Togihime Zohushi

The first was Japanesque, released by Seishinsha in November 2003, and containing 13 images featuring preistesses/princesses in various poses, dress and practise. Never before printed and all exceptionally stunning, it was the must have calendar! It was around this time that Seishinsha handed over to Kodansha, who promptly released the Togihime Zohushi Portfolio.

This was a huge portfolio approximately A3 in size. The cover was a thick piece of card with the red/black/gold decoration that featured throughout all three items, on the outside, and a beautiful image of a white and a black girl depicting a drum scene presenting the ‘Ying and Yang’ concept. Within was another A3 sized plastic slip which contained 14 images, printed on A2 matt card, as well as an A3 clear file which stored the date stickers (I like how instead of plastering the dates onto the images, they give you the choice of having the dates there, or not!) and had a holographic octopus (Shirow’s symbol) printed on it. All but 2 of the images were extended versions of those that appeared in Japaneseque, with “more” of each being shown (imagine that the Japanese images had been cut so were not showing the whole image.) Each image also came with supplementary text which I can only imagine is information about the image by Shirow, sorry it’s in Japanese.
This portfolio was advertised as containing a “special item” that was limited to only a certain number of the portfolios. This turned out to be false advertisement since not only was the portfolio easily found, but all contained the special item, which turned out to be a calligraphy image drawn by Shirow that is not found in Japaneseque or the CDROM version of Togihime Zohushi.

The Togihime Zohushi Kobang! CDROM was released in late January 2004 by Kodansha. It contained two jewel cases (similar to CDROMS but specifically designed to contain paper) and each jewel case contained the same 13 images as the calendar, and a page containing date stickers. Why two you wonder? Well, one was the “standard” version, with imagery from the calendar and portfolio… and the second was well, a more “ecchi” version ^_^;
Yup, the same images but with some changes. Either in dress, pose or accompanying paraphenalia e.g. the cover of the Japansque calendar is the “standard” image, but in the ecchi version she is without apparel (no censoring what so ever.) Other changes include a shift in a pose, or the removal of certain pieces of clothing; all done in a subtle manner. Great marketing on Kodansha’s part since it ensured that people would buy, regardless of whether they had the calendar or portfolio!

The entire set is a feast for any Shirow fan, and I know that while I was groaning at how much it would cost to get all of them, I was also excited. In terms of whether or not you should buy, well, if you’re strapped for cash and just want a nice collection of Shirow artwork, get the calendar. If you aren’t so strapped for cash and want to be able to display the images in all their glory, get the portfolio. As for the CDROM, mreh, only get it if you like ecchi stuff (seriously, it’s not that ecchi.)
If you’re a Shirow nut like me, get em all