This month, Udon Entertainment published some Tezuka sketchbooks. They were supposed to be released in summer, but got pushed back. I've had these on my radar for a while and ordered them for Christmas.
These have been available in Japanese for a while, but these editions translate Tezuka's notes, which are pretty entertaining. Anyway, here are some photos, as promised!Covers! They're the same dimensions and published in right-to-left format. The orange book is about 140 pages long, while the yellow is about 220. Despite that there isn't much difference in their thickness. The orange book contains sketches from Tezuka's manga, anime, and even mascot designs, while the yellow only has designs from anime he's worked on--specifically the TV specials.
Standard DVD case for a size comparison. (The Knick is an excellent show if you like medical dramas or historical fiction, btw. I finished the first season last night and thoroughly recommend it. ANYWAY)
It's difficult to see in the other photos, but this book has a textured jacket. The orange book is smooth, but has metallic/shimmery accents.
The yellow book without the jacket. The backside is the same. The orange book's cover is boring--just white with some blue lines.
Now some interior pages that caught my attention.
Early rejected designs for Sharaku from The Three-Eyed One. He had hair and glasses at one point, and looked a little like an animal of some sort! I get the sense that he'd have a dramatically different personality if Tezuka went with this design--perhaps less childish when his third eye is covered, and more subtly sinister when his evil side is in charge.
More Sharaku designs. The one with the striped shirt looks a little like a character from a Black Jack chapter--specifically the kid who thought aliens were possessing his brain.
Rainbow Parakeet. Mainly I'm sharing this one for the lower-right sketch, where Tezuka stopped caring.
Sohei Toge from Message to Adolf. I really liked Tezuka's notes here, which briefly describe his background and role in the series.
These were apparently used in an episode of Astro Boy. Tezuka's phoenix characters are so adorable.
Ham as a poacher, obviously from Jungle Emperor Leo. If you look closely at this one, it looks like Ham's shirt was going to be a little longer, and his shoes a little rounder. I wish the copy quality of the sketches was a little better so we could see Tezuka's sketchlines that he either didn't refine or erased, but they probably had to focus more on making the defined lines clearer. Ah well.
Black Jack as he appears in Bander Book. Sketches of him were first in the yellow book. The notes around the sketches are mostly about color, and some guidelines for the animators to follow.
Allegro as a dog from Bremen 4.
Tezuka even designed the puppets the leader of the guerrilla fighters used. This wolf was my favorite.
And finally, a fire dragon from Prime Rose. I love this critter.
There's a LOT more content in the books, so I definitely recommend them, especially if you're interested in Tezuka's creation and design process. The books are pretty good quality, but my one complaint is that the pages are rather thin, so images from pages show through a little. I also wish that the orange book had more sketches from Tezuka's manga characters, particularly from when he was designing main characters, if those were available. Nonetheless, they're still very cool to have around.
