mecha musume

I was first introduced to Ein's art work through the art book The New Generation of Manga Artists Vol. 4: The Omnibus Collection, a publication I'm sure many other anime fans ran into at some point. While Ein's signature style is beautiful girls in hi-tech scenery, it's not always in demand and his art work outside of light novel covers can be hard to find, so I was delighted to see his Long-Cake Pico Pixels doujinshi release for Comiket 78.

Due to the numerous art book delays at the end of May, I was able to get Mika Akitaka Mobile Suit Girl Art Works a lot sooner than I'd expected. My first impressions are good, it had a whole lot more art work than I had expected---I was bracing myself for more sketch work and process pages based on the contents of the first art book, but there weren't any.

SPLASH ONE Jiji Art Works is a beautiful collection of Mecha Musume that have appeared in the MC☆AXIS (MC☆あくしず) magazine since the start in 2006. MC☆AXIS is a self-styled moe military magazine, and Jiji's illustrations have always been my favorite from the genre, right there along with Shimada Humikane's works.

After Strike Witches finished airing in September 2008, Shimada Humikane Art Works was released, in October 2008. Shimada Humikane is the original designer for the Strike Witches and also the father of that term Mecha Musume, describing the cute anthropomorphism of weapons like guns, tanks, and fighter planes.