Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon Illustrations Vol II

This book shows a subtle progression in Naoko Takeuchi’s art style; images here are alot more refined in nature, more “pretty” and less rough to look at. Again you have your usual “shoujo-esque” type images, flowery, long flowing hair and lush clothing – speaking of clothing, I always wondered how those sailor fukus were so “decent” when you consider just how short they are! You definitely see all the girls dressed in battle gear, as well as more relaxed poses (with many of the images recognisable as being used on posters for example.) There is 1 page at the very back that is a collection of chibi images of all the main characters as well as some of the evil guys.
Image spread is mainly full page or double page, with only 2 pages containing more than 1 image on it. The cover scan below doesn’t show it properly, but the lettering is gold embossed.

Considering the cover price of this book, you get a good selection of images presented in a very nice format. It’s a shame that this book has been long out of print; these days you may end up paying quite a bit for the Japanese edition. Please note, there is a licensed Chinese version of this artbook but it is in softcover. There is also a “hardback” version floating around on eBay thats being sold rather cheaply. The quality of artwork is not good and these books are probably bootlegs.

A must for fans of the artist and series

p.s. if you would like translations of the notes in this book, check out Manga Style’s translations.