東方ポケット戦争EVO IllustrationBook (Touhou Poketto Sensou EVO Illustration Book) is essentially a small (22 pages) full color artbook release for the doujin game created by 未完童話 (Mikan Douwa). The book features character profile illustrations by the game’s 3 illustrators; Riv (who is my primary reason for this purchase), Ninsei and Maetaku.
Both the front and back cover are rather cute and colorful. You can see the CG’ed version of the front cover here on Riv’s Pixiv!
The artwork styles on the back cover differ enough that I suspect it was a joint effort between the artists. I believe they are done by Ninsei (top), Maetaku (middle) and Riv (bottom), respectively.
The first page is simply a textless version of the cover, so I didn’t bother to photograph it. The next 20 pages are character illustrations. Pic spam inc!
There is a clear difference between the characters who are illustrated by different artists. It’s obvious to me which ones are not by Riv, but due to the lack of an art gallery on behalf of Ninsei, it’s difficult for me to tell the difference between him (her?) and Maetaku. I suspect, however, that Ninsei’s works are the ones with the soft-edge style of coloring and Maetaku’s have the hard-edge coloring (not counting the ones by Riv, of course.)
Page 22 has no illustrations, so again, I didn’t photograph it. However, it gives artist information and links to their websites, which I’ve provided in the intial paragraph via links for each artist’s name.
I purchased this book without knowing much about its contents or the fact that it contained work by artists other than Riv, but I don’t really regret it. Riv is one of my favorite artists right now, so I’ll take any of her work I can get! (Still, I’m hoping to get my hands on more publications similar to Yumeiro Mangekyou or Hanakotoba.)
I’d like to apologize for the vagueness of this review, as my Touhou knowledge is minimal and I had a very difficult time finding information on the artists other than Riv. Regardless, I wanted to take some snapshots of this book in case anyone was wondering what’s inside and if it’s worth their dollars to pick up a copy. As far as I’m concerned, any way for someone to get a sneak peek at a hard to find doujin is worth taking the time to share.
I got my copy of this book from doujin_store on eBay. His prices are rather steep, but I guarantee the quality of his service and products are absolutely out of this world. Sometimes it’s cheaper to buy from him than to import via deputy services, so it’s always good to compare prices when you buy. (Also take note that the pricing of his doujin is based heavily on popularity and rarity. When one copy of a doujinshi sells and he has multiple copies, he will list the next copy at a higher price than the last one. It is usually a $10 markup.) Nonetheless, I can’t recommend him enough!
Plastic Pleasures 