abec: Sword Art Online Vol. 9 (Alicization Beginning)
Translation of abec’s personal blog posts.
Mostly comments on the illustrations, since abec’s the illustrator for the series and all.
abec’s blog. (mature content warning)
Sword Art Online 9 Alicization Beginning.
It’s obviously advised to have read through the novels, or seen its illustrations first.
Spoilers are slight if there are even any.
*-s are links to notes. Click on them.
I’m not reproducing any images, so their positions will be marked within {description}s.
Might be a good idea to open a copy of the original post to see the images.
19th February 2012
SAO 9 Now On Sale!
{SAO Vol. 9 cover}
It’s now on sale~ You’ve probably bought it already, but all the same, I ask for your support.
And the drama CD preceding the anime is being released.
For details, refer to the address below.
[Accel World] + [Sword Art Online] Drama CD
The last day to reserve it is tomorrow, the 20th of February…!
Note it down! (just like what happened with Yoshii Hotori-sensei)
Anyway, more about the new book with spoilers in the READ MORE.
Character Design
As Alice and Eugeo are key characters of the 4th part from now on,
I figured the web edition readers should have a rather fixed image of them.
Honestly, I’ve never seen those two in the web editions, so I don’t know whether I’m close or far, though.
Just how was it? Especially Alice; there were various difficult points about her, so I was really troubled.
I would be glad if they suit the tastes of both the old and new readers.
Cover
There was the idea of making it a 3-person cover with Alice included,
but it ended up with these two. I thought about uploading that rough too,
but I forgot to get permission, so if I feel like it next time.
But it’s 2 rascals for 2 volumes in a row. As expected of Kirito-san!
The outfits for both of these two are plain in this volume, but they should become more cool from the next time onwards, so!
Frontispiece
The illustration in the middle of the text was based on an illustration from the time it was published on the web as well.
The original was in a portrait orientation, probably showing the text and 3 characters as the page was scrolled,
but as expected, that wouldn’t be possible for a book, so I made it landscape,
but it seems well-received, so that’s good.
Illustrations
Selka ended up cuter than I thought, or rather, it ended up looking erotic due to the illustration. (*´▽｀)
I love these sort of plain girls, so I drew with gusto.
Bonus
{coloured scribble with those 3}
That’s right, I thought that I didn’t draw Alice in colour, so here’s a scribble (tentatively, she was drawn among the book’s frontispieces, though)
Perhaps that’s what I was aiming for.