The Legend of Korra: The Art of the Animated Series--Book Three: Change

The Legend of Korra: The Art of the Animated Series #3

by Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko

Relive your favorite memories from the hit animated series The Legend of Korra Book Three - Spirits —created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko—the groundbreaking sequel to their blockbuster show The Last Airbender!

This limited edition hardcover, released to celebrate the anniversary of the original show’s airing, contains hundreds of art pieces created during the development of the show’s third season, alongside creator commentary from DiMartino and Konietzko. The book is packaged in a deluxe slipcase with a commemorative lithograph, celebrating this timeless series and the legacy it continues!

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Comics, Graphic Novels, Reference, Graphic Novels Comics, Film

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 20, 2015

About the author

Michael Dante DiMartino is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. His directing credits include the animated series King of the Hill, Family Guy, and Mission Hill. He is a co-creator of the award-winning animated Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel, The Legend of Korra. DiMartino lives in Los Angeles with his wife. The Rebel Geniuses series is his debut prose work.

Reviews

[LW]

This book was SO COOL. An incredible insider look at my favorite season of TLOK.

[The Sapphic Nerd]

I've said this for the previous books and I'll say it again: I need more art of the main characters, or at least more of Korra. She's the main character and I want to see more of her character and costume design, and how she's different from previous seasons. Sure, she's in some of the storyboards, but I want to see more of a focus on her. As much as I like the villains, it bugs me that there seems to be more space given to them and extras than the title character.

That said, the art is lovely. They include a lot of environmental/background art (which is fantastic) and the various clothing styles of regular people/extras. There are a bunch of "family" style photos that are probably my favourite parts.

[Miss Clark]

A beautiful behind-the-scenes look at the intricate detail and hard work that goes into creating this wonderful show. Well worth the read/ viewing both as a fan of the show and of art and design in general.

[Katryn]

Is it even possible to love this series even more? (The answer is yes, btw).

[kris]

Absolutely sobbing at the drawing of the red lotus as kids

[Filip]

While in my review of the previous volume I said that Book 2 was perhaps the most visually impressive among Korra's seasons, reading this one a) made me question that statement, b) made me want to rewatch Book 3 once again. From the squalor of Ba Sing Se to the metallic domes of Zaofu and the grim Guru Laghima Peak this book is absolutely exquisite. We get a lot of storyboards for the most impressive moments of the story - for example my favourite Kya vs Zaheer fight plus absolutely love insight into the creation of the Red Lotus and the Metal Clan, along with great concept art. The only complaint I might have is, what has been noted by some reviewers, that there isn't a lot of Korra in this Legend of Korra book, however I think the authors decided that by now we all know what Korra looks like and there was so much other things to show us. Besides, we got plenty of Korra in the anciliary art section.

[Elevetha]

There is so much background and landscape art in the LOK art books, which is probably my favorite thing about them. The artists have such a great grasp of color and lighting, and it really shines through in their landscape panels. Just beautiful.

The other thing that is so fascinating about these books, to me, is getting to see all the minuscule details that are so important and/or pretty, but all too often go unnoticed in the show. I also love re-watching the shows after reading the Art books and noting all the things I had missed before.

My one complaint is that I actually wish there was a little more text than there is in this series. It's about 2% text and info, which could probably be upped to at least 5%. I applaud them for making the book mostly about the art, but I like to read about some of the inspiration, inside stories, and making of.

The spirits were so cute in this volume!!! And then there was this:

"What the world needed was to see what a hedgehog crossed with a tropical fruit might look like. Now we can all sleep a little easier at night."

Yes. Yes, we can.

[Lauren]

I just wish it had more new information. Beautiful artwork, though.

[Ethan Hulbert]

The third art book out of 4, and one of the best seasons of a great show. Even more storyboards, which are fascinating to review, ridiculously complicated, it's insane how much work goes in to every element (hah) in a show like this and how difficult it is to create. I've been most interested in the environment drawings and the ways they come up with new concepts, and I was not disappointed. It was fun to read this while watching through the season, too, sort of like watching a DVD commentary. Also great to see Kuvira's introduction mentioned. I've said it before and I'll say it again, TLoK is so much better than AtLA, and the difference only grows wider with a rewatch. These art books really make it more fun.

[Poonam Ranu]

It was okay. I mean I had been really hoping for some more lore exploration on the Red Lotus. Sure there technically was, but it was substantially less than what I had been looking for. I did like the blurbs of how much Buddhist culture influenced the Northern Air Temple and final fight scenes. There were definitely a lot of details that were unfortunately missed during the watches that I was now able to appreciate through this book.

[Everett]

This was another great companion guide to the art of LOK, and I thought it did a really good job showcasing the detailed designs and beautiful artwork. I would consider LOK to be much darker than ATLA, but this season in particular was really dark, and I liked seeing those dark themes through the artwork. We saw moments like P'Li's death story boarded, and we also say you Su's armor was specifically designed to have enough metal to completely cover her head and face. I liked learning about small details like that, and it made me appreciate the effort that was put into this show so that it would be as thorough and as detailed as possible. We got so much new stuff in this season, but we also sill held onto some visual elements that I really liked, like he presence of the spirit world and spirits. I mentioned in my review for the art book for Book 2 that my favorite visual element of the season was the spirits, and I like how that was still present in this season as well, even if it wasn't as big of a focus as it was with the last season.

In my opinion, Zaheer is the best villain in LOK, and his posse of equally awesome friends really made this season's conflict top-tier. The benefit of having all these characters meant that we got to see a whole bunch of fight scenes that were wildly different from each other. We got that amazing fight scene between Kya and Ming-Hua, and we got that even cooler fight between Tenzin and Zaheer, which is more than I would have hoped for. The storyboard of the fight between Kya and Ming-Hua was shown in this book, which was really amazing, and I enjoyed the extra comments sprinkled throughout the book because they provided some extra details about these villains that I love so much. I also really liked how much their personality was impacted by their designs, which is strange to say out loud, but now that I think about it it makes so much sense. I couldn't imagine P'Li without her height, her long braid, or her eye tattoo, because they giver her aura of strength, destruction, and power. I think that Zaheer, P'Li, Ming-Hua, and Ghazan's designs were perfect, and I really liked how much the book focused on them.

One big part of the story of season 3 is the return of the airbenders and this journey to train the new ones. It was a great part of the series, but I thought the parts of the book that discussed that side plot was really well done. We saw in the previous book some of the renovated air temples, and we got to see some more of it in this book as well. I really like the designs of the renovated air temples, and I also liked how we got to see some more location at the temple that we didn't see in the first two LOK seasons as well as all of ATLA. I also liked seeing the designs of the new airbenders and how they went around to creating all these new characters. I thought it was funny how they based one of the characters around one of the people who worked on the show, and it gives that character, even though they're a minor character, so much more personality and depth. I thought the height comparison chart was cool, and I've never considered how hard getting everyone's proportions and heights would be. That's one more reason why I never will work in animation.

One other part of the book that really stood out to me was the part that talked about Ba Sing Se. I'm very familiar of the art surrounding Ba Sing Se because so much of Book 2 of ATLA took place there, but it was interesting to see how the background changed in LOK. Ba Sing Se is so much more crowded, and I think it's cool how there are building built on the actual wall itself. I really liked the three pages that showed a whole bunch of the extras in Ba Sing Se. It's interesting how different the outfits are compared to other rings in the city, but I also can imagine how much work was put into drawing all these different people. It must take so much time to draw an original person and then design them an outfit that is unique to them while still blending in with the other outfits in the show. I just thought it was cool to see all these character designs and look at all of the details, because so much was put into these characters that you don't see for more than a few seconds.

Overall, this was another really great book that highlighted all the art from this season, which is my favorite season in LOK. I had fun with this book, and I learned a lot about animation, not only in an informing way, but in a "if you become an animator you will regret it" way. I think being an animator would be way too much work for me, so mad props to the people who can pull it off an put so much energy and detail into their work. I prefer just to watch the final result, but I still like learning about behind the scenes as well. I've enjoyed all of the art books for the series so far, so I know I'm also going to like the one for the fourth season as well, and I also need to get my hands on the one for ATLA as well.

[Online Eccentric Librarian]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

As with the earlier two installments, the Art of series from Korra continues to knock it out of the park. There is plenty of beautiful art from the third season peppered with small bits of information highlighting aspects of the series, or from the making of it. Whereas the earlier two books were more focused on location and scenery, this third book has a lot more character design. I like this a lot for the titular characters but perhaps could have done with a bit less detail on the plentiful side characters.

The art itself is as beautiful as before - I keep forgetting how gorgeous this show is. A lot of care and thought has gone into the presentation and definitely even a person unfamiliar with the show would find it enjoyable to browse through the pages. For fans, it is a wonderful trip down the memory lane. It helps that the third season is one of the stronger seasons of the show.

I've reviewed all the Art of books for Avatar and Korra and am honestly running out praising ways to describe them. The material is excellent and the implementation oozes quality. Basically if you're a fan and like art books, you'll love this. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

[Storm]

Just like the Avatar The Last Airbender: The Art of the Animated Series, this is what a companion book should be. This installment feature Art from Book Three: Change. It has TONS of backstory and history from people actually involved in the making of the series. There are preliminary pencil sketches showing how the characters evolved over time and finished art which is gorgeous, especially the city designs and landscapes.

Loved the design evolution of Zaheer (coolest villain ever), Ghazan (brooding), Ming-Hua (she has water arms, how sick is that?) and P'Li (that third eye is just otherworldly). The jails were fascinating. Also loved the whole "Lotus flower closing up" design of Zaofu, the elite Metal Bending city. I did, however, want to punch the leader of the bison raiders for wearing a (baby?) bison tail pelt as the back of his cloak. Grr.

[Greg Kerestan]

The "Legend of Korra" art books are great coffee-table compendiums of Avatar lore and art. Unlike the art book for "Avatar: The Last Airbender," each season here gets its own book, which means you can dig deep into the minutiae of every single setting and every character... yes, we're including ever single non-speaking extra designed for the show.

Is it excessive? Yes. Is it perhaps more than we needed? Also yes. Is it cool, and gorgeous, and a testament to how much the art design for "Korra" (and indeed the entire East-West hybridization of animation production, which essentially erased the distinction between Western animation and Japanese/Korean anime) took advantage of the ten years between "Avatar" and "Korra" production to create a visual feast.

[Cola]

*happy sigh* so much love for the crew & their hard work!!

obligatory favorites list:
-STUDIO REVE'S KEY ANIMATION???? a moment of silence please
-caricatures/character expressions drawn by ki-hyun ryu <3
-all the background paintings and all the details that go into the props actually you know what just *flips table* ALL THE ART IM SO MESMERIZED AND GRATEFUL FOR THIS SHOW IM RUNNING OUT OF WORDS TO SAY
-the love for the villains THANK
-my precious beibies and and literally just all the beifongs. all of them. ALL
-the ghibli inspired and all the other culture inspired art aagghhhh so good so good so good so amaze i am in love

[Teo]

2020.05.18–2020.05.18

Contents

DiMartino MD, Konietzko B, & Dos Santos J (2015) Legend of Korra, The - The Art of the Animated Series Book Three - Change

Introductions by Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, and Joaquim Dos Santos

01. A Breath of Fresh Air
• Zaheer

02. Rebirth
• Ghazan
• Ming-Hua
• Chibi Time!

03. The Earth Queen
• The Barbarians

04. In Harm’s Way
• P’Li

05. The Metal Clan
• The Beifong Family

06. Old Wounds

07. Original Airbenders
• The New Airbenders

08. The Terror Within
09. The Stakeout
10. Long Live the Queen
11. The Ultimatum
12. Enter the Void
13. Venom of the Red Lotus
14. Ancillary Art

[Jemiah Jefferson]

It's fantastic, but not as great as the first of this book series - not because of the books themselves, but based on the candor and input of DiMartino and Konietzko about their process and their oversight - as the series went on, necessarily they couldn't be quite as involved as with the first season, but the first of the LoK art of books is just masterful. Great artwork in this, too, though, for sure, including a couple of "registers" sewn in as single pages, easy to remove from the book binding and put up on the wall, as the background paintings from this show deserve.

[Tyler Gianluca Laos]

It is always so good to take this book off my bookshelf and read it, especially when sadly it's the only art book I have for the moment. The third season of TLOK was one of the best of the franchise, and it was so good to see the behind of scene of the gorgeous art. Never realized just how many people it takes to create such marvelous backgrounds. There are even a couple of sceneries that I stare a lot because I'm convinced it's real life and not art created by hand or computer.

[Camila]

The Avatarverse will always have a special place in my heart.
And what other way to start checking the illustration book than starting with your favorite season?
I truly respect the team behind this project. Their background paintings, the storyboards, they're all beautiful!

[Sabeerah]

i wish thhere is more then series 5 because i love this and they should make all of them read online i cant read some of them they are the best i have watched it about 100 or more times but loved it. :)

[nelly]

I love reading the little insights and the drawings are all so amazing, I love behind the scene content like this. Also the Ryu drawings and Ryu drawn at the end is amazing. I love it. Book 3 is just amazing.

[Chris Seltzer]

This book's just about the beautiful art of the series. It's about how the showrunners decided what stories to tell and what inspired the characters' personalities. It's a fascinating journey into how the show was constructed.

[Felicia]

some amazing/gorgeous storyboards and key frame examples

[Edgar]

Awesome I loved the concept of Guru Lahima

[Courtney]

This was by far my favorite book of the series. It had the feeling of the original series.

[Tessa]

There are a LOT of background paintings and storyboards in this one. I wish I could frame them all. They're all so pretty.

[Thia Reads A Lot]

Review coming soon!

[m i l o u ✨ (grumpy witch)]

So much respect for talented team that worked on these shows and made them reality. It's mind-blowing.
I can never get enough of this world and the characters

[Ariel]

Amazing book of paintings of scenes from the show :)

[evil]

This book (and season) is sick. It’s absolutely disgusting how well the artists have done it. They should be ashamed of themselves. Bless them. ✧



5 stars