The Art of Spirited Away

Although I am not a big anime fan in general, I am a huge fan of Miyazaki Hayao's work. The highlight of his movies and comic books is usually the story itself, but in the case of Spirited Away, I think it would be fair to say that the sheer beauty and imagination of the film is just as amazing as the story itself.For me, Spirited Away was by far the first, and to date only, animated movie that I could call visually stunning. The viewer, be he or she 5, 25, or 65 is as drawn into Miyazaki's world as the protagonist Chihiro is. This book allows you to revisit the movie through its art. Full of concept sketches, character designs, and backgrounds from the movie, this book also includes an introduction by Miyazaki himself as well as frequent commentary by the artists that worked on this film and even an explanation of some of the technology that helped make this such a visually appealing film. The book's price may seem a bit steep, but at around 250 full color, high quality pages I felt I more than got my money's worth.There has been talk of Miyazaki retiring, but I hope this is not the case. With Spirited Away gaining such popular and critical acclaim in the United States, I hope he continues to work his magic for years to come, continuing to make his impression left not only on Japan, but to the global audience. With the increase in animation technology and the continuing strength of Miyazaki's imagination and storytelling power, it seems that the best is yet to come.

I love this movie and the book captures that beauty. It has screenshots from the movie that make you appreciate how much effort went into it. Normally, when you watch a movie, the images go too fast to really appreciate them. But this book lets you take the time and look at all of the details that the artists put into it. I also enjoy the line art of the animations that the book has. The only thing that I wish this book had was more behind the scenes in how they created the movie. It would've really opened my eyes to the amount of effort that occurs during production.

Truly a great collection, it was a great source of inspiration and reference for a student to look through!

Beautifully sketches. Beautiful color designs. Like for example the different colors tones during the day, dawn and night over the town.

This is my favorite movie,and reading the process behind the movie! I love those book,its a great look at the process and what inspired the characters! Love this book

This is a gorgeous art book, filled with plenty of lovely images and stunning watercolor paintings.

This is a beautifully illustrated book, containing image stills from the movie, concept art, story boards, CGI work, and lots of interesting facts from the studio itself. This version is in English. As an artist, looking through art books gives me incredible motivation to create my own artwork, and being a HUGE fan of Spirited Away (well, Studio Ghibli in general), this book is amazingly inspirational. This book is without a doubt a treat for those who like to look at art books just to gaze at the eye candy, too! The pages are thick and sturdy, which a low gloss to them, making the coloration really pop in the images. I definitely recommend this for any fans of Spirited Away and/or Studio Ghibli!

A wonderful art of book. I've always loved watching Spirited Away. It's such a unique film and its art of book is no different.Now if you're looking for tons of concept art then you're probably going to be disappointed with this book. Since 97% of the art is movie stills and final art. But its a Miyazaki movie so the stills are gorgeous. The little concept art that is present is impressive. Like the character poses they did for Chihiro and Haku. I would have liked to have seen more of those with the other characters.There's also the script for the English translation of the film at the end of the book. Which was a bit unusual. I wish they could have included the Japanese one as well. But overall this is a really nice book for Spirited Away. I would definitely recommend buying it.