Hunting the Elusive

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]

The cover of the calendar book has the title in gold foil, and an illustration by Gayarou, a CUFFS artist.

For January, KEN-1 does a Reimu in Japanese scroll style. February has Furuutsu Panchi with a flowery and detailed style. I really like the colours used as well.

March is Juu Ya, while April is Fuyu no Shunjuu, though I must say that colour-wise, this illustration is a bit less subtle than what this artist usually does.

May is by EnHANCE HEART plus (who is on my watch list, but not yet on my buy list), while June, well, you can spot the style from any distance, it’s Shimeko.

At this point, note that the illustrations do to a degree correspond with the seasons of the months they depict. In January, for example, for the start of the year, a Tiger is present. February, mixing flower and snow, is the transition between winter and spring, while March and April are the months for the sakura.

July and August, by Aka Ringo and Takeshi Mizu, correspond to the summer seasons.

And we have some very recognisable names for September and October: TOKIAME with the denizens of the moon, and sino, for the nostalgia of autumn with Kochiya Sanae.

And another familiar name for November, Ueda Ryo, with a long-haired version of Shameimaru Aya. Lastly, December’s Christmassy picture by Morii Shizuki.

The last two pages in the booklet contain artist comments on the illustrations they did.

I must apologise for the rather long period between the previous post and this post. Things have been rather busy, especially on the photography side, and when they were not busy I was catching up on anime. Still, the pile of books beside me does not shrink, so I will be putting in some more effort in covering them all!