Fate/Complete Material Volume 2: Character Material

I'm very impressed with this artbook. It's a pretty weighty tome, clocking in at 254 pages, and it's split into three sections: Characters, Weapons, and Rough Drafts.The Characters section contains what seems to be every single sprite art / character standing pose in the original Fate/Stay Night VN alongside interviews with Kinoko Nasu (writer/creator of F/SN) and Takashi Takeuchi (character designer) that go into the design philosophy for each character, as well as the inspiration for them, and lots of trivia about them. It covers everything from Saber to Kaede Makidera, and the interviews with Nasu and Takeuchi have a nice conversational tone which still give a ton of insight into what they were thinking when they made each character.The Weapons section details every single weapon that shows up in the Weapons screen in the game, with the addition of Archer's bow and the Overedge. Each weapon has a little blurb, basically reiterating what was in that Weapon screen but also most of the time adding a new paragraph or two of information.The Rough Draft section is all over the place (in a good way). It contains Character drafts, Weapon drafts, Event drafts, Promotional Material drafts, and even the Tarot Card drafts!The character drafts show the 'first draft' version of a lot of characters, some of which changed pretty dramatically. There's not a lot of new commentary from Takeuchi in this section, but that's probably because of just how much was covered in the first Character section. It even has a few drafts of characters that never got official character sprites but were mentioned in the VN.The weapon draft section is fairly short, but it contains commentary on most of the weapon designs featured by Hirokazu Koyama, the weapon artist for Fate. The drafts for all seven Tarot Cards are featured with commentary from Chihiro Aikura, who designed them. There are a bunch of rough drafts for Event CGs with some commentary from Takeuchi, as well as CGs that never made it into the game. Finally, there are a couple of pages of rough drafts for promotional material, again with commentary from Takeuchi.Overall there is a ton of content here, and it was very interesting to see the thought processes of all the creators. If you're a Fate fan this book deserves a place on your bookshelf.

The English translation is excellently done, and of course the art is fantastic as well. Good for die-hard fans.There's a little bit extra about all the weapons and characters compared to any other material out there, but it's mostly on the thoughts going through the designer's head.Those hoping for extra detail about the mechanics or statistics of Noble Phantasms will be disappointed, but those just looking to hear a relaxed question and answer about the thoughts behind everything will be pleased. Certainly more information than your average artbook.

This art book is great and goes well with the first volume I bought prior. It's a great book that shows the original art and development of the character designs for the fate series. I personally like these kinds of things and it just adds to my collection. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who is an avid fan of the series.

Product is excellent and I'm very satisfied with my purchase.

Great artwork, totally worth it for a fan!

Bear in mind, I haven’t opened it yet so I’m only sawing what I see. And I can say for sure, it’s in New condition, packaged just the way I like it. Its a super huge book with more than enough pages. I’m extremely happy with my purchase.

If you're a fan of the ''Nasuverse'' as a whole then this book is a great addition. It's filled with unreleased sketches of all the characters in the VN as well as comments from the creators themselves!

Such a pretty presentation <3

A great artbook for fans of the original visual novel. The second of two artbooks, this one focuses on characters, weapons and concept art. Takashi Takeuchi's distinct art breathes so much personality into this book and the translated inserts with Takeuchi and Kinoko Nasu provide great insight into the characters from not only the design perspective but also personality and character with how all of those elements play off each other as well.The character art shows the overwhelming majority of character states featured in the visual novel and as a result, it really manages to capture the spirit of these characters and much of the art should resonate strongly with fans.The weapons portion of the book features some of the most highly detailed art and basically acts as a catalogue with fairly detailed descriptions for each and every weapon. Don't expect too much that wasn't already available in the weapons tab of the visual novel but at the same time, it is much more charming to look through in a physical artbook.The rough sketches really highlight the creative process and Takeuchi's comments explain how he went about designing the characters and what struggles he faced with certain ones. This is an interesting section for not just fans but especially aspiring artists with how it breaks down certain elements of character designs but also demonstrates the creative processes involved in character design.The book is more than worth the money, it feels like a premium product and should definitely not be missed. I would struggle to recommend it to someone unfamiliar with Fate/Stay Night but wouldn't hesitate to recommend that any fan buy it.

Fantastic purchase if you're a fan of the Fate franchise.

Simplemente genial, el contenido del libro es básicamente sobre los personajes principales de Fate/StayNight y pequeñas menciones, como a Dark Saber/Dark Sakura y el Assassin Original, muestra una descripción de cada personaje y diferentes facetas del mismo en hasta 3 páginas, bastante interesante para leer, apreciar y coleccionar.

Another wonderful Material translation!The only thing I hate about it is how long I have to wait until the next one releases!If you love the fate franchise you'll thoroughly enjoy the content of these Material Volumes, Concept art, interviews on with the creators on their decisions for character designs, early drafts etc... Very fun to go through!

I love this book.It gives many insight of the author and illustrator of the Fate Stay/Night Visual novel.A must have for fans!