Kaedena Akino - Hana Koi

Title: Hana Koi
タイトル: 花恋
Release Date: 08/15/2010
Pages: 20 (including covers)

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Kaedena Akino’s summer Comiket 78 release, Hana Koi, comes hot on the heels of her last illustration doujinshi, Bubble Light. It manages to showcase a real growth in illustration style between the two books. The theme of Hana Koi is flowers, and all of the girls are accompanied by flowers, and sometimes dressed to imitate them.

Although Kaedena Akino is published under this name, her new pen name is Miyabi Akino (みやびあきの). I noticed this while going through the new Moeru iPhone Reader, where she’s currently using her new name. I’m just glad I caught on before actually thinking it was someone new.

The book itself is B5-sized, staple-bound and 20 pages including the covers. The cover is finished with a canvas texture, making the cover illustration appear painted on. The pages are smooth, without any visible texture. Borders and text through out the book are pink themed, and when combined with all the flowers, it becomes overwhelmingly girly!

Hana Koi also includes illustrations from two guest artists, Yanagisawa Tomoe and Miton, both of whom blend in perfectly with Miyabi Akino’s style.

Overall, Hana Koi is pretty but generic, and though I love the vivacity of the illustrations, the character designs are weak. I would have written her off completely after Bubble Light had it not been for her Etsu Magazine works over the past year. We’ll see!