Moeru Classic Heroine Collection

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Moeru Classic Heroine Collection is a compilation of illustrations featuring girls from famous, and sometimes not so famous, literary works. I found myself at a loss in recognizing many of these characters, but at least I can recognize the artists! Moeru Classic Heroine Collection actually features a lot of the same artists from last year’s Moeru Japanese Sword Girls and has a very similar layout and style.

Moeru Classic Heroine Collection is B5 sized and 128 pages. It’s in full color, and all of the illustrations are on a full page or a spread. The cover illustration is by Kishida Mel, and there is actually another variation on that illustration inside in a rough, unfinished style. It was likely one of the alternate covers proposed.

I was really hesitant about picking this up at first because there were only 29 artists included, and from recent books, I assumed that would mean 29 illustrations. But a lot of the artists had two illustrations apiece, so there are a total of 44 illustrations in Moeru Classic Heroine Collection. Most recognizable above are the illustrations of Pipi Longstocking by Taiyou and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz by Midori Foo. And of course, Alice in Wonderland by Kishida Mel, which was reprinted inside without text. Jyuu Ayakura’s illustration features Ann from Ann of Green Gables.

Beside each illustration is a page with author, book and character information, along with a bit of a story summary. Above is also the other Alice in Wonderland picture in the book by Momiji Mao.

Refeia’s second illustration in the book is Cosette from Les Miserables. Fuzi Choko, who also had an illustration in the recent Railway Girls and Scenery Pictorial Book depicts the heroine from Taketori Monogatari, Kaguya-hime. At the end of each section is a fantasy depiction of a girl writing.

Moeru Classic Heroine Collection had an impressive variety of illustrators, with ones that I’d previously overlooked but caught my eye this time around. Both of the above illustrations are by Maguchimo. The characters depicted are Mark Twain’s Joan of Arc and Joe Haldeman’s heroine from The Forever War, Marygay Potter. Not exactly what first comes to mind when you think classic literary heroines, but definitely entertaining.

Hisakata Souji’s illustration above depicts a heavenly Beatrice from The Divine Comedy by Dante. And Hagiwara Rin takes on the original Mai Hime (舞姫) heroine Ellis. There are so many interesting character depictions, it’s really worth taking the time to look through and learn about them.

Towards the end, mini author biographies are provided. For some of the Japanese authors included, their real life dwellings and memorials were photographed. The artist index is nicely organized, with illustrations grouped per artist and short comments provided. Though I was hesitant at first to get Moeru Classic Heroine Collection, it turned out to showcase an excellent variety of artists, with a more creative theme than we’ve been seeing lately!