Fragment by Shirakaba Toshiharu is a particularly meaty offering, it almost feels like a real sketchbook thanks to the thick, brown paper. 花と砂糖と君が好き is the first volume of a really charming series, of which I own three so far; a review will be coming in the near future. Finally, Pretties is a quirky photobook / cosplay magazine - dōjinshi from... 1999. Jeez, feels like a century ago. I think it was somewhere around that year though that I put my mitts on Rozen Maiden and began my tragic descent into otakudom.
The main piece is, however, a dōjinshi from one of my favorite circles, which I have reviewed before: I snagged a copy of アルミ、クラフト、ポリプロピレン by the always amazing 平均律. This is an old one: not so much as far as year of publication (2004), but within the circle's bibliography: it's so relatively ancient it's only barely listed on the circle's page, no preview available. The site dubs it as a MUJI-themed book: MUJI is a Japanese brand of no-brand house good /stationery, which really seems like the oddball theme that would fall right into Heikinritsu's ballpark. After all, other dōjinshi from the circle dealt with colored cel tape and moefied typesets...
アルミ、クラフト、ポリプロピレン is 24 pages, B&W with a color cover, in the usual thick, high quality paper used for most of the circle's publications. It's also a fairly wordy dōjinshi, where illustrations usually share the page with blocks of fairly difficult text (which, I admit, I can barely parse). While the main theme is household items, and most of the illustration feature Heikinritsu's signature petite girls interacting with objects such as wardrobes, couches, stationary and desks, there is also the circle's typical emphasis on fashion: his girls are always donned in deliciously abstract fashion, including transparent boots and LBD of various cuts and lenghts. Did I mention he made a dōjinshi about that too?
The usual Heikinritsu caveats apply: if you're looking for sleek artwork in the vein of Senmu or anything reviewed on Nattoli, you will be disappointed: part of the charm of Heikinritsu's illustrations is that they have a raw, almost sketchy quality to them, and the moe aspect never overshadows the theme - also, as I mentioned, this is a fairly early work, and sometimes it shows - especially when it comes to anatomy and proportions. Not to say that the drawing style lacks charm, quite the opposite; what's important is that, beyond being mere sketches, the illustrations are functional to the dōjinshi's theme. And they're still pretty damn moe regardless.
Another Heikinritsu work I got my hands on, another purchase that left me more than satisfied. I am nearing to completing his bibliogaphy, but I'm still missing that Hatsune Miku thing he did a while ago... one day...
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