SF20: The Art of Street Fighter

The media could not be loaded.  SF20: The Art of Street Fighter is actually a translated edition of the Japanese art book Street Fighter Art Works (ISBN:4862332145). It's really great that Capcom (or Udon Entertainment) has decided to translate it and pushed it out so fast.SF20 is a 20th anniversary tribute art book to Street Fighter, which was actually released in 1987. This is a pretty thick 320-page paperback. It doesn't come with a dust jacket like the Japanese edition. On the non-glossy pages are printed with over 1500 illustrations, paintings and sketches. The spine is a bit inflexible for a book this thick and will definitely have wrinkles if you open the pages too wide.The illustrations are divided into chapters by artists, namely: * Akiman * Kinu Nishimura * CRMK * Daigo Ikeno * Daichan * Edayan * ShinkiroAkiman is the designer for the classic Street Fighter characters. Daigo Ikeno is the art director and character designer for Street Fighter IV. The last chapter is a collection of work from other artists.Since this is a character based game, you'll see a lot of character designs. They are a mixture in sizes from small portraits to the full page group splash art. Most are full colored illustrations in myriad manga styles. There are captions for everything and several artists interviews.Work comes from all the various different versions of Street Fighter, including spin-offs like Super Puzzle Fighter II, or even some SNK-vs-CAPCOM illustrations -- rivalry between King of Fighters and Street Fighter is strong and burning. Included also are the latest Street Fighter IV character profile designs used in the game.The art here spans over an impressive 20 years, I'm very sure there will be more to come. This satisfying thick compilation is recommended to all Street Fighter fans and collectors.If you have bought Street Fighter Tribute and Udon's Art of Capcom and like them, I'm very sure you'll like this book as well.(More pictures are available on my blog. Just visit my Amazon profile for the link.)

I'm thrilled to have both SF20 & SF15, and I'm definitely looking forward to future volumes like this.Considering strictly video game coverage- I might actually prefer SF15, a.k.a. Street Fighter: Eternal Challenge, to SF20- even though I'm happy I have both. SF15 has more actual video game screenshots than SF20, and it includes a detailed history of this amazing game series. Starting in 1987 with the original Street Fighter arcade game, it progresses to detail the landmark success of Street Fighter II in '91, its many editions, the Alpha series, and then Street Fighter III in '97, with its various follow-ups. 1987-1997? That's an *amazingly* progressive 10-year period.I guess because this detailed history is in SF15, UDON didn't want to cover all that exact same material again, so SF20 is dedicated primarily to art & character design, with brief artist comments & interviews mixed-in all throughout. Both volumes share a lot of the same artwork, but SF20 often reprints it at a different size & includes all-new Street Fighter IV related material, so fans will be able to appreciate the differences. I love all these great artists, with Kinu Nishimura probably being my favorite. I highly recommend getting both these anniversary editions, if you can find a decent price.Artists here are presented in this order: Akiman; Kinu Nishimura; CRMK; Ikeno; Dai-Chan; Edayan; Shinkiro; Shoei; Sensei; Shima Maeda; Harumaru; Akiko Nishizawa; Hideki Ishikawa; Uji; Shinsuke Komaki; Ooishi; L. George; Sakura; UDON; Polygon Pictures; Tamio; Syukou Murase; Falcoon; Nona (SNK Playmore); Takuji Kawano (Bandai Namco Games); "Namco x Capcom" Team; Collaborative Illustrations; and then Capcom Design Team.I'm hoping a future anniversary edition includes a brief history similar to SF15, with a greater amount of in-game screenshots. I'm sure it'll be a successful book, however they intend to present it.

What can I say? The book itself it's great. Some of the pictures will take you back to those cherished 90's days when you were reading the manual of the game, being amazed by the characters.There are tons of artwork here, some of these I've never seen before, and I love that. Practically every version of SF games has some of it's artwork put in here. If you're like me who likes to look at the book to get some ideas of what do you want to draw next, you'll find this book very pleasing.The one issue I have with this item, it's the binding. If anything, it is at least uncomfortable. When you are browsing through the pages I would really like to open the book a little bit more to have a better view of the pages works, but I'm just to afraid I might take a page off the book. It's the only issue I find in this.For everything else, I really recommend you to check it out, specially if you're a fan of the game.Regards.

I've had my copy of "SF20: The Art of Street Fighter" for about maybe 6 months -1 year? I got it around my birthday. And I was really anxious to get it because I've been wanting it for a long time. (P.S I wanted it in 2 days top haha. "Fast delivery") the package came at about 6-8 at night. It's a bit funny. I wasn't mad, I was scared that it wouldn't come. But like I said my doorbell was rung and there it was. Oh my god I'll never forget the feeling of holding the thick book (almost 400+ pages) in my hands.I litterally ripped the box in half, and then glorious. Every cent spent on this book is so worth it. Every page is filled with detail beyond belief. Every Chun - Li picture is on point. I'm still trying to find a clear protective jacket for the book. I want to keep as long as I live.Long Live SF! <3

This book is over 300 pages ( most of which are full colour ) of the official artwork used in the Street Fighter games, as well as official Promotional and concept artworks too.There are a great variation in styles and artwork throughout the book , but all capturing the spirit of the characters despite their differences.Your favourite characters are bound to be represented in this book in some form or another , as this book covers most games the Street Fighters appear in.Alongside some art pieces are thoughts of the artist themselves on their thoughts certain pieces of work and the characters, as well as self-critique.I find the quality of the artwork throughout the book rather amazing itself.There are also short Q & A interviews with each of the major artists of this book exploring their inspirations and interests , both concerning the art and the game series too.All in all this is most likely to be the best compilation of Official Street Fighter artwork you can find in one book. So I greatly recommend it to dedicated Capcom/Street Fighter fans , who are into the artistic side of the game and appreciate good character designsThe only downer is that it is paperback which is pretty sad when you consider how heavy the book itself is.... the paper/card used for the outer cover is rather flimsy/ easy to damage. A protective sleeve would have been much appreciated or if they would release a hardback cover edition it would be perfect.

This is a really nice book. There's 320 pages packed with various Street Fighter art from the last 20 years.The art is divided up by illustrator rather than following a chronological progression and shows a wealth of art pieces from the game series, all rendered in their own unique way by each respective artist.As such you get to see all the wonderful Street Fighter characters in different styles. There's rougher sketches, clean line vector styles, character poses, cute chibi styles images through to more fully illustrated and painted scenes. Some are simple, others are incredibly detailed and complex - just a whole wealth of iconic Street Fighter imagery.The images are gorgeous and for a fan this is probably a no brainer purchase. I think this will also have a broader appeal to anyone interested in character design, graphic art, illustration, cartoons, manga, anime etc, even if they don't particularly like the games. If you're fan of all of those things (like me) then it's a joy to look at.Sadly but perhaps understandably there's the omission of Marvel's characters and only brief appearances of some of the SNK characters that appeared in the crossover games. I wouldn't let that deter you though as it's brilliant resource and source of inspiration.My only real negative comment is that it's shame there's no hardback widely available as like one of the other reviewers put, the spine is likely to easily crease unless you're gentle with it.And for the book sniffers out there, it smells quite nice too.

This book is beautiful. Amazing pics, sketches, concepts that any and all SF fans will enjoy. The translation is a bit off on some of the artists description but that doesn't matter as the pictures are (obviously) the highlight. At £18 you cannot go wrong with this wedge of a book.

Si te gustan los libros de ilustraciones y a poco que sepas quienes son los personajes de Street Fighter, este libro te va a encantar.Contiene una colección amplísima de imágenes agrupadas por cada ilustrador que ha estado trabajando a lo largo de los 20 primeros años de la evolución de Street Fighter. Son 319 páginas repletas de bocetos, diseños de personajes e ilustraciones a todo color con una calidad de papel y de impresión fantásticas.Como única pega le pongo es la encuadernación, que al ser de tapa blanda y pegada en un libro tan grueso con unas páginas de tanto gramaje se aprecia delicado al abrirlo... Me da la sensación de que no aguantará demasiado abrir y cerrar...

Udon,der Herausgeber dieses Sammelbandes,geizt echt nicht mit schönen Motiven!Auf fantastischen 320 Seiten findet ihr klassische alte,wie neue Motive aus den nun 20 Jahren Street Fighter Geschichte!Neben Charackterskizzen und Artworks kommen auch die Künstler vereinzelt zu Wort und erinnern sich daran was Street Fighter ihnen bedeutet und ihnen möglich gemacht hat.Die Druckqualität ist echt hochwertig und die Verleimung des Bildbandes auch klasse,so das man ohne Angst zu haben die Seiten auseinander klappen kann,ohne befürchten zu müßen das sie sich lösen.Ich kann das Buch jedem Street Fighter Fan ans Herz legen!