A long time ago (it was actually one of my first posts!) I reviewed a dōjinshi by the circle CHOCOLATE SHOP, the hilarious pseudo-Steve Jobs bio CHOCOLATE APPLE. What I didn't know, was that Choco (the alias the circle's leader uses) also produced a proper manga, serialized on Comic Dengeki Daioh: the bizarrely titled Iguna Cross Gates Station. It probably wasn't what one would call a hit, as a single volume came out in 2000, and only ten years later the remaining four volumes managed to get published. I, for one, had never heard of it.
What concerns us, and this blog, is that CHOCO published, through the years, a slew of dōjin guidebooks to this series, whose collective page count probably rivals one of the tankōbon from the mother series itself. I have always been a fan of CHOCO's art style, so I grabbed myself a copy of the collected version, イグナクロス零号駅設定資料集 総集編プラス, which gathers in a single book all five Iguna-themed dōjinshi. I knew very little about the manga, and still do, as the collected dōjinshi is mostly a sketch / artbook affair, and requires pretty much no knowledge of the manga series.
As is the case with all CHOCOLATE SHOP releases, イグナクロス...'s production values are not too far off what one would expect from a commercial product. 146 pages of glossy paper, a good chunk of which are full color. As far as content goes, the book mostly acts as a repository of concept art for the manga series, ranging from character design files, to environmental art. Also featured are two pages spreads of the manga's tankōbon covers, a few short manga set in Iguna Cross Gates Station's world, and miscellaneous pieces of design / assets in theme with the series' aesthetics. One can even notice the evolution of CHOCO's style through time, as earlier piece have that slighty rounded, 90s look that then turned into the more angular, contemporary style that most of the original manga actually features. There is very little text; and, as I mentioned, the dōjinshi could simply be thought of as an artbook, no manga knowledge necessary.
A pretty rewarding purchase, overall, and one that made me curious about picking up the parent manga. While I'm not so keen on h or border-h dōjinshi, I have heard good things of CHOCOLATE SHOP's Gothic Lolita Viandier, which is next on my wishlist.
No comments:
Post a Comment