blog:nattoli, +tag:AZ PLAY

Though Miki Miyashita has yet to have a commercial art book released, she's done more than enough work to have released multiple art book-sized doujinshi, and RAISONNE III is one of them. RAISONNE III was released during Comic Market 69 Winter 2005 and though it's a few years old, I only recently acquired it after being impressed by last year's illustration collection in RAISONNE IV.

Matsuda98's Winter Comiket release HOLOGRAPHICS was a combination of illustrations and a short manga, which is something I've seen from quite a few of her releases. Matsuda98's style is very girlish, with overly cute characters in fashionable clothing.

Kuroboshi Kouhaku is probably best known as the illustrator for Kino's Journey, although he's worked on numerous other games and series like Summon Night, and Allison & Lillia. And while Kuroboshi Kouhaku hasn't participated much in the doujinshi scene, he has released a few gems and Granada Level Q has to be the best of them.

YUKIRIN Art Works was simply a disappointing art book. YUKIRIN isn't a bad artist, but the content was lacking along with the presentation quality. Several of the illustrations were scaled poorly and as a result were printed with heavy pixelation.

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.

Although Bungaku Shoujo Fantasy Art Book is on the short side for a commercial art book (64 pages) it doesn't mess about and sells at the bargain retail price of ￥1050. From the start, the we dive right into the art work from both the official series artist, Miho Takeoka, and quite a well-known line-up of fan artists illustrating the stories in Bungaku Shoujo as well as the series characters themselves.

Daydream Girls came out during last year's summer COMITIA, from the circle RUINON which features art work by both Hukahire and Kattyuu. It's a short collection, only featuring eight illustrations in total, but the elaborate dream-scape backgrounds make this doujinshi a case of quality over quantity.

The very first volume in the Girls Girls Girls! series, called Girls Girls Girls! Illustration Collection came out in Febraury 2007, filled with the illustrations of various well-known artists that had been drawn prior to that date and featured in E☆2 magazine. As a result, this book is almost like a time capsule showing how many of today's popular artists evolved in their style, while others have managed to continue to deliver quality.

The first thing I thought upon opening up CIRCUS 10th Visual Album was... MOONSTONE Complete Illustrations. It's amazing how completely similar the two are organized, right down to page layouts and section headings. Both books were originally slated to release last year in December, but in the end only MOONSTONE met that deadline. But now I can see the reason for the most likely reason for the delay in CIRCUS 10th Visual Album's release: the print quality.

The newest book in the Queen's Blade series came out at the end of last month, on April 30th. Though I don't always buy Queen's Blade books, I do buy them when they feature artists I like which in this case is Hiiro Yuki. For a sample of his work outside of Queen's Blade, check out my review of his Comiket 77 release,

I'm laughing just typing that title. Yoiko no Moecco! Imouto Pantsu ONLY is a ￥1300 mook (magazine book) featuring the illustrations of 44 different artists on the always popular theme of "imouto pantsu." There's a real mix of old favorites as far as artists go, with some new up and coming artists who I'm starting to see more and more often in magazines like Dengeki MOEOH and E☆2 (Etsu).

The artist with a long name has opted for an even longer title on his C77 full color illustration doujinshi release, Kurokami Shoujo to Wafuku ga Suki na Hito no Hon! (黒髪少女と和服が好きな人のほん!) which is still in stock months after the event on Toranoana ^^ This wasn't really a stand out doujinshi for me, but I was reminded of it when I noticed Tenmu Shinryuusai's new COMIC1☆4 release.