The Legend of Korra: The Art of the Animated Series–Book Three: Change

Legend of Korra: The Art of the Animated Series–Book Three: Change HC

Creators
Writer:Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, Joaquim Dos SantosCover Artist:Bryan Konietzko
Genre: Fantasy

Publication Date:January 21, 2015Format:FC, 184 pages; HC, 9″ x 12″Price:$34.99Age range:8ISBN-10:1-61655-565-3ISBN-13:978-1-61655-565-8

Though the Legend of Korra has ended as a show, not everything is over just yet. There may be future stories to tell. But for now, we have a chance to once again go behind the scenes of the series and look at what made this series so great.

The Art Book for Book Three: Change, is now available to purchase via Dark Horse. And much like its predecessor, it’s a book that true fans of the series will enjoy.

It was noted in the Art Book for Book Two that Spirits was very hard on creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. They had a different art team, they had to make revisions, change the story at places, it was very stressful on them. Instantly, from their notes at the beginning of the Book Three Art Book, Change was very good to them. In fact you can feel the enthusiasm they had for this book in particular. For them, this was the pinnacle of Legend of Korra.

As in the previous art book, you’re going to see numerous pieces of art from Book Three of Legend of Korra. Set pieces, character designs, storyboards of animation, the whole process essentially to make a show like Legend of Korra. I find I like these art books because I get to go into the minds of the creators and see what they were thinking when they did certain things. Hearing Bryan and Michael chat about the tiniest details with such passion is honestly a beautiful thing, and something that fans should both enjoy and appreciate.

One thing you’ll notice is the love of the villains for Book Three. Zaheer, Ghazan, Ming Hua, and P’Li all get a lot of book space as they break down both their looks and personality. Many a fan consider this crew the best villains from Legend of Korra, and it’s not hard to see and remember why.

The 185 page art book breaks down every chapter and shows numerous areas, characters, set pieces, props, and more. Showing, and telling, what went into making Book Three. It’s a fascinating breakdown, filled with commentary from the creators, writers, and artists.

However, though this book is full of beautiful pieces and details, some feel left out. A key moment of Book Three feels…omitted, possible because of what it was depicting, and yet an equally dark moment was given multiple pages. It’s very curious. Furthermore, a detail about Zaheer being a master martial artist is noted numerous times in this book, and yet in the series itself it’s not even mentioned. I remember wondering how Zaheer could be such a master Airbender nearly right off the bat, and yet we got no on-screen explanation. Yet we get one here, it’s a little frustrating that we couldn’t have gotten a few dialogue bits in the Book itself about his mastery of the arts.

Outside of that though, this book is amazing. It’ll only take you an hour or so depending on how much you look at the art and read the text, but it’s worth it to any collector or Legend of Korra fan.