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A review by lumie
Ultimate Manga Illustrators by Patricia Martínez
2.0
At 20.28€ I felt a bit cheated to be honest...
The vainglorious title, "Ultimate Manga Illustrators", would make one believe that this very attractive looking book would contain a sample of some of the greatest Manga artists that ever were. Yet, imagine my surprise when I discovered that the great Japanese Masters were nowhere to be found. In fact, amongst them none where Japanese (despite some who had names which certainly seem to be from the land of the rising sun) and all of them, as far as I could tell, where Spanish.
Now, I'm not a Wapanese Otaku nor am I someone who thinks manga and anime is exclusively Japanese; artists with other nationalities should be promoted, and their talent respected equally as much as any Japanese artist. But "Ultimate Illustrators" is absolutely misleading in its title; imagine your reaction if you were to buy a compilation of "The Greatest Works of The Greatest Poets" only to find that in it were poems of unknown poets that while undoubtedly very talented were not The Greatest. It's a hefty title (as is ultimate) and not one we can use indiscriminately..
Another issue I had was the editing itself; there were some illustrations (one in particular at page 80 and 81) in which the image was centred between both pages. Now, being a paperback that meant that the face of the character was, quite unfortunately, right in the crease between the two pages. Ultimately (pun intended) one could barely notice the details of what is, without argument, the most important bit of a Manga illustration: the expression in the face of the character.
To add insult to injury the book was sealed in plastic and so at the moment of purchase one literally had to judge a book by it's cover. And what a beautiful cover it was, with beautiful drawings... The execution, though not so much.
The vainglorious title, "Ultimate Manga Illustrators", would make one believe that this very attractive looking book would contain a sample of some of the greatest Manga artists that ever were. Yet, imagine my surprise when I discovered that the great Japanese Masters were nowhere to be found. In fact, amongst them none where Japanese (despite some who had names which certainly seem to be from the land of the rising sun) and all of them, as far as I could tell, where Spanish.
Now, I'm not a Wapanese Otaku nor am I someone who thinks manga and anime is exclusively Japanese; artists with other nationalities should be promoted, and their talent respected equally as much as any Japanese artist. But "Ultimate Illustrators" is absolutely misleading in its title; imagine your reaction if you were to buy a compilation of "The Greatest Works of The Greatest Poets" only to find that in it were poems of unknown poets that while undoubtedly very talented were not The Greatest. It's a hefty title (as is ultimate) and not one we can use indiscriminately..
Another issue I had was the editing itself; there were some illustrations (one in particular at page 80 and 81) in which the image was centred between both pages. Now, being a paperback that meant that the face of the character was, quite unfortunately, right in the crease between the two pages. Ultimately (pun intended) one could barely notice the details of what is, without argument, the most important bit of a Manga illustration: the expression in the face of the character.
To add insult to injury the book was sealed in plastic and so at the moment of purchase one literally had to judge a book by it's cover. And what a beautiful cover it was, with beautiful drawings... The execution, though not so much.