As you might notice if you've been reading my reviews for a while, I often end up writing about stuff made by people who... don't really make stuff anymore. I guess since (with many exceptions) dōjin work falls under the rubric of "amateur work", it is something that more often than not either turns into actual professional work; or becomes one of those "yeah, when I was young I used to sell my stuff at Comiket" moments a mom or dad with two kids and a mortgage will reminesce about in their middle-age. Sometimes they also go pro, and simply try and hide their dōjin past (ahemShigeoHamashimaahem).
Hence, a lot of the circles whose works I cover are no longer active, and all of their ephemera (websites, blogs etc) are lost forever in the ether. Again, there are dozens exceptions on this blog alone, but it's pretty normal for me to check the links provided in a dōjinshi's credit page, and get a bunch of 404s.
This is why I get particularly excited when, on the other hand, I manage to find leads who take me back to more info about the author of a work I enjoyed, and who might be working at a reduced capacity or no longer at all. Especially nice when this didn't happen for tragic reasons, but because they're simply living their best life.
"Bouquet" is a 2012, 60 full color pages hybrid photobook / illustration work by a team led by artist ukketori, helped by cosplay photographer soramimi and a cast of four models: boo-chan; myuu-chan; chii-chan; and Himemiya Mahore. Pardon the -chan, I assume all involved parties are well in their thirties or more by now, but they're still likely my same age or even younger, so yeah XD
One special treat is that, while pretty much all of the participating parties haven't really updated their blogs in a while, we can still find online an fc2.com blog that is essentially a making-of this dōjinshi.Things seem to have gone something like this. Ukketori, who is a professional artist who is still active, or was until very recently (more on that later) gets together with her high school friend boo-chan (mostly a boys' love cosplayer) to make a book where a few of ukketori's illustration will be turned into cosplays, who will then be photographed by cosplay photographer soramimi. Then, ukketori produced more illustrations based on these photographies.
The result is a very charming, tasteful operation that really captivated me. Ukketori's illustrations, while well within the bounds of PIXIV-style manga, are colorful and lively, really selling the character's design and traits, both the stand-alones, and those reproducing soramimi's colorful pictures. All four models each have their own flair, from boyish but cute boo-chan, to superpink Himemiya, and you can tell from their expressions and gestuality that they must have had lots of fun during the photoshoot. The outfits are sometimes revealing, but always stay on the tasteful side of things - no ecchi here, which is fine by me. The most fanservice you get is some catgirling, which is played more for cute than anything else. Also, unlike many photobooks, we are actually treated to abundant miscellaneous information about all participants, including a short interview with each of the models.
The book itself has a couple of pseudo-sequels, each still using ukketori's illustrations, soramimi's pics, and a few of the models already showcased here. If the quality is the same, I'm definitely going to track them down.
Now, from what I could tell, most parties involved seem to be no longer active, with the four models' activities stopping by 2015, and soramimi going MIA around 2019. A little internet sleuthing didn't haul much - as you can imagine, a bunch of onomatopoeias are sort of a thin lead for an internet search. The two exceptions seem to me Himemiya Mahore, who is a professional photomodel / cosplayer and has quite the following; and ukketori herself, who has produced a number of commercial works (including a 2021 Olympics tie-in) up until around 2019, where she became somewhat less active.
What else to say? a fun dōjinshi, a cool time capsule from twelve years ago (I was still in uni back then! time flies) and a chance to do a little bit of sleuthing. A good time was had by all.
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