Arcadia is a short illustration dōjinshi by 憂 (literally 'gloom') from that once upon a time known as 2008 - jesus, was it really fifteen years ago, and I was just fresh out of university?
Anyway, 24 pages in full color, printed on rather fancy matte paper and with a foldable cover - a very nice package overall, very well curated. Aside from illustration titles and a few contact info on the last page there is no text at all in this dōjinshi, which focuses solely on full page, 'finished' illustration pieces of themes from fairy tales - a rather prominent theme among Japanese illustrators, whose fascination with Western tales seems to know no exhaustion. We range from Thumbelina, through Gretel, to less strictly fairytale-like subjects, such as more general Romantic / PreRaphaelite pseudo-Arthurian pieces, and a couple of figures from Greek history and art- sort of strange to see Sappho next to Red Riding Hood, but it works, so no complaints.
憂 does not employ a strictly traditional 'manga' or 'anime' style, although there is certainly some of that in the DNA of their slender, doe-eyed pinups: rather, this is mixed with visual references that call back to the PreRaphaelites, Norther european illustrators such as Jon Bauer and Arthur Rackam, and that general undercurrent of Westward-looking 'romantic' dollhouse aesthetics that runs from the less punkish strands of Visual Kei, into stuff like Rozen Maiden and Tsukiji Nao's manga. Dreamy, pastel-colored, horror vacui powered scenes from Arcadia which show, if there was any need, that the East romanticizes the West as much as the other way around.
