アルゴリズミック・ビューティ by 平均律 / HEIKINRITSU

Fun Fact: I really wanted to buy and review the latest Sayu Studio but, it turns out, it's cheese themed... and I hate cheese. Like, I can barely stand looking at melting cheese.

Sending manuscripts out, and applying for academic positions has pretty much turned me into the ultimate patient guy - waiting and waiting for the payload is second nature to me now. Which is all good, because it means the time between Heikinritsu dōjinshi flies by without me even noticing.

アルゴリズミック・ビューティ is the Comiket 91 (winter 2016) offering by what has become my favorite circle by far, 平均律 / HEIKINRITSU. I have reviewed a bunch of his previous publications, highlighting the way in which they do more than merely present us with cute moe girls, and instead manage to actually get a 'high concept' across; often, but not exclusively connected to some aspect of graphics and design practice. After all Robert Yamamoto, the man behind the circle, works as an art director in Tokyo. 

アルゴリズミック・ビューティ (B5, 28 pages, B&W aside for the cover) could be considered a direct continuation of 2014's パラメトリック, a dōjinshi which blended the typical moe chick fare with math-based procedural graphics. This new book picks up some of the algorithms already seen in the previous volume, but adds more procedural graphics and even some interesting concepts in the way the girls are drawn and portrayed. Overall, アルゴリズミック・ビューティ feels more thought out and complete than パラメトリック, and definitely beats the amazingly quirky but slightly thin ボドニとあかいユーロセル.

As before, I won't even pretend to understand the math behind the procedural graphics used by Heikinritsu - to his credit, he adds a short bibliography at the end of the work, so you can try the algorithms yourself if you feel like it. The black and white doesn't detract much from the illustrations, in fact it does the opposite, allowing us to fully focus on the forms and shapes the girls are designed within. As I mentioned, even the girls diversify a bit this time around: there is a procedurally star-generating magical girl (a theme Heikinritsu fully explored in one of the few dōjinshi of his I don't have), an Asuka, and a variety of ballerinas, and girls with teddy bears (!). 

There are a few very very very minor anatomy problems (feet are still drawn unconvincingly, which is surprising considering Heikinritsu draws hands very well) but, beyond this, it's very hard to find faults in アルゴリズミック・ビューティ. The only flaw I could point out, which is actually sort of a good point, is that the dōjinshi feels kind of short: it could have definitely used 4-5 more images, or maybe a couple color illustrations. In fact, I would love to see a Heikinritsu anthology, or a thicker sketchbook publication.

Overall, another Heikinritsu, another good purchase. While アルゴリズミック・ビューティ still hasn't replaced アレクサンダー・カルダーの恋人 as my favorite dōjinshi by this circle, it's a very strong offering, which makes me look forward even more to what he might cook up for Comiket 92.