Drip is strong

Yaaaaaaaallll. This book is beautiful, a huge coffee table display book of Takeshi Obata’s colored illustrations from the early 2000's. It's truly something uniquely and special, go find one.

The legend

Originally priced at $100, this 15 yr old limited edition book holds up amazingly well. It may be possible to still find a gently used one for an easier price but if you love Copic art this is a required read so go find one.
At and enormous 10.5”x14.75”, Blanc et Noir doesn't fit on a shelf, it’s clearly and carefully designed as a display piece or conversation starter and unusually for a Japanese book, is printed left to right. This limited edition, hard back comes in a die-cut, foil embossed case, and glossy posters that fit in the oval display window. Tucked inside the case was also a postcard and a sheet of serviceable death note bookmarks, in the back are interviews and a tutorial. This is truly a special book and even this old, I still recommend you seek it out.​

Takeshi Obata was born in 1969 in Niigata, Japan, and first achieved international recognition as the artist of the wildly popular Shonen Jump title Hikaru no Go, which won the 2003 Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize: Shinsei “New Hope” Award and the 2000 Shogakukan Manga Award. 
He went on to illustrate the smash hit Death Note as well as the hugely successful manga Bakuman, All You Need Is Kill, and Platinum End.

Chef's kiss

 Once inside, the well chosen large size allows you to really sit with a respectable 132 pages, including 6 double sided fold out “posters” of Copic marker, traditional ink work and all the fun details.
The first section is dedicated to Deathnote and we are treated to pearlized paper, silver and gold ink, translucent paper, gloss as well as matte! They went all out. I’ve only ever seen pearlized paper with prints from a paper nerd friend so it was exciting to see it showing off some amazing manga artwork. The designers went above and beyond in every part of this book.

 The next section “Specialite” is an interesting selection of non manga art. I wish I could read the commentary in the back to learn more. I often find his character designs lackluster but this section has an interesting variety and I can’t get over how he colors pleather, the textures are amazing. Ultimately I'm not coming to a Takashi Obata book for cool and clever character designs, I'm here for his penmanship and textures. 

Rich and luscious

There are a few short sections of miscellaneous work like that but the color work is still very lush!
​The next section, Yoshitsune-kai is honestly my favorite. I’ve seen this art but never knew what it was from. I saw a novel on Ebay but I think it’s from a samurai themed video game. I really want to pull out the poster in this section but must resist and not damage the book. This section is too short, I would like more.
Wait...Bobobo-bo bobobo-bo-bo...why is this here...I’m confused…let’s move on. 
The Death Note side of the book is balanced out with Hikari no Go. We are treated to double fold out pages of delicious textured paper and rich glossy pages and another transparent page , but sadly no more pearlized.  The more delicate and ethereal work of this section send us off gently, a wonderful contrast to the impact of the first half of the book. It very definitely would not have worked the other way around.
Last and by no means least, a tutorial and index that I can’t read.​

Should I buy

​Overall this book is beautiful, well designed and carefully considered. The design of the book and the artwork complement each other creating a statement piece for the top of any art book stack. No doubt a must have.

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​A collection of best-selling artist Takeshi Obata’s work from 2001–2006, which contains definitive illustrations from popular series Death Note and Hikaru no Go.
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 This gorgeous oversized art book is encased in a silver-stamped slipcase and is stuffed with 132 pages of full-color art, several massive foldout posters, special papers and 12 pages of artist commentary, including a “how to draw” section. It also includes three large double-sided laminated posters. This incredibly special art book was offered as a limited edition print run of 10,000 copies.

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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 ​