I acquired this pamphlet while on my trip in Hyogo from a used book shop/rummage store of sorts. This wasn't a typical flea market as it wasn't outdoors, though the store owner was open to letting me rummage about. A few of the texts I acquired and even some smaller items came from this shop and were relatively cheap. I was aware of Yoshikazu Yasuhiko's involvement, while brief, in the concept and character design for Assault Suits Valken II, of which he created the original character concept art.

Many of these concepts, however, were ultimately not used and lots of visual changes were ultimately made in the end. More of these changes came to light upon digging further, with many seemingly overlooking the contributions of Kazutaka Miyatake's original mecha designs and illustrations for Valken as well.

The designs shown radiate the rarely seen design ethos of Yasuhiko's late 1990s and early 2000s career post F91 and his then presumed retirement from the medium of animation. Seeking what his life long true calling was in being a mangaka, Yasuhiko's forays into illustration also proved to be ever constant, unique and not mutually exclusive to his past animation work. Some of the best, and only advertisement work he produced, came from this very unique era right at the cusp of the online age. With that said, Mitatake's iconographic hand as Macross' mechanical designer and his legacy with Studio Nue tied in wonderfully with a SHMUP that boasted so much potential. Satoshi Urushihara's designs and paintings for Valken and Langrisser are very well documented, though as they appear, I wanted to show them as well.

This is technically a two page double sided pamphlet, but it has some unique information and mail in perks, such as a settei booklet in color featuring both Yasuhiko and Mitatake's designs for Valken II.

All items are scanned in at 600 DPI in the archives below, but were too lossless/large to upload here without multiple errors. To get the legitimate 4K/HD, please download them from the links provided.

MEGA archive - https://za.gl/XgT3ivB
Internet archive - https://elii.cc/337t
Website archive (with more information) - https://clk.sh/JGErDp
Questions? Comments? Contact me via adoggart@gmail.com or @retroanimechris on X.

As I am back from Hyogo, I am translating an onslaught of books I acquired including some other rare materials in the coming days, months, etc. I bought over 300+ books! I'm crazy!

This might be the hottest thing on this website

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LOL! I recently purchased the official guidebook and settei book tonight and when it arrives, I'll archive it as well. Thanks for visiting 👍🏾

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