Title: Overlord: The Complete Anime Art Book
Author: Kugane Maruyama (Story), so-bin (Characters)
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 240
Genre: Artbook
Publication Date: December 15, 2020
Final Thoughts
I love art books and I love Overlord so when I saw that it was receiving an art book, I jumped at the chance to review it and, much like all other art books, I really enjoyed this one even though it was a little on the basic side.
By that, I mean that the book has the expected content ranging from characters, to monsters, storyboards, sketches, and design works. There is also the standard interview section where the creators talk about different aspects of the series such as “do you have a favorite character?” “how did the story of Overlord come to light?” things such as that.
Still, despite the content being expected of an art book, it was all really enjoyable. The characters section had a nice mixture of full-body, half-body, head-only shots, and sketches all drawn from different perspectives… all something that you would find on a typical character reference sheet for an artist to use in the anime’s production. There are other nice little tidbits with each character including their race, their voice actor, and a little backstory. In addition, some of the art pieces and sketches have notes on them to explain their intent a little better which is always a nice touch to see.
The monsters section was a little different. It still showed drawings and sketches from different angles but there were more notes for a lot of the pieces which really helped show off some of the directions during creation… such as a note for a dragon to show off a certain part with as much simplicity as possible. There are also little explanations as to what each monster is and how it fits into the overall story/world of Overlord.
Next up is the Design Works section where we get to see a bunch of things such as vials, weapons, animals, transportation, and other item used throughout the series. There wasn’t much in the way of explanations here as this section was more of a gallery than anything else but there were some notes throughout in order to help with purpose as well as size/scale of the items in relation to other characters or objects.
Speaking of a gallery, that’s exactly what the Art Design section was. It was a bunch of full-page sketches of various landscapes and landmarks used throughout the anime… some of which had their own unique notes accompanying them. We get a break in between with the interviews and then we go into seeing some of these scenes fully painted and/or rendered out… all of which look absolutely gorgeous.
The book then finishes it out with a Special section where we see a nice mixture of rare sketches and colored drawings of characters.
If you like Overlord and want some nice insight into the artwork behind the television anime, this is a must-have book. The notes throughout aren’t too in-depth but it gives a nice look into the design process of a lot of pieces. Looking through the book will also present you with a bit of nostalgia or familiarity if you’ve seen the anime and/or read the series. Everything is in nice high resolution and looks great on the glossy paper that Yen Press chose for the book.
The book’s actual cover is a nice matte finish with some great sketch work. There is a dust cover that is glossy and features Ainz on the front along with the majority of the main characters on the back. There are 240 pages in this book which is a bit high for an art book but the amount of content in here is enough to satisfy any Overlord fan and then some! You should seriously consider adding this to your collection!
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This item was provided for review by Yen Press.
