AnimeSuki Forums

Aoie_Emesai · 2007-09-15, 18:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lion and the sky

cheers! oooooooo wow, that sounds like a lot of fun! I want to go there!!! so you can buy arty booky things there? *rubs hands together...*

For people who live in American like I do and UK like you do, there's only a few sites that we can buy those oversea merchandises.

1. http://www.comiketservice.sakura.ne.jp/ - Aka the official place to buy them or

2. Yahoo Auction Japan

ps: I did find the site really slow though.

ps: I'm not sure if they ship to us, meaning outside of Japan. I haven't read too much into that site yet.

cyth · 2007-09-16, 12:35

There are other places where you can buy commercial artbooks, like Amazon JP, MangaOH etc., but doujinshi is a tough and somewhat expensive hobby. There are quite a few specialized web stores that usually don't offer a wide variety of titles. For example, Japan Queen carries a lot of BL doujinshi/artbooks (and the more common titles), but if you have the luxury of living in the U.S. you should be able to attend a nearby convention and scour the dealers for doujinshi. Those are truly the best places to buy them outside of Japan, but, again, they offer a limited catalogue. Most of us who use Yahoo! Japan have deputy services getting our stash for a small handling fee (akibado, Crescent Shop, Goody Japan, Shopping Mall Japan, DankeDanke).

LynnieS · 2007-09-16, 12:52

Just picked up the new "佐野俊英イラストレーションズ (大型本)" book ("Toshihide Sano Illustrations") that just came out. It's a bit naughty since the images are from different ero games like "Wife and Mama Boin", which while I'm not a fan of, does have some very nicely done images, IMHO.

Cover: Soft dust jacket
Special(s): Pull-out poster
ISBN-10: 4860324358
ISBN-13: 978-4860324353

Aoie_Emesai · 2007-09-17, 01:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toua

There are other places where you can buy commercial artbooks, like Amazon JP, MangaOH etc., but doujinshi is a tough and somewhat expensive hobby. There are quite a few specialized web stores that usually don't offer a wide variety of titles. For example, Japan Queen carries a lot of BL doujinshi/artbooks (and the more common titles), but if you have the luxury of living in the U.S. you should be able to attend a nearby convention and scour the dealers for doujinshi. Those are truly the best places to buy them outside of Japan, but, again, they offer a limited catalogue. Most of us who use Yahoo! Japan have deputy services getting our stash for a small handling fee (akibado, Crescent Shop, Goody Japan, Shopping Mall Japan, DankeDanke).

Amazon Japan is a nice place to buy artbooks, about 6 months ago, I bought 4 of mine there. Though It still costed me about 107$ for them all ^_^, their prices are pretty good too.

Otaku Blue · 2007-09-17, 15:16

I would go for Yesasia for artbooks. They have all of the lastest ones and the shipping is cheap. For example, I was in Japan at the end of August and when I went to Akihabara I was looking for the Lucky Star Official Anime Book. It had only come out the day before and I wasn't able to to find it in Gamers or Animate (Couldn't find K-Books or Melon Books...dammit). Yesasia have it though, then I checked yesasia and they had it at a really good price.

LynnieS · 2007-09-17, 19:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Otaku Blue

I would go for Yesasia for artbooks. They have all of the lastest ones and the shipping is cheap. For example, I was in Japan at the end of August and when I went to Akihabara I was looking for the Lucky Star Official Anime Book. It had only come out the day before and I wasn't able to to find it in Gamers or Animate (Couldn't find K-Books or Melon Books...dammit). Yesasia have it though, then I checked yesasia and they had it at a really good price.

Akihabara is changing a lot these days, and moving more upscale than before, IMHO. Sofmap recently moved to a new main store with 7 floors of... stuff, and shut down their old games/models/etc. store and moved it to another location. Laox is closing down soon as well.

For artbooks, you can also try Toranoana, which also has floors holding dojinshi manga, games, and music; the buildings are next to Animate off the main street in Akihabara, and you can't miss them since they had signs at the front the last time I went there. K-Books and Melon Books can be hard to find so you might want to look on their sites for directions first.

For new artbooks (and even some older ones), you can also try the regular bookstores like Book First and Kinokuniya, especially if you'll be in Tokyo/Japan anyway. No discounts, but odds are, you won't get any for the new stuff from Animate or K-Books also.

For old stuff, stores like Mandarake are usually better; the one in Akihabara isn't very large so try those in other locations, IMHO. K-Books has a store carrying used stuff that you can browse through if you have time.

Aoie_Emesai · 2007-09-17, 20:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by LynnieS

Akihabara is changing a lot these days, and moving more upscale than before, IMHO. Sofmap recently moved to a new main store with 7 floors of... stuff, and shut down their old games/models/etc. store and moved it to another location. Laox is closing down soon as well.

For artbooks, you can also try Toranoana, which also has floors holding dojinshi manga, games, and music; the buildings are next to Animate off the main street in Akihabara, and you can't miss them since they had signs at the front the last time I went there. K-Books and Melon Books can be hard to find so you might want to look on their sites for directions first.

For new artbooks (and even some older ones), you can also try the regular bookstores like Book First and Kinokuniya, especially if you'll be in Tokyo/Japan anyway. No discounts, but odds are, you won't get any for the new stuff from Animate or K-Books also.

For old stuff, stores like Mandarake are usually better; the one in Akihabara isn't very large so try those in other locations, IMHO. K-Books has a store carrying used stuff that you can browse through if you have time.

Akihabara would be nice, but I don't really live in Japan ^_^

nemoleo · 2007-09-18, 07:30

Interesting topic right here ^^.
For those you can go to Japan, Akihabara is indeed a good place but I also recommend Ikebukuro where there 3 K-Books (1 small for doujinshi only where I luckily found the three Graph of Tony Taka, and two others for comics, games, goodies and so on) a quite big Animate shop and a Mandarake (a bit small and contains a lot of yaoi products

).
There is also a Mandarake in Shibuya, that is a bit difficult to find but it is worth finding it because it is quite a hudge one.
Also for old artbooks, Book-off shop can sometimes help.

Recently I happened to see that Mandarake has an internet web site in different languages, but I still haven't find some time to browse it ... Does anyone has already tested it ?

LynnieS · 2007-09-18, 07:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aoie_Emesai

Akihabara would be nice, but I don't really live in Japan ^_^

That is why I quoted Otaku Blue.

One thing that I have found with artbooks is that their covers can often be better than the images inside. The "Works" artbook you had given in your first post, for example, I bought based on the cover alone, but found that I didn't like many of the images; I thought that they were either too flat or heavy-handed, IMHO.

One problem with the JP bookstores is that they usually wrap their books in plastic, so you have work a bit to see what is inside. The openings in the plastic are often small as well so it's hard to see more than what's at the top without ripping the wrapping - not a good thing to do if you don't want to buy the book.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nemoleo

Recently I happened to see that Mandarake has an internet web site in different languages, but I still haven't find some time to browse it ... Does anyone has already tested it ?

Yes, I have, but not to buy anything from there. I did, though, bid on designs and working papers from anime episodes using Mandarake's auctions in the past instead. They seem to have a shop in France as well - although I don't know where it is; I remember getting an e-mail from there after winning an auction.

The store at Ikebukuro carried only doujinshi when I was there.

Aoie_Emesai · 2007-09-22, 00:01

The convention is tomorrow, so i'll be sure to post what I bought from it ^_^. AWA Con.

OK it seemed that there wasn't too many artbook vendors this year so I only got 3 of them this time along with 2 other PVC which I'll post on the Figure thread.

Aoi Nanase - Seven Colors of the Wind - I absolutely love this artbook. The art is so well done, I recommend this for anyone who will even attempt to get a artbook. Aoi Nanase is a personal favorite artist of mine, but personal opinion isn't of important here. It shows pretty much different poses and background scenes for really just 2 girls then it changes to another set of characters and that repeats. There's not any extras and the book is a softcover, but overall still a really good buy, which costed me about 30$ for it.

Cover - Softcover with jacket
Extras - Pull out poster
Artist - Aoi Nanase
Samples -

The next 2 I didn't even know existed and i've never ever seen anywhere, but the cover caught my eyes and bought them ^_^.

Fujitsubo Machine F.tw / Blue - The cover is what caught my eyes to begin with, and I thought I recognized the front cover and didn't pay attention to it at first cause it was 60$, but eventually bought it later and found one later for 40$, but to o late, no returns. Pretty much this is a lot like His/her (i haven't quite figured out this person's gender yet) other works, the Noizi Ito - Art Collection - Guren and the Noizi Ito - Art Collection 2 - Hana but without the Shana theme tied around it. This book is from the C71, so that's why it costed me so much for it. Overall it's enjoyable cause the artworks are really cute. I would only recommend if you really like this artists work or you had nothing else to buy and you're willing to spend a few extra big bucks.

Cover - Softcover with jacket, the size is sorta small
Extras - None
Artist - Noizi Ito (from C71)
ps: This book is part of last year convention so finding it will be sorta hard, so I only post the offical site for it since I cannot find a place to buy it at the moment.
Samples -

<-- That is not my bed, btw just in case ya are wondering.

Maki Hakoda - R³ (R:cubism) - Again like the F.tw one, The cover was what got me, now that I've researched the price of it, paying 45$ for it was sorta a ripoff. The book is covered by a large 1 open sided hard plastic case so you can slip it right in after you're done and it is a hard cover too. Personally i've never heard of this one myself, and I saw it as it was the last one on the shelf, so I though "it must be rare!" and bought it immediately. I definitely didn't regret buying this book, even though it was sorta pricy. It's about 80 pages long and it is 100% full color illustration but a few 5-6 pages of monochrome pages at the very back. Supposobly this is a collection of artworks from 5 different titles, but I don't know the artist at all so I can't vouch for that at all. About half of the book consist of younger aged kiddes and the other half are older teens.

I don't consider this a must buy, but put it on your to buy list.

Cover - Hardcover with Plastic Case w/ a open ended side
Extras - None
Artist - Maki Hakoda
Samples -

ps: i'll be adding samples for the other artbooks I have on the first page too, but I have 50+ more images to upload so i'll do it gradually thru the day.

cyth · 2007-09-24, 08:50

Ugh, I feel a bit uneasy seeing those BLUE sample images, and out of good reason:

Those are two separate publications--fujitsubo-machine RED and BLUE books. Yours looks like it's been combined into one. Now either Itou Noiji made a special release that I'm not aware of (thus fail at being her loyal fan) or you've stumbled upon a (expensive >.<) bootleg. I got mine in April, and yes, they are indeed from C71. I got them from Yahoo! Auctions and many sellers had both RED and BLUE. I haven't found a "F.tw" anywhere back then.

BTW, Itou Noiji is a she. =) Got her pictures and also heard her starring in Nanatsuiro★Radio web radio.

Aoie_Emesai · 2007-09-24, 21:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toua

Ugh, I feel a bit uneasy seeing those BLUE sample images, and out of good reason:

Those are two separate publications--fujitsubo-machine RED and BLUE books. Yours looks like it's been combined into one. Now either Itou Noiji made a special release that I'm not aware of (thus fail at being her loyal fan) or you've stumbled upon a (expensive >.<) bootleg. I got mine in April, and yes, they are indeed from C71. I got them from Yahoo! Auctions and many sellers had both RED and BLUE. I haven't found a "F.tw" anywhere back then.

BTW, Itou Noiji is a she. =) Got her pictures and also heard her starring in Nanatsuiro★Radio web radio.

EWWWIIIEEEE!!!! >.< I'll have to as my other friend about her opinion on this book to see if it's a bootleg or a special release like you have stated in your post ^_^

ps: I just went back and looked at the doujin artbook and from what I can tell, the quality is quite good, from my eyes I can't tell if it's either a really good bootleg or the legit copy.

ps 2: I looked closer and on the cover and i saw this "Reorganization collection of Taiwan Ver." on the big W on the title. I'm not sure if this helps or not but it may be the real deal here ^_^.

***relentlessflame*** · 2007-09-24, 21:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aoie_Emesai

ps 2: I looked closer and on the cover and i saw this "Reorganization collection of Taiwan Ver." on the big W on the title. I'm not sure if this helps or not but it may be the real deal here ^_^.

Well, it would seem to me to be a bit unusual that an artist would authorize a Taiwanese reprint of a Comiket-exclusive product, as that seems to go against the whole Comiket "experience" (limited, exclusive releases not available anywhere else, etc.). I'm assuming the original was self-published, and wouldn't fall under MediaWorks or some other agency's control, so the Taiwanese publishers would have approached her directly? Seems unlikely... I have a feeling it's a bootleg, but I can't think of any easy way to prove it one way or the other.

In either case, if you were one of those who were buying "to collect" as oppose to "to have", a Taiwanese re-print, even if authorized, wouldn't have much/any after-market value... but like I said, that only matters if you actually care about that sort of thing. Though I only ever want to buy originals, personally.

cyth · 2007-09-25, 14:08

Got some other fujitsubo-machine publications today. COPYRIGHT from this year's COMIC1 convention, tsurezure and JUICY PINK from two past Comic Market conventions.

COPYRIGHT is especially nice. If features Itou Noiji redraws of Yoko from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Hell Girl, sylil from Emil Chronicle etc. and tsurezure surprised me with Rena's (Higurashi no Naku Koroni) illustration that predated the anime/manga/novel adaptations. Very cute.

Aoie_Emesai · 2007-09-25, 23:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toua

Got some other fujitsubo-machine publications today. COPYRIGHT from this year's COMIC1 convention, tsurezure and JUICY PINK from two past Comic Market conventions.

COPYRIGHT is especially nice. If features Itou Noiji redraws of Yoko from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Hell Girl, sylil from Emil Chronicle etc. and tsurezure surprised me with Rena's (Higurashi no Naku Koroni) illustration that predated the anime/manga/novel adaptations. Very cute.

Very very true, it's so cute ^_^. Sorta wish I had the extra cash to get some of my artbooks i've been wanting, but bills come first >.<

dovac · 2007-10-01, 15:03

The combined reprint of red and blue isn't a bootleg, it was for a con in Taiwan. Anyways maybe I'll post some stuff I got lately..

Aoie_Emesai · 2007-11-04, 21:01

Just recently found a artbook by one of my favorite artist - Mikeou ^_^.

KiraKira-Reki - Mikeou Art Works - きらきら暦みけおうアトワークス

I'll have to wait for my next pay check before I can get this beauty. But i've just heard from a source, that this artbook collection has low or zero repeat images from her 2 doujin artbooks ^_^

2007-09-16, 12:52	Link #23
LynnieS Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: China	Just picked up the new "佐野俊英イラストレーションズ (大型本)" book ("Toshihide Sano Illustrations") that just came out. It's a bit naughty since the images are from different ero games like "Wife and Mama Boin", which while I'm not a fan of, does have some very nicely done images, IMHO. Cover: Soft dust jacket Special(s): Pull-out poster ISBN-10: 4860324358 ISBN-13: 978-4860324353 __________________ "If ignorance is bliss, then why aren't more people happy?" -- Misc. Currently listening: Nadda Currently reading: Procrastination for the win! Currently playing: "Quest of D", "Border Break" and "Gundam Senjou no Kizuna". Waiting for: "Shining Force Cross"! Last edited by LynnieS; 2007-09-16 at 12:58. Reason: Added cover and etc info

2007-09-22, 00:01	Link #30
Aoie_Emesai ♪♫ Maya Iincho ♩♬ Artist Join Date: May 2004 Location: Unnecessary Age: 38	The convention is tomorrow, so i'll be sure to post what I bought from it ^_^. AWA Con. OK it seemed that there wasn't too many artbook vendors this year so I only got 3 of them this time along with 2 other PVC which I'll post on the Figure thread. Aoi Nanase - Seven Colors of the Wind - I absolutely love this artbook. The art is so well done, I recommend this for anyone who will even attempt to get a artbook. Aoi Nanase is a personal favorite artist of mine, but personal opinion isn't of important here. It shows pretty much different poses and background scenes for really just 2 girls then it changes to another set of characters and that repeats. There's not any extras and the book is a softcover, but overall still a really good buy, which costed me about 30$ for it. Cover - Softcover with jacket Extras - Pull out poster Artist - Aoi Nanase Samples - The next 2 I didn't even know existed and i've never ever seen anywhere, but the cover caught my eyes and bought them ^_^. Fujitsubo Machine F.tw / Blue - The cover is what caught my eyes to begin with, and I thought I recognized the front cover and didn't pay attention to it at first cause it was 60$, but eventually bought it later and found one later for 40$, but to o late, no returns. Pretty much this is a lot like His/her (i haven't quite figured out this person's gender yet) other works, the Noizi Ito - Art Collection - Guren and the Noizi Ito - Art Collection 2 - Hana but without the Shana theme tied around it. This book is from the C71, so that's why it costed me so much for it. Overall it's enjoyable cause the artworks are really cute. I would only recommend if you really like this artists work or you had nothing else to buy and you're willing to spend a few extra big bucks. Cover - Softcover with jacket, the size is sorta small Extras - None Artist - Noizi Ito (from C71) ps: This book is part of last year convention so finding it will be sorta hard, so I only post the offical site for it since I cannot find a place to buy it at the moment. Samples - <-- That is not my bed, btw just in case ya are wondering. Maki Hakoda - R³ (R:cubism) - Again like the F.tw one, The cover was what got me, now that I've researched the price of it, paying 45$ for it was sorta a ripoff. The book is covered by a large 1 open sided hard plastic case so you can slip it right in after you're done and it is a hard cover too. Personally i've never heard of this one myself, and I saw it as it was the last one on the shelf, so I though "it must be rare!" and bought it immediately. I definitely didn't regret buying this book, even though it was sorta pricy. It's about 80 pages long and it is 100% full color illustration but a few 5-6 pages of monochrome pages at the very back. Supposobly this is a collection of artworks from 5 different titles, but I don't know the artist at all so I can't vouch for that at all. About half of the book consist of younger aged kiddes and the other half are older teens. I don't consider this a must buy, but put it on your to buy list. Cover - Hardcover with Plastic Case w/ a open ended side Extras - None Artist - Maki Hakoda Samples - ps: i'll be adding samples for the other artbooks I have on the first page too, but I have 50+ more images to upload so i'll do it gradually thru the day. __________________ How to Give / Receive Criticism on your work / Like to draw? Come join Artists Alike Visit my Deviantart Or Blog ~A Child should always surpass his/her parent, Remember. Last edited by Aoie_Emesai; 2007-09-23 at 00:27.

2007-11-04, 21:01	Link #37
Aoie_Emesai ♪♫ Maya Iincho ♩♬ Artist Join Date: May 2004 Location: Unnecessary Age: 38	Just recently found a artbook by one of my favorite artist - Mikeou ^_^. KiraKira-Reki - Mikeou Art Works - きらきら暦みけおうアトワークス I'll have to wait for my next pay check before I can get this beauty. But i've just heard from a source, that this artbook collection has low or zero repeat images from her 2 doujin artbooks ^_^ __________________ How to Give / Receive Criticism on your work / Like to draw? Come join Artists Alike Visit my Deviantart Or Blog ~A Child should always surpass his/her parent, Remember.

2007-09-16, 12:35	Link #22
cyth Banned Join Date: Dec 2006 Age: 38	There are other places where you can buy commercial artbooks, like Amazon JP, MangaOH etc., but doujinshi is a tough and somewhat expensive hobby. There are quite a few specialized web stores that usually don't offer a wide variety of titles. For example, Japan Queen carries a lot of BL doujinshi/artbooks (and the more common titles), but if you have the luxury of living in the U.S. you should be able to attend a nearby convention and scour the dealers for doujinshi. Those are truly the best places to buy them outside of Japan, but, again, they offer a limited catalogue. Most of us who use Yahoo! Japan have deputy services getting our stash for a small handling fee (akibado, Crescent Shop, Goody Japan, Shopping Mall Japan, DankeDanke).

2007-09-17, 15:16	Link #25
Otaku Blue Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2007	I would go for Yesasia for artbooks. They have all of the lastest ones and the shipping is cheap. For example, I was in Japan at the end of August and when I went to Akihabara I was looking for the Lucky Star Official Anime Book. It had only come out the day before and I wasn't able to to find it in Gamers or Animate (Couldn't find K-Books or Melon Books...dammit). Yesasia have it though, then I checked yesasia and they had it at a really good price.

2007-09-18, 07:30	Link #28
nemoleo Uruz-7 Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: France Age: 41	Interesting topic right here ^^. For those you can go to Japan, Akihabara is indeed a good place but I also recommend Ikebukuro where there 3 K-Books (1 small for doujinshi only where I luckily found the three Graph of Tony Taka, and two others for comics, games, goodies and so on) a quite big Animate shop and a Mandarake (a bit small and contains a lot of yaoi products ). There is also a Mandarake in Shibuya, that is a bit difficult to find but it is worth finding it because it is quite a hudge one. Also for old artbooks, Book-off shop can sometimes help. Recently I happened to see that Mandarake has an internet web site in different languages, but I still haven't find some time to browse it ... Does anyone has already tested it ?

2007-09-24, 08:50	Link #31
cyth Banned Join Date: Dec 2006 Age: 38	Ugh, I feel a bit uneasy seeing those BLUE sample images, and out of good reason: Those are two separate publications--fujitsubo-machine RED and BLUE books. Yours looks like it's been combined into one. Now either Itou Noiji made a special release that I'm not aware of (thus fail at being her loyal fan) or you've stumbled upon a (expensive >.<) bootleg. I got mine in April, and yes, they are indeed from C71. I got them from Yahoo! Auctions and many sellers had both RED and BLUE. I haven't found a "F.tw" anywhere back then. BTW, Itou Noiji is a she. =) Got her pictures and also heard her starring in Nanatsuiro★Radio web radio.

2007-09-25, 14:08	Link #34
cyth Banned Join Date: Dec 2006 Age: 38	Got some other fujitsubo-machine publications today. COPYRIGHT from this year's COMIC1 convention, tsurezure and JUICY PINK from two past Comic Market conventions. COPYRIGHT is especially nice. If features Itou Noiji redraws of Yoko from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Hell Girl, sylil from Emil Chronicle etc. and tsurezure surprised me with Rena's (Higurashi no Naku Koroni) illustration that predated the anime/manga/novel adaptations. Very cute.

2007-10-01, 15:03	Link #36
dovac Junior Member Join Date: May 2006	The combined reprint of red and blue isn't a bootleg, it was for a con in Taiwan. Anyways maybe I'll post some stuff I got lately..