Contemplating from afar

When I go to a convention, I’m only looking for artbooks, and eventually doujinshis. Last summer, I had the surprise to discover a circle, here in France, Gensoudou ( artist is Shiitake ). I will first present quickly French’s convention, then move onto the circle and doujinshi.

In France, there is 2 conventions, the big Japan Expo, popular enough to get guests like CLAMP ( I failed at getting my artbook signed ) and a smaller one, nicknamed “Chibi”. There are professionals booths, mostly chinese selling bootleg artbooks, and some rare Japanese booth, Toranoana and Cospa Inc. There are also fan booths, mostly filled by French fans, but this is where I discovered Gensoudou, this summer.

My eyes turned right at it; it just felt different from the other artist present there. It might be because I had already seen the art somewhere, or I remembered another artist. So I just approached and had a look at the wonderful art. The circle sells posters, postcard, letter papers, and of course, doujinshi. The only message in French was a description of the circle. Aside of France, she also goes to France, Korea, China and Thailand. Here it’s only a small booth, but in other countries it might be an exposition.

Of course I bought a doujinshi, so that I have several illustration. Gensoudou have 2 doujinshi, Power Stone, 36 pages B5, and Gensodo, 84 pages B5. I only managed to get Power Stone, since the other one was out of stock.
Power Stone is a doujinshi on the theme of stone. Each illustration feature a stone and an explanation on it. At the end, there is a couple of pages dedicated to birthstone, astrology, stone for wishes. For the foreigner, a sheet is added with English translation.

The book start with a 2 pages spread illustration of the stone Celestite. It’s just captivating how much detail there is and is also a change from the usual CG I’m accustomed to see. The closest artist would be Tukiji Nao, but Shiitake is a much more focused artist. Girls, flower, and heart warming feeling are the basics of her drawing.

Power Stone is a good doujinshi for a first contact with the artist. But as an artbook collector, it’s not thick enough. Lucky enough, I managed to find the second doujinshi at the Chibi Japan Expo, at another booth, Manga-pal. Shiitake also had a banner on her website telling her fans that this booth would be selling her goods.

Gensodo is a recollection of art back from 2003, when she started her circle. Every artwork has a title in Japanese and English, but no date. Covering 5 years in one book usually shows an artist progression, but here it’s not really apparent. The last few colorer pages must be the oldest art which are already great. The rest of the book is more uniformed in the style. Not all illustrations are pages spread, and some are also present in Power Stone.

The book finish with some sketches of the colored illustration. It’s not too big, and it’s actually nice to see the lineart. She is one of the artist still sketching on paper, and not directly on computer.

If the circle didn’t go to international convention, I don’t think I would have ever seen the artist, or get the doujinshi. One can hope that other artist will follow Shiitake’s path, but it will be a long way before getting other circle on the international scene.

Now, I didn’t scan any pages; it’s an honorable effort from the artist to get a foreign audience, and I would like to support it. Also, the doujinshi are not hard to get; no needs to get a deputy service. Manga-pal, the booth where I got the second doujinshi, has an international website, and the artist herself puts link on her homepage for selling goods. If you like her style, or just girls and flowers, I greatly encourage you to get her works, which will show also support for international circle.

On a side note, I changed the theme to a more simple one, without transparency, and I changed the presentation of my article. I hope you like it.