Out This Week—Trigun Maximum Omnibus Book Five, The Sky: The Art Of Final Fantasy Book Two!


Manga Mondays: 
At almost any anime con, you’re guaranteed to still see people cosplaying as Vash the Stampede, hero of Yasuhiro Nightow’s Trigun and Trigun Maximum series—whose legend will continue even though the final volume of his adventures is out this week! Trigun Maximum Omnibus Book Five is, of course, Vash’s showdown with his twin brother Knives over the fate of the planet—and if you only know how it played out in the Trigun anime, the confrontation is more developed in the manga. 
In addition to 530 pages of manga story, Trigun Maximum Omnibus Book Five contains over 60 bonus pieces of Trigun promo art and illustrations, many in full color! And as Trigun is ending, it seems a good time to mention Yasuhiro Nightow’s current manga series from Dark Horse: Blood Blockade Battlefront. My guess is that “BBB” is going to get a lot better known soon, as the anime series is coming out next year. Imagine the character designer of Cowboy Bebop adapting Nightow’s characters to anime…? You don’t have to imagine: Toshihiro Kawamoto will be working on Blood Blockade Battlefront, as Studio BONES (of Fullmetal Alchemist) leads production! 
[please insert the image The Sky Book Two.jpg here]
Dark Horse’s release of the individual artbooks from Yoshitaka Amano’s The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy continues this week with The Sky: Book Two! These are the exact same, high-quality, hardback, oversized art books that are in The Sky Boxed Set (sold out) and Slipcased Edition (still available), but now they’re available one at a time, for those who don’t wish to buy the sets.
The Sky: Book Two is truly impressive, and a bargain as well. It’s 276 pages, almost twice the size of Book One, yet, priced at $34.99, it costs only five dollars more. Like Book One, it’s nearly a square foot in size, at 10 5/8" x 11 5/8" (27 x 29.5 cm) and its illustrations are printed on heavy, high-quality paper. And, as you might guess from the page count, there are plenty of them!
The Sky: Book Two contains Amano's sketches and paintings for Final Fantasy IV (1991), V (1992) and VI (1994), depicting characters such as Cecil Harvey, Rydia, Bartz Klauser, Lenna Charlotte Tycoon, Faris Scherwiz, Terra Branford, Locke Cole, Sabin Rene Figaro, Shadow, Setzer Gabbiani, Celes Chere, and, of course, Mog (among many others!). Bonuses include Amano's art for the 1994 Final Fantasy Grand Finale CD, the 1994 Pinball Mandala series, and advertisement lithographs of the 1999 Final Fantasy Collection exclusive watch.
The Sky: Book One is also now available; we’ll be releasing Book Three soon!
—Carl Horn
Manga Editor
At almost any anime con, you’re guaranteed to still see people cosplaying as Vash the Stampede, hero of Yasuhiro Nightow’s Trigun and Trigun Maximum series—whose legend will continue even though the final volume of his adventures is out this week! Trigun Maximum Omnibus Book Five is, of course, Vash’s showdown with his twin brother Knives over the fate of the planet—and if you only know how it played out in the Trigun anime, the confrontation is more developed in the manga.
 
In addition to 530 pages of manga story, Trigun Maximum Omnibus Book Five contains over 60 bonus pieces of Trigun promo art and illustrations, many in full color! And as Trigun is ending, it seems a good time to mention Yasuhiro Nightow’s current manga series from Dark Horse: Blood Blockade Battlefront. My guess is that “BBB” is going to get a lot better known soon, as the anime series is coming out next year. Imagine the character designer of Cowboy Bebop adapting Nightow’s characters to anime…? You don’t have to imagine: Toshihiro Kawamoto will be working on Blood Blockade Battlefront, as Studio BONES (of Fullmetal Alchemist) leads production!
 


Dark Horse’s release of the individual artbooks from Yoshitaka Amano’s The Sky: The Art of Final Fantasy continues this week with The Sky: Book Two! These are the exact same, high-quality, hardback, oversized art books that are in The Sky Boxed Set (sold out) and Slipcased Edition (still available), but now they’re available one at a time, for those who don’t wish to buy the sets.

The Sky: Book Two is truly impressive, and a bargain as well. It’s 276 pages, almost twice the size of Book One, yet, priced at $34.99, it costs only five dollars more. Like Book One, it’s nearly a square foot in size, at 10 5/8" x 11 5/8" (27 x 29.5 cm) and its illustrations are printed on heavy, high-quality paper. And, as you might guess from the page count, there are plenty of them!

The Sky: Book Two contains Amano's sketches and paintings for Final Fantasy IV (1991), V (1992) and VI (1994), depicting characters such as Cecil Harvey, Rydia, Bartz Klauser, Lenna Charlotte Tycoon, Faris Scherwiz, Terra Branford, Locke Cole, Sabin Rene Figaro, Shadow, Setzer Gabbiani, Celes Chere, and, of course, Mog (among many others!). Bonuses include Amano's art for the 1994 Final Fantasy Grand Finale CD, the 1994 Pinball Mandala series, and advertisement lithographs of the 1999 Final Fantasy Collection exclusive watch. The Sky: Book One is also now available; we’ll be releasing Book Three soon!

—Carl Horn
Manga Editor