Next month I will finally have a home, till then, I just got my goodies from the Japan Expo. This year again, Shiitake was present and she signed my doujinshi! She is really a beautiful artist, and she was wearing a yukata.

Sadly no, I don’t have another photo of her booth. Anyway, she had 2 doujinshi which she had released in April, Hanaotome and Eternal Wings, 32 pages each. Hanaotome is themed around traditional clothing, meaning yukata. Eternal Wings features, well, wings. This time I took photo of the book, but not with my usual point and shot; I borrowed a Nikon D300S.

Book opens on one of her old illustration, which was featured in previous doujinshi, as well as a little message in Japanese. THe version in English, French, Korean and Chinese aren’t translation, it’s the usual description she puts for her circle when she travels.

The book is quite impressive as it’s printed in A4 format, rather than the usual B5 format and is bound by stapples. Printing is good. For this illustration thought, it seems like the copy on the right was upscaled, but that would be the only complain I will have on quality.

Most of the art seems recent, though some illustrations are from her older style.

I experimented a bit on the photo end as well, as I shot at least 5 times before being satisfied by the photos. This one is particularly bluffing as it can fool people into thinking that it’s a scan.

The end of the book got comments on each illustration as well as the rough sketch and a quick showing of her CG step by step of the cover under SAI and Photoshop.

You can buy the doujinshi easily since it’s available for worldwide shipping:
Asianbeat

And to be frank, I have a preference for Eternal Wing, but it’s mostly about my taste since I quite like angels and so on; and butterfly wings are beautiful as well.

I will just skip the Etsu magazine and Tsukiyo no Fromage vol 2, the former is just to get some art magazine, the latter for scanlation, but you can still read more about them in icie’s review here and there.

Girls Girls Girls 4
As this artbook has a number, I feel compelled into getting it, especially since I already own the 3 previous one, and I have been happy with them. This 4 issue like the other collect the artwork from the Etsu magazine, and only the cover is a new artwork by Tinkle, which is the first highlight for me. Now there are always some artist I only find in the Etsu/Girls Girls Girls, like A=g, as it’s not so easy to get her doujinshi. Now there is one thing which bother me in this book; it’s the rather long undressing theme in the middle, and it’s not really SFW. It’s a bit too ecchi for my taste, and while I’m not bothered by the ecchiness itself, when it comes to artbook I prefer it to be consistent in either safe image, or ecchi, but not a mix with ecchi in plain middle. Otherwise, It’s really great as I rarely get magazine especially the Etsu which is quite thick. For a more in-depth review, you can read natalie’s.

Ashiato
2009 is the year I started to collect Kantoku’s publication; so I get the previous doujinshi in the Check x Check collection, and the C76 and C77 sets. Now a commercial artbook is another beast as it implies some enjoyable thickness compared to most doujinshi, and Ashiato deserve in this aspect. Quite a lot of full page illustration as I like, and even when there is 2 it’s really nice to see. There is so artist which are just better to see on paper, and I think that Kantoku is one of them. The paper of the cover is the usual smooth one, but it fits the soft color tone used for it. Then, as Kantoku use a quite contrasted and vibrant artstyle, the paper by it’s semi matte finish puts that little bit of sparkle which makes it a wonder to see. Then again, for the review, check natalie’s ^^

100 Masters of Bishojo painting
To finish, the delayed artbook, which is a collection of 100 artists as you could guess, with 2 pages each, usually one illustration full page, and the other page has smaller ones. The choice of artist is very good; I don’t know/remember a good part of them, so it’s also the chance for discovery. It’s too bad that there is no Tinkle though inside, not for the art as chance it would have been already published, but just to know their gender. Artist gender seems like so funny topic for enthusiast as it’s never easy to know their gender. Depending of the artworks, it seems like we are more inclined to think that the artist is either male or female. I will note though that some didn’t put their gender in it like Shimeko. There is also some wallpaper to download; I wonder if it’s not also a way to check for oversea traffic…

The added value is certainly the English translation. Yes this is a publication for a more international audience, and they know who they are since they kept the term “doujinshi” most the time. As I goes through the pages, I noticed that my attention is focused on the CV and message of the artist. It’s the first time that such information are easily available for us foreigners, and this is certainly a nice point. Until now, all these artists always felt distant to me and we would still be watchers from afar with our telescope as if they were unreachable stars, but this artbook make them feel closer, as a bridge between us and them, and they don’t lose their sparkles. If you feel like they are distant, this is certainly the artbook to get, and also it gives me so hope that one day we will be more than simple watchers.

For more review, there is icie’s and of course natalie’s

The book open with a nice folded poster of the cover. Now I wonder if anyone try to remove the poster from their artbook. I never did it with my artbooks, only with magazines.

The book is full of page spread illustration, with comments at the bottom, and a margin for your thumb. There is no small illustration. Artstyle wise, Misakura Nankotsu is not that particular, it’s quite generic moe, not that I dislike it much. One good point would be the color, which are really vibrant.

These illustration from what I gathered are from the Famitsu PS, the famous weekly video game magazine in Japan. Judging from the information in the artbook, Misakura Nankotsu put one illustration every 2 weeks. Chance are no one has ever seen them except Japanese who get the magazine. I don’t think anyone get a video game magazine to scan one artwork; there are video game news in it.

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I think it must have already striking for people that it’s rather ecchi. Pantsu here and there, girls cleaning your car… One thing I like in the artbook are the theme of the images. They are all from every day life, with all sort of girl’s in different uniform doing different jobs. There is no particular image to disturb this flow. I like fantastic one, but having a focus on every day life is equally as good in my opinion.

The book conclude with an interview of the artist. All in all, it’s a nice artbook, if you kind of like generic moe. The artstyle, while not being overly original, is clean… and ecchi. It also reminds me a little bit of the Uniform Moe Encyclopedia is similar in visual theme, except the artstyle is consistent, which is really a plus compared to the randomness of the encyclopedia.

Now concerning the article; it was my plan to use the scanner instead of the camera. But for big book, it’s very hard to flatten the book, and I usually lose 1/3 of the page. I also had some people telling me that my icon. 02 has color problem, which is true when I compare the images. However, in the current situation it seems hard for me to address this. My scanner is only on 8bits per channel, meaning that in term of color accuracy, it’s not very good. I might invest in a new scanner in the future, so if people has any recommendation for scanner, I’m opened ^^. I just scanned the cover, and tried some new processing. I would like to point out that there is no GreyCstoration Photoshop plugin for Mac, so I guess I will have to compile it one day.

Meanwhile, I had to use my camera. Using camera is a bit tricky, as the paper is the reflective kind, meaning I have to avoid projecting any hard light. I was surprised to see that my room lamp did make some reflection even though it’s quite a diffused light, so I switched it off. I had to use my lamp desk instead. Pointing it directly at the book proved to be inefficient even with a diffuser. My solution in the end was to point upward, and have some reflection diffuse the light. I think I can improve it a little bit again; I just though about being in front of a wall, since the light is coming from the bottom, and the top the page is less lighted than the rest. The photos reflect this different change of lighting. I will try to improve it over time.

PS: Twitter Tool seems to spam again my database…

Vanillesose Marchen is a doujin released by Tohru Adumi, under the circle name Kotobukikei during C77. I have a love/hate relationship with her, because I like her art very much, but she draws quite a number of bishounen, with sometimes an entire doujinshi dedicated to them. Well, the worst must have been the doujinshi for a very popular shounen with ninja inside ( Not telling the title, I don’t want to be referenced for it lol ). Vanillesose Marchen is the first and unique doujinshi I have from her. It’s a 25 pages, B5 sized doujinshi, with a thin cardboard cover, with a frilly cutting for the front, and the rest is a standard plastic paper. Full Size PNG

Why did I get this doujin… well, it was just on wimp; the last doujin you bid on because you need to wrap up your package. I also try to get some new artist each time, aside of the one I always get.

The promotional picture was the pink middle one. If I remember correctly, back at that time the artist had her pink period, hence this very nice illustration. I really like the way she draws hair and eyes. I don’t remember her using a lot of highly saturated colors. There are more desaturated color, and in some drawing, there are few colors, giving the illustration some sense of tradition and age, which is soothing. This is complemented by the design of the clothes.

I particularly like these fantasy themed illustrations. It makes you dream and become a child again. The image in the archive is leveled because it looks a little bit too green here.

The brown one also reminds me of the cover of Byakuya Chakai. The pose is almost the same, and it follows the same contrast scheme, saturation. The difference is the eyes which here, fits the general color set, unlike Tinkle’s green eyes which are attracting in the sea of pink. Nevertheless, both are lovingly mesmerizing.

I already liked Tohru Adumi before, and I’m glad I got this doujin. It’s not expensive to get her publication since she isn’t as camped as some other high profile artist. She has a particular style which reminds of old fashion, and some German touch, with the text and design.There are also some English poem inside to complement the illustration. For once, it’s not really Engrish.

Concerning the scans, I didn’t debind the doujin since I have only one copy like most of my doujinshi anyway. I had to flatten it quite a lot on scanner bed, but I think it’s good enough. I didn’t scan the pages without illustration, so that my copy doesn’t get too damaged over time. In the archive, the two page spread illustrations are already stitched, and I didn’t put one illustration in this article, because it’s mainly made of bishounen. Lastly, I added the lightbox to WordPress so that there is no need to load the image in another page. I hope it works.

edit: It doesn’t work, and Twitters Tools brings me some issue, so I will disable it temporally >.<

I have finally finished the game, between all my activities. In short, it’s  beautiful and sad at the same time, which I guess is the type of game Minori is good at. The main theme is the end, end of  one’s life, end of the world, and how one face it. The game depicted this quite well, and what I liked particularly is the background, as it’s really detailed to the point of looking real, but still adequate for the character. It shows the world as beautiful it can be, but also conveys the atmosphere. I must warn that the rest of the post is just things I noticed, and is a spoilerish.

The game can be divided in 3 parts, each with a different title screen image. The first part is in a laboratory, which looks more like a great european house. The color are rather vibrant, but confined, with a certain sepia tone, and red. The only form of green is the military uniform. It’s an oppressive feeling for the reader, and you realize it when you reach the second part, which is mostly outdoors. The color design is totally different from the first part of the game since it represents the world. I think it’s tied to the story, since it follows the environment of Sion, who has never seen the world.

Aside of the background, there is also that little bit of poesy in the story. It uses symbols and images in the writing which I guess is their trademark. Starting from the middle of the second part, you know there will be an end, a tragic one, since Sion doesn’t have much time left. The heavy theme is easier to talk when the writing is close to poesy. A rather striking moment is when Rio ask what Sion was digging for in the field. Her answer was her “grave”.

What I wondered during the whole game is whether who end first. Somehow, as you are attached to the character so you would rather see the world end first so that you don’t see people die. But it’s the other way around, and while it’s harder for the reader, it’s more beautiful in the writing.

My only wish would have been a longer third part for the game, the part when there are only two on the planet, what the eden is on earth. It was short and developing the story of two people alone would have been nice ( in fact, I just remember Planetarian when writting this ), especially considering the title of the game. But Sion is sleeping more and more, so the interaction are fewer.

To conclude, I would say that it was a very good story, which I liked, and it was nicely completed by the writing, visual and sound. In fact, I wrote in my first post a “journey toward the end of the world”, and I think it fits the experience perfectly now that I have finished. The end is something important, and everyone has their own way to approach it in eden*. Facing it, running away from it, waiting for it. It’s this sort of story. And to finish, I think the game would be easy to adapt to anime, in 12-13 episodes… let’s wait for SHAFT?

Here is what I got.2 separates boxes, and I was surprised to find a cardboard poster ( I have no idea of the japanese name for these ) of my gravatar signed! Not on this photo is the starry night background that I used for some photo. It’s a nice addition since it makes the setting closer to the artwork.

Let’s start with Shantiti. Long pink twin tails, barefooted, drinking champagne and frilly nightgown… She is really nice, but I have a preference for Ne-jyu. I will admit, the legs are very nice, and I will always bow in front of Tinkle’s clothe design. They managed to catch what I love with Tinkle in this figurine. The eyes are nicely painted and does remind of the artstyle. Other part are painted mostly with a mate finish, except the hair.

Next is Ne-jyu. Long purple haired, with a lolita crown, elbow gloves, thigh highs, drinking a cocktail and a frilly nightgown again. I guess she hits my moe even more than Shantiti. There is some interesting detail about the gloves and the thigh highs. They have a glossy finish and they also casted some purple shadow on it. I don’t know if it’s usual but I assume that figurine normally can cast their own shadow, but here it might be for the lighting color, as in the illustration.

For a Tinkle fan like me, this set is more than I can hope. I didn’t expect one day to see a figurine from them, but here it’s. I was in love with the illustration, I’m in love with the figurine. It’s really a nice sculpture which is represent nicely their character design.  Also the little extra is really nice, since there was only an avatar sized available.

As for the photo… I think the batch I did on the starry night is a bit better. I lack some light on that white background, but I’m too poor to get a decent setup. I used a Canon IXUS 870, a point and shoot camera, with a custom firmware so that I have a better control of shutter time and flash intensity. And here is the lighting setup.

So, there is one lamp on the right, plus 2 reflectors on top and on the right, made from aluminum foil. Then 2 sheets of glossy paper, one mate, the starry background, a tripod, and not on the picture is a LED light torch which I used as another light source on the left. I used some white tape on my Flash and the light torch so as to diffuse light. I quite like the photo with the starry background. The white one lacks light; I should get an additional light for the left.