Part 2 of my huge artbook delivery.  Got some good artbooks in this group.  Hit the jump for some pics and more info :)

Miyama Zero, Custom-Made Girl

This is Miyami Zero’s first artbook and my first real exposure to his art.  After reading good things about this book from other fans, I wanted to check it out too.  While this is not a full H artbook, many of the illustrations within are definitely NSFW.  The artist also seems pretty good at pushing the limits of ecchi without actually using nudity ;)

The artist has a nice style.  It’s not overly detailed, but the large eyes and flowing hair in his characters suit well.  The art is divided into sections: Original work, games like Princess Bride, and Copyright works.  The Copyright pics have sources from popular anime like Air and FSN and games (that I don’t know ^^;).  Overall, the book is impressive and I would recommend it aside for the more NSFW content.

Bungaku Shoujo

Bungakaku Shoujo is a series of light novels (which I have not read) and the illustrations are by Miho Takeoka.  This artbook is a collection of those illustrations.  There are also some sketches by guest artist Mizuki Nomura at the end of the book.  There are 73 color pages and 54 pages of monochrome sketches.  Not a deal breaker, but you might want to keep that in mind if you are interested in buying.

I absolutely love the light, water color-like colors used by Takeoka.  The character design isn’t exactly intricately detailed with the solid, deep eyes and simple facial features. Simple character design is something which I am not opposed to when the artist is skillful and I think it works well here.  The main character’s, Amano Tooko, long braids are really cute too :)  The images are printed on non-glossy paper but still look great.  Really, I was pleasantly surprised by the the quality of this book.  If you like the style as much as I do, I would highly recommend this book :)

Yasu Illustrations

Yasu is the illustrator for the Toradora light novels which were written by Yuyuko Takemiya.  Unfortunately, there is no Toradora art here :(  There is, however, a bit of Hayate no Gotoku! art here from his work on a trading card game for the series.  That’s only a small section and the illustrations are a bit small.  About a third of the book is taken up by Oto × Maho artwork.  While the characters are cute, I’m not really familiar with this light novel series.  The rest of the book is divided into art from his various other works, light novels, and game designs.

The last 25 or so pages of the 130 page book are monochrome illustrations.  Nothing really spectacular here in my opinion.  Maybe if there were some Toradora art I’d have more interest :-/

Little Stars on the Earth

Now this is more to my liking.  Kaya Kuramoto is one of my favorite artists.   I really love her Pieces of the World artbook and is one of the most treasured artbooks in my collection.  Pieces of the World is a true artbook, focusing only on the artwork.  Little Stars on the Earth, on the other hand, is more of a storybook with full color illustrations.

I haven’t read the entire story… my kanji skills are lacking and it would take me a while >_<  Anyway, from what I have read, it’s about 4 girls, Dee, Wisteria, Liddel, and Estrella.  Dee meets a man, Fred, on the street and brings him home.  Anyway, I’ll read it all later.  I really bought it for the art ^^;  And the art is worth it, I’d say.  Certainly not as many full page illustrations as Pieces of the World, but there are some very nice one here.  I’m happy with this purchase. :)

Chocola 2008

What’s this!?  A new Chocola?  Koge Donbo, the artist of all things Di Gi Charat, had been releasing annual editions of Chocola, starting in 2000.  She, however, did not release a book in 2007 so this 2008 edition is good news for fans.  Koge Donbo’s style is pretty well known and you should be able to quickly identify her work, especially if it’s Di Gi Charat ;)

I have the special edition Chocola releases for 2000, 2002, and 2003.  I haven’t been able to collect the rest as they are a bit rare and quite expensive.  This book is a good addition to my Koge Donbo collection.  The majority of the art here is from Di Gi Charat which is OK with me.  I mean, look at that cute Usada pic. ^^

Takamichi Love Works

So, I’ve seen Takamichi’s work around the Internet for years and I’ve always liked the style.  I just didn’t know he had artbooks until recently so I jumped on this book when I found out.  This book is a collection of covers from Comic LO which upon some research I found that it’s, um, a loli manga publication.  Well, there is a bit of nudity here but none of it is really sexual in nature.

I know some people don’t like the simplistic drawing style that Takamich is known for but I’m quite fond of the look.  The book itself is pretty thick at 180 pages.  The first 130 pages are for the magazine covers with the full textless illustration on one side and the original magazine cover (with text) on the other.  Then there’s a 15 page novel and finally 25 pages of additional sketches.  I quite like this book and would recommend it :)

And that’s part 2!  Stay tuned for part 3 of my big artbook delivery.  ~Hauu  desu~