Meh. I considered buying this and related Vocaloid titles a while back, and I’m now glad I didn’t. It’s not bad, it just doesn’t have anything in it that I think I’d want to pore over again at a later date. For those who are wondering (because I wondered, back when I was considering getting it), it’s primarily an artbook. There are only a few comics.

Artwork:

There were a bunch of Vocaloid illustrations from various artists. Hatsune Miku was the most common subject, but there were also lots of works featuring Len and Rin and a few featuring Luka, Meiko, and (very occasionally) Kaito. Each artist got a line or two to introduce themselves, and some of them included commentary for the individual illustrations. Unfortunately, each artist only got one or two pages, so the more illustrations and commentary they included the smaller the illustrations were.

There were a couple pages total of Character Vocal Series official visuals for Miku, Rin, Len, and Luka. They included descriptions of the defining features of their outfits and, for some reason, age, height, weight, and music specialty information for everyone but Luka.

There were six pages of Project Diva artwork - mostly character models. It was almost entirely focused on Miku, but there were a few character models for Meiko, Kaito, Luka, Rin, Len, Yowane Haku, and Akita Neru.

There were six pages of information on various popular (?) Vocaloid PVs. In most cases it was “one page, one PV,” with video stills, a short description, and information about the video’s popularity. I hadn’t heard of a single one of them before, but then I tend to focus on a few tuners I really like and that’s it. I don't have any favorite producers.

There were a couple pages of artwork by Nishimata Aoi, after which there were six pages of Vocaloid CD and DVD artwork. I recognized the Supercell and “Magnet” artwork.

Comics:

There are six pages of 4-koma comics created by Ontama and Torikara-P. While Torikara-P’s artwork was adorable, I thought Ontama’s comics were more amusing. That said, neither sets of comics were very memorable.

There was a page of story information about something called “Torabotic World,” which I gather is a Vocaloid PV (yet another one I haven’t heard of). It was followed by an 18-page wordless “Torabotic World” comic by Nagimiso. It was cute, but occasionally a little hard to follow.

The volume ended with two more comics: “May Be Family” by Nagian and “Good Morning, Emma Sympson” by Batako. “May Be Family” featured Meiko and a grown-up Rin and Len (and maybe Kaito? Was the guy Kaito?) suddenly finding an adorable child Miku. This was my favorite comic in the volume - a bit over-sweet, but nice enough. “Good Morning, Emma Sympson” featured a Vocaloid producer hoping to reconnect with a childhood friend via Miku’s music. It was okay, but the emotional flow was a bit choppy.

Again: meh. If I read any of the other Hatsune Miku Graphics books, it’ll continue to be via library checkouts. I don’t feel the need to get them for my personal collection.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

Received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the first book, the illustrations and manga and more, and I was so happy to see that book 2 was now up on Netgalley. 

This book is just like the first book. First you have illustrations (lots and lots of gorgeous illustrations), then some games/cds/collaboration information and then at the end some manga. 

I loved the illustrations in this book, and like with the previous one, I recognized quite a few artists. The illustrations are gorgeous and really colourful, I can see why they are picked to be represented in this book. Though I think for some it is also because of their popularity, since some also made cd covers or other things. Would be fun to see some lesser known vocaloid artists, there are so many around after all.

The manga were really fun. The 4-koma fell a bit flat, but luckily the bigger manga made it all up. I loved Luka's story.

All in all I would recommend this book, even if you aren't a total vocaloid fan, you will enjoy the illustrations and the manga.

Review first posted at http://twirlingbookprincess.com/

4 stars, borrow it

Netgalley review.

The cover drew me to this although I know next to nothing about manga. Initial impression: art is beautiful

Appears that it's a collection of various peoples art work and so it will be hard to give it one rating. Some of the art is absolutely mind blowing. I'm glad I picked this to review and followed through since I'm trying to find manga that I like. Hmmm seems that at least some of this is artwork related to a game. That doesn't bother me but I was hoping it might lead to more manga graphic novels I might like. I should also mention that I didn't read most of the text because I loved the art

So much. The last third of the book was a storyline and not just art and I found it very confusing.

As soon as I saw that Diamond Book Distributors put this book into the “Read Now” section of NetGalley I just knew I had to read it. 

It isn’t a well-known fact among my friends but the truth is I’m an avid reader of manga, lover of manga, and an otaku at heart. Vocaloid brings back so many memories of when I’d talk about it with my friends several years back and picking this up brought back a wave of beautiful nostalgia which was paired with the equally beautiful illustrations and adorable story about the Torabotic World, followed by a squeal-worthy mini comic by Nagimiso which was by far my most favourite part of the whole thing.

The book not only captures the feeling of Vocaloid perfectly but also has a good, wide range of artists who have dedicated artwork to the subject. Everything is neatly labelled, and for extra curious fans there are things like CD cover art and mentions of various softwares and short, interesting bios of the main Vocaloids. It was an absolutely pleasurable light read that was just what I needed lately. It’s a book many will surely fall in love with.