Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89598 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

Customer Reviews

Another good behind the scenes look at Ghibli artistry
The Art of My Neighbour Totoro, is part of the Japanese Animage 'Art of' Studio Ghibli series, translated for English speaking audiences by Viz Media. At present, there are five books in the series available in the west, and I would suggest that this is the weakest of them, though still a brilliant collectable product for any Totoro, Studio Ghibli, Anime or Animation fan.

Whilst personal bias partly forms my lower regard of the book - other books in the series cover films which I esteem higher - it is undeniable that Totoro is simply less interesting on a technical basis, which is all important here in an "Art of" book: the backgrounds are less detailed than those in the later films covered in the other 4 books, and there is also less to say about design challenges and technical innovation, which becomes more prominent from Kiki's Delivery Service onwards.

The stars of My Neighbour Totoro, are of course the Totoros. It is therefore somewhat disappointing that the Totoros aren't specifically focused on. It's also surprising that there seems to be no evidence of the Totoro design evolving in Hayao Miyazaki's sketches, so either the design was completed as soon as Miyazaki put pen to paper, or there are missing links here. Even Miyazaki's essay is surprisingly brief and not nearly as interesting as ones he penned for later books. Perhaps if the book had been made more recently, there would have been more of a focus on what has become Studio Ghibli's mascot. As it is, there are still interesting points to be found regarding the evolution of Mei into two seperate characters, among other things. In fact, the book probably contains more text than others in the series, and it has an interesting production report at the end.

The book is beautifully presented with a hardback cover (superior to the Japanese originals which are paperbacked), high quality print and glossy paper (with the exception of the text heavy "Totoro production report" at the rear). The art contained within is a mixture of rough concept sketches, storyboards, production backgrounds and the cel art used in the film.