Fate Unlimited Guide Book

Product Information/Specifications

Introduction

I got this book on January 26 (the book was actually released on January 10, 2006) from Iwase.  It was the last one on the shelf & they didn't restock it when I went back there the following week.  I didn't know why I brought it, but I did have a want of getting an anime art book.  Plus, I'm a fan of TYPE-MOON stuff.

I didn't scan any of the pages of the guide book since it takes too much space & I don't want to wreck my book.  Availability of this book is now zip as this is out of print.

Some of the pictures aren't clear & good.  If I have time, I'll redo the bad ones & repost them.

The Review

Fate Unlimited Guide front cover

The Fate Unlimited Guide book is basically a fan book to introduce & lead it to the Fate/stay night anime show.  So, it provides an in-depth look of the Fate series.  With 86 pages, it contains articles about the anime, PC games of Fate/stay night & Fate/hollow ataraxia, interviews with the TYPE-MOON staff & seiyuus of the anime, manga strips, Fate merchandise products, & artwork.  It also has a brief article of the PS2 Fate/stay night game in development when this book was published.  The guide book covers the entire month of the Fate/stay night anime episodes (four of them) in terms of giving an overview.  As you would expect, this book contains a lot of Japanese text.  Unless you can read Japanese, this guide book could be useless unless you are going for the bonuses & pics. 

The book has some black & white & full colour pages.  A majority of the book is in full colour.  The black & white pages are mainly the rough artwork sketches.  A majority of the artwork is illustrated by the TYPE-MOON team with Studio Deen, the studio doing the anime, making the finishes.  So, a lot of it is based from the anime.

Like any special guides, it has some bonuses.  The bonuses include a Saber Stand POP, a shitajiki (Japanese for pencil board), & six postcards.  The postcards are printed in full colour on hard glossy paper.

Saber Stand POP

The Saber Stand POP is basically a plastic flat image of Saber holding Excalibur.  You can see the pic from the front cover of the guide book.  The outside cardboard packaging turns into a backing stand to hold up the POP.  I've opened the package & looked inside it.  It contains some tape to hold up the POP & the image of Saber is big indeed.  It might be too big to put on your worktable & maybe too small to be put on the floor.  I have no idea what POP stands for.

 
Fate Unlimited Guide shitajiki front & back

I never owned a shitajiki before, so I don't know if this is standard size.  Like many shitajikis, this is double sided.  The colour side is the same as the front cover of the guide book.  The back side pic of Saber is taken from a colour pic inside the book.  So, none of them are entirely original.  There are a lot of small scratches on the shitajiki when I got it.  I'm not too sure how that happened since I never used it.

Overall Conclusion

The Fate Unlimited Guide book is nice book that introduces the Fate/stay night anime just before it aired.  Personally, the included bonuses aren't too attractive but I think some Fate & TYPE-MOON fans will go for them.  I mainly went for the artwork.

On a scale of ten, Fate Unlimited Guide book gets an 8.5.  Personally, it feels funny to evaluate a book.  The book is written in Japanese, but the pictures, merchandise lineup, & bonuses will attract some attention.  Although the bonuses are nicely illustrated & pictured, they aren't really needed.  That Saber Stand POP & shitajiki are nice, but they don't serve much use.

The Fate Unlimited Guide Book is, of course, an one-time production run.  The book is out of print now since the hype of the Fate/stay night anime was pretty high before it aired.  I've seen one online auction seller sell this book for a premium before.  However, I don't know if that premium price was the market price & I have no idea how much this guide book is now worth if it still has any value.  Personally, I think it will be a bit higher than the suggested Japanese retail price.

Photos were taken using HP scanjet 4470c.

Last updated on February 19, 2008