Hunting the Elusive

I actually managed to get my hands on this book right near when it was published (through special order with Kinokuniya). In fact, Kinokuniya thought it was such a good idea they ordered another four or five copies at the same time. I’m not sure how well it’s been selling, but personally, I think if a book has got girls and weapons in it, it’s sure to be popular, because Shimada Fumikane is the originator of Strike Witches, which has become an anime TV series. The basic premise is girls without trousers fused with fighter plane parts flying in the sky killing things. This book is 2800 yen, 112 pages thick, published 25 October 2008, ISBN: 978-4-04-854221-0. [Download review pictures] [JPG]

As you can probably tell from my summary, I didn’t actually watch that anime. Hell, I got bored of Sky Girls before Strike Witches, so it didn’t bode well for that concept in my mind. Still, I’m all too happy to give the artwork a go.

From the front cover, it is already obvious what’s going to be in the book. Lots of PANTSU extremely well-wrought mechanical parts.

Let me just say now that I am not too fond of artbooks which consist of screenshots of anime. That’s possibly why I didn’t get the Code Geass artbooks and various other artbooks (although I am really looking forward to Mutuality, which is the Code Geass artbook for CLAMP works).

BEAM SABERS!

As befitting an elitist, I want my artbooks to have original art, stuff I haven’t seen before. Fortunately, this book satisfies this criteria.

I am also not too fond of books which “waste” space with character-drawings. Unfortunately, this book fails in this area (made worse by the sheer number of characters populating Strike Witches), but this disappointment is mitigated by the outstanding artworks in other areas.

Let’s just say that they should probbaly have called this book “Strike Witches” or something, because from what I can see, Shimada Fumikane does not have a wide repertoire of work beyond that. There’s an outstanding Rider illustration (unfortunately cut by the binding), and some other original, non-mech-girls art, but then that section quickly becomes inundated with weapons girls again.

MGS STYLE!

I dunno, maybe it’s the video games I play, or whatever, but you just can’t get tired of mech-girls, can you? It’s just such a stereotypical military/weapons + girls fetish that keeps C&C Red Alert players coming back for more (that, and Gemma Atkinson).

Towards the end of the book, my earlier complaints regarding character illustrations resurface. I mean, character illustrations are kind of a necessary thing for completion’s sake, but I would have loved it if they spent that real estate on more substantial stuff. Like those awesome wall-paper pics in the second image.

By the way, what are mecha girls anyway? I mean, what happens with the legs? From time to time, you get disturbing indications that some of them have fully mechanical legs. Do they get amputated when they become mecha girls? Are the girls in fact fully machine? Or is the military an equal-opportunities employer who fits well-limbed girls with metal leg casings, and amputees with fully-mechanical legs?

^ More awesome wallpapers. The mushroom thingy is apparently Shimada Fumikane’s call sign or something.

I am sure if I had bothered watching the anime series, I would have been able to answer some of those questions detailed above. As it is, I am left with an awesome artbook full of pictures which would probably be tagged “military” or something on message boards.