For many of us, books can work as gateways to new worlds of the imagination. However, as the latest editions of Mou Hitotsu no Kenkyuujo’s demonstrate, some books can transport you into these worlds just by flipping through their pages.
That is the undoubtable appeal of the creative company’s latest texts, recently highlighted on Travelry.co.uk: they take the concept behind the brief animations you might have once made from a stack of index cards when you were in grade school, and take them to an entirely different level. Long gone is the style of the flip books of yesteryear, with their flat cartoons moving in simplistic patterns. As you thumb from cover to cover, the images seem to leap off the page or plummet to the depths of an unknown dimension buried in the books’ spines.
(Video by Travelry.co.uk)
Mou Hitotsu no Kenkyuujo (もう一つの研究所) means “one more laboratory,” and it’s clear that their research has paid dividends. The flip books utilize hollowed-out compartments, elevated textures, and even three-dimensional objects to give the images the vividness of CGI. Add richly detailed drawings to the mix, and these moving pictures seem more lifelike than ever—think of it as having a 3D movie that you can fit in your pocket. Kenkyuujo recently unveiled 2014 Christmas themed flip book, and you can find many of their titles on both amazon.com and amazon.co.jp. They look just about right for stocking size…
—Kyle Mullin
