Hunting the Elusive

The joy of the chase

Digital Release: Chiaki Hasekura’s Macarons Color 4

November 05th, 2009 | Category: Releases

ava Macarons Color 4 was released by Chiaki Hasekura (Cascade) for Comic Market 76. It is a full-colour 20 page book (18 excluding the blank inside covers) and also covers some girls from anime like K-On! and TH2. It includes two page spreads, but is bound with staples, so allowing me to a release scan. Paper was mid-to-low grade card type stock, with texture that I have managed to somewhat remove with post-processing. Like some other artists (ahem, Sakurazawa Izumi), Chiaki Hasekura seems to have some preoccupation with cat and dog ears, with five of the 15 illustrations featuring animal ears of some sort. [Release][PNG]

Another obsession is with frills and ribbons and all that pretty girly stuff, which really provides an unnecessary confirmation in my mind that this is a female artist, as if the name wasn’t already obvious enough.

[pireze]Chiaki_Hasekura_Macarons_Color_01[pireze]Chiaki_Hasekura_Macarons_Color_03

So as a result, we get a lot of illustrations which are reminiscent of maids, but are actually not. It would be more accurate to call them sweet gothic lolita.

[pireze]Chiaki_Hasekura_Macarons_Color_04

Note this spread is kinda a negative of the cover illustration.

[pireze]Chiaki_Hasekura_Macarons_Color_05[pireze]Chiaki_Hasekura_Macarons_Color_06

I guess Chiake Hasekura somewhat distinguishes herself with a small degree of fanservice/cleavage in some of the earlier illustrations in the book, but overall she is much like other frilly artists.

[pireze]Chiaki_Hasekura_Macarons_Color_07[pireze]Chiaki_Hasekura_Macarons_Color_08

In fact, my main problem with writing this post is that there is a real shortage of what one can write when faced with a moe-style as generic as this. I like her sense of colour, however, with contrasts in pastel.

[pireze]Chiaki_Hasekura_Macarons_Color_09[pireze]Chiaki_Hasekura_Macarons_Color_10

Note I didn’t include all the pages in this post – they can be found in the release archive.

[pireze]Chiaki_Hasekura_Macarons_Color_15

In all, pretty colours, cute girls, lots of frills, and a style which, while appealing for its moe-ness, is a bit too generic in looks for me. Still, full colour is full colour.

6 comments

6 Comments so far

  1. Merun November 5th, 2009 10:04 pm

    I have doubt now that frills and ribbon makes an artist female because some people tells me that Tinkle are in fact, 2 mans ( dream breaker T_T ).

  2. icie November 5th, 2009 10:36 pm

    I knew Tinkle was two artists (though I was never quite sure how they worked together, who did what, etc.) but two men? orz

    RE: this artist: No, frills and ribbon do not a female artist make: I was going by the name as my first hedge. :)

  3. Alê November 6th, 2009 9:27 am

    Thank you for sharing this book. :)
    I’m not good with english language but I would like to say I’m glad to see these cute drawings even if they’re generic moe. :3

  4. Riven November 6th, 2009 11:57 am

    I really love this artist’s use of vibrant colors and animal ears are always a plus with me. Her work is super cute and looking at it I can’t help but be happy. Thanks for another great release!

  5. wah November 6th, 2009 4:51 pm

    I think artists like this are more preoccupied with dressing their very-similar-looking characters up like dolls as opposed to really growing as an artist. Also see: Nishimata Aoi. I mean, I like the woman’s stuff, but she doesn’t have much RANGE. I’m seeing the same sorta thing here.

  6. Sneak November 7th, 2009 12:27 pm

    Pretty nice, the artwork is beautiful and colorful. Thanks as always Icie.

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