Girls Girls Girls! 4 Illustrations9 min read
Reading Time: 5 minutesThe newest pretty girls collection from E☆2 (Etsu), Girls Girls Girls!4 Illustrations was just released a few days ago in Japan, and it continues to be what we expect from the Girls Girls Girls! series of art books. It features a great assortment of artists ranging from the well known to the virtually unknown.
The cover art is new and by Tinkle, but like with other Girls Girls Girls! books, that’s the only new illustration, the rest have previously appeared in volumes of the E☆2 (Etsu)magazine.
The first 24 pages of this 96 page book feature all two page spread images, in a section called E☆2 Calendar, running April through February. The artists in this section are Miki Miyashita, A=g, Tomose Shunsaku, Ariko Yohichi, Fujima Takuya, Akane Ikegami, Murakami Suigun, Mikeou, Kobuichi and Tinkle. The illustrations follow the themes of the months/season, with New Years, Christmas, and autumn pictures.
I thought I’d point out too that this book was published with a white buffer zone and a tiny bit of image overlap. Though it doesn’t make a huge difference, because there aren’t that many two page spread images, it is nice when the publishers consider that the illustrations all to often get sucked into the binding. You can see what I mean in the picture above.
The first section features illustrations of girls in a state of undress, or being exposed. Seems pretty standard for a book like this, but that’s actually the theme! That theme kind of blends into the second section as well. But that style of illustration pretty much occupies 25 pages of the book. Ryo Ueda appears 3 times in this section, all with the same girl in various stages of undress. Also, there are a couple of pictures with nudity/completely see-through clothing, so be aware.
Singling out a delicious Matsuryu illustration, because it deserves your attention. Too bad this artist hasn’t put out doujinshi in years.
Pages 51 through 60 have a “Summer Girls” theme, so all the illustrations are of girls in swimsuits, or sundresses keeping cool and holding popsicles. Would have preferred more illustrations along this theme than the previous one, but I know I’m not exactly the target audience for this book. There’s an illustration by Poko in this section of the little fox-tailed girl he (or she) often draws, wearing a swimsuit.
Next up is my favorite section, featuring a Magical Girls in “Wonderland” theme, from pages 61 to 73. I’m not sure if I like the section more because of the theme, or because it features some of my favorite artists :3 It opens with a lovely witch by Kasukabe Akira followed with another nice one by Kirino Kasumu, whose work I can’t ever seem to find enough of!
Also featured in this section is another illustration by A=g which fits in quite nicely by the art work of Kaya Kuramoto. Another couple of standout illustrations are an elaborate witch by KEI, and an adorable one by Kishida Mel, who keeps his girls modest with camisoles instead of bras ;D
The last section of illustrations feature girls with tails and ears, and not just inumimi and nekomimi, there are some wild animals in this bunch. Hato RAMI contributes a cheetah girl, there’s a racoon, and of course Izumi Sakurazawa drew an inumimi. There are thirteen of these illustrations in total. If you’re curious about the names of any of the artists for the images pictured, just click on the picture, the title is the artist’s name.
I’m pretty happy overall with this Girls Girls Girls!4 Illustrations collection, though I would have enjoyed more of the creative themes like magical girls, and the animal girls. I really think it lets the artist show off their skills a lot more than the standard moe girl undressing, but we all know what sells.
