Beautiful covers for the Japanese versions of the A Song Of Ice And Fire books
The images on the covers of English-language editions of the Song of Ice and Fire novels are nice enough. A sword, a crown, a helmet—these are all things the characters in the books use or want, so I haven’t got any complaints about them. Still, Japanese publisher Hayakawa really went the extra mile when it put out Japanese translations of the books. It hired artists Ken Sugawara, Yasushi Suzuki, and Noriko Meguro to create new covers, and their renderings of notable characters are evocative enough to make you wish for a series of Song of Ice and Fire animated movies. I mean, if they’re going to reboot the show eventually anyway, that wouldn’t be a bad way to go.
These covers have been out there for a while, but have been cropping up again recently, probably because they are so very pretty. Let’s take a look.
A Game of Thrones, Part 1—Jon Snow
First up is a rendering of a young Jon Snow, who looks ripped from the pages of an early Final Fantasy game manual. No, I don’t recall the books ever mentioning Jon having green hair, but it doesn’t make the cover any less striking.
A Game of Thrones, Part 1—Daenerys
I love the rendering of a young dragon on Dany’s shoulder, like a massive violet worm.
A Clash of Kings, Part 1—Arya
Of all the characters on these covers, Arya might look the most like she does on the show. The brown and red tones in this one are great. Arya has blood on her mind.
A Storm of Swords, Part 2—Tyrion
Tyrion, on the other hand, couldn’t look less like his TV counterpart. While this cover is probably pushing it, it’s easy to forget that Tyrion is supposed to be a good deal less handsome than Peter Dinklage.
A Storm of Swords, Part 3—Samwell
Samwell Tarly does some serious voguing with that right-handed ‘V’ he’s making.
A Feast for Crows, Part 1—Jaime
Again, I’m getting videogame vibes from this image of Jaime, particularly of a game like Soul Caliber, where characters wear armor so big Tyrion could live in it.
A Feast for Crows, Part 2—Cersei
The theme of his image is: wine and blood. It’s a terrific picture of Cersei.
A Dance with Dragons, Part 2—Bran
Finally, this image of Bran throws into evocative relief the size difference between him and his direwolf.
Check out a more complete set over at Kotaku.
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