Metronome ~Mitsui Mana Art Works~5 min read
Reading Time: 3 minutesMetronome ~Mitsui Mana Art Works~ felt like it went to press too early, leaving out so much art work. I’m exaggerating, but there are only 63 illustration pages and after that it’s the illustrated story Koyoi mo Kanojo ha Gatsu ni Utau (今宵も彼女は月に謡う) from E☆2 Magazine. The panel art work just doesn’t have the same impact as the full page illustrations.
Metronome has a few more shortcomings as an art book. It’s hardcover and an extra-wide B4-size. It would have made sense if the art work was also presented in that format. Instead, we have several pages of B5-size illustration with large margins. Other times, it’s spreads that don’t completely fill up either page. It’s 101 pages, but as mentioned before, nearly half of that is the “story side.”
The first section of illustrations is titled Original and runs from pages 3 through 35. These are pretty much the best and newest illustrations the book has to offer. Several of the wide illustrations are aligned with the inner margin, so while there’s plenty of white space on the outer edge of the illustration, part of the picture is lost in the gutter.
The Copyright section is quite short, running from pages 36 through 48. These illustrations are mostly on the older side with the most recent being from 2009. Not much to say about it overall, but the Higurashi no Naku Koro ni kai illustration is nice.
The next section is titled Novel and goes from pages 50 through 63. It features three pages of monochrome tiled illustrations followed by color art from A5 publications, considering the printing size. The extra-wide size of the book in this case only serves to make all the illustrations seem even smaller. The only full size illustration in this section is the light novel cover art from Koyoi mo Kanojo ha Gatsu ni Utau (今宵も彼女は月に謡う).
The pictures above are what make up the last 40 pages of Metronome ~Mitsui Mana Art Works~, the complete recording of Koyoi mo Kanojo ha Gatsu ni Utau (今宵も彼女は月に謡う). Overall, I felt the cover price of ￥2625 was more about the production (hardcover and oddly sized) than the actual content.
Title: Metronome ~Mitsui Mana Art Works~ タイトル: Metronome : みついまな画集 Author: Mitsui Mana Publication Date: 06/24/2011 Size: 101p NDL: https://id.ndl.go.jp/bib/000011216691
