Shining Series artist releases his art book ‘Tony’s Artworks From Origin’ tomorrow

TonysArtOriginRegardless of what you think of Tony Takas art since taking over the Shining franchise’s art duties all the way back in 2004, he seems to have acquired a massive following in Japan. While the Shining series has had trouble selling copies of their games, it seems that Japan responded positively to Tony Taka’s character designs. So much so that there is a ton of Shining series merch being sold, more so than the actual games. Tony Taka has even released a couple of Shining related art books as well, this will be more broad artwork he has done in the past.

AmiAmi will be selling the “Tony’s ART works from Origin” book which is set to feature various character designs from his career including magazine covers and vocaloids he has designed, including a long form interview looking at his history these past 20 years. The book will come in A4 page format, will have a hardcover backing and clear slip on box. The book will set you back 5,000 yen ($46), will have 100 pages and feature 80 illustrations. The details of the book also brag that about 30 of the character designs in the book got made into figurines. Good for you Tony Taka, I guess.

Hit the jump to check out preview pages of some of the artwork that will be in the book:

[Via AmiAmi]

Shining Ark gets Shining Wind character cameo

If you live in Japan, you might want to know that if you pre-order the next Shining RPG, Shining Ark, SEGA will be giving you a crossover character from Shining Wind for free. You will get Rouna Murasame, she won’t have story elements but will be playable during battle.

Sucks that we won’t see this game in the west. Shining Ark comes out February 28th on the PSP.