Mizuiro Syoujo Kuuchuu Yousai Illustrations is an art book that really showcases the best works from this artist, sampling across a wide variety of games, copyright art and original girls. Though the title might lead you to believe otherwise, not all of the girls in the book are blue-haired ^^;

For the longest time, I used to mistake Kuuchuu Yousai's (空中幼彩) art work for Akio Watanabe's (also know as Poyoyon Rock, and the designer for Soul Taker, Magikarte Komugi, Bakemonogatari etc.) Though at times their art work is similar (especially for Makai Tenshi Djibril) Kuuchuu Yousai's art work tends to be more softly colored, it's a small difference, but it's there! :D

And this just leads me to wonder, what other artists do you sometimes get confused with another? A couple that immediately come to mind are Mitsumi Misato and Tatsuki Amaduyu of CUT A DASH!! and Kobuichi (こぶいち) and Muririn (むりりん).

The book starts out with a single-sided fold out poster, featuring the blue-haired cover girl. Pages 5 through 30 are all magazine and package illustrations. Most of the illustrations are from the covers he's done for Pasocom Paradise (パソコンパラダイス) which are tame compared to the covers he does for COMIC XO.

Oh, and the COMIC XO covers aren't featured in this art book, I think they were trying to keep this collection closer to the PG-13 side of things. Also, some of the illustrations in this section are from Makai Tenshi Djibril.

The next section in the book covers copyright illustrations; or basically, art work Kuuchuu Yousai's done for series that are copyright someone else. The first image in the section is an adorable on from Little Busters. There are also a few illustrations of the Melonbooks mascot Melon-chan.

This section is surprisingly the largest part of the book, and spans from pages 31 to 70. Some of the more recognizable copyright art work includes Rei Ayanami, Mint from Galaxy Angel and Miyako Miyamura from ef - a tale of memories. Somehow, he manages to make all of them very moe!

A lot of the art work from the copyright section is from the Aquarian Age Saga TCG. It seems like every artist under the sun has illustrated some of the cards for Broccoli. Even though I don't play the game, I always enjoy the art work, as they're always really creative and colorful illustrations. Not to mention, since it's outside my scope of interest, the art work is always new to me ^^

The last section of the book is titled "Original Illustration" and includes exactly that. The section goes from page 71 to 94, and most are full page art works. There are a few very adult pictures in this section (there were a few in the others, but pretty tame by comparison), so be warned. Overall, Kuuchuu Yousai's "original" girls are a lot more risqué than the other ones in the book. But there are several very cute illustrations as well.

The first time I went through this book, I was really impressed and didn't realize until later that it was 98 pages. All the art work is well presented, and for the most part on full pages. The paper quality is nice and thick too, so the book certainly feels (and looks!) bigger than it is. If you like what you've seen of Mizuiro Syoujo Kuuchuu Yousai Illustrations, you won't be disappointed by the rest; it really is top quality all the way through ^^