Videogame character and Bishoujo figure design illustrations take center stage in Shunya Yamashita's latest art book Beautiful Noise. Amongst art for games such as Disgaea, Mass Effect and Lollipop Chainsaw, and illustrations for franchises such as Neon Genesis Evangelion, Star Wars, X-Men, Ghost Busters and Men in Black, a great deal of the artist's attention went to his illustrations for Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Unsurprisingly, Nina Williams is the obvious star of the 37-page Tekken section...
While most of Tekken's male cast and some of the lesser characters such as Doctor Bosconovitch, Violet and Lili have to share a page with other characters, our deadly Irish assassin received a whopping 3 full pages just for herself (..well, Anna managed to sneak herself into one of the pictures, only to receive the obligatory boot). Starting off the Tekken part of the book is an illustration of Nina in Shunya Yamashita's version of her famous default purple combat attire (an alteration of the original design I absolutely adore for its very futuristic design, the detailed armor and those avant-garde pagoda shoulders), followed by a special black&white scene depicting a fight between the Williams sisters, and, on the last illustrated page of the book and concluding the Tekken theme, a special character artwork of Nina in front of architectural structures. Her iconic character status really shines through in Yamashita's fourth and newest art book. Let's hope Kotobukiya follows suit and finally includes Nina in their line of Yamashita designed Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Bishoujo figurines.
Shunya Yamashita Art Works - Beautiful Noise. Media Pal. March 2013. 102 pages. Japanese/English. Softcover/Dust Jacket. ISBN4896102673
Video screenshots courtesy of Parka Blogs, where you will find a review and links to retailers. Parka Blogs also uploaded a video showcasing the entire art book.
Three notes on this.
ReplyDelete1) YAY MAXIMUM NINA FACETIME. Given how many of the 'special' Japanese artists contracted by Namco for past Tekkens tend to ignore our lady, it's nice that Yamashita seems to be a fan of hers; there doesn't seem to be any reason for that 3rd illustration especially besides 'he felt like drawing more Nina'.
2) Agreed on the tweaked combat suit. Plus, given the aforementioned artists' works being used for bonus outfits in past games, would it really be asking too much for this design to appear in T7 or X Street Fighter or whatever the next game is? (I don't have a lot of hope for all-new custom items appearing in Revolution, assuming they even bother adding Nina to it eventually)
3) That second illustration, though...ergh. Look, I love that there's so much Nina in the collection, I like that Yamashita wanted to shake things up after just drawing individual characters striking poses for however long, and however tired the storyline is I'm not against featuring more Nina vs Anna stuff. It's just the way they're posed...again, I get it, limited page space vs needing to present both characters at a large enough size to feature all the details. But the way they're connected, especially with Anna's legs scissoring (there's no other word for it) Nina's waist, it...it doesn't look like a fight per se. It's the other thing. S'not appropriate. :/
HAHA!!! lol @ scissoring! Yeah, I guess if your name is Shunya Yamashita and you get the chance to work on a piece about the Williams sisters you just can't help doing it. I'm glad he put all his sexually charged ideas and steamy Williams fantasies into this piece, though. I would have hated to see Nina getting the obligatory outfit sluttification like all the other girls.
DeleteAnyway, I couldn't agree more. I never understood the whole Williams sisters lesbing out thing, and it's something (among other things) I shook my head at in disbelief watching the 2010 Tekken movie.
The tweaked combat suit as an in-game outfit, that's something worth spamming Harada's twitter for! Must ... resist...
What happens to Nina and anna
DeleteGreat article about shunya, you are share here Thanks
ReplyDeleteWhat happens to Nina and Anna
ReplyDeleteNina: I dropped you 'You are a joke'
ReplyDeleteAnna: Not yet
Nina: What are you doing?
Anna: I embarrass you in front of everyone.
NinA: What's so embarrassing?
Anna: Look at the picture while we were fighting.
NinA: What's in it?
Anna: Focus on with me.
NinA: What's wrong?
Anna: My ass and looks make you embarrassed.
NinA: This is bad
Anna: You remember in Tekken 5 when you put your foot on Raven and you were talking cold.
NinA: Yeah
Anna: So Raven will see that picture and be happy, especially when he sees my ass, which is so embarrassing for you.