I only bought 3 things at Abunaicon, since I was more focusing on recovering money than spending it.  But they were all very worthwhile purchases.  I already showed you the two Power Rangers tshirts, but I also picked up the Phienix Wright Artbook! (I think there are more of them floating around somewhere, because this didn’t have nearly as much concept art as I hoped it would.  Would like to get my hands on any others, if they exist.)

It’s really cool to see the style of the game art change over the years. It’s hard to tell, because they almost never list the artist’s name unless they are making a comment on the art, but I think they kept Kazuya Nuri as the artist for the entire series.

The art starts off in the early games with dead lines (aka the opposite of dynamic, tapered lines.  The kind you would draw with a micron, not a brush) and you can see the transition from “Trials and Tribulations” onward with more dimensional and dynamic tapered lines.

But my favorite as far as technique for the art is that for Apollo Justice (which I have not yet played).  Kazuya obviously is now using a tablet, or perhaps a Cintiq to do more painterly graphics.  What I really love is seeing the full character sheets where you can clearly see the director said “Oh, cut that part off, her arm won’t even be showing on the screen,” and so there is just a rough sketch in that area.  It allows me to see exactly what the drawing process was.  I’m definitely going to be making heavy reference of this book for a few upcoming projects. =)

Also, on a slightly related not: TRUCY IS SO CUTE OH MY GOD SHE’S SO CUTE

She also reminds me of Trixie. Even their names are eerily similar.