Anime Architecture: Imagined Worlds and Endless Megacities is the definitive visual guide to the cityscapes and built environments of the most celebrated anime films, revealing the original background paintings, storyboards, and early drafts behind the genre's most visionary works.
About This Book
Before digital tools reshaped animation production, anime background artists were constructing imagined megacities by hand — layered, obsessively detailed environments that would go on to influence cinema, literature, games, and architectural thinking worldwide. Anime Architecture pulls back the curtain on that pre-digital creative process, presenting the source material of Japan's most revered directors and illustrators as both cultural artefacts and speculative urban visions. Drawing on exclusive behind-the-scenes material from eight landmark films, the book positions these imagined built worlds not merely as film props but as serious exercises in worldbuilding and near-future urbanism. Essential for anyone working at the intersection of visual culture and spatial design.
Key Features
- 256 pages of original background paintings, storyboards, and early production drafts
- Author: Stefan Riekeles
- Exclusive material from: AKIRA (1988), Patlabor: The Movie (1989), Patlabor 2: The Movie (1993), Ghost in the Shell (1995), Metropolis (2001), Innocence (2004), Tekkonkinkreet (2006), Rebuild of Evangelion (2007, 2009)
- Published by Thames & Hudson, 2009
What You'll Discover
- How hand-painted anime backgrounds constructed entire speculative urban systems — complete with infrastructure, density, and atmospheric detail — before digital production became standard
- The visual logic underpinning Japan's most influential animated megacities, from the dystopian sprawl of AKIRA to the layered post-human environments of Ghost in the Shell
- The working methods of the industry's most revered background illustrators and directors, traced through original source documents not previously published
- How these imagined built worlds function as projections of near-future urbanism, carrying implications for architectural and design thinking beyond the screen
About the Author
Stefan Riekeles is the author of this definitive study of anime architectural imagery. Further biographical details are [Details available upon request].
Specifications
- Format: Quarterbound (no jacket)
- Pages: 256
- Dimensions: 280 x 215 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9780500294529
- Publisher: Thames & Hudson
- Publication Date: 2009
Perfect For: Architects and designers interested in speculative urbanism and worldbuilding; animation scholars and film historians; visual culture researchers; and serious collectors of Japanese cultural and design publishing.