Ashiato ~Kantoku Art Works~ (あしあと~カントクアートワークス~) turns out to be as colorful and vibrant as expected, filled with 144-pages of beautiful girls ranging from original creations to copyright characters. The book is B5 sized, so it's smaller than most art books, but about the size of the average doujinshi.

The newest issue of Megami Magazine Creators, volume 18, came out December 19th, 2009 and features a cover by Huke with new art from STEINS;GATE. It's still one of the smallest magazines I get, weighing in at 94 pages in total, but there's still plenty of art to keep me happy.

So that we all start on the same page, NOCCHI is a pen name for Oyari Ashito. It's interesting that he would use his pen name on the October 17th, 2009 release of 「北へ。」NOCCHI ART WORKS, but will be using his real name for the December 22nd release of Oyari Ashito Illustrations Chronicle (大槍葦人画集 Chronicle). I suspect the reason is a reflection on the contents of the book; the vast majority of 「北へ。」NOCCHI ART WORKS is identical to the earlier release, LITTLE WHITE—「北へ。」Fashion Book NOCCHI. I would guess that for all intents and purposes, he was better known as NOCCHI when he was working on 「北へ。」and felt it should be published that way.

Naoto Tenhiro is undoubtedly best known for his Sister Princess character designs and illustrations, so his style is very recognizable. When I spotted the Yoru ha Koneko de Isogashi (夜は子猫で忙しい) Illustrations as a Comiket 76 release, I didn't hesitate to get it because it was full color, and I'd already seem many of the illustrations in the visual drama that ran in Animage Magazine from 2005 to 2006. And as we all know, it's good to know what you're getting before you buy it!

This is the last Yasuomi Umetsu art book I have to review, and also the most recent. Yasuomi Umetsu's Visual Art Works BORDERLESS came out October 14th, 2009 and collects his illustrations from Kite Liberator, Kite, Mezzo Forte, Mezzo DSA, Nakoruru, and his own original girls. Out of all of art books, this one is the most illustration packed, and covers all but one of the illustrations from the Mezzo Perfect File.

I doubt at this point there's any fan left out there who's unaware of the release of the art book Tsubasa ALBuM De REProDUCTioNS 2. The second art book for the Tsubasa Resevoir Chronicles series was released November 14th and retails for ￥1890. With the series having finished this past October, this will likely be the last installment. It's always sad when long running manga end, but at the same time, I'm excited to see what CLAMP will do next ^^

絵師100人 100 Masters of Bishojo Painting was released by BNN International December 16th, 2009 with a retail cost of ￥ 2,499. This 216-page, B5 sized art book is like a directory listing of popular and up-coming artists on the Japanese digital illustration scene. But unlike previous collections of a similar nature, this is dually written in both Japanese and English!

H2SO4's Shiroi Hanabira (白い花びら) was released during Comiket 73, which was way back at the end of 2007. It's a full color, staple-bound collection of illustrations that includes four art works by other Korean artists like Tearfish and Tiv. On the up-side, it's all beautiful color art work, but on the downside, it's a very slim 16 pages without counting the covers.