At the very beginning, I would like to inform you that some of the material used in this post is not intended for younger readers therefore I kindly ask you to stop reading here if that is the audience you fall into.
Yabuki Kentarou – “Harem Gold” To LOVEru Darkness (Shueisha, 2016) – My Comment
Yabuki Kentarou – a creator who probably needs no introduction. Best known for his record-breaking manga To LOVEru. This artbook is a collection of his illustrations from the continuation of that series, To LOVEru Darkness.
The publication contains 182 pages. It consists almost exclusively of illustrations printed on very good quality A4 chalk paper. It contains a few fold-out pages. The illustrations themselves are very detailed. After all Yabuki Kentarou is known for that. But here the whole thing looks even better, because naturally – it’s in color. Unfortunately, I own a reprint of Harem Gold, which involves the loss of one feature that relates to what was part of the plot. One of the characters, Lala, loves to create new inventions. In this case, it’s specifically about Suke Suke Google-kun (originally it was glasses). 透け透け/sukesuke means to see through (such as clothes). Here it works in the form of a smartphone app emulating the operation of one of its inventions of the same name.
A brief overview of content and add-ons
Those who have watched the adaptation or read the manga probably know what it’s all about. For the rest – in order not to write too much, I put a short demonstration of how it worked. The video below comes from myfigurecollection website. I put it here because of the fact that such things tend to disappear.
In the reprint, the app-compatible pages have been removed for some unknown reason. I’m guessing by app compatibility issues with newer versions of Android and lack of funding to fix it, but that’s just my guess. Well, it’s a shame – it was a really clever, one-of-a-kind addition. Of course, this doesn’t take away from the whole thing. All the rest of the illustrations look the same, and they are really beautiful. The photos can’t do justice to their beauty.
There were quite a few ideas to make this publication more interesting. Right at the beginning we are greeted by Lala and Haruna. The first glance draws attention to the fact that the drawing is printed on transparent foil with a sheet as a background. The next foil pages contain an identical illustration, but without layers of clothing.
Yabuki Kentarou – “Harem Gold” To LOVEru Darkness (Shueisha, 2016) – Show off
Before I show you a dozen photos of the artbook’s contents, a quick glance at the outside page rolled up in a high-quality wrapper.
Now here’s something I didn’t expect when I took the wrapper off. Almost identical illustration with some minor differences.
Photos
