Kyourin Takanae Art Works, Ninomiya-kun

This artbook is dedicated to images from Ninomiya-kun, of which I know very little about.  That’s ok though because the art is still good without background knowledge of the source.  About 2/3 of the book is color content and the rest is black and white sketches and concept art.  I do own one older doujinshi by Kyourin Takanae and I thought the style was cute so I decided to give this artbook a try.

The illustrations focus on what I guess are the two main female characters and they monopolize the majority of the pages.  Not a bad thing though as they’re displayed in many different outfits and keeps it interesting.  Unlike the doujinshi I have, this book is mostly clean.  There is a bit of nudity but not really hentai material here.  If you like this particular artist, this book is worth picking up.  Otherwise, you might be better off with just some scans :)

Pixiv Girls Collection

Do I really need to explain what Pixiv is?  Anyone with an interest in Japanese anime art is likely already familiar with this art community.  Lots of Japanese artists post their original artwork on the site and it has exploded in popularity in the past year.  This artbook attempts to sort out the best and most popular images into a single printed collection.  Considering the huge number of images on pixiv and after going through the book, I think they did a pretty good job at picking the good images.

I can’t possibly name all the artists here, but each image does include the artist’s name (alias, usually), title of their work, and a comment by them.  The book is divided into two sections, one for “Illustrations” and one for “Concept Art”.  You will find the ever-present  Vocaloid images in the Concept Art section.  Otherwise, I don’t find the distinction very useful as a lot of the images seem to be able to fit into either section.  Anyway, this collection is huge.  162 pages with some pages having multiple illustrations.  That might be a downside for some potential purchasers but there is still a good number of full page illustrations.  Overall, I like this book.  While you can find all of these images online (pixiv, of course!), it’s nice to have some of my favorite images in print form :).

First image is by Sayori who I’ve become a big fan of in the past few months.  Love the art.  Second image is Miku in “Word is Mine” image.

Kirakira-Reki: Mikeou Artworks

Yay, more Mikeou ^^  This is an officially published artbook by Mikeou though it doesn’t feel much different from her Chronicle doujinshi artbooks.  The good thing here is that there is very little nudity here and for an artist like Mikeou, that’s worth mentioning.  So, little actual nudity but there are is a sizable number of panty shots.  Probably 1/2 of the images have panty shots ^^;  The largest part of the  book is divided into the four seasons, with a section for summer, autumn, winter, and spring.  The Mikeou girls are dressed in clothing (mostly) appropriate for the given season.  Lastly, there is an “Other” section miscellaneous characters like Melon-chan.

Mikeou’s work here is, as usual, quite appealing and I definitely recommend checking out this great artbook.

The elusive school mizugi midriff.

Shingetsu: The Art of Chouniku

The only hard cover book in this group, Shingetsu is by the artist who did the character designs for the Disgaea game series.  Now, I’m really not a fan of the games.  I tried playing them and lost interest pretty quickly (strategizing block distance, height, turns… how fun) but the art behind the series is pretty decent.  Etna, Flonne, and Laharl being the most popular and well-known characters and all are present here.  This is the main section of the book and while the art is good, I think I like the Novels and Other section illustrations more.  The style is a bit different in those sections than the Disgaea art and seems to appeal more to me.  Not the best artbook I’ve purchased but a decent buy.

Shugo Chara Illustrations

Last, but certainly not least in my opinion is the Shugo Chara Illustrations collection by Peach Pit.  For those who don’t know me, I love the Shugo Chara series.  I wrote up a review of the first series a while ago in which I expressed my love ^^. The art here is official work by the Peach Pit duo so it’s styled more like the manga than the anime.  An interesting note about this book is that the cover is removable.  While that’s not unusual with artbooks, this cover doubles as a big poster.  You remove it, unfold the overlapping edges and you end up with a big, glossy high resolution poster :D  In the book you will find mostly images of the heroine, Hinamori Amu and her various shugo chara versions.  Lots of very kawaii, very moe images here ^_^

This is my first Peach Pit artbook since Shugo Chara is the first Peach Pit series I’ve really enjoyed.  Rozen Maiden was ok but didn’t watch beyond the first series.  I think getting this book has made me appreciate their style more and I will probably look into getting their earlier Rozen Maiden/Zombie Loan/DearS art collections ;)

Punk lolita Amu and sundress Amu <3

That’s it for part 1 of my big artbook stash.  There will probably be 2 more parts coming in the next week so look forward to more pretty pictures :)

Related posts:

1. Artbook Stash Part 3
2. Haruhi Shugi Artbook by Noizi Ito
3. May doujinshi stash

This image and more at e-shuushuu

There are some anime that match up so perfectly with your preferences that they seem flawless.  Of course, this varies with each person’s personal opinions and preferences.  Some people like action oriented shounen, others Gundam-like war epics.  For me, Shugo Chara! is one of those series.  The perfect mix of the themes I enjoy the most :)  The series itself would most comfortably fit into the “mahou shoujo” genre.  Despite Shugo Chara! being quite kid-friendly, it actually has more depth than most other mahou shoujo anime.

Hinamori Amu has a problem.  She lacks confidence and instead of showing her true self around others, she acts tough and earned the reputation as a “cool and spicy” bad girl.  The problem is, that’s not at all her true character and she wishes she could be more honest about herself.  After entering a new school, Amu hopes to change her image, but quickly finds herself portraying the tough girl once again.

Amu goes home after the first day of school depressed.  She thinks that she is a girl with multiple characters and wishes she could be more like her true self.  The next morning, she awakes to find three mysterious Eggs in her bed.  Frantically searching her health textbook, Amu is confused about the origin of the three eggs.

Amu takes the eggs to school where the special student council, the Guardians, notice she has them.  Hotori Tadase, the king’s chair, approaches Amu but before he can ask her about them, Amu brushes him off rather coldly.  Immediately regretting her actions, Amu storms off.

During the school entrance ceremony, one of Amu’s hidden eggs performs a character transformation on Amu and causes her to make a love confession to Tadase in front the entire student body.

Thoroughly embarrassed, Amu runs off until she reaches a building construction site and accidentally falls into a hole >_<.  While trying to escape the hole, one of the eggs hatches a shugo chara who tells Amu to fly out.  Although Amu insists that she cannot fly, the shugo chara performs another character change and Amu leaps into the sky!

The Guardians invite Amu to join their group.  Amu initially rejects the offer because she doesn’t want to wear the Royal Cape. Once she encounters a X egg and performs a character transformation with her new Shugo Chara to purify the X egg.  Seeing her transformation, the Guardians insist Amu joins as the new Joker role to hunt down more X eggs.  Amu reluctantly accepts and the fun really begins.

The show itself is quite hilarious at times with Amu trying to both put on a cool facade and be herself at the same time.  The antics of the shugo charas also provides lots of laughs.  Of course, the series isn’t entirely comedy and has its more touching moments as Amu and the Guardians fight to purify the X eggs.

I would compare Shugo Chara most closely with Cardcaptor Sakura, another of my all-time favorite anime.  Both have strong lead characters and both have solid stories and characters.  While some people may not like the “monster a week” approach, I think it works very well in Shugo Chara as a well-defined background is given for each arc and character.  I almost forgot to mention how catchy the OP/ED songs are too.  They have become some of my favorite anime songs :).

If you liked Cardcaptor Sakura, mahou shoujo, or just want to enjoy a good, fun anime, Shugo Chara should be on your list.  Definitely recommended!

Related posts:

1. New Shugo Chara Anime + LA
2. A little Hinamori Amu
3. Kannagi: Crazy Shrine Maidens