Makoto Shinkai’s First Artbook Coming Soon This April

Posted on April 5th, 2008 by Xcomp

I’m sure anyone who has watched Makoto Shinkai’s works such as his recent “5 Centimetres per Second” will agree the backgrounds he manages to create are stunningly beautiful. Well, the good news is if you want to own a hard copy of all those backgrounds, you’ll soon be able to.

According to this advert that Daike-san spotted, Kodansha will be publishing Makoto Shinkai’s first official artbook “Makoto Shinkai Bijutsu Gashuu: Sora no Kioku” which is also given the English name of “The Sky for the Longing of Memorys”. Yes, I know… “Longing for the Memories of the Sky” or the direct translation, “Memories of the Sky” is probably what they’re after.

Anyway, the B5 sized book will be selling for 2800 Yen (US$27) on April 25th 2008 and contain 427 backgrounds taken from his movies “Voices of a Distant Star”, “The Place Promised in Our Early Days”, “5 Centimetres per Second” and even the ones used for the Shinano Daily Newspaper commercial “Conveying Those Important Things“. It will also contain information about Shinkai’s working environment and how such pieces of art are born.

Look out for it on the usual import sites such as YesAsia and Play-Asia! I’ll be getting it myself if I can but with Wii Fit and the Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0 LE DVD coming up on the same day, it’s going to tough on the wallet.

An ad for Makoto Shinkai’s Artbook.

Filed under: 5 Centimeters per Second, Anime
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5 Responses to “Makoto Shinkai’s First Artbook Coming Soon This April”

  1. Maltos, on April 6th, 2008 at 9:44 pm Said:

    Before i comment i’d just like to say i really appreciate all the posts you’ve done on Shinkai’s work. It’s really helped me learn more about 5CM and i look forward to any future works you may cover.

    Anyway~ I’m really looking forward to this book. His amazing art something that attracts me to his works and this book is a dream come true. I just hope you post some link when it’s available to buy or pre-order from one of the import site you mentioned; of course i’ll be checking regularly too.

    Once again thanks for your amazing blog~ it’s inspired me to start my own and i hope to read more brilliant and informative posts in the future!

    ~Maltos

  2. Xcomp, on April 7th, 2008 at 7:37 pm Said:

    Very unlikely Play-Asia will stock it TBH but you never know… YesAsia will probably have it but judging by their other “unpopular” products, it will be much later than the official release date so, maybe I can find some other import site before then. You could order it off Amazon JP but it’s going to cost a small fortune…

    Anyway, I’ll be sure to link to the site I order from because quite a lot of people seem interested!

  3. Maltos, on April 8th, 2008 at 5:45 pm Said:

    http://www.hmv.co.jp/product/detail/2702539
    HMV japan has it available for pre-order~ the site is also in english and they ship overseas.

    It’s just the custom charges here in the UK. I’ve never ordered anything from Japan before so i have no idea how much it would come to included customs.

  4. Xcomp, on April 8th, 2008 at 7:24 pm Said:

    Nice find! I might order from them if it doesn’t appear on my usual import sites first.

    Customs will only charge you for electronics and other media such as DVDs. They won’t charge you for books so don’t worry.

  5. Maltos, on April 9th, 2008 at 12:28 am Said:

    Thanks for the info! I’ll definately be ordering if it doesn’t appear on play-asia or yesasia.

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