The package has finally arrived. I have finally gotten my hands on the artbook of one of my most recent favorites, Shugo Chara. Mind you I have never bought an artbook before, so this is a first. You could say this is my hatsutaiken. Though I gladly did it for Amu-chan.

The artbook's got a really consistent, really finished feel to it. As expected of Peach-Pit, whose experience with Rozen Maiden have made them some of the best shoujo artists I currently know of.

Here's the back of the artbook, with no effort spared in making the design as minimalistic and as consistent as possible. The 3 little shugo charas drawn just on the bottom really adds the charm to the bland, yet beautiful pink backdrop. Also, the contrast created by dark feel of Tadase and Ikuto really brings out the fact that theme of Shugo Chara is, indeed, pink.

Of course, this wasn't exactly obvious in the previous two pictures but there is more to the cover than meets the eye, as you can see here. But, I'd like to first fanboy over the lovely picture of amulet heart printed on the real cover of the artbook. Her pose is that of a cheerful girl, yet with a hint of firmness, but even so, still utterly carefree. Beautiful. Simply exquisite.

Okay, lets go on to the big surprise this artbook has to offer. Well, its the fact that you can take out the cover of the book...

And it unfolds into a very nice, very big seamless poster of Amu and Ikuto. The poster of the cover has been emblazoned with my favorite pairing as the main theme. Words cannot express my joy as tears rolled down my eyes for the magnormous Amu x Ikuto  pairing depicted in this collage. Truly a poster of the ages.

Now, for some of the artbook innards. Like any other artbook, this artbook is filled with brightly colored images of the characters in Shugo Chara. While the printing still uses toning, it is quite fine and one has to strain the eyes to see the dots that make up the image. The toning used is also full-color toning, which means the colours were not achieved by printing primary color dots side by side, but rather actually mixing them and printing them on the paper itself, which makes for some very good, very sharp outlines.

For characters whose images span the entire page, the toning is almost invisible. The bright colours ensure that our attention is drawn more towards the art itself, so the toning does not bother the eye much in this artbook. Actually, you can easily ignore it, since the contrasts and the incredibly well formed figures make it easier to simply look at the picture. There are no fine lines or details to capture your attention. Just plain beauty to behold.

Here's one from the section of Nakayoshi covers, featuring full-sized coloured drawings from the comics. My favorite is still Amulet Heart. The person who designed her costume has the stuff to win a fashion show in Sao Paulo.

Also, there's a short 4-koma section near the end of the art book. It features around 6 strips of full-coloured 4 frame comics and coloured text. Even the batsu tamas had their own design and were darkened out. You can really tell that a lot of effort has been put into making even these simple, funny 4-komas. One comes to wish if only every 4-frame comic was drawn at this level of detail with colours this rich and a backdrop this beautiful.

Truly a work of art in itself, the intensity and brightness of the colours in the book, as well as its pastel themes give a warm feel to the pictures in the book. I personally felt livened by the very active feel that the poses give me, which seemed to come alive when I was looking at them from the side of my eye. Strangely motivating, this art book is a wonder in itself, and I hope for more good works to come from Peach Pit.

written by astrobunny \\ 4koma, amulet heart, art book, artbook, chara, illustrations, peach pit, shugo