What are thematic art books?
This is not a shelf to enter by the name of a work, nor by the name of an artist. What this category gathers are art books whose protagonist is the thing that is drawn: old Tokyo storefronts, imaginary houses, robots, creatures, stockings, someone's room. If the art book of a film or a manga is the record of a work, the books on this shelf are each an independent visual universe.
Books that document the imaginary, books that redraw the real
The books on this shelf share a trait: they document the imaginary as if it existed. Houses with a Story (Monogatari no Ie), by Seiji Yoshida, is a collection of scenery designs that draws imaginary houses — houses that could appear in a fairy tale — accompanied by their floor plans and the data of their inhabitants. There is a book that compiles fictional harmful creatures in the form of a research report, a volume that unfolds the blueprints of an imaginary hotel, an illustrated diary of a hundred days on a desert island. In all of them, worlds that do not exist appear drawn in the format of a document. And there are books that start from the opposite side, that of reality. Tokyo Storefronts, by Mateusz Urbanowicz, is the series that portrays in watercolor, one by one, old storefronts that exist in Tokyo; first published online in 2016, its success brought it to print. The collections of Tokyo Genso redraw the most recognizable landscapes of Tokyo as silent ruins covered in vegetation. The imaginary is documented, the real is redrawn: in both directions there is a work that only drawing can do.
From animation backgrounds to a book of their own
This shelf also borders the animated films category. Urbanowicz worked at the CoMix Wave Films studio, where he handled the backgrounds for Makoto Shinkai films such as your name.; the second volume of his collections, Tokyo at Night, includes a conversation with Shinkai himself. The lights of the city and the presence of the buildings that pass as backgrounds in the films become here, freed from the story, a book.
Choosing by theme
The contents of the shelf unfold by theme. If cities and architecture interest you: the storefronts and the nights of Tokyo, the imaginary shops, the houses with a story. If robots interest you: from the Gundam design book to the artworks of super robots or the 30th anniversary book of Giant Robo THE ANIMATION. There are creature books — anthologies of half-beast characters, compendiums of fictional beings —, collections by artists devoted to the texture of stockings and uniforms, and an anthology on life in one's own room. You don't need to know any title: if you like buildings, if you like robots, you already have somewhere to start.
Toward visual universes you don't yet know
All the books in this category are original Japanese editions (some include text in Japanese and English). Choosing by your favorite work, choosing by your favorite artist and, in third place, choosing by the thing you like to see drawn: that third path is this shelf. Here are worlds that no one has yet brought to the screen.