In other non-personal related news, I recently saw this figure at AmiAmi:

After staring at it for a couple days, I decided to preorder it. With the Japanese Yen soaring and at a price of 9,800 yen, this figure doesn’t come cheap. It’s a limited release from Petit Jeuness based on an illustration done by the famous artist Hiro Suzuhira. I also spent quite a bit of time looking at the pink version, but decided that the black/purple one looked better.

In between staring at these two figures, I also checked out how things were going with Saimoe 2010 and was happy to find out that two of my favourite characters, Kurimu Sakurano and Mafuyu Shiina (both from Seitokai no Ichizon) had made it past the first round. Kurimu narrowly beat out Misaki from Kaichou wa Maid-sama, while Mafuyu (surprisingly) beat out Hinagiku from Hayate no Gotoku. While some people didn’t like Seitokai no Ichizon because it lacked a plot, I absolutely loved it and hope either Kurimu or Mafuyu (but I’m rooting more for Mafuyu) win the competition. My favourite parts from the anime were “aluminium”, “tastes like happiness”, and “mokyu”, those of you who watched it will know what I’m talking about.

Isn't she adorable? Hard to believe she reads BL and yaoi.

That’s all I have to say for now. If you guys don’t hear from me for a week, at least you’ll know what happened.

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Today I thought I’d share some of my favourite illustrations from the first volume of the  E☆2 (Etsu) Girls Girls Girls! collection. I’ve actually had this artbook for nearly a year now, but never got around to posting about it until now. Like volumes 2 and 3, there are also special categories in volume 1, but these ones are more generic. The first section starts out with gravure illustrations, and after that are a series of smaller categories such as maids, twins, and glasses. These pages were really hard to scan without actually tearing the book apart, which is why you’ll notice one side is a little blurry in all of the pictures. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the cover illustration was done by none other than Tony Taka, who I’m sure many people have already heard of.

This picture above is another illustration from Tony Taka (http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/i/taka_tony/). The thing I like about his illustrations is that they’re always smooth and usually simple. His characters also have relatively soft-looking eyes.

This goth illustration was done by Hiro Suzuhira (http://heart-work.info/). I like the girl’s outfit, but I think her ear looks a bit weird.

This cute little girl was drawn by Akane Ikegami (http://akanemakesrevolution.blog121.fc2.com/). Sometimes I find that eyes drawn this way look a bit weird, but I think it looks perfect here. I also liked how some of the cherry blossom petals were blurred to make it feel like its windy.

On to the maid section, here we have an illustration by Kiba Satoshi (http://www.din.or.jp/~kiba/). I thought the mini-tie was a nice addition to the regular maid outfit, and she looks cool holding a sword.

This maid was illustrated by Kaya Kuramoto (http://home.att.ne.jp/yellow/kuramoto/). Girls with guns are cool, but does anyone else think that it’d be really hard to reach for the gun in that position? The gun also seems a bit too big for the holster. Anyways, I liked how Kaya drew the maid’s face, she’s like a ghost or something you’d expect to see in a horror anime/game.

Here’s the last maid, I promise. Its illustrated by Momoko Sapporo (http://www.cc.rim.or.jp/~momoko/). It wasn’t so much the art that I liked, but the girl just seems like she has a really spunky personality which you don’t normally associate with maids.

These two twins were illustrated by KEG (http://www009.upp.so-net.ne.jp/keg/). I liked the old-fashioned feel of this illustration, and the only problem I could find with it is that the lower twin’s right elbow seems a litle too sharp.

Masato@Takashina (http://ts-web.dojin.com/hjo/) did this illustration. I thought it was interesting how the colours are almost like water-colours, but the patterns on the girl’s clothing is too detailed for that.

This one reminded me of Aoi Nishimata’s work, but the top of the page says it was illustrated by Okira. I couldn’t find any information on this artist, so if anyone knows who he is or if he has a website, feel free to share.

What I liked about this illustration by Mikeou (http://www2.odn.ne.jp/~cai16580/) is how he somehow managed to merge a maid outfit with a school uniform. At first I just thought it was an apron, but part of it is underneath the school uniform.

Anyone who follows anime/manga/game style art should be able to recognize this art style. This illustration was done by Tinkle (http://www.tinkerbell.vc/), famous for their beautifully detailed art that usuallly have cute girls wearing really frilly dresses.

This goth-loli girl was illustrated by Miyama-Zero (http://miyama0.dragon.gr.jp/). While the dresses in his art aren’t as frilly as in Tinkle’s, I still think it’s done really nicely.

I thought this girl looked really cool, she’s illustrated by A=g (http://easyplan01.blog10.fc2.com/). She looks like an angel you would see in some fantasy game, complete with a halo, crosses, and a staff for her weapon :)

The sunset in this illustration by Yuunagi Futaba (http://ps-hutaba.net/) was brilliant, I love how the colours blend together here. I also thought it was funny seeing an abandoned catgirl (instead of a cat) in a box.

Here’s an illustration by Miyama-Zero again. After looking at this second picture, it seems like Miyama-Zero draws his characters with rather large heads.

I know the yellowish colour in this illustration by Yuuri Nishiwaki (http://yuuri.happy.nu/) was intentional to show that there’s a window and setting sun, but I think this would’ve been better without it.

The last image I’d like to share is this one by Yukiwo (http://yukiwo.com/). I just adore this girl’s little top-hat, and she looks like a doll in that dress. I guess the cemetary is supposed to give it a dark feel, but it just doesn’t feel very dark to me.

There are a total of 75 full-page colour illustrations and a lot of monochrome illustrations at the back. Most of them are done by different artists so you get a lot of different art styles in here. While it’s a bit troublesome for someone who doesn’t know Japanese (like me) to try to look up the names of these artists, it’s definitely a good place to discover new art by people you might not have heard of.

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Along with E2′s (Etsu’s) Girls Girls Girls! volume 2 illustration collection, I also bought the volume 3 illustration collection. This volume focuses on the cover girls of all the E2 Magazines from volumes 1-16, the poster girls from volumes 1-15, and the pick-up girls from volumes 1-7.

On the inside cover is another illustration of the same waitress girl on the front cover, but with different coloured clothing and background. The illustration was done by artist Tony Taka, who seems to have quite a few of his works published in E2 Magazine. If anyone out there think this girl looks familiar, it’s because Tony Taka did the character designs for ”Sora no Iro Mizu no Iro”, which you might have seen. You can see the similarities in the screenshot below (especially in the eyes and face):

The book also features other artists that regularly appear in E2 Magazine. Here is an illustration done by Aoi Nishimata, who worked on the character designs for SHUFFLE!, Tick Tack!, and Really? Really! I guess that’s why all of her works remind me of Kaede, Asa, Nerine, Sia, and Primula ^.^

This illustration was done by Misakura Nankotsu. I like the school uniforms that the girls are wearing, it reminds me of School Rumble. In case you can’t read the text behind them, it says “Kumanozawa Foolish Sisters”.

Carnelian’s work seems to always have very large oppai, if you don’t believe me just look up “Kao no Nai Tsuki” (“Moonlight Lady”) or “Yami to Boshi to Hon no Tabibito”, note that both are NSFW.

Another illustration by Tony Taka. What I like about his works are the soft faces that his characters have.

Can anyone who reads kanji tell me the name of this artist:

Tinkle’s work is also very well-known, and you can probably tell why from the illustration below. All the detail put into all the frilly clothing really makes their art stand out. There was also another one of their works on the adjacent page, but with bare oppai showing, I thought it best not to post it here.

A girl in a white dress with a pink umbrella taking a stroll through the woods. Sounds like a picture-perfect scene, and Aoi Kimizuka portrayed it very well here.

I really like this illustration done my Kantoku. He also does quite a few illustrations of popular anime characters.

Another work my Tinkle. Notice the frilly clothing.

Somehow pink hair and green eyes seem to fit perfectly when drawn anime/manga style, but look so weird in real life.

This fox-girl was done by Hiro Suzuhira, who also worked on the character designs for SHUFFLE! alongside Aoi Nishimata. It looks like Suzuhira provides a little  more fanservice with a bit of panty flashing :)

Here’s another work by Hira Suzuhira that I just loved. The detail in this illustration is amazing, especially the little flowers on the girl’s fingernails.

Once again I can’t read the name of this artist, but I like the art style.

Here’s another piece by Misakura Nankotsu, this time there’s no school uniforms. I wonder how often you’d find a girl lying on the floor in her underwear and smiling at you.

This girl reminds me of Nunnaly from Code Geass, drawn by Aoi Kimizuka:

More of Tony’s work. I think he likes tall, slim girls with brown hair.

This one looks really nice, but a bit scary at the same time.

Cute nekomimi girl by Teinkuru.

And at the last section of the book are the E2 pick-up girls:

Back cover:

Like the second volume of the Girls Girls Girls! illustration collection, this one was definitely worth the buy. The book contains 103 pages with over 70 illustrations, some of which span two pages. I’m really looking forward to the 4th volume now ^.^

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