Oh what a ride! Nitro+CHiRAL 5 years of awesome BL works.
And so I bought the artbook in the end… even though I had second thoughts about it when it first came out. Like Oru said, you might find gems hidden in it :P
Title: Nitro+CHiRAL 5 years anniversary visual fan book
Nitro+CHiRAL 5years ニトロプラス キラル5周年
Price: 2,205 Yen (w/tax)
Release date: 18 Mar 2011
Rating: Some mosaic images of H-scenes CG from the three 18+ games.
Information:
1) “Best of” gallery with staff commentary of Togainu no Chi 咎狗の血, Lamento and sweet pool.
2) Commentary on works and interview with scenario writer 淵井鏑.
3) Game development staff conversations and 淵井鏑x茶屋町勝呂 (Chayamachi Suguro) conversations
4) Introduction of new work DRAMAtical Murder.
5) New illustrations by various illustrators including:
Yura 由良, Youta よう太, Tsutamori En 蔦森えん, Kirishima Sou キリシマソウ, Tsutae Yuzu つたえゆず (Sukisho BL game artist), Kurumazaki Mayu 車折まゆ (official mangaka for sweet pool manga), Morita Yuzuka 森田柚花, Muroki Chika 室木チカ and Shina Gau シナガワ.
Content Index:
1. ニトロプラスキラルとは?
2. ニトロプラスキラル5年間の歩み
3. 5 years Works
4. ニトロプラスキラルギャラリー
5. 咎狗の血
6. Lamento‐BEYOND THE VOID‐
7. sweet pool
8. キラル盛
9. キラル三昧
10. 5th Anniversary Party〔ほか〕
Update: 2 March 2011. The staff seem to be so busy they don’t even have time to create a website to promote this commemorative artbook. To be honest, much as I love Nitro+CHiRAL’s official artworks, this artbook’s cover illustration looks boring :( The layout is a mash-up of the three main characters who don’t have any connection with one another. Akira looks spaced out and lifeless. There is no energy in his pose. Youji is plain and bland. Konoe looks like he had to be there because he didn’t have a choice OTL;; Why must they rush out two artbooks at around the same time? The quality would suffer, wouldn’t it? I feel bad for the in-house illustrators and designers. Anyway, I’ll be getting the collaboration artbook with Spray which will be out on 18 March 2011 first before considering this one. If you decide to get this book, hopefully you can share with us your thoughts on it.
Review 12 April 2011 :
The A4 sized artbook has a total of 112 pages in full colour, except for a few interview text pages which are in monotone. The cover jacket is matt-finish.
The front and back of the artbook.
Front of artbook, with cover jacket removed. On the right is the artbook cover without the jacket.
The back of the artbook. Featuring the main game characters in Togainu, Lamento and Sweet pool.
Contents page and quick history about Nitro+CHiRAL.
A chronological order of all Nitro+CHiRAL’s works and merchandise from 2005 till now, like games, music, drama CD, goods, figures, books, DVD etc. They conveniently forgot to mention about the anime ^^;; But then again, these are all tangible products that we can buy, so since the anime DVD hasn’t been released yet, they can get away with not mentioning it lol~. Maybe when they did Nitro+CHiRAL 10 Years, they’ll have to mention about the DVD.
There were about 11 pages of stuff that they released over these years. So with this artbook as a guide, you can find out what else you’re missing in your collection and hunt them down if you wish. Next section is the introduction of each game including their individual best of gallery. Good thing they’re mostly full page images. There are 3 best of artwork selected for each game.
Good introduction especially for newer fans who don’t have the older artbooks. Each game has character intros, relationship diagram, some ending selections and related goods page. Also included are comments from the scenario writer about the game.
Togainu no Chi (19 pages)
Lamento Beyond the Void (15 pages)
Sweet Pool (13 pages)
Mini-games intro + one game page each. Togainu Poker.
Nyan-da typing game and Kuims tetris-like game.
Next up is artwork created for B’s-log magazine. If you didn’t manage to buy those issues, the collection here is a treat. I didn’t buy them so, these artwork are all new to me. The sweet pool artwork by Onitsuka Seiji was published during the period between 2009 and 2010.
Left (2009 June), Top right (2009 September) and Bottom right (2010 March) Right bottom has Youji telling his sister to control herself. She is really excited about the curry spices that can only be found in that supermarket.
This is quite funny. According to the text, Tetsuo is trying to help Youji with his floor exercise but Youji’s body is really stiff. He is having a lot trouble with it but Tetsuo doesn’t seem to give him a break :D At the back is Kamiya-sensei being called a demon by Makoto for pushing him to keep up his running speed.
At first glace you would think that it’s Zenya and Youji right? But NO! :D These are characters from Togainu no Chi! Drawn for “Another Story” short story published in B’s Log magazine. According to the text, the person sitting behind is Akira. And guess who is the person in front driving? Hint: He only appears in one of the game endings ;) One of my fav characters.
Left artwork is about Kitani hurting his foot but trying to stay cool and promising to make breakfast while Zenya complains about him going to be late for school. He is smiling but in his heart he was hurting like hell :D More artwork, including those of Yamada Uirou. Right (2009 October) Lamento’s Konoe and best friend Tokino eating Kuims. Yamada Uirou is saying that Kuims look so yummy!
Top left (2010 April) A smiling Keisuke feels like Spring is already here. Bottom left (2010 January) Artwork to commemorate the Lamento drama CD release). Right (2009 July) Akira and Shiki after a battle. Both of them have noses bleeding.
And irresistible Yu-pon chibis! XD Left (2009 August) Konoe using Rai’s tail as his pillow. So cute! Top right (2010 May) Sweets and snacks with the sweet pool boys. Bottom right (2009 November) Illustration of Nitro+’s hentai game main character.
Squueeee~ XD Rai’s expression is priceless.
Left (2010 February) Togainu no Chi’s Yukihito and Akira. Right. Halloween dress up of the three uke characters. Youji, Konoe and Akira. I would love to have those as plushies and figures!
5 Years Anniversary Party section. First is a coloured manga by Hoshino Emiko. I’ll try to translate it when I find the time.
Talk interview among the creators and artists (4 pages).
Special cross interview between scenario writer and Chayamachi Suguro (2 pages), featuring her artbook CHAYAMACHI CHiRAL WORKS (see review).
Dramatical Murder (DMMD) 2 pages summary and character introductions… main character Aoba (blue-haired) is really cute :3 Looking forward to the game release. They didn’t reveal the date here.
And comments by the scenario writer. Artbook credits (right).
Finally the tribute page by guest artists. Right: (Togainu no Chi by Morita Yuzuka)
Left: (Lamento by Muroki Chika). Right: (Sweet pool by Kurumazaki Mayu) Sweet pool’s mangaka.
Left: (Togainu no Chi byYouta). My goodness. Akira is completely shoujo-rised lol~ Right: (Lamento by Tsutae Yuzu)
Left: (Sweet pool by Yura). Awesome looking Makoto by the illustrator of Lucky Dog 1, Miracle Noton, etc. Right: (Togainu no Chi by Shinagawa) Quite a refreshing looking style. I love how she did the shadows :)
Left: (Lamento by Kirishima Sou) and Right: (Sweet pool by Tsutamori En)
Artwork roughs and comments by the respective artists.
Final page.
This artbook is a good introduction to newbies to Nitro+CHiRAL’s games. I didn’t ride the fandom when it first started in 2005. I also entered it relatively late, say 2007/2008? And I only started to buy very selected game magazines recently. So there are still images and stuff that I’ve not seen before. There’s enough new material to make me happy but not overwhelmingly so. But if you’re a newbie and you bought this artbook, I think you’ll be tempted enough to want to hunt down the rest of their artbooks and works lol~ cos this is quite a yummy teaser.
However, if you only have budget for -only one- artbook, I suggest you buy the Spray & Nitro+CHiRAL Official Collaboration artbook instead. I’ll be reviewing it soon.
Some Togainu no Chi fun :)
Here’s to more great years of Nitro+CHiRAL’s works!
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@ponytale Yeah, that’s the only option >.>
I’ve been lazy lately, so I’ll start right now xDDDD
@Asamisa: lol~ do it do it! XDD
@ponytale Yeah, that a pro of art xP, maybe averted if you’re studying art history xP. Trust me, even with the teacher’s warning she didn’t stop, encouraged by another boy as talkative as her >.>. Maybe I won’t be with them in the painting class >.>.
Yeah, after all one of my ideas is paiting safer Sephiroth, I’ve thought that Cloud and him are perfect for this kind of art (we have to admit that FFVII has faux symbolism xDDDD), also that scene and picture cover of the OST when Cloud in carrying Kadaj (one of my favourites for a paiting).
@Asamisa: she ignored your teacher? Maybe she couldn’t control herself :P but I guess you have to ignore her too or you won’t be able to finish your work.
Keep drawing and practicing because you can only get better. And very soon you’ll be able to draw exactly what you want :D
@ponytale I hope I can participate the next time xP.
Yeah, I enjoy classes too, this is way better than in high school; here, I’m learning something that I like, and my partners are not annoying… not all of them, there was a girl that talked too much >.>.
Mmm, if I become an artist, I have a couple of ideas for paintings, I just hope non of the companied sue me for making paintings of their products xDDDD. But there’s the disclaimer for that xP.
@Asamisa: one of the reasons I love art class is that besides enjoying the process I oso didn’t have to study or memorize texts for exams. As for the girl who talks too much maybe u can tell her you are trying to draw and not disturb u :P
Don’t worry. I’m sure you can say that it was a tribute and get away with it lol
@ponytale D: I doubt I can use them, since I’m not exactly a regular student in college (the art class I’m taking is for extracurricular points, not a career per se). My cousin has one, but she works until late in the night and she’s the only one in her house that knows how to scan things ToT.
@Asamisa: aww I hope you’ll be able to take part next time :) but it’s nice to know you’re taking arts class. I used to enjoy them a lot when I was in school :D
@ponytale Awww! I wish I could, dear! Really! But I don’t have scanner, nor the abillities yet ToT (or maybe i’m not too confident with my skills).
Yeah, the doujins are called “Butler Battler” and “Butler Battler 2”, they appear to be based on kuroshitsuji, as Shiki is Sebastian and Akira is Ciel. there’s a site that it’s an index of published doujins, is there where I found out about their existence:
http://doujinshi.mugimugi.org/book/144523/BUTLER-BATTLER/
http://doujinshi.mugimugi.org/book/357463/Butler-Battler2/
Yeah, they look interesting :D! And yeah, I can’t participate in the contest ToT.
@Asamisa: Ah~ just try ^_^)/ you can scan it in school maybe?
Ooo~ that’s interesting :O those doujins. I think it’s not easy to get your hands on them now?
@ponytale Yay! I love Rin too! It was kinda hard to recognize him, and yeah, he looks sooooo seme now xDDDDDD, you couldn’t expect any less from Shiki’s brother XDDDD. Sexy brothers *¬* Akira, you lucky bastard. I want to do some fanart of Akira/Rin, Rin/Akira now >.> there’s not enough stuff of them on the web, I know about a couple of doujins, but no one has scanned them ToT.
Yeah! Kotobukiya should make those chibis, I would definately buy a set if you can get Akira, Konoe or Youji in their halloween costumes <3, and yeah, so kuroshitsuji xP (actually, there's a couple of doujins crossover of TnC/kuroshitsuji, I want to read them).
And I loved that one of Makoto, by Tsunamori En <3
@Asamisa: Please do! And use your fanart to take part in my birthday contest hehe.
There are doujin crossovers for TnC/Kuroshitsuji??? :D I wanna see that too!
Ah yeah, I understand. Being a killer break and I barely finished my commission yet = A =
I’ll probably buy both for myself if I can but waiting for your review ~
@Oru: My compy has been acting funky the whole time *_* the review photos are ready but can’t be posted yet. OTL;
Thank you for sharing! The book has a lot of nice gems indeed!*o*
I love seeing the characters in so many different styles! Always a pleasure to see “Sweet Pools” artist drawings. Has he drawn anything for any recent project yet? The one with Akira on bike…it must be Rin he is with?
Would so love to have plushes of those three in goth outfits too!
Yuras sketches are getting cleaner and cleaner~ I know in the older Miracle Noton artbook her sketches were super sketchy (like mine were;;) Practice does make perfect. I adore her Makoto so much! So cute and vibrant that at first i thought he spilled mustard on his shirt.;;;>v<
@sigma: Yeah, I’m glad I bought it in the end :3
Yep yep, Onitsuka Seiji so far has done illustrations for 3 BL novels. I didn’t buy those ^^;; its a challenge to read those for now. The garage kit he did the character design for seems to be still in the works. He also drew for the Spray collaboration artbook which I hopefully can review over the weekend. Yep, it arrived too!
That’s right! It’s grown-up Rin! XD Indeed… practice makes perfect! And I’m looking forward to more of your works too!
Lol lol mustard! XDD
gyah……i want it…..badly
when i graduate this year, I will definitely grab one of these to bring with me for college
>:)
…those three uke Halloween dress up pics need~~~to become chibi figures~~~kotokubiya could make so much money if they made those into figures…..OMG!!!!!!
@iced_wine: 100% agree! And I will like… buy at least 3 sets if that happens. lol~ One to display, one to keep and one for backup XD
I really like it! too bad i can’t buy it…. since it has 18+ elements. If my parents see that, i don’t know what might happen!
@MisakixUsami: There are about 3 pages of 18+ H-CGs in the book. They’re censored but you can still tell when they’re doing ^^;; so better not get it if you’ll get into trouble with your folks. Hopefully they’ll include the non-18+ artwork in other artbooks :)
/sobsobsob
Why you do this to me. I actually don’t purchase magazines anymore so those illustrations were new to me.
And hey, you like Gunji too? 8D Is terrible to say the punishers are my favorite Nitro + chirals charaters… and that most of my wholesome money is spent on doujinshis with them. Actually, aside an anthology and 2-3 doujinshi, they either appear or all main in all my TnC doujinshi collection, pff.
Tl ; dr : yey gunji ; n ;
Also, I’m pretty tempted to buy this now, even if just for the illustrations you showed… Plus, I forgot a friend’s birthday this week and buying a second one of these would be great for her.
Decisions, decisions.
@Oru: Those magazine artworks are new to me too :D And I really enjoyed the yupon ones as well <3 But if you only have budget for one artbook, get the Spray collaboration artbook first. My copy arrived and it looks fab too :3 I’ll try to put up the review over the weekend. I was incredibly busy this week (T_T)
Ths looks good, I don’t have the other artbooks, and even if I had them, I would buy this, since I love limited edition-aniversary-special stuff xD.
Oh! And about the motorcycle art, let me guess… grown up Rin? If don’t, then I dunno, he’s the only one I can think that appears at the ending xDDDDDD.
And the Sweet pool by Tsutamori En art looks yummy *-*.
@Asamisa: It’ll be good as an intro to people without the older artbooks. I quite enjoyed it too because of some of the magazine artwork that I’ve not seen before. :3 Yep its Rin XD Such a lovely boy! Yeah she gave the sweet pool boys very sexy expressions :D
Wow~ Thanks so much for sharing! Their new game looks awesome *^*, totally want to play it. And aw, I cooed at the Chibi Konoe and Rai picture…their chibi pics are sooo cute >.< Especially Youji eating those sweets.
LOL, the uke Halloween pics made me think that Youji and Akira are cosplaying Ciel :D
@momo: yep yep! Konoe and Rai are so sweeet X3
Me too! Very Kuroshitsuji inspired huh! Love those outfits on Youji and Akira XD
Gunji on a motorcycle! BADASS *head explode*
@Yumii: It’s Rin XD Not Gunji (he doesn’t have his tattoos) lol~ *Patch Yumii’s head back*
Who is that one the motorcycle with Akira? *A*
Ending!Rin? |D That would be awesome.
Tell me~~ ;D I’m a curious person.
@Sug: That’s right! It’s grown-up ending Rin! :D When I saw that ending I was like… he can so seme Akira. What a beauty! <3
@Ponytale: thanks for answering, but I don´t know comi comi^^”. (sounds eatable to me XD)
mmhh..does this mean it´s only sold through some stores? kind of exclusive, huh? I keep checking cdjapan put they don´t put it up..
Maybe I should ask a proxy to buy it for me through animate directly. Do you have a link to the book up there?
@pyoko: sorry for the late reply! The past 3 days I incredibly busy *_*
I wrote in and asked. CDJapan said they’re not planning to stock the spray collab book for now. Not sure why.
Try this animate link http://bit.ly/e3m3JF
Happy Birthday, N+C! *confetti*
Wow, shojo-ed Akira is really shojo-ed! I really like the guest art tributes, they are lovely! I love the one made by Yura, I somehow knew she would pick Makoto since he’s the quirky-type character that Yura seems to like a lot.
Ahh Yupon’s chibis are simply lovely and cute. If they sold plushies based off her style, I bet a lot of girls would buy them :p
I can’t wait for Dramatical to be released. Aoba and that doggy, so cute! ;___;
Thank you for sharing~ Arigato gozaimasu!
@hirochan: Yeah Akira looks so girly lol~ I love Yura’s Makoto too :D I’ll be first one of those who’ll buy those yupon style plushies. Hmm… sweet pool was released in December if I remembered correctly. DMMd might be released in December too, I’m guessing from their current schedule. Glad you enjoyed it! ^^
Looks very tempting. So there are news about the Spray& Nitro+Chiral artbook? So far I wasn´t able to spot it anywhere.
@pyoko: You can get the Spray collab book from Comi comi. Last checked, they seem to stock it now. I got mine from Animate directly :P
As an avid doujinshi collector, I’ve learned not to judge “books” by their covers… or I might miss out on great deals.
Tough all you stated is correct, they do seem to be waiting too much in too little time.
Also not a fan of the first thing you noted “best of gallery”, which means I’ll basically have recycled art from all my other artbooks which sucks.
I’ll most probably won’t buy it… unless you make a killing review of it that forces me to think otherwise XD
@Oru: Indeed! Some covers look fantastic but the contents turn out to be so-so lol~
Yep, the “best of gallery” will most probably be recycled art. If we’ve been following NC works and collecting their artbooks, we would have seem these images already. Sigh but it’ll probably be a great introduction to new fans.
To the old fans, I personally feel that most of the artists roped in to create new artwork aren’t very attractive to me. I googled them and I can say I only liked the style of a handful of them. This artbook won’t be a priority for me but I’ll share my review if I do get it ^^
I really wished that I could buy things online, but sadly, I still have a few months to go before I am officially of legal age… T^T I am so jealous. Cause I would so love to buy most of the things that you have listed in your website! (and by most, I think that is alot! ahahaha~)
and btw, I love your website! Every single day, I will be sure to check whether you have updated or not. lol. (and ohh… it seems we are from the same country! lol.)
@Lurker: You’ll be able to afford them in time ^^ but take heed! Your bank account will be in a perpetual comatose state… You’ve been warned!!! OTL;;; lol~
Thanks for dropping by and commenting! XDD It encourages me! X3