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Disney young adult novels get new beautiful shojo anime-style covers for Japan

Casey Baseel Sep 25, 2024
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What if Belle, Ariel, and Jasmine were anime heroines?

Disney’s Twisted Tale series of young adult novels takes classic Disney stories and adds a “What if?” twist to them, such as “What if The Little Mermaid’s Ariel never defeated Ursula?” or “What if Frozen’s Elsa and Anna never knew each other growing up?” But there’s yet another “What if?” aspect when the novels are published in Japan, which is, “What if Disney movies had anime-style character designs?”, and the answer is that they’d look pretty awesome.

Gakken, which publishes the Twisted Tale series in Japanese, is getting set to release its translation of author Liz Braswell’s As Old as Time, set in the world of Beauty and the Beast and with the premise of “What if Belle’s mother was the person who cursed the Beast?” As is often the case with novels in Japan, the story is being split into two volumes, and both of them are getting newly drawn covers by Japanese illustrator Mizumizutori.

▼ I’m guessing that Belle’s mom is drawn so large because of her intimidating power, though “She was a powerful sorceress…and also a giant!” would also be a compelling story setup.

Mizumizutori is known for beautiful fantasy artwork such as these promotional pieces done for the Overlord and Utawarerumono franchises.

こちらのイラストを描かせて頂きました！ https://t.co/ma9gMRsaiw

— 水溜鳥 (@mizumizutorisan) September 14, 2024

うたわれるものロストフラグにて本日実装の限定灯幻鏡「世界はかくも美しい」のイラストを描かせていただきました。どうぞよろしくお願いします！　#うたわれ #ロスフラ pic.twitter.com/Qsr8RErnXu

— 水溜鳥 (@mizumizutorisan) July 8, 2024

This isn’t Mizumizutori’s first contribution to the Twisted Tale series, though, as the artist also created covers for the Japanese edition of Frozen spinoff Conceal, Don’t Feel.

Other Japanese versions of Twisted Tale books have featured covers from other Japanese manga/anime-style illustrators, including Naomi Ikemoto’s covers for Part of Your World (The Little Mermaid) and A Whole New World (Aladdin)…

…and Yuko Sasayama’s covers for What Once Was Mine (Tangled/Rapunzel).

As Old as Time, titled Disney Twisted Tale Yugamerareta Sekai Bueaty and Beast in Japanese, goes on sale October 17, but can be pre-ordered now through Amazon Japan (part 1 here, part 2 here).

Source: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: PR Times (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
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