Ilaru teki Yuugashuu ikarun-power

Posted by Zeb in Artbook Reviews on Dec 17th, 2005 | 0 comments
Title Ilaru teki Yuugashuu ikarun-power
Artist Ikaru
Published 10/09/1997
Publisher Million Shuppan
Content 64 pages in total; 23 pages of colour illustrations; 20 pages of monochrome illustrations; 17 pages of monochrome manga; 3 title/intro pages; 1 end page; Softcover
Extras Interactive CDROM featuring low quality version of the artbook as well as 2 screen savers
Cover Price ¥2800
ISBN 4-88672-558-9
Rate Poor
Purchase 03/05/2004 | JPQueen.Com | US$5.90
Comments After having seen art by this artist around the internet, I decided to give this artbook a go. Hrrmmm…
On the good side, the art style appeals to me, despite the fact it is obviously dated in many respects (the big boofy hair of the late 80s and early 90s abound in this book.) He uses pre-dominantly water colours, and while water colours can be unforgiving (there are some pieces that look rushed/messy) he is able in the most part, to pull off some stunning colour illustrations, useing rich vibrant colours. If you’ve ever seen any of Ryo Ramiya or Aoi Nanase’s works, Ikaru’s style is similar, if not as refined.

On the bad side, his characters are a bit too on the thin side, and very few appear to show any expression at all rather than the obligatory smile. The manga work looks interesting, but to be honest with you, there is little substance to this book. All you get is a book full of medium-range art, with no connection to any anime, manga or game. The contents of the CDROM aren’t exactly exciting either, containing a low quality version of the artbook, as well as two screen savers which I can’t figure out how to extract and use.

The book covers are made of an irridescent pearl like paper, giving the cover image a nice touch. The transparent title page has the title of the book and the border (on the cover) printed in gold, a nice touch but all in all not enough to raise this book from the mediocre levels. None of this can warrant the price of the book either.
Only bother to get this book if you really do like this artist’s work, as little as there is out there.
ikarun-power



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