365 Reasons to Love

Title: Shugo-Chara! Illustrations 2.

Artist(s)/Creator(s): Peach-Pit.

Pages: 80.

Release Date: October 21, 2008.

Retail Price: 2381yen; 31.00USD

Price I bought it for: $27.00 (it was on sale)

Place I bought it from: Yesasia.com

AKA: My Guardian Characters. “The story centers on elementary school girl Amu Hinamori, whose popular exterior, referred to as “cool and spicy” by her classmates, contrasts with her introverted personality. When Amu wishes for the courage to be reborn as her would-be self, she is surprised to find three colorful eggs the next morning, which hatch into three Guardian Characters: Ran, Miki, and Su.”-Wikipedia.

It’s a very cute story that’s reminiscent of Sailor Moon. I haven’t read the manga, but I did watch like a dozen episodes of the anime adaptation. Only reason I haven’t continued is because 127 episodes, and I really don’t have the time. -_-

Book comes in A4 format with a very nice dust jacket that folds out to be a giant poster. Poster is glossy. Paper Quality is very thick and gives off a matte finish.

^Ikuto Tsukiyomi.

I found this book to be very balanced: it has nearly equal numbers of one-page, two-page spreads, and small illustrations.

Since the pages are really thick, it is a bit hard to enjoy the two-page spreads. You have to really push the book apart and I really hate doing that to artbooks.

Colors are not as vibrant, since the illustrations requires pastel colors in order to give off a feeling of innocence and purity. However, the coloring is very solid and sharp.

The whole book uses a lot of stars. And Pink.

I love this spread of Amu and her guardians, Ran, Miki, Su, and later Diamond. It’s so adorable. ^^

Utau looks so pure that you can’t really dislike her. Crazy brother-complex. =]

Cuuute. I hope this isn’t spoiling anything for people who haven’t read or watched the series. I haven’t finished it either, so eh. =P

After the initial section of Title pages, you hit the Nakayosi Covers, which is basically just full-pages close-ups of Amu.

The next section is the covers of the manga comics. You can see Amu signaling the volume with her fingers:

The last section is titled “Others.” Basically, miscellaneous work which composed of mostly Amu in different costumes.

At the end is the Author’s notes/commentary. This is the Japanese version, so I don’t really know what it says.

I do like this artbook, but I much prefer Volume One, which I do not have. I’m waiting to get it for cheap somewhere, probably eBay. I’m most happy with the giant poster that comes with it and the way it was included is quite creative.