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Range Murata's 1st Art Book Sold as English iPad App

The publisher Wanimagazine released Like a Balance Life, the first art book from illustrator and anime character designer Range Murata, as an app for Apple's iPad device in Japanese and in English in several countries last week. The book was first published in 1997, and while there was a low-cost paperback Like a Balance Life 0.5 edition in 2000, both editions are out-of-print and relatively difficult to find. The app compiles the materials from both print editions.

Unlike the print versions, the US$4.99 app includes a "Sketch View" which allows users to see an illustration side-by-side with its original rough sketch or Murata's text commentary (translated into English). The app also has a "Slide Show" feature to show the illustrations in a random sequence, accompanied by tracks in the iPad's music library.

In Japan, Wanimagazine is promoting the app's release by giving away rare autographed items, such as T-shirts and iPhone 4 cases, to people who retweet the publisher's announcement message before June 22.

In addition to his artbooks and manga, Murata created the character designs for the anime titles Blue Submarine No. 6, Last Exile, and Shangri-La. He is now designing the characters for the new Last Exile anime series, Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam (Last Exile -Fam, The Silver Wing-). Murata already released some of his dōjinshi (self-published) works on iOS devices such as Apple's iPhone and iPod touch.

Source: Comic Natalie