January 19th 2006

• Artist
• ISBN
• Published

• Price
• Dimension

• Kaimu Tachibana
• 4-403-65011-2
• 1998

• ¥ 1800
• A4

I bought this when I first start collecting artbooks. Even though I have many other art books to choose from now, this remains as one of my favorites. This book is dedicated to Kaimu Tachibana’s manga, Rasen no Kakera. The series is licensed by CMX under the English translation of the title, Pieces of a Spiral.

I think almost every page in this book is in full-color. There are 90 illustrations in this book. Most of them are single page spread, occasionally there are pages with more than one illustration. The book also comes with a double-sided pullout poster.

I am not familiar with Rasen no Kakera so I cannot say much about the artwork. More than half of the book contains illustrations of characters dressed in ancient Japan clothing, the remaining are in modern days fashion. I prefer the ancient style though. I love the bishounen with flowing long hair. I also like how each illustrations is adorned with some sort of flowers. As for the modern day illustrations, I do not like them as much since they look a bit plain. The male characters look cross-eyed at some point. Nevertheless, this should not be much of a problem.

In general, this lovely artbook should not be missed. There are plenty of color illustrations for the masses. Buy it if you like bishounen with flowing long hair, I am sure you will not regret it.