u/Dense-Material-5048

First artbook by Japanese artist Kazuki Takamatsu. While he exclusively depicts young girls and women the thematic range is pretty wide: there's religious symbolism, plain fanservice, lingerie, school unforms, gas masks and weapons, influences of traditional japanese art, alien-looking dolls ... All the artwork is digital and pretty much monochrome. Only the 'lighting' differs occasionally (blue, grey, pink-ish, blood red). The characters look quite ephemeral / ghost-like or like they are made out of wax. The dead eyes also give them a touch of creepiness. It's definitely a very unique artstyle but that can easily lead to a certain sameness or deja-vu. So I don't know if I ever need a second artbook but this one I quite like.

Release: 2019/09/11

Publisher: Geishin

ISBN: 978-4-87586-565-0

Pages: 146

Price: 3.080 Yen

Blind buy for me because I'm usually not into this new wave of artists made popular by social media. Their artstyles are often so similar that they tend to blend together. Scottie is one of the better ones but his artwork still left me a bit cold. Is it pretty? Sure (my favourite is probably the bride in image 8). Is Scottie talented? Definitely (I especially like the coloring). The artwork is pretty bland though. There's a lot of deja-vu, too. We've all seen the situations and poses before...many times. Overall the artbook is perfectly fine but nothing I would add to my permanent collection.

I was finally able to get vol. 2 (and vol. 3, coming soon) of Chiyou's artbook series and it's an improvement of the already great first book. The amount of 2-page-spreads is much higher and now we even have a couple foldout pages. There is more variety in poses and situations and the colors are much more vibrant this time around. The girls are just as lovely. Good stuff!

Been following their doujinshi for a while and finally bought the artbook a couple months back. The artwork is mostly cute (especially the SD or chibi characters) and funny with the occasional touch of morbidity. Lots of girls with animal or monster features (easy sell for me). Some pages with character designs and sketches. Mostly original art, a little fanart here and there. I love the colors and the attention to detail.

The only downside: book size and layout. It's only about B5 but slightly wider. There is not much full-page artwork in it to begin with, but when there is there are these huge white borders making it just slightly larger than a postcard. I don't know why publishers do this but it's a shame. Still recommended for collectors of everything cute ^-^

Almost passed this up because I thought it was monochrome but thankfully I didn't. Yonemuro uses color carefully and often just one or two colors per image. That gives the art a fragile and airy feel which I really dig. There's more color in the latter half of the book but it's still subdued. Mostly original work, some commercial work (Bang Dream among others). There's also a limited edition version with a black version of the cover. Great stuff. Recommended.

Release: 05/28/2025

Publisher: Hifumi Shobo

Pages: 144

Price: 3.500 Yen

ISBN:  978-4-824204-24-0

Artbook by Vietnamese artist duo TamoTaro. The faces need a little getting used to but when it clicks the artwork is absolutely beautiful. Nice colors, great attention to detail. As far as I can tell this is all original art. They are quite active so I hope a second one is coming. The book is pretty well-made too: Hardcover, the binding lets you lay it down flat, high quality printing and the paper has a nice creamy (for lack of a better word) feel to it. Comes with postcards and artprints. My book oddly has the first 10-ish pages included twice. Don't know if this is intentional or a printing/binding mistake.

1-2: 'normal' artbooks / 3-4: Japanese gacha artbooks / 5: other gacha artbooks / 6: doujinshi

Chinese artist whose style is influenced by traditional Chinese and Japanese art but also by manga/anime, Art Noveau and European comics. He is probably best known for his character designs and illustrations for the gacha games AFK Arena and AFK Journey (there is no art of either in the book but there are individual artbooks for that). It's a bit short (only 84 pages) and feels even shorter because of the high amount of two-page-spreads. Also includes 2 short comics (1 monochrome, 1 in color) and a couple of pages of monochrome illustrations (wouldn't call them sketches because they are pretty much finished). Great book, hope we get another one in the future. Released in 2022 and sold exclusively through the webshop of Kudos Editore (https://www.kudoseditore.com/product-page/fables-from-faraway-the-art-of-aki).

Another dose of wholesomeness because why not? Great attention to detail especially when it comes to hair, clothes and accessories. Similar to Hidari in using slightly muted analogue-looking coloring. Very creative artwork with quirky details. Yuri undertones in some of the pictures. Mostly original work, some client work (Hatsune Miku, Bang Dream (I think)). Recommended.

Publisher: Genkosha

Release: 04/15/2025

Pages: 144

Price: 2.500 Yen

ISBN: 978-4-768330-14-2

First artbook by Hidari, illustrator and character designer for various animes (Fractale, Natsuiro Kiseki, Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, the recent Si-Vis) and games (Atelier Series, Fire Emblem, Toukiden Series). I really like the retro vibe with the copic marker look (even though he most likely uses a computer). The art has a warmth and wholesomeness to it that's pretty rare nowadays (no watermelon boobs, no butt shots, no excessive fanservice). Very skilled artist, too. Highly recommended.

Publisher: GOT

Release: 2023/06/16

Pages: 160

Price: 5.600 Yen

ISBN: 978-4-823604-88-1

Second batch of doujinshis of artists I collect. Includes:

1. Noizi/Noiji Itoh - best known for Shakugan no Shana and Haruhi / mix of original work and fanart (FGO of course)
2. Yuugen - pretty much releases only fanart (FGO, Madoka Magica, SAO, Love Live...)
3. Shirow Miwa - great artist, mix of original art and fanart
4. still Shirow Miwa - iilustration collections of the FGO characters he designed
5. Carnelian - active for 30+ years now and still great / mix of original work and fanart
6. pako - surprised there is still no official artbook / mostly fanart (FGO, Hololive, Vtuber)
7. Misato Mitsumi, Tatsuki Amaduyu (best know for the Utawarerumono franchise) and Takeshi Nakamura - threw them together because they work together on a regular basis

This time the first half of my artist-specific collections. Included in this batch are:

1. Nilitsu - mostly Vtuber stuff
2. Hong - mix of Granblue Fantasy, FGO and Vtuber
3. LAM - all FGO (not included in their artbook)
4. Krenz - Taiwanese artist, mostly original stuff, wide range of styles
5. Lack - mostly FGO, some Vtuber
6. ASK - personal favourite - also Taiwanese (I think), mix of original and fan art - their stuff is quite hard to find, especially older releases

As requested a closer look at the FGO doujinshi 'Replica;' by character designer/illustrator Mieko Hosoi (posted her artbook a few months ago). Since this is for the Camelot Singularity (Mieko Hosoi did the character designs for the anime adaptation) you don't see the usual fan-favourite characters which is a nice change. It's very short (what you see here is pretty much it) but the art is pretty.

First commercial artbook by artist AU. Very little Fate/Grand Order but nothing from their doujinshi like Anathema, which I posted a while back. Good for me, a bummer for others I guess.

You get full-page illustrations, sketch art, character/costume designs and a handful of short manga (about 5-6 pages each) which probably are just samples or chapters of longer works. While the content is a bit random the art is still gorgeous.

Release: 04/30/2026, 3000 Yen, ISBN 978-4-768331-43-9

Vol.2 is all about the Fate franchise. It's mostly Fate/Grand Order which I am a little obsessed with even though I never played it much. I really like when different artists reinterpret well-known characters in their own style or seeing those characters in unusual situations. These are all from artists I'm not usually collecting so there will be more FGO in artist-specific collections and there was already in the artbooks post.

The title pretty much says it all. Random buy but turned out pretty good. This is actually only vol.1. There are 2 more which I am currently looking for.