blog:nattoli, +tag:AZ PLAY

No doubt from reading the title, some of you are thinking, "Wait, you've already reviewed this one!" Well, I assure you I'm not that forgetful, and as it turns out, good things come in twos. Girls With Cameras/A Pictorial Book is the second art book to come out on the cameras theme this year. And though it's a hard fought battle, I think this new Megami Magazine production is the better of the two pictorial books.

The stunning amount of delicate detail in every Nao Tsukiji illustration is a thing of beauty, and to see that level of artistry in page after page of Nao Tsukiji Illustrations NOSTALGIA is almost overwhelming. Up until this point the best way to collect her art works was through her doujinshi stationary, but finally a substantial amount of her work has all been collected in an art book.

Even though Toranoana's ALL SEASON MIX BEST is really about the music, I had to get it for the accompanying art book full of all new original illustrations from artists like You Shiina, refeia, H2SO4, Tiv, Kuroboshi Kouhaku and many more. There are 39 illustrations in total from 27 artists, so in some cases you may get to see a new illustration from a favorite artist more than once ^^

Released for Comiket 78, SEN茶 (SENTYA) Illustration Book 5 is Chiba Sadoru's fifth illustration volume, but his first done in all color. Previous volumes contained only four to six pages of color art work, with the rest in black and white but SEN茶 Illustration Book 5 is 24-pages of color art works in a B5-sized collection.

For Comiket 78, Miyu released another installment in her visual book series, Mitsu*Mitsu, featuring a collection of all original illustrations. While Miyu isn't that well-known, she has been one of the contributing artists for Etsu Magazine's themed galleries, which later go on to be in the volumes of Girls Girls Girls! Illustrations books. She actually had one illustration in the most recent book.

The Atelier Rorona & Totori Art Book turned out to be a lot better than I expected, but it may have helped that I set my expectations pretty low for this one ^^; Since I'd already bought the Atelier Series Official Chronicle, which included a lot of art work from Atelier Rorona, I thought a lot of the Atelier Rorona & Totori Art Book would be stuff I'd already seen. But as it turns out, there is a lot of art work from Atelier Totori in the book, along with the Atelier Rorona illustrations in full page displays.

Although Akabane is a relatively new artist and doesn't have a lot of work to her name, her Comiket 78 release RE Concerto the Idolmaster beautifully displays her talents for anyone wanting to look. It's a relatively short collection---just 16-pages including the covers---that focuses on beautifully detailed and fleshed out illustrations of The iDOLM@STER characters.

Hato Rami's CONCERT is the other half of her two part Comiket 78 doujinshi release. While STAR★DUST focused entirely on fan art illustrations, all the art works in CONCERT are of original characters. And Hato Rami's original designs are gorgeous as usual ^^

HUKE's self-publications continue to impress, with the newest addition being his Comiket 78 release STEINS GATE VISUAL WORKS. Though it's sad to say, this collection includes more full-fledge illustrations than the commercial counterpart Steins; Gate Official Material Book.

I was looking back on things from Comiket 77 that I somehow missed, and Kishida Mel's short but sweet Pistil was overlooked! To remedy this, I figured I could combine that and his Comiket 78 release, Lumen, in the same review especially since they're both so similar overall.

COLORS Gekka Saboh Artworks 2000-2010 is a joint release between Kaya Kuramoto and Asaki Asuka containing ten years worth of their doujinshi publication illustrations. Even though the collection spans such a long time, the illustrations are detailed and high quality through out, not leaving you questioning when exactly it might have been illustrated ^^

The sixth volume of KEI's illustration series, Ga (画) was released during Comiket 78, continuing KEI's tradition of full-color illustration releases. The usual content is present in this volume; a little from Vocaloid, a little from Touhou, some original works and various fan arts from popular shows and games. KEI's painterly style continues to impress, although a slightly more anime-style is appearing in these volumes more and more.