Hato Rami’s Shooting Star + Travel Notification
shooting star is a Black Rock Shooter fanbook by Hato Rami (Hato no Tamago), released as part of her Comic Market 77 bundle. Actually to classify this as a book would be pretty misleading, since it’s more like a leaflet, two pieces of paper, folded, one nested in the other, making for a total of 8 pages. That said, it is full colour, and the centre spread is pretty outstanding. Now, due to recent developments thanks to GSC and that ilk, I am now unsure of my position regarding Black Rock Shooter. Aesthetically, I am still very curious as to how artists interpret that work, but the sheer amount of commercial overkill of that particular franchise means huke’s stuff is probably not as elusive as it once was, so in terms of coverage here, that might be going the way of Kantoku. [Release][PNG]
Fujitsubo Machine’s 2010 F’s Works Calendar
Fujitsubo Machine is, for all intents and purposes, and as far as I know, an Itou Noizi doujin circle. I had inklings of another illustrator involved in this circle, but suffice to say, it’s Itou Noizi mostly. I’m not actually sure how many pies Itou Noizi has her fingers in, but usually the stuff coming out of Fujitsubo Machine during Comiket is pretty good, and Comiket 77’s 2010 F’s Works Calendar is no exception, even if it’s fairly short/small. At full A4 size, this 7 pager (6 pages if you exclude the atogatari) calendar comes in a translucent file (which incidentally is hard to open and close), and utilises a different concept to most other calendars. [Release][PNG]
Wind Mail’s Petite fatal 3rd
Wind Mail (An2A)’s last work quite blew me away, and judging by the comments on that particlar post, it impressed many readers too. Petite fatal 3rd is a follow-up on Wind Mail’s series of books, so there is actually no continuity from the Monomind Remains Gensou Kaikyou booklet, which is a pity, because I would have loved to see more of that photo+art stuff. So Petite fatal 3rd, released C77, is just An2A’s stand-alone illustrations, and as always, it’s Touhou themed. As it’s a fairly thin book at 16 pages, including the covers, Wind Mail seems to have taken the liberty of pushing quite a lot of page spreads into this book. [Release][PNG]
komizumiko’s blue colors
komizumiko (コミズミコ) is a new artist being covered on this blog, though obviously I have been following him/her as one of my bookmarked artists for some time. Stylistically, komizumiko does very cute illustrations with big round eyes, shaded in a conventional style. I’d probably put him/her in the Tokumi Yuiko camp, if only as a convenient and lazy way of classifying this artist’s general look. For Comic Market 77, komizumiko released blue colors whic is an entire full-colour book dedicated to the character Kisaragi Chihaya from THE IDOLM@STER. You’d have to be a pretty big fan to do that. Anyway, if people are still interested in getting this book for their own collection, it’s still available. [Release][PNG]
TeaPot (Kaedena Akino)’s Bubble Light
Kaedena Akino (楓菜あきの) released Bubble Light (32 pages, full colour, A4 size) during Comic Market 77. She is an artist I have yet to cover, and in fact, this was one of the random acquisitions from Toranoana. I feel it is quite important to not just rest on stuff by famous or familiar artists, outstanding though they be, but to also challenge ourselves by exploring smaller names, as well as other styles. After all, there’s nothing too elusive about stuff everyone knows about! Personally, it’s also about pushing the envelope, seeing the sorts of character designs which appeal to me. [Review/Release][PNG]
Tohru Adumi (Kotobukitei) Kinkatou
Kinkatou is a “full colour” illustration book released by Tohru Adumi during Comiket 77. I put “full colour” in quotes, not as some kind of derisive gesture, because this book actually has enough colour material in it to justify itself, but because technically, not the entire book is full colour, since there is a section at the end (which I consider a “bonus” section) which is printed in monochrome on a different paper type to the coloured part. It has been some time since I looked at Tohru Adumi’s work, and I will honestly say I was pretty surprised when I opened this book and found so much of it consisted of illustrations of guys. That said, Tohru Adumi has always been into the bishounen side of things anyway, and I suppose we should be grateful she does bishoujo at all. [Release?][PNG]
Touhou Gensou Reki 2010 ~華~
The Touhou Project Calendar 2010 (official Japanese title: 東方幻想暦2010～華～) was released by Toranoana for Comic Market 77. With 13 illustrations (including the cover) by a number of notable artists in the Touhou sector, this represented a must-get item for many connoisseurs. Cost is 1050 yen, and there are still a number available if you are so inclined. I should note at this point that inserted into the calendar was a notification leaflet, stating for Reitaisai 7, Toranoana will be releasing a pretty big Touhou illustration compilation book, featuring over 90 artists, including some which are known to be epic. [Release][PNG]
Ryo Ueda’s fragments + ?
fragments, with 75 pages, nearly all full colour, is like a Ryo Ueda artbook, but it’s not actually that comprehensive that I would actually classify it as an artbook for this artist. Subjectively, I think there are two definitions for artbooks. The first, and simplest and most direct definition would be simply a collection of illustrations. The second, and perhaps more controversial definition would be a collection of illustrations which comprehensively charts the career of an artist or a series of games, or any such extended phenomena. I believe the Japanese use different words in the titles to denote such collections. That, or I’m just wrong. [Review] [PNG]
kimino-museum’s palette ~人々が愛した幻想郷~
palette ~人々が愛した幻想郷~ (palette ~ Hitobito ga aishita gensoukyou) is a collaboration between kimino-museum (君の美術館) and I believe a number of other artists, who feature on the second, “Omnibus-side” CD). It was released during Comiket 77. The CDs, as with most doujin album releases, are various renditions of Touhou tunes, both vocal and instrumental. However, notably for us, palette has quite an epic presentation, and also collects 18 pieces of Touhou art from a variety of artists, some of which is ridiculously good (though most if not all of the pieces have very good character renderings anyway). [Release][PNG]
Megami Magazine CREATORS vol 18
The key draw of volume 18 of Megami Magazine CREATORS is the obvious hook for huke right at the cover. As I have noted in a prior post on Megami Magazine CREATORS, there has been a noticeable shift in recent issues toward a more explicitly commercial outlook, with games featuring heavily as features on the front of the magazine. Obviously, for this issue, Steins;Gate is the game in focus, but unlike the previous volume, I have less of a problem this time, because of the way in which the editorial team has treated the subject matter. Of course, the huke factor also plays a part. [Review][PNG]
