Hunting the Elusive

ISBN 978-4-7580-7088-1, at a cost of 2800 yen, has a release date of 1 August 2010, but somehow Amazon got it to me last week. It contains 112 pages of illustrations, presumably sourced from Yuri Hime magazines in the dates ranging from July 2005 to June 2010. Artworks are divided into various sections, including Cover Works, Pin-ups, Colour Comic Works, Other Works and Comic Cover Works. I will note now that Yuri Hime Color Artworks Chronicle contains some nudity and girls making out and thus is not suited for the general audience. This review post skirts all that, of course, so it’s safe to read. [Review][PNG]

The first thing I noted with Yuri Hime Color Artworks Chronicle was the lack of jacket or cover illustrations. It is a hardcover book and except for an obi, comes as such. The hardcover is cream coloured and embossed.

Doing my random flip through the book, the first thing I noticed was a relatively high percentage of artworks which I would not consider good. Some border if not cross the line into outright amateurish, but there are still a good number of gems in this book which I think are worth exploring.

There are no page spreads, so it’s one illustration per page of the book. At the bottom of each page is the name of the artist. I was rather disappointed there weren’t more Aya Syouto artworks in this book.

Because of the collection of artists featured in Yuri Hime, Chronicle has a wide variety of styles, which all makes for a rather jumbled collection.

A number of artists have repeat works in the book.

And there is almost an entire section dedicated to stuff by Asu Tsubaki, who seems to have been a very productive artist for Yuri Hime.

While I like yuri, I wouldn’t actually call myself a fan of it. It’s more like a passing interest, or a curiosity about it. Actually having in my hands an art collection dedicated to yuri makes me think a bit more deeply about what appeals to me about it.

I am not sure, in any analysis about yuri, that we can go past the stereotypes: the cloistered girls’ school, the gothic Victorian undertones and hints (Catholicism, maids, and classical activities like horse riding), etc. In fact, as seen from the illustrations in Yuri Hime Color Artworks Chronicle, many, if not most yuri premises have their roots in school life.

Another aspect of yuri which appeals to me is that the relationship usually has roots in a kind of intimate friendship between the girls which develops, timidly or otherwise, into a deeper attachment.

Of course, it’s by no means the only way yuri relationships develop in stories, but the roundabout, indirect approach to the romance seems rather “purer” (if that’s even a valid concept) than how anime usually approaches hetero relationships.

I don’t think I have heard of Haruaki Fuyuno before, but the artwork looks really familiar. It certainly has echoes of other artists we have seen before.

Takahashi Mako’s illustrations are deceptively simple, with layering and a watercolour feel which would certainly have a place on letter papers.

Quite interesting to find Miyashita Miki in this book!

There are a few other artworks in the review archive which I haven’t showcased here.

Overall, I found Yuri Hime Color Artworks Chronicle a bit of a disappointment in terms of the quality of many of the art works within. As seen above there are quite a few outstanding ones but the ratio was quite a bit in favour of the amateurs. Still, I thought it was interesting as a study of the depictions of yuri, and it was quite eye opening how far some artists are willing to take yuri illustrations. It is by no means as “pure” as yuri anime series might have us believing.