[dict]
e·ques·tri·an (-kwstr-n)
adj.
Of or relating to horseback riding or horseback riders.
Depicted or represented on horseback: an equestrian statue of a famous monarch.

n.
One who rides a horse or performs on horseback.
[/dict]

It seems you mistook a semantic argument for a grammatical one. Maybe he really hates jockeys?

-mkawa

Um... actually the man was correct, at least in that equestrian is indeed a noun. It is also an adjective. But I'm afraid that equine is only an adjective.

But what I don't understand is what dead people on horseback have to do with OSTs... ;-)

Anyway, to get back to today's topic... My favourite art book is the Xenogears Perfect Works book. It far surpasses any of the other books I've seen, mostly because it's not just an art book. Of course, it has tons of cool sketches, CG renders and so on, but they're not the main focus of the book. They only serve to illustrate the text, which is a comprehensive and detailed explanation of the whole Xenogears setting.

I just wish they'd print one of these books for each of the Final Fantasy games... It would be nice to see what the creators have to say about their creations, while at the same time being entertained by high quality pre- and post-production art. :-)

Of course the catch is that it's all in Japanese, and the chances of there ever being an English release are pretty much nil. But for those of us who do know the language, it's a treasure trove. If they did release this sort of book in English, though, would it really sell? I'm sure a lot of us reading this would buy it the second it hit the shelves, but in truth there really aren't that many of us, are there? It's sad, but I just can't see it being a viable business option.

Just to close up, my favourite section from Xenogears Perfect Works is the character section. Not only do you get beautiful artwork of each character, you also get a history and an explanation of their connections into the other characters (essential for Xenogears). For example, with Fei there's a detailed illustrated explanation of his history with Id and his other personalities.

One more thing before I go. Someone mentioned a few days ago that they'd like to see a new Double Agent from somewhere other than America. I wholeheartedly agree. It's not that we don't like what you guys in the US of A write, but it would be really nice to see someone with a more international perspective writing a column for a change.

-Thorfinn Tait
Akita, Japan

Hands down, my favorite artbook is Xenogears Perfect Works. I'm a huge Kunihiko Tanaka fan and an even bigger Xenogears fan. This book has everything, from the eighty pages of just mech designs, twice as much devoted to character designs and studies, and background info! If you can read even a little of Japanese, it's well worth it just to be able to read some of the oddities in there, like that weird.

But also, I have to say, I'd really like to see Squaresoft and Digicube release an artbook of Tetsuya Nomura's artwork or at least a Vagrant Story Perfect Works. On the first choice, I realize that a lot of Final Fantasy fans would think this was sacralige, but with the constant release of volumes and volumes of Amano's work, wouldn't it be nice to see at least one book of the other FF character designer's work? I'm personally a fan of Nomura's work (and Amano's, so don't kill me....yet), and I know I wouldn't be the only person interested in seeing his work collected in something other than FF Museum (which Amano still gets most of the glory). Granted that Amano is Squaresoft's star illustrator, Nomura's still incredible talented and influential in the online artist communitty.

And now the latter, the VS Perfect Works. It's never going to happen, considering that it seems that Squaresoft almost doesn't want to admit the game even exits *sighs*, but Akihiko Yoshida's work was outstanding, and the just the way his art was translated into game sprites, and the recreation of the historial French architechture and landscape, the mood, the lighting, EVERYTHING...it deserves something better than the overall treatment the game received. I know I'm not alone on this....

-Lea Johnson

At first, like alot of people, I'd want to say that Yoshitaka Amano's art is incredible. Unfortunately, a lot of changes are made between initial design process, and what actually shows up on the screen during the game. While this was prettymuch standard due to the sprite process, even in a game like FF9, the characters were shrunk, given less detail, etc.. Even for the CG scenes, in order to remain consistant with whoever did the character designs other than the main ones.

However, there are some cases in which Amano's designs have been preserved: The CG sequences (however small they may be) for FFV and FFVI. My favorite of these changes being the ones for FFV: Faris was restored to her awesome trenchcoat-wearing self, as opposed to a purple-haired could-be-any-gender-according-to-laws-of-anime person that said "arr" alot. Galuf was restored to more of a Cyan-esque character, as opposed to a shaggy brown-haired old guy. The other girls looked, well, better, and more natural. And then Bartz (I never know what to call him..) looks ultimately cooler with his short white hair and pale skin.

We now break away from Amano, for his briliant art has been tainted so much by the development process.. The art that I'm currently wanting more of is that for Vagrant Story. While FFT's art was done by the same guy, it simply doesn't come near the incredible uniqueness I feel was given to every single VS character. From Sydney's artifical limbs, to Rosencrantz's wierd red spiky jumpsuit and golden lip stud, I would love to get my hands on an artbook of these designs, as well as the imaginative enemy/boss designs. And what else I like is the fact that all these designs are perfectly rendered in all the in-game models. Great stuff. Hell, throw in a copy of the script too, and the OST. Heh.. but now I'm getting off-topic.

(As another two cents of character design work, I'd like to mention that Tetsuya Nomura's designs, despite everyone's "___ looks like ___!" rants, are very original in my eyes. Any similarities between his characters, as mentioned by him, are either intentional (Yuna looking like Rinoa), or incidental. I really don't think Tidus looks like Squall in the least.. anyways, yeah. Sorry for rambling on so long.)

-Cobalt Katze

Anyway, my favorite Art book has got to be FFIX's Art Book. The cover art is beautiful, despite the fact that it's not by Amano. Plenty of Amano sketches are found inside, but most of us have already seen them so it's no biggie. It has nearly the sketchesf for nearly every major location in the book, and contains a plethora of NPC sketches. My big gripe about the book is the fact that there are hardly ANY main character sketches (one page per character, that's all).

However, there is an unfair advantage here- besides the fact that FF is my favorite series. I really haven't seen many Art books for games released here in the States. You can only seem to find them for major series, and even then they're usually imports. I have a few art books, mostly for movies (Matrix...I LOVE that book, it's a friggin comic book...) and only one video game Art book. Last week, I was in NYC and I visited the Virgin Megastore there. Despite their fairly large anime and imports section, there was not one game art book in the entire store. Jeez, anyone know where can I find more of 'em?

-Twister

I just wanted to make an observation about recent Double Agents. If anything, we all enjoyed the duel team of Tami and Andrea doing the DA column, and found it to be very amusing and interesting. So, I suggest, to add even more views, ideas and experience/knowledge to the DA position, that two smart, witty and opinionated people be paired up to do this column. Just a thought.

And about the art, I don't think it'll do well in North America. The reason behind this is because art and stuff like that isn't as deeply appreciated in the West as it is in the East; essentially, North American culture just wouldn't fit with the art books that well. Sure, someone'll buy it, but it isn't as much as a priority to the general population here, compared to the general population in Japan.

I hope I haven't rambled; the lack of sleep has been catching up to me, and I just can't think straight.

-Viator

Favorite artbook? I'd have to say the Seiken Densetsu 3 Illustration Book. Nice hardcover book with full page gorgeous color pics of each character's intro, neutral class, light light class, and dark dark class, plus major villains and helpers. And Yuuki had commentary for the characters and the class pictures. And best of all, there were sketches in the back for each picture, so you could see how some of the class pics evolved! At the very end, there was more commentary and some really adorable pics and comics of the characters (Angela and Charlotte kicking around Hawkeye for wanting some candy... Hee hee!). Was it worth the $60 plus shipping fees? Heck, yeah!

Second place would have to go to Chrono Cross Missing Piece (can you tell I like Noboteru Yuuki?). More droolsome full page color pics and commentaries, plus sketches of different costumes and appearances for the characters that weren't used in the back.

Now if we were going into anime artbooks as well, that'd be a different story... ~drools over her Sailormoon manga illustration books~

-Staci/Nadia~
lover of the disgustingly kawaii

-adam