blog:nattoli, tag:AZ PLAY

In the illustration collection Digital Camera Girl Famous Views, the Hasselblad H3DII-50 camera is listed at ￥4,200,000. By today's economy, that would be $49,099.84. I just felt the need to share that little fact. And while that is by no means the average camera showcased in this art book, it just kind of puts the other prices into perspective ^^;

Joeian is a new artist to the doujinshi scene who after a bit of a rough start, published his first book for Comitia 91 earlier this year. While I think the art work in CS-01 Colourful Symphony shows how "new" this artist really is, it also demonstrates a great eye for coloring and scenery.

Ar Tonelico Visual Book Souten Rakudo focuses entirely on the game characters and promotional art works from the Ar Tonelico series games I - III. For those of you who've never purchased any Ar Tonelico art collections, then Ar Tonelico Visual Book Souten Rakudo is the one to buy. On the other hand, if you've purchased any of the previous Ar Tonelico guides, well, then you're in for a lot of repetition.

Fujiwara Warawara's first art book Water Sprite, just came out at the end of July on the 26th and includes a collection of art work that spans light novels, games, and promotional arts from as far back as 2002 to as recently as this year. When you've got that kind of a range covered, there tends to be a lot of variance in the quality of art work, but Fujiwarara Warawara has really stayed true to his style.

Miwa Shirow usually releases full black and white illustration doujins, but in the past year there have been two partial color books, one being VVW Vocaloid Visual Works and the other being m3wver.7+ce, a C77 release and the subject of today's review ^^

Hidenori Matsubara Art Works was released in late November 2006, and marked the first art book from this well-known animation artist. Anyone who has seen the anime designs for classics like Ah! My Goddess or Sakura Wars is familiar with Matsubara's art work. Possibly less well-known would be his designs for Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, but all of these are included in the art book.

The Gelatin Summer 2010 issue was a bit lackluster in my opinion, and I suspect my general impression started with the cover art by CHAN X CO. It's cute, but it's not a style that would get me to buy anything ^^;

Annindofu Illustration Works Brilliant Idol is a definitive collection of official art work from THE iDOLMaSTER, covering illustrations from the games, CDs, telecards and the plethora of other merchandise affiliated with the series. Even if you've never played the games, the glamour of the idols will win you over ^^

Yoshiyuki Sadamoto Illustrations CARMINE came out as a limited edition boxed set in March 2009. This giant art book included works from FLCL, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Nadia Secret of Blue Water, Aim for the Top! 2, and .hack//SIGN as well as few original illustrations. While the limited edition art book had a huge price tag of ￥13,000, coming out next month is the standard edition for the much more affordable price of ￥3,150.

Hurry Up!² is a full color collection from REI of the circle REI's ROOM, which was released for COMIC1☆4. It's a pretty standard illustration release from REI; lots of colorful art work, fan art, and her commentaries in both Chinese and Japanese.

Kouga Yun, arguably best known as the illustrator for Loveless and the character designer for Mobile Suit Gundam 00, released her fifth doujinshi illustration collection with the COMIC1☆4 publication TORNADO:5. Though the previous TORNADO volumes were all or mostly rough illustrations, this one is printed in full color, with only four pages of sketches.

Hino Matsuri, author and illustrator of the popular shoujo manga Vampire Knight, released her first art book on July 5th titled Hino Matsuri Illustrations Vampire Knight. Like with most manga illustrations, many of the art works were initially seen only in issues of LaLa magazine and usually heavily covered in text.