Art of The Secret World of Arrietty

by Hiromasa Yonebayashi

The latest Ghibli masterpiece of the imagination, brought to life with sketches and stills from Arrietty.

Co-founded by the legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli films have enthralled and enchanted audiences across the world. The Art of series gives fans the opportunity to follow their favorite film from initial concept to the silver screen, thanks to hundreds of sketches, concept drawings, and animation cels, plus in-depth interviews with the creators.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Anime, Japan, Graphic Novels, Media Tie In, Manga

248 pages, Hardcover

First published January 3, 2012

Reviews

[Gretel Hernández · Rating 5 out of 5]

Otra de las grandiosas películas del estudio Ghibli; me encanto ver su arte.

[Allison Tebo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The people at Studio Ghibli are absolute geniuses.

[Anna C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hot take I think "Arrietty" is one of the most underrated Ghibli movies, probably because it doesn't have the cachet of being directed by Miyazaki (even though Miyazaki did do a lot of the early conceptual work). "Arrietty" is also so much fun visually: the differences of scale between the characters, the ingenious ways that the Borrowers repurpose human objects, etc.

[τλιϓλ · Rating 5 out of 5]

بالرغم من كوني اعشق الأغلفة السميكة إلا ان هذا الكتاب لم ينقصه غلافه الورقي شيئا من فخامته وروعته، مايعجبني هو توازن كمية المعلومات، التفاصيل، الرسوم بشكل جميل للغاية، كتب ستوديو غبلي هي منافس قوي لكتب آرت ديزني وبيكسار ودريم ووركس وغيرها من الشركات التي تفهم أهمية هذه الكتب لعشاق الأفلام.

كتاب رائع حقا ومسرورة للغاية لأنني امتلكته.

[rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this book secondhand and the cover and the first pages were a bit messed up BUT I couldn’t find the book anywhere else and Arrietty is my all time favorite movie! The book is beyond beautiful; it contains first ever concepts, character design from the movie and behind the scenes of the creation. A very very beautiful book.

[Tylerclem · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is placed in the old house on a mountain. A boy named Sho met a dwarf that grandparents told him before. The dwarf lives under the house trying not to be found by humans. This book is about the meeting and parting between the 14 years old girl dwarf, Arrietty and a boy Sho. Sho wanted to know about the Arrietty so he kept giving her something and trying to involved in her living. But dwarf should not get involved with humans so Arrietty wanted Sho to not to see her anymore. I knew this book from few years ago but I never read it. It was a good opportunity to read this great book.

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures on my blog)

Since I already have the Japanese edition of this book オブ 借りぐらしのアリエッティ, I borrowed the English one from Basheer Graphic Books for this review. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook or visit their website.

This review is going to be similar to the one for the Japanese book.

What's different here is the cover art, and also the dust jacket is smooth instead of textured. It's translated by VIZ Media who does a good job, as usual. The book has 248 pages but only 208 pages are on the art with the rest being the script. The film's directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, a new director.

The book's loaded with colourful concept art. There are character designs, storyboards, background paintings and film stills. Much of the concept art is in pencil and watercolour as usual. I see some drawn by Hayao Miyazaki but the rest seems to be drawn by others -- I could be wrong. The drawings are captioned but not credited.

The art is beautiful, of course. Characters designs are wonderful, cute, and pastel colours are nice. One thing with the character design is, they seem to look very similar to previous films from the studio. Looking through the book, I kept thinking that the characters here are the same "actors" as previous films but set in a different script. Arrietty's the main character and she's a tiny person. So it's interesting to see how household items are incorporated and used as gadgets.

The storyboards are great, really telling the story without any words. Just by looking at them, you know the story or idea works. Afterall, this is concept art.

The background paintings are of lush green countrysides, which you could really mistake them for coming from Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke. And there are paintings of Arrietty's home and the different locations. The art direction is unmistakable, uniquely Studio Ghibli.

It's a beautiful book for fans of Studio Ghibli.

[Elizabeth Periale · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://xoxoxoe.blogspot.com/2012/02/s...

"The beautiful watercolor sketches are interspersed with actual stills and background art from the film, with essays by the artists explaining the concepts behind storyboarding and the script. The Secret World of Arrietty is based on the popular novel The Borrowers by Mary Norton. The book also includes the complete voice-over script of the film, as well as the lyrics to three songs that appear in the film, "The Neglected Garden," "Our House Below," and "Arrietty's Song," all written and performed in the film by French musician Cécile Corbel."

[Allyna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book on how The Secret World of Arrietty was made. It was so beautiful and all the talent that went into the production of the film is amazing. I especially loved all of the concept art in the book and how it gave certain tips on how an anime film is made. Being an amateur anime artist myself, this book really inspired me as to what I may be able to do one day if my talents get good enough. :)

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big Miyazaki fan, and The Borrowers has always been one of my favorite childhood novels. I thought the movie version was okay, but I didn't love it like I love most Miyazaki films. It was interesting to see all the concept art from start to finish, so if you are a fan of animation, that's a draw for this book.

[Nonno Kato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arrietty, a tiny teenager, lives with her parents in a house, secretly and unknown to the house owner. As she gets sugar cubes and other supplies from beneath the floorboards, she soon meets a 12 years old boy and forms a secret relation.

Would this affect Arrietty's family?

[Black Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning.
As my favourite ghibli film, I enjoyed every page of this book. A luxury item for the fans but worth it in my opinion. Plus you get a bit of insight into the work of animation and all the steps it needs before the film is released.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning

[Aparri Hazel]

this is a good story

[Romi (likes books) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal. Absolutely gorgeous. It even has the lyrics to the songs in the back!

[Lê Tuyền ICHI · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chuyện về những người tí hon.
Tạm.

[Kiersten Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Felicia and Tony 🫶🏻 this was a good way to get me back from my reading slump

[voluptuous_sheen · Rating 5 out of 5]

i'd love the concept of little people!

i love shaun..and arrietty :D

ok so here it goes.


arriety was a borrower(little people who borrow little things)
they only get little unnoticed things, and only borrow(get) what they really need.
she lives with her father and mother,
they live happily beneath the floors of a family town house.
aside from them they don't know any borrowers alive.
their extinct.

shaun,took vacation before his heart operation..so that's how they met..

on the 1st night of arrielly's burrowing(that's how they call their travel to the humans house to get things), shaun saw her sneeking around..

the villain in here was the caretaker of the house..

the ending was so-so..since it was the best ending for both of them..
arrielly's family move out and travel to join other borrowers..

just that i want to see that shaun took the operation, and it was a success
and i do want them to meet again in the future.. lol!

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Studio Ghibli films & Hayao Miyazaki's work & this is the latest movie released by the studio. I much prefer the Japanese title of The Borrower Arrietty & I loved the movie in Japanese though I've yet to see it in English. As a fan of Studio Ghibli's amazing work I was very interested to read about the process involved in creating the wonderful worlds they create & was thoroughly pleased to see the early sketches & story boards that are the beginning & following all the details to the ending result which never fail to amaze. Aside from the fact that the animation is beautiful a big reason for the movies they make being so great is that Hayao Miyazaki is a fantastic writer & creates some of the most wonderful, amazing, magical worlds ever. He tells stories worth telling, creates characters worth knowing & when he adapts people's work he makes it better.

[Kitty Gia Ngan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The movie is beautiful, so are the pictures from the book.

3 stars because I was hoping for a generous description on production processes and more exploration of the characters’ traits, how they relate to their world, things that would make such world believable, etc. A lot of weird questions buzzing on in my head but everything was left unaddressed. I guess that’s what artbooks are for.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was really cool to see the time and effort it took to make this film. I enjoyed seeing the team's thought process through the text and how the story changed as time went on. It has concept art and background art that's really pretty and interesting to look at.

[Mozon · Rating 5 out of 5]

معنى الفن الحقيقي.