Tony Works Ciel Chronicle is Tony Taka's latest art book release, collecting his illustrations with Ciel games like Shinshou Genmukan (真章 幻夢館), Sora no Iro, Mizu no Iro (そらのいろ、みずのいろ), Mitama: Shinobi (御魂 〜忍〜) and many more in one definitive volume. Several of the art works were previously published in game specific art books like Tony Works After... and Tony Works 御魂~忍~ARCANA~ that have since gone out of print, and can be very hard (and expensive) to get. Also, this post marks my 100th review ^^

The cover art is composed of cropped images from art work that is inside. The under cover has the same image in monochrome with a more stylized look, and it's a look that gets repeated on the title pages throughout the art book.

The first game featured is Arcana: Hikari to Yami no Extasis (アルカナ 〜光と闇のエクスタシス〜) which takes up 14 pages, including one that consists of thumbnail sized gaming cards. Several of the art works were also featured in Tony Taka's hard-to-get doujinshi GRAPH series. In total there are 10 illustrations in this section (not counting the card page).

The second game featured is Mitama: Shinobi (御魂 〜忍〜), taking up 20 pages of this 162 page art book. Though there isn't an index or proper commentary on the illustrations, they do appear to cover a wide time range, with some of the art works looking very dated, and others done in Tony Taka's more recent styles that you see in doujinshi like COLLECT1.

The girls of After... are next with 34 pages of art work. Lots of school uniforms, and school uniforms coming off in this section ;D Which reminds me, this book really didn't deserve an R-18 rating. It's nowhere near as racy as COLLECT1, with the most daring thing being a few girls creatively using tennis balls, and a couple others that misplaced their bras and panties. Maybe because it is Tony Taka, they just felt obligated to give it an R-18 rating.

But because of that R-18 rating, you can't order it directly off of Amazon Japan, even though Tony Works Ciel Chronicle is for sale there. So it's a good time to explore some of the many other shops out there who are a lot more lenient with the rules.

There are 10 illustrations from Sora no Iro, Mizu no Iro (そらのいろ、みずのいろ) featured, though you'd think there would be more than that. One thing to note about this collection is that it doesn't include the in-game CGs that you sometimes find in other game collection books. Instead, it focuses on the promotional art that was mostly used in magazines, or on material goods.

Another lengthy section in the book is for Shinsou Genmukan (真章 幻夢館), covering pages 86 through 123. But, this section has a lot of almost duplicate illustrations where in one version the girl is fully dressed and then the in the next picture, not as fully dressed :P Feels like filler to me, but no doubt it appeals to the completion-ists out there.

The section for FAULT!! (フォルト!!) is one of the shorter ones, including just 8 illustrations, but the art work is some of the newest the book has to offer, with the game having just been released in 2009.

The last illustration section also covers newer illustrations that were made for Ciel Limited Collector's Box that came out in 2006, a set that included all of the Tony Taka illustrated games from 2000 through 2005. There's one cross-over illustration in this section, featuring the maid from Shinsou Genmukan and the main shinobi from Mitama: Shinobi having a "girls only" moment.

From page 147 onward, the pages are all in black and white, but there aren't any more illustrations. The art book finishes on a 10-page interview with Tony Taka and T-YAM and the title line-up for the Ciel games featured in the order of the years they were published.

Tony Works Ciel Chronicle turned to be a very thorough collection of Tony Taka's illustrations, especially speaking as someone who doesn't have any of the the Graph illustration books, or the game art books that many of these illustrations were originally published in. Although I like Tony Taka's art work, I don't see myself going out of my way to spend the hundreds of dollars necessary to collect his older art books, so this is a great alternative.

• Title: Tony Works Ciel Chronicle
• タイトル: Tony Works Cielクロニクル
• Release Date: 02/01/2010
• Pages: 162
• Buy: Amazon Japan, Akadot, eBay