Bishoujo Illustrations New Year Collection 2011

Reading Time: 4 minutes

It’s not even November yet and the first illustration anthology for the Year of the Rabbit has already been released. Bishoujo Illustrations New Year Collection 2011 brings together 50 artists to illustrate New Year’s postcards, incorporating the rabbit in a variety of beautiful and adorable ways.

Bishoujo Illustrations New Year Collection 2011 is an A4-sized, 112 page art book that also includes a data CD with PDF postcard versions of all the illustrations. The PDFs are included so that you can print out as many postcards as you’d like to send to friends for the New Year. They’re all high resolution, and high quality, but unlike the art work in the book, they all have New Year’s greetings written upon them.

The book is laid out with a full illustration on every other page. On the page opposite the illustration is information about the art work including the illustrator’s name, a rough sketch of the work next to the postcard version on the CD, programs used to create the art work, and a few Q&A’s directed at the illustrator. The illustrations above are by H2SO4 and Chiba Sadoru.

The art book is divided into different sections with more focused themes on the Year of the Rabbit. The first section is titled “Japanese Style” and includes characters in traditionally Japanese dress and locations. In total, there are 21 illustrations for this section. The pictures above from left to right are by Ichiri, Kazami Haruki, and Kusana Houki.

The mixture of artists is very impressive, with some well-known ones along with virtually unknown ones, but everyone’s work is so professional and well thought out that it doesn’t feel like your average anthology. The illustrations above are by Nauribon and Haruse Hiroki.

The second section is called “Usamimi Style” and includes a total of 14 illustrations, all featuring girls with rabbit ears. Even though this section is specifically for rabbit-eared girls, there are plenty through out the other sections of the book. Pictured above are illustrations by Amaa, Kazuto Izumi, and Sakana. For the most part, the girls in this section are not traditionally dressed.

There’s a very brief section titled “Wonderland Style” which features girls in an Alice in Wonderland theme. There are only four illustrations in this section, though I wish there were more since it’s a theme I enjoy. The artists featured in this section are Amimi, Kumajet, and Sody.

The final section of the book is titled “Adult Style” and has a total of 11 illustrations. While there is a bit of nudity in this section, the illustrations are for the most part very tame. This section features art by Hiura R, Hidari Kagetora, Mizushima Sorahiko, Youta, and rato.

Bishoujo Illustrations New Year Collection 2011 presents us with 50 beautiful new illustrations to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit. The great selection of artists has led me to a few more that I’ll be following because of their great work in this book.