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Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee

February 23rd, 2011, 9:13PM by nat | 7 comments

Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 4

And finally, more than a year after Macross Frontier heroine Sheryl Nome received her own dedicated art book, Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee has been released! You might recall that in between, there was another Ranka Lee "art book" that hardly had any art work, but this time, it's the real deal.

Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 1Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 2Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 3

Like the Sheryl Nome collection, Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee is A4-sized, 64 pages and only ¥952, pre-tax. But if you're not in Japan, you don't have to pay the tax anyway ^^; The cover art is newly drawn for the collection as are several other illustrations.

Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 5 Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 6 Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 7

Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 8 Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 9 Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 12

I'd even go so far as to say, there are more illustrations in the Ranka Lee art book than there were in the Sheryl Nome book. Or maybe it's that many of the illustrations do not also feature Sheryl, like they did in the other book. Then again, there was a whole extra year of Newtype Magazine illustrations to go through, as many of the 'last page' Macross Frontier feature illustrations from the issues are included in this book.

Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 10 Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 11

It also definitely helps that the voice actress interview and sketches were really cut down in comparison to the Macross Frontier Visual Collection Sheryl Nome book, leaving room for more color illustrations. The interview with Megumi Nakajima is 4-pages, surrounded by 9-pages of screen shots, song excerpts and Ranka Lee's costumes. Everything else is art work this time.

Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 14

This angelic picture of Ranka, along with one other illustration were the only overlapping art works from the bad Ranka Lee collection, RANKA Macross F Official Book, and the illustration above appeared with text on it in the other book. I'm surprised there was even anything salvageable ^^;

Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 15 Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 16

Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 17 Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 18

There are a good amount of illustrations that aren't newly drawn, but I just hadn't seen before now in the collection, in part because there was still a lot of Macross Frontier merchandising with the movie that I didn't pay attention to. Many of the illustrations also receive a full page display, with half-page illustrations reserved predominately for works that were initially magazine spreads. Hard to say if it's intentional, but it is consistent through out.

Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 19Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 20Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee - 21

Finally, like in the Sheryl Nome book, the last few illustrations are tribute works, done by artists that weren't directly involved in the production. Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee is as expected, a great collection and a complete steal for the price. I'm just glad this series of books didn't get shelved, as it turned out to be well worth the wait ^^


  • Title: Macross Frontier Visual Collection Ranka Lee
  • タイトル: マクロスF VISUAL COLLECTION ランカ・リー
  • Pages: 64
  • Release date: 02/20/2011
  • Buy: Amazon Japan, eBay
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Avatar for Lonigus
Lonigus

13 years, 7 months ago

 

Do you have some kind of mindreading machine since yesterday i was breaking my head if to buy it or no lol. Since i bought the other "artbook" Renka Lee, but as you said it was nothing close to an actual artbook and therefore was logically very dissapointed >_> ... But again you conviced me to buy it after this review (I hate you) since the artwork looks very very good! And full pages yay! And I think there is quite more illustrations then in the Sheryl artbook (might be wrong since i have it a year "shelfed" and didnt rly touched it except sniffing the smell of freshness after buying it lol :3

Avatar for nat
nat

13 years, 7 months ago

 

Hehe, I can't feel too bad about it, it's a bargain for the price. I'm a very biased Macross F fan though, in case I've oversold it ;D

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Anonymous

13 years, 7 months ago

 

Stunning art, this guy really knows how to draw!

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nat

13 years, 7 months ago

 

It's actually a bunch of artists, but they're all very well done like you've said ^^

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Smithy

13 years, 7 months ago

 

Looks like a great Ranka Lee art collection, especially for that price tag.

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nat

13 years, 7 months ago

 

And it's currently 10% off on Amazon, so it's even more of a bargain at ¥852 XD

Avatar for Lonigus
Lonigus

13 years, 7 months ago

 

I rly wish more anime series would do this kind of chara illustrations packed and for this great price tag XD