I’ve finally gotten to the third and final part of my huge artbook stash.  It took me longer than I expected to go through all of them >_<  And while I was going through all these artbooks, a few new ones arrived ^^;  There are some goodies in this round.  Pics and more info below.

Chronicle

Artist: Hiro Suzuhira

ISBN: 9784048539999

Ah, the talented Hiro Suzuhira.  She is famed for her work on Shuffle! along with her friend Aoi Nishimata (also a great artist).  From 2003-2007, she worked at the Navel studio which published the Shuffle! game and its related series.  Her style is similar to Aoi Nishimata though they differ.  Suzuhira’s characters have a more mature look to them.  Anyway, as the title of this book implies, it is a chronicle of her works throughout her career.  Starting in 1999, the illustrations are divided into chapters by year.  This exemplifies the evolution in her drawing style over the years.  Lots of characters that I don’t know as I haven’t played any of the games nor have I watched their related anime ^^;  I can still appreciate the art and there’s plenty for that.  The book is about 125 pages with mostly full page illustrations.  There are a few images with nudity but nothing too bad ^^;  There is also a nice pull-out poster included.  A very good book overall.

Taiwan Girls Collection

Artist: Rei, Chun, Asuna, Ikusabe Lu, et al

ISBN: 9744870318649

Taiwan Girls Collection is, as the name implies, a collection of illustrations by Taiwanese artists.  Some of the artists included are Rei, Sai Keii, Asuna, Chun, and more.  Rei has the largest share of images with about 40 pages of illustrations compared to about 10 for most of the other artists.  While my interest is primarily with Japanese artists, the style used by the Taiwanese artists here is, in all practicality, indistinguishable to Japanese style.  Totaling 112 pages, this is a good book for the 2000 yen price tag.  A good selection of illustrations from some Taiwanese artists you may not know.  A good buy by my opinion ^^

Ningyo Hime

Artist: POP

ISBN: 9784591106037

POP, as some may know, is one of my favorite artists and I already have his Lolipop and Super Lolipop artbooks (as well as some doujinshi).  The POP Wonderland series is POP’s take on several classic fairy tales.  This is the most recent book in the series released in October, 2008.  The previous books are Alice in Wonderland, Thumbelina, Cinderella, and Little Red Riding Hood.  I have these books but I never posted any review of pics of them ^^;  They’re really cute and the stories are told with simple Japanese which could be useful for those learning the language.  I should have included a scan of a page with some text but, ah well :-/  I really like the POP Wonderland series and recommend this book :)  30 pages in full color.

Kei’s Gallery

Artist: KEI

ISBN: 9784861005749

KEI has become a very popular artist recently whose art is quickly and easily recognized.  I think his popularity has increased mostly due to his Vocaloid related art, and we all know Vocaloid has penetrated into nearly every aspect of otaku-dom.  And yes, there are a decent amount of Vocaloid images here ^^;  Of course, there are many more non-Vocaloid illustrations here as well.  This book includes works of KEI from 2005-2008.  This book itself is quite thick and weighs in at 150 pages.  Print quality is pretty good and I have to say that KEI’s art seems to be more appealing to me in paper form.  Perhaps it is that seeing them scaled down from the common huge scans available on the Web, but the images do look great in this book.

Moetan Picture Story

Artist: POP

ISBN: 9784054037366

Yep, another POP book ^^;  This is part an artbook, part a story book.  About a third of the book is story and the rest is illustrations.  That’s about 40 pages of story and 65 illustration pages.  I’m a big POP fan so justifying buying this book was not too hard, but for others it may not be interesting enough.  Then again, it’s only 1,500 yen so it’s not exactly a big investment ;).

Bottle Fairy Funbook

Artist: Tokumi Yuiko

ISBN: 9784757730991

Ah yes, Tokumi Yuiko.  A master of moe and designer of the Bottle Fairy characters.  Of course, I didn’t finish all of Bottle Fairy, but I can still enjoy the art (maybe I should go finish it).  I have Hakka-ya 3 by Tokumi from C74 and liked it so I put this book on my list.  It should be noted that this is not a fanbook, it’s a funbook ^^;  Well, I guess it is a pretty fun book.  Illustrations are printed on non-glossy paper and there are some short comics and text overlaying images scattered throughout.  Still an enjoyable book at 120 pages with a 24 page tribute to Tama-chan (for a CD) at the end of the book.

Majimoe Special Selection

Artist: Koge Donbo, Suzuhira Hiro, Kurafuji Sachi, Matsuryu, et al

ISBN: 9784757734463

A compilation of images from Magicu vol. 23-34.  Like the other Magicu collections, there are works from many different artists here, offering a great variety of moe ^^  I like picking up these compilation artbooks to see art from so many artists, some of whom I may not be familiar with.  A great way to find new artists to watch :)  This book has some pantsu shots, but no nudity.  95 pages of full color, full page goodness.