Hunting the Elusive

46 pages of single-side illustrations, 12 double-page spreads, 4 pages of rough sketches, 23 pages of monochrome "artist greetings". Such statistical divisions may make perfect sense when we review "Girls Girls Girls! 2", but as always, the whole is bigger than the sum of its parts. The smell and the feel of the pages, ink almost tactile to the fingers, the sensation of thick pages being flipped, the bright colours and pure moe which assaults the visual sense...

ISBN: 9784870318328

Cost ex tax: 2667 yen

NB: This post is not a scans release post. All pictures provided during the course of this review are meant as previews (just one step up from photographs) and not as "proper scans", because I didn't actually do much to process or clean or even to scan properly. If you repost the pictures to some image board and someone comes along and blasts you for the "shit scans", don't say I didn't warn you.

Herein then, we find artists known to us and not so known. As the pages pass before our eyes, we light upon the familiar styles like butterflies upon tulips. We savour the nectar, then turn the page and find ourselves stunned by an outstanding illustration from someone we only vaguely knew about.

Unlike artbooks issued from a single artist, Etsu's "Girls Girls Girls! 2" (and even the first volume) are perfect for one seeking to discover new artists. It's almost like a catalogue.

So the first section of this book is taken up by 12 double-page spreads, kind of like the calendar spreads found in every volume of Etsu magazine, going from April to March next year.

Already, we see some outstanding artists making their appearance. Generally, artists are only represented once in the book. So for example, Aoi Nanase did the cover (op pic) and does not appear anywhere else. Likewise, Tinkle and AMR are in this double-spread section and does not appear anywhere down the line.

The contents page provide a listing of the structure of the book, after the calendar spread pages. There is then a (thankfully) short colour manga. Skip!

Alright, if you haven't got the thematic organisational framework of this artbook from the contents page, here's how it goes. The theme is "local girl", so each artist gets a region/town of Japan, and illustrates how they think a girl local to that region will look like. Of course, there will be socio-anthropological discrepancies (like school mizugi's aren't just for certain areas of Japan, and certainly aren't costumes for local areas), but it's all good fun and moe.

Kimono's are always nice, as are uhhhh dog ears and stuff.

Onsen MUST make an appearance, and the AIR-like illustration is by Ryo Ueda (Fancy Fantasia).

Tokyo's illustration. Does that look like a typical Tokyo girl to you? Hmmm. And Hato Rami makes an appearance, Chinese style.

I was trying to scan all the pics I found moe. Then I found that the majority of the pages were great, so I had to skip some. On that basis alone, I highly recommend buying this book.

I guess sometimes it's not so much the girls themselves as the detailed scenery you find in some backgrounds which really aptly describe the locale the girl claims to be from. LOL air hostess. Love the fabric-pattern on the plane and her tie though.

And yes, Kantoku does the pantsu-flashing tea picker.

Tattooed mermaids belong to...somewhere. KEI comes out with a Kimono-clad girl with a very painterly autumn forest background.

Not-Shana. And what can be more cultured than soba and the shamisen?

Artist greeting pages for all the artists featured.

Rough sketch section for the calendar pages.

Buyability value? Great! If you see it in the bookstore, buy it! There's some great material in there, and most of the best/well known artists are featured.