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Macross Chronicle Issue 1 of 50
(Series Published from 2008-2010)
Macross Chronicle is not one book but a 50-issue series in which each issue contains loose-leaf style sheets inside a thin folder. The first issue contains 20 pages and each issue is divided into specialty sheets titled Mechanic Sheet, Character Sheet, Timeline Sheet, World Guide Sheet, History Sheet, Technology Sheet, Gallery Sheet, Song Sheet, Goods Sheet and four other miscellaneous sheets named Glossary, Tribute, Making and Extra Sheets. Each issue is made to fit inside a Macross Chronicle binder (sold seperately) which features dividers for the 7 categories; Mechanic, Character, Timeline, History, Technology, World Guide and Special. The Macross Chronicle is definitely a multi-issue fan book and is not a replacement for mechanical art books, since most mechanical sections of the Chronicle do not feature an exhaustive collection of line art. However, the Chronicles is a fine compiled work and it is the only book to come out in many years that features full color line art of the Macross Mecha. The Macross Chronicle was initially published from 2008 to 2010 with a total of 50 issues.
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Macross Perfect Memory
(Published 1984 and 1986)
Macross Perfect Memory is a very large volume (260 pages) with dust cover and a poster of the SDF-1 Macross in space. This is the Macross book to have for any fan of the animated television series Super Dimension Fortress Macross. There is an enormous amount of line art including character pages, valkyries, zentradi vehicles, spacecraft, locations, interiors and even small drawings of almost everything in the series. The book also contains plenty of screen pictures from each episode, concept work for the series, many pictures/paintings for the show and a short story (The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: The U.N. Wars - The Plundering Fleet).
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Macross The Movie
(Published 1984 and 1992)
Macross The Movie is a very large volume (404 pages) with dust cover, cardboard slipcase, a film strip and a poster schematic of the VF-1 Strike Valkyrie. If you are a fan of the 1984 Macross The Movie: Do You Remember Love?, this book is an absolute must to own. There is an exhaustive section of line art including characters, valkyries, zentradi vehicles, spacecraft, locations, interiors and miscellaneous drawings. The book also features a large section of screen pictures from the film, pictures of background paintings and some other artwork. This book is known among fans as "The Gold Book" for obvious reasons.
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This Is Animation Special Macross Plus
(Published 1995)
This Is Animation Special Macross Plus is a small volume (98 pages) with a dust cover. The book covers the four episodes of the Macross Plus OVA and features line art and screen pictures from the anime. You can't go wrong with this book for Macross Plus artwork, but this book includes material beyond Macross Plus. It contains a series of newly drafted fighter mode schematics of the VF-1A/D/J/S (including Super and Strike variants), the VT-1 (w/t FAST Packs), the VF-4, the VF-11B (w/t FAST Packs), the VF-17D/T, the YF-19, the YF-21 and the VF-5000. The book also reprints a large amount of VF-1 line art along with the odd piece of redrawn artwork (GBP-1S Armored Valkyrie missiles and the GU-11 Gun Pod) and new artwork (VF-1 detailed cockpit panel and VF-1 fighter cross-section drawing). The last section of the book also contains over a dozen pages of full color variable fighter squadron colors. This is an indispensable book for those that love the Valkyries of Macross.
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This Is Animation The Select Macross Plus Movie Edition
(Published 1995)
This Is Animation The Select Macross Plus Movie Edition is a small volume (98 pages) with a dust cover. The book features line art and screen pictures from the Macross Plus Movie Edition. The material within this book is much more tightly focused on Macross Plus and includes more line art not seen in the OVA book. It also features what appears to be a diary of Shoji Kawamori as he travels to the USA for research. It includes full color photographs of the real world aircraft that inspired many of the Valkyrie designs and also includes interviews. This book uses better quality paper than the OVA book and has better quality screen pictures. This book is definitely worth buying if you're a Macross Plus fan.
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Shoji Kawamori Macross Design Works
(Published 2001)
Shoji Kawamori MACROSS Design Works is a large volume (207 pages) with a dust cover. The book includes all Shoji Kawamori's Valkyrie line art from the Macross anime television series, movies and video games. This book is an absolute dream for those that love Kawamori line art of the Macross Valkyries and contains so much material it will give you new found respect for Kawamori's Macross creations of the last 20+ years. The book also contains a significant portion of line art never published before. This book has only a single problem; it should have been larger, preferably in dimensions like Kawamori's later Design Works book. Some of the artwork is small and the publishers occasionally include too much material on a single page. But this book gets almost everything else right and is a fantastic compilation. Also noteworthy is the fact this modern publication reproduces the line art faithfully while avoiding any digitization.
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Shoji Kawamori Design Works
(Published 2006)
Shoji Kawamori Design Works is a large volume (207 pages) with a reflective dust cover. This book includes examples of Shoji Kawamori's art from Gundam, Patlabor and Ghost in the Shell to much more extensive work on series like Eureka Seven, Aquarion and Armored Core. The book is printed on high quality paper and includes plenty of material, but the picture quality ranges from good to poor. A significant amount of the line art is actually scanned rather than printed. The result produces digitized versions of the original line art with small but noticeable pixels. Some pictures are so poor you can even see jpeg artifacts from the low quality file compression, printed right on the page! If you adore the work of Kawamori beyond Macross, this book is for you. Macross fans are likely to find interest only in the small amount of Macross Zero line art present, since Macross Zero is without a dedicated art book (for shame, Big West!). I hope digitization is not the preferred method of the future for Japanese anime art books because line art in print does not render itself well to low quality digitization.
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Tenjin Hidetaka Artworks Of Macross Valkyries
(Published 2005)
Tenjin Hidetaka Art Works of Macross Valkyries is a large volume (127 pages) with a dust jacket in a wide format. Contained within are large, mostly full page pictures of Tenjin Hidetaka's CG paintings of various Macross Valkyrie variable fighters. The quality of this book is exceptional and each picture is full of detail in sharp print and vibrant colors. The book contains only CG paintings and no line art. Many Macross fans who have seen the art of Tenjin Hidetaka on plastic model boxes or other book covers can now enjoy these pictures in a collected, dedicated volume. The book also features a small amount of new work specifically created for this book as well as some behind the scenes art for Macross Zero. If you are a fan of Macross and a fan of art, the only question you should be asking yourself is why you don't own this book.
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Cowboy Bebop The After
(Published 1999)
Cowboy Bebop The After is a small volume (96 pages) with a dust cover. This book is composed of nine sections: characters with full-page color pictures of each, episode guide with synopsis color pictures, music section with track listings for the soundtracks, a short guide detailing inspirations and homages for the show, a small guide to all the fictional aspects of the Bebop universe, interviews with creative staff, gallery of color artwork, merchandising and a small section of line art. This is a great book for covering basically everything in the series, but aside from some great color art the book doesn’t cover any one thing all that well. Some sections are small and the line art section mostly consists of really small drawings. Still, this book is a good find if lacking the larger more dedicated art books for this series.
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The Art Of Nausicaa
(Published 1984 and 2001)
The Art of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind is a large volume (192 pages) with a dust cover. The book covers everything from the 1984 film adaptation by Studio Ghibli. It features hundreds of quality color pictures, concept artwork, line art and full-page paintings. This book is by far mostly artwork with very little text, but it does feature what I believe may be notes or an interview in the back of the book (some 13 pages). This high quality volume is the ultimate visual guide to the Nausicaa film.
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