KING PROJECT VOL.01 by VARIOUS

I have a sort of optimistic ambivalence toward illustration anthologies. They can be kind of hit and miss, and I find that most of the time success depends on the willingness of the artists involved to stick with the theme, without necessarily falling back on safe ground - which, in the case of Pixiv artists, usually means sugary bishōjo. Well, unless the theme is bishōjo... a good example of a successful anthology that I recently reviewed was the cozy and nifty Sailorbon, an interesting take on a somewhat unusual theme.

All of these preambles to introduce another awesome themed collection, pooling together a variety of artists from the dark recesses of Pixiv. And the theme is... kings. Yup. King Project vol. 01 (no vol.2 available so far) gathers 41 artists, each one of them offering their illustrated take on the theme of the royal figure. First of all, let's get measurements out of the way: 78 pages, full color A4 format, sturdy and professionally bound.

The contents are, overall, quite impressive, and I'm not just referring to the illustrations. What really makes this collection stand out is that almost every art piece, along with author bio and social links, also features a 'tutorial' kind of page, which shows different stages of drafting, along with the artist's comments. Pretty nifty, especially when one can see that the final piece ends up nothing like the original sketch...

So, something of a collection plus reference guide. Overall, the art quality is in the Pixiv daily rankings ballpark, which is to say, pretty high. There are, of course, more or less elaborate art styles, but every illustration actually feels like a finished piece, something that doesn't always happen in this kind of books. Some highlights are 羽山晃平's demonic tyrant king; ぽん吉's way too funny beaver king; and おつまみ's Turneresque king of dragons.

So, all fine and dandy? well, for the most part. One disappointing note is that the grand majority of the artists really played it too safe thematically, and fell back on the old trope of the fantasy king, ruling over some medieval or renaissance-looking court. There are, in fact, only two illustrations that offer a different take on the 'king' theme: 添田一平's gun wielding queen of the mob; and えだまめ畑's Lovecraftian 1800s monster king.

Still, an excellent themed collection, showcasing some real talent. Well done.