As dense as the art

For it’s relatively small size, this book is thick and incredibly dense, just like Demizu Posuka’s artwork. The dramatic and extreme perspectives are impressive, inspiring and a little intimidating

Digital watercolor paired with playful, scratchy sketch style line art, that looks like a Milipen digital brush, brings each piece to life. When you pair this with the intense detail, and her wild perspective tricks, it is truly a treat for the eye. Page after page of intense, dense, and detailed full color artwork from the manga: covers, illustration spreads, promotional art, seasonal spot illustrations, sketches, doodles and comic pages. The depth and incredible detail of the artwork greatly reflects the complexity and multilayered detail of the writing. I can't imagine another artist complimenting it in this way.

Two can be better than one

Posuka Demizu was born on January 17, 1988 and lives in Tokyo, Japan.[1] She emerged on the manga scene in 2008 with a mini-series for the monthly manga magazine CoroCoro. She has worked on a wide range of projects with children’s magazines and video game companies. Notably, she has worked with the animation studio J.C.Staff on the series The Pet Girl of Sakurasou and illustrated a manga based on the popular card game Orca Battle.
Beginning in 2016, Demizu collaborated with author Kaiu Shirai on The Promised Neverland. The series started in issue 35 of Weekly Shōnen Jump, published by Shueisha. It followed Emma and her friends who try to escape the orphanage they grew up in after they find out the unsettling truth behind it. 
Originally, Shirai planned to write and draw, but his editor felt like Shirai’s style ‘didn’t do the script justice’ and that it would be too hard for Shirai to keep up the quality of both. As a result of this, Demizu joined the project. Shirai had seen Demizu’s art before and enjoyed it, but before starting the series they created a one-shot called Poppy's Wish. The outcome was better than Shirai originally imagined.

showing the development process

My favorite part of this book, is the extensive amount of early sketch work that's included. Posuka seems to favor dramatic and unusual perspectives in her work, here they feel easy natural and attainable. The detail and amount of story telling employed in her work is staggering, and I feel like the design of this book reflects that.
The variety of designs for each character are fun to see, especially all the different versions of Emma. Her hair seems to have been the main design detail that needed working out. I thought it interesting that Norman had the most interesting and least generic looking face throughout the design process while Emma and Ray developed personality over the design process.
With some of the sketches I liked being able to see the initial idea and then go on to see how it developed into the final piece. There is much that can be learned simply from observing someone else's process. At the time of writing I have been working on my first collaboration so it was even more interesting to see that interaction here.

Inspirational content

Snooping slowly through this book I feel encouraged to branch out and try some more daring perspectives in my own work.
If you are a world builder this is a great reference or companion to have. It's inspiring and strangely comforting to see behind the curtain at how something like The promise Neverland develops. The shear amount and variety of the designs is impressive; I've been through a similar process myself but seeing it all compressed together like this is intense, intimidating, but also mesmerizing. If somehow rough work and development isn't your thing, at over 200 pages there's is still an incredibly intense amount of finished illustration and comic pages. 

Should I buy?

Definitely get it if you love the Promised Neverland, and I would recommend it to anime/manga art lovers as a great addition to your collection.  At the time of writing this has only been released in Japanese so RIP the interviews;  that said you would be hard pressed to feel cheated, the volume of content is simply overwhelming, considering it's modest size. 

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​Art book from the series The Promised Neverland (約束のネバーランド) a manga written by Kaiu Shirai and illustrated by Posuka Demizu. 

This art book includes several illustrations printed in color and sketches made by Posuka Demizu. At the end of the book there are interviews with the authors in which they explain the creative process of the series and the illustration process.

French Edition
(This link is not sponsored)

Japanese Edition

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What do you think?
Have you seen these books?
Do you like them? Hate them? ”Meh”?
​Are there manga art books you think I should check out?
Let me know in the comments down below!
Love, Zen ​