Package 5 of ?:
Arrived – 26th February
Origin – Asahikawa, Japan (eBay)
Value – $127.49 USD ($147.24 AUD)
Contents: “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Character Analyze book”, “Clannad Visual Fan Book”, “Clannad After Story Official Fanbook” and “Clannad memorial”
Wow… So… After watching Clannad, I got the same temptation I did when I finished Kanon, and so, I went hunting for their artbooks, with surprisingly little success… Some sites had the first season’s artbook, but finding After Story’s artbook was a much more difficult task. I always seem to be a little late when it comes to trends in anime… As a result, I did some hunting on eBay, where I discovered japan-ssdyuk who has LOADS of artbooks for bidding/sale. So, I ended up buying three Clannad artbooks, in addition to the first season of Higurashi’s Character and Illustration book. As a result, another $150 down, and four artbooks to add to my slowly growing collection. I should soon have All four Higurashi Analysis books soon enough, and the Umineko one on it’s way soon as well.
I love Artbooks! They’re so pretty and shiny! The Clannad ones are very nice, big, glossy and detailed. They provide some great character info, illustration and artworks! Clannad Memorial basically has the same content as the two series guidebooks, but it does have stuff that’s not in the other books. Memorial also has beautiful full page artworks, and a very nice collection of design works. I look through Kanon Memorial which I bought a while back, and seriously, they could design an entire city with the works they do!
If you do plan on buying from japan-ssdyuk, it is important to note that the books are NOT new, but used, however in very good condition. I do have one exception, and that is my Clannad Memorial artbook, which had a clearly visable crease on the corner, as seen in the image below. But that would explain why I could get it for cheaper then the other books. Apart from that, I’d happily buy from the seller again.
Below are some thumbnail photographs of a few pages of each artbook. I look at the Higurashi guidebooks… and… they’re somewhat depressing in comparison to the Clannad and Kanon artbooks I own… They’re kinda dull, not as shiny and more content based then the others. They’re smaller and at the same price too… =P They’d be much more useful to me if they had ACTUAL artworks that are glossy and pretty to look at! They have a dedicated artbook which I do own, but apart from the high-quality paper used, it was very disappointing as it was filled with fan-service and some unacceptably low quality works from the first season.
Do note that I will not be scanning the artbooks, but if you are looking for some of the images found in these artbooks, I suggest that you look elsewhere, such as The Anime Gallery or possibly download the artbooks yourself from BakaBT‘s private trackers, but there is so much more delight in having the shiny, glossy and somewhat heavy artbooks in real life.
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