"Shiny Ad Catalogue" by estroitia

I must admit I am almost entirely unfamiliar with the Idolmaster thing - as much of a weeb as I am, I also am entirely uninterested in the world of Japanese idols; a trait I apparently don't share with many dōjin creators, as Idolmaster paraphernalia is pretty much everywhere.

I occasionally grumble when (mostly by fault of my poor observation skills) I buy a dōjinshi which turns out to be Idolmaster crap, but there is a silver lining to the cloud, as I have already happened twice upon works that, in spite of belonging to this dreadful fandom, actually happened to be excellent on their own merit. Shiny Ad Catalogue (dating 2021) is one such cases (the other I might review at some point in the future).

 
The first, curious feature of Shiny Ad Catalogue is that the circle that produced it, "estroitia", does not seem to be entirely Japanese. While the dōjinshi itself is in Japanese, according to their website estroitia is in fact a Chinese circle, which operates and distributes through both Chinese and Japanese channels and conventions. Biographies are rather succinct, so I can't really say whether the circle's members, 夕語 and ホシノフラワー, are both Chinese using aliases, or otherwise. Pretty cool stuff either way.

 

The dōjinshi illustration book itself is pretty cool too. At 24 pages full color and A4 format, it uses one of those pseudo-meta conceits I love so much in dōjin works: it presents its illustrations as a collection of ads for fictional products, endorsed by a variety of Idolmaster chicks. The book is a collaborative work, coordinated by the circle's two main members: it actually features illustrations by nineteen different artists, both Chinese and Japanese.


First of all, let's get out of the way that the pin-ups might as well be no Idolmaster idols at all, for allthat it matters: I'm sure some series nerd could identify each one of them based on hairstyle and such; but, to the ends of the collection, the could just be any pretty bishoujo really. Fidelity to the ad format is uneven: while some illustrations are basically just pinups, barely featuring the product, some could easily pass for actual anime-styled ads as I often saw in my time in Tokyo and Kyoto. Standouts, in this sense, are KRR's ad for a fictional job search website, or reguai's moody ad for fictional brand of candy "Kujira". To be honest, the quality of the featured work is pretty high in general, even when the meta conceit is just an excuse for drawing a pretty girl (ie エビフライ眼鏡P's sneaker ad).




Overall a very nice collection, not exceedingly tarnished by the Idolmaster connection. It also happens to be the second in a series, so I'll definitely have to get my hands on the next one.