Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Illustrations INNOVATION collects the anime art of the series all in one book. It's not often that an anime series actually gets its own dedicated art book (that isn't a series guide in disguise). And INNOVATION is definitely all art book; full color and full page illustrations fill this 136-page collection all the way through.

As with most anime art books, the selection comes from a few specific magazines, namely Gundam ACE and Newtype magazines. So if there was Gundam 00 art work in Animedia or Animage magazines that you were interested in, you'd be out of luck with this collection. The art book is organized by Meisters and the Gundams, with an assorted section at the end, so there are a lot of character specific illustrations.

The first character section is Setsuna F. Seiei and runs from page 14 through 23. However, there are more Setsuna F. Seiei illustrations from pages 3 through 13, although they're filed under To Starting of All Character Artworks. Lockon Stratos is next on pages 24 through 35, with Neil Dylandy and Lyle Dylandy pictures intermixed.

Around ten pages are dedicated to Allelujah Haptism, with another ten following it focused on Tieria Erde. The next notable section is titled To the Rebirth MS Artworks and focuses entirely on the Mobile Suits. Luckily, Newtype magazine definitely has the advantage when it comes to mecha illustrations, and most of the works in this section were from the magazine. The mecha art work runs from pages 54 through 81.

To the Party Other Artworks includes illustrations that came from some of the many series guides from Gundam 00 along with covers for the animation comics that were also published. These are some of the more unique illustrations in the book, and some of the few that feature the girls from the series.

The final section is titled To Our Life Gundam Meister Artworks and includes illustrations of the Meisters exclusively, in uniform and in casual clothing. The index features monochrome thumbnails, along with original publication information and the animation illustrator responsible for each work. The anime character designer, Michinori Chiba, was responsible for many of the character works in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Illustrations INNOVATION. Overall, it's a pretty standard art book, the kind of thing that's less about the art and more about just being a fan of the series ^^; But for those interested, I'm sure it'd be reassuring to know you're not just getting another anime guide with this book ^^

• Title: Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Illustrations INNOVATION
• タイトル: 機動戦士ガンダム００画集―ＩＮＮＯＶＡＴＩＯＮ―
• Pages: 136
• Release date: 09/03/2010
• Buy: Amazon Japan, eBay