Riv, a Taiwanese artist who goes by the circle name of SOLOIST, is one of my more current favorite artists. I couldn’t pass up the chance to get a book of colored illustrations, so I picked up Yumeiro Mangekyou (夢色万華鏡) or “Dream-colored Kaleidoscope”, which is a full color book of gorgeous Touhou art. I know very little about Touhou (despite being constantly exposed to artwork inspired by it) but that doesn’t make me like this publication any less!
Cover
Shiny! The title of the book is printed in metallic silver. The book actually opens at the “top” instead of the side. The images inside are presented in both horizontal and vertical formats.
Page #1
The first page has some opening text (not pictured here) in Chinese along with Japanese. This illustration is on the page to the left of it.
夢色万華鏡
The first two-page spread of many features the same gorgeous artwork used on the cover. You can peek at a CG version of it here on Riv’s Pixiv.
Making Music
The next couple of pages feature some really lovely music-themed illustrations. The image on the right is just stunning!
Vertical Spread #1
This is where the book switches over to some glorious vertical 2 page spreads!
Vertical Spread #2
This one’s a bit too loli for my taste, but it’s cute, nonetheless!
Vertical Spread #3
Nemuiiii ~3~
東風谷早苗
There was some funky scan-line action happening in this photograph, but the print is fine, I assure you. You can also see this one here on Riv’s Pixiv.
お嬢様と犬耳咲夜
Here’s where the book returns to horizontal spreads. (View on Pixiv.)
Happy Fun-Time!
A cheerful page-and-a-half spread along with some very cute chibi versions of the Touhou characters.
東方ポケット戦爭
We’re back to the single-page illustrations. I love Riv’s coloring style in this image especially. (View on Pixiv.)
東方ペロペロ
The second of the two “ecchi” images in this book. Take a look at the face on the lolipop! (View on Pixiv.)
天子と衣玖
Love the blue hair and red eyes; it’s very striking. (View on Pixiv.)
霊夢と桜
Everyone loves a good “miko in the water” illustration, right? (View on Pixiv.)
Index
There’s an index of all the colored images to sum it all up… and then a few pages of really nice monochrome art.
Monochrome #1
Monochrome #2
The "Endning"!
This book turned out to be a really pleasant surprise for me, since I only had a couple of pages as a reference for purchase and I hadn’t seen any scans anywhere yet. (I still haven’t, thus my choice to review it.) I’m very glad I chose to purchase it and I’ll definitely be getting more works by Riv in the future as they are released.
Plastic Pleasures 