CRADLE - Misaki Kurehito Illustrations

Reading Time: 4 minutes

CRADLE Misaki Kurehito Illustrations is an impressive collection of the artist’s works from 2005 to 2010. Earlier this year he released a doujinshi art book called REW, which also featured illustrations from the same time period. And yet, surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of duplicate illustrations between the two books. CRADLE is the better book based on print quality alone!

Both the standard and the limited edition versions of CRADLE came out on December 22, with the major difference being that the LE version is hardcover and the standard is paperback. The “bonus” you get with the limited edition is a clear file with the cover illustrations, and a slip cover case with the white version of the cover art. The first few illustrations inside feature the cover girl, and one of them was also the cover for the doujinshi art book REW.

The binding is tight and there isn’t any image overlap for page spreads, so the center of the illustration gets cut off. This isn’t a big deal in CRADLE because most of the illustrations are single pages, and they all have huge margins. They’re so big that while the art book is A4-sized, the majority of illustrations are better suited for a B5-sized book.

CRADLE includes two fold-out pages that display like posters with a little running over onto the opposite page. Misaki Kurehito creates beautiful backgrounds for his characters, but the two featured on the posters are easily the most impressive.

CRADLE features Misaki Kurehito’s original illustrations, many of which have appeared in magazines like E☆2 and Dengeki MOEOH. His fan arts didn’t appear in CRADLE so the bundle of Touhou and To Heart illustrations that appeared in REW are exclusive to that art book. Several of the commissioned works from Toranoana are included in this book, along with his illustrations for the AUGUST/ARIA Calendars over the years.

The publication information along with the original size and time period when it was drawn can be found next to each illustration. As a result, there isn’t an index and instead the book ends with a 7 page interview with Misaki Kurehito. It’s pretty much illustrations from start to finish in this 152 page book.

From about page 87 onward, all of the illustrations are from Boku To Kanojo Ni Furu Yoru (ぼくと彼女に降る夜), a light novel. I wasn’t familiar with any of the work, so it made this section quite refreshing as far as content goes. The illustrations are as lovely as his usual works, though there are more spreads in this section than the rest of the book.

CRADLE Misaki Kurehito Illustrations is a really gorgeous collection and definitely the book to choose if you’re debating between this and REW. As a collection CRADLE felt very curated, concentrating more on choosing top-notch art works than on being a comprehensive collection. Definitely a must have.