Mospeada Complete Art Works Book Review

11.08.2009 by Adrian A. Lozano

The Mospeada Complete Art Works book just hit bookstores in Japan this past Saturday August 8th. It’s the eighth volume in the Entertainment Archive anime book series published by Shinkigensha Co.,Ltd. Over the past seven months fans thought the book was going to be canceled since the original street date of February 2008 was pushed to March then to April and so on. Many fans of Mospeada outside Japan know of the show’s existence mainly because it was the third and final installment of the original Robotech television show. Fans speculate the shows popularity here in Japan as being bigger than it really actually is. Hell I’m in favor of that belief, but it is just not the case. Still nothing is going to keep me from supporting one the most over rated yet nostalgic animes of my early teen years.

This soft cover book retails for 2000 yen, and has a page count of 156 pages. Shinji Aramaki one of the show’s original mechanical designers contributes some new updated Stick and Rei Ride Armor (Cyclone) artwork for the book's front and back cover. The cover’s layout is an homage to the long forgotten IMAI plastic model kit packaging, a very nice touch for people like me to get way too over excited about. With out even looking inside the pages of the book it scores high on brownie points, but what about the inner contents do they pay off? Is it really a Complete Art Works book?

Well that all depends on how you look at it. If you are looking for unreleased production art (Hi Roger!) or page after page of colored artwork from long out of print anime magazines from days past then you will be fairly disappointed. The book is mostly comprised of character, mechanical, and scenery settings. Well I guess comprised is an understatement it is bursting with these elements. Only 26 of the 156 pages are in full color, a bit sparse if you ask me. Being that Yoshitaka Amano was the character designer of the show and the amount of full color art that was made when the show was originally released this book could have easily been over 200 plus pages. Amano’s artwork only gets a meager two pages, all presented in glamorous black and white in the record and videotape collection section.

So what is in color you say? Pretty much what we have all seen before. Screen shots of the opening and closing and commercial break animation. Some character and mecha color charts and toy line photos from private Gakken toy collections to current product sample images like the unofficially canceled Beagle Ride Armor toy line. Nandy’s Proto Mospeada custom project is also featured which Aramaki designed and many of its elements can clearly be seen on the updated Ride Armor illustrated on book’s cover. The lack of color content is massively disappointing, so don’t go and throw out your B-Club Special Artmic Design Works or Bandai Entertainment Bible #16 and especially your Animedia Mospeada Color Graffiti.















The black and white line art is plentiful and I think this book will keep many of the hardcore fans pretty busy as they look for canon and non-canon “Robotech” factoids with their magnifying glasses. I really like how all the available secondary character, mechanical and scenery data is paired up with its coinciding episode breakdown. Some of the data is actually photo copied since a good amount of the original materials used in the production have been acquired by collectors around the world. Aside from Aramaki’s Ride Armor contribution there are only two other new illustrations by an artist who goes by the pen name of Mercy Rabbit. So I’m willing to bet most older jaded fans (which I myself am guilty of once being in the past) will blindly and vocally criticize as the two pieces seem to cater to the more recent style of character illustration.
















The book closes with a Shinji Aramaki interview, Mospeada production credit list and original televised air schedule. The interview was done on June 26th 2009, the real reason for the books delay and we all feared the book was going become vaporware. NOT! Aramaki is very well known and has been steadily working in the anime industry through out the years and is currently working on an animated short for Halo Legends. To be honest this book kind of leaves me cold; there is no mention or update on what Hideki Kakinuma is doing these days, or his thoughts on working on the show. So where’s Kakinuma’s interview? Where’s the Amano full color gallery and interview? Where are the unreleased character and Mecha production designs? Where's the mashed potatoes? Where's the cranberry sauce? Where's the pumpkin pie?

There isn’t even any mention of Robotech New Generation, The Sentinels or even Shadow Chronicles. Well I guess that isn’t really a bad thing, quality over quantity is always best. So is this the end all be all Complete Art Works Book? Hell no!!! Give me a supplemental follow up, I know there is more and I want it! Still for 2000 yen the book is worth it, so go out and !!!!