Review: #823
Title: Sword Art Online - abec Artworks
Series: Sword Art Online - companion book
Author: abec
Comments: abec Artworks is an artbook that covers the first nine volumes of the Sword Art Online light novels. In addition to all the pieces of art used in those novels, there are various new pieces, sketches on alternate covers and commentary from the illustrator. The commentary is insightful from the thought that went behind the design decisions to the software and process on how these pieces came to be. Granted, as you go further into the book you’d notice that some of the commentary feels lackluster as the illustrator ran out of things to comment on and had to write something down. The artbook collates the extra art that were published for promotion such as the blu-ray covers, magazine events and concept art for the animation models. To round it off, there is a short story by Reki Kawahara (the author of the light novels) involving Kirito, Asuna and Yuuki. It’s too short for things to develop but it is a nice addition since we see so little of Yuuki in the series.
Rating: 7/10
