荒川弘イラスト集 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 2

Fullmetal Alchemist: Art & Companion Books

by Hiromu Arakawa, 荒川 弘

荒川弘イラスト集 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST 2

Genres: Manga, Art, Graphic Novels, Comics, Japanese Literature, Fantasy

111 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Hiromu Arakawa (author: 荒川弘) is a Japanese manga artist, best known for Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師 Hagane no renkinjutsushi).
Her real name is Hiromi Arakawa (荒川弘美).

Arakawa was born and raised on a dairy farm in Hokkaidō.
She thought of being a manga artist since she was little. After graduating high school, she took oil painting classes while working on her family's farm. During that time, she also created dōjinshi manga with her friends and drew yonkoma for a magazine. After eight years she moved to Tōkyō and started out as assistant writer for Hiroyuki Etō.
Her debut as manga artist is in 1999 with STRAY DOG. In 2001 she started working on her famous and award winning series Fullmetal Alchemist, that soon gets a successful anime adaptation.
Other works include Silver Spoon (銀の匙 Silver Spoon, Gin no saji Silver Spoon).

Reviews

[Parka · Rating 4 out of 5]

(More pictures at parkablogs.com)

The Art of Fullmetal Alchemist 2 continues where the first volume ends.

The art pieces are still from the manga instead of the anime series. This volume collects illustrations from 2003 to 2005. Additionally, it also has character designs for the Playstation 2 games Fullmetal Alchemist: Curse of the Crimson Elixir and Fullmetal Alchemist: The Girl Who Surpasses God.

The illustrations are full page coloured manga-style splash pages created with traditional medium, all drawn by Hiromu Arakawa. There are short captions, one or two sentences, under each illustration with the artist reflecting on the piece. I've not read the manga before so I don't know if these are actually the chapter splash pages for the manga.

If you already have the first book, you should probably know whether you would want to get the second volume.

If you like the style of Hiromu Arakawa, then this book is for you.

[Erica Gale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros:
- Affordable
- Awesome art by Arakawa (mostly all from her manga, just bigger and in color)

Cons:
- Like the first book, no concept art, experimental designs or sketches of the characters (besides from the game she worked on)
- Not much on comments besides tiny tidbits about the illustration themselves

[Lorena Marin · Rating 5 out of 5]

More art from the always dear Arakawa sensei, even tho I already have "The Complete Art" it is a delight for me to finally read the comments Arakawa does in each illustration of this 2nd artbook! The epilogue is everything! You also have character design from the last 2 Play Station games, which were not included in the "complete art" one.

[miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love the behind the scenes talk and the watercolor sketches on this collection!

[Paula Greenfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the art work and the stories behind it.

[Fugo Feedback · Rating 4 out of 5]

Acá sí que siento que Arakawa logró mayor armonía entre lo que quería expresar y la calidad de las ilustraciones en sí. Sumale que los diseños de personajes de videojuegos que aparecen al final me parecieron buenísimos (y el mini comic un lindo detalle), y tenemos el tomo promediado pa'rriba.

[Jenn Doyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arakawa's artwork is amazing. And the very first page has a beautiful drawing of Alphonse, Edward, Winry, & Den. Probably my favorite drawing of the three of them. Definitely worth the purchase!

[Anthonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good manga for this series. i enjoyed reading this manga. A must read for all manga lovers everywhere.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better than the first artbook.