoto) [I'm not
sure about this response in particular; it's the best
I can make out of the katakana]

While there's a substantial amount of text in the text
book and all that text is in Japanese, I find that I
prefer this book FLCL Design Works by Kadokawa Shoten
to GAiNAX's Groundwork of FLCL (which I found a bit
disappointing).

E


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