November 01st 2005
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Swan: The Best Ballet Illustrations
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Ivy's Rating - Good
I adore Kyoko Ariyoshi's style but I'm a bit disappointed by this. After all, it was quite expensive. There is simply too much information on ballet instead of Ariyoshi's illustrations. This book is rather thin and it comes with one double-sided pullout poster, which I have painstakingly scanned and pieced together. (Sample #1) The reserve side of the poster is not of color illustrations but photograph of two ballerinas dancing. (Sorry, there is a specific terms for this but I can't remember) Half of the book is filled with colored illustrations, the remaining half are of monotone excerpts on the manga, article and photographs (of actual people) on ballet (Not exactly something I would be interested in) One of the biggest flaws in this book is the way the illustrations were laid out. Each illustration is big enough to fit perfectly on a full-page layout. Yet, it was lined up horizontally, spanning across two pages; causing the image to lose focus as it is nearer to the spine. Another thing that frustrated me is the text and the "Swan" logo slab on every single illustration. (Sample #5) Not only is it repetitive and plainly ugly, it ruined the illustrations as well. Beside the major flaws mentioned above, this is a rather nice and extremely informative book. Illustrations are all lovely indeed. However, I think most of it can be found the cover of the manga itself. Similar to the manga, there are lots of details and information on ballet all in Japanese of course. Therefore, if you're interested in the subject and are able to read the language, then this book is for you. |
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