Recently nabbed myself one of these. 'Tis the English version (though I wouldn't mind a Japanese one, seeing as my Pandora Hearts artbook is in Japanese), but content wise, nothing should differ. The covers are a bit different, with the Japanese book having an extra cover page, resulting in the cover looking like this. 

Those who also follow my photoblog would have seen this a wee bit earlier. I put a slightly brighter photo of the same thing up there yesterday.

Something to note about the cover is that the features are actually fuzzy, which is why they have very little detail on them (though it's a feather, what more can you expect?). It's a real nice touch, but it more of a magnet for dust than my PSP is to finger prints. The title is also foil, and makes it hard to get in shot properly. I'll try my breast best to keep this free of dust.

Inside, the front page once again features the cover illustration with a translucent page more or less remaking the cover, sans the feathers. If those design lines were any darker, you could totally assume that it's a nude filter ^^;. 

Tony Taka's artwork is gorgeous. The book is comprised of works from Shining Tears and Shining Wind, none of which I've played, mainly due to the fact that neither of them have made it across the Pacific. Either way, the book is roughly 200 pages of beautiful illustrations.

This was actually one of the first of his works that I saw. Was a couple years back when I was looking for wallpapers for the iPod Touch that I came across this picture. Didn't think much of the artist, but later on went to find more works by him and was blown away by how good they looked. 

Promotion art for Shining Tears.

Book also has several pages (around 8-10) of interview and other Tony Taka goodness. Pictured is a rundown on how he creates a work. Being the English version, everything is translated for non-Japanese speakers and readers to enjoy. The interview is rather entertaining, too.

The character pages towards the end. Of the ones pictured here, which one tickles your fancy? Had to keep these ones very tame; there are some slightly more risqué illustrations, but all of them are more or less perfectly work safe (there's no nudity).


The other side of the cover illustration. Delicious Xecty and Elwing. This also appears on the back cover, butt but this one doesn't have any text.

No Manga of the Week yesterday because I was out of town. And here's what I was up to.

Contains content that may not be suitable for all viewers. Viewers discretion is advised. 




Somewhere in this building a convention that Ivy wanted to go to. Location? Seattle, Washington. It's about a 3 hour drive from Vancouver going at a comfortable 130km/h. The crew consisted of Henry driving, Warren and Ivy as navigators and me as the person who tagged along. Kidding. I had the auxillary cable which would allow us to jam to some slammin' tunes for 3 hours, provided that we could find the jack in Henry's car. Did we? Nope. We listened to fading Vancouver stations and some random stations that got picked up.

Breakfast / Lunch was at Five Guys, a burger joint somewhere I don't know. They had a load of people working those burgers; it was like a human conveyor belt. Each person did one part of the burger which meant that they could crank out a burger in mere minutes, from grill to wrapper. I had a bacon cheeseburger, with all the toppings. Two patties, bacon and lots of stuff. Quite filling, but also messy. The cheese fuses to the foil wrapping they use, making it a bit hard to eat.


Finally got to the building, and climbed what seemed like an endless number of stairs. The building was shady as heck. It looked like it was a refurbished apartment building from who knows how long ago. Currently used as an art building, with various art studios and art showcases. Taking this photo was terrifying mind you.


Yes. Said event was a Ball-Jointed Doll convention, Uncanny Dreams, organised by Den-of-Angels, an online doll community. There was a group from BC that traveled down to Seattle for this, but they took Amtrak (commuter rail service).  First exhibit in the convention. I'm pretty sure the painting on the wall that I censored is part of the art exhibit rather than the doll show.


Shot taken from over Ivy's shoulder. A doll's clothing shop. Weren't as many as I thought there'd be. I'm used to seeing the dolls on Figure.fm, the Volks Dollfie dream kind, so these dolls were new to me. Can't say I liked some of them though. Do remember a lady calling a yukata a 'bodysuit' and hakama 'parachute pants'. At least she got obi right.


Many vendors at the event. They sold a wide range of products, from weapons (most of them were letter openers) to furniture. There were wings, wigs, parts and other bits and bobs being pedaled at tables. Was even a doll buy and trade going on at an open space. Was a bit crowded, and my thoughts about how shady the building looked were confirmed when a freight elevator came down. The room was separated from the shaft by a thin metal fence. Falling sounds like fun, only, of course, if you have more than one life left.


A doll display. People left their dolls here on display. Ivy's favourite is the blonde beside the male doll in the red jacket. Can't tell if it's a he or she, but it's really cute. The four little dolls need some clothes too.


A closer shot of the dolls on the right side. The four dolls on the right are real nice.


Part of the art exhibit that is usually in the room that the doll show was mooching. It's an interesting note, don't you think? Not sure if I want to meet this Dr. Johnny Wow.


A model horse for dolls. For those who feel the need to depict equestrian scenes with their dolls. Unlike the dolls, the horse isn't articulated to my knowledge.


The doll displays were impressive. This one had bare eyes that I had to cover up. And yes, she's coming out of a mirror. Thought that was pretty cool.


A lot of these dolls have hooved feet. Not exactly a fan of them, but Ivy seemed to be. They also seemed to be fairly popular with the attendees too.


Some mini dolls, ranging from small to mini.


A most impressive display. An angel, a vampire and what I'm assuming is a princess. Must've taken lots of work to set up, as the background is painted, and the angel is held up by fishing line.


The princess was gorgeous. This one is 1600x1200 for those who'd like to use it as a wallpaper.
Woops. Looks like 1600x1200 isn't big enough. I'll have it resized tomorrow for those who want it.


This, I believe, was the most impressive display. Was quite ornate, and both dolls were quite dolled up, so to speak. Ivy dubbed the doll in the back 'Edward Scissorhands'. The fish bowl to the left of Scissorhands actually had a pair of live fish swimming in it. The clocks weren't real, however.


This one was different from the rest of them, and most of the convention. The only one to have blood and gore. I have to say that I'm not too much of a fan of this, but you have to agree that the workmanship is quite impressive.


The lighting of this display made it a bit hard to get a good photo of. Plus the singer there is on a rotating stand, so I'd have to wait for her to spin around to get a good shot. Ivy really liked that spiky rainbow wig.


The dioramas were equally as impressive as the displays. They, I believe, were open to whoever wanted to stick their dolls in them. They were really well made. Looked as if someone had taken a full sized room and hit it with a shrink ray. Honey! I shrunk the room! Fantasy monster-people seemed to be popular in this show.


Top of Ivy's head. I think all the rooms had a fireplace. The doll on the right had doll sized cashews or nuts of some kind in it's hand.


A diorama that was unused. Looks like a bed room.


After the doll show, we decided to run around downtown Seattle to see what we could find. Many tourists down there. We mainly stayed by the docks and tourist-y areas. Hit McD's up for some strawberry-lemonade and McNuggets. Did you know that Nugget barbecue sauce is different depending on region? Canada's is a bit sweeter than others, and Texas is a bit spicy. Seattle's was a bit tangy.


Our wonderful driver, Henry, chilling at a statue outside a packed sea food restaurant. Interesting thing. The sports apparel shop we visited was rooting for our 'Nucks too. Because we're that awesome.


Back in the car, we finally found the auxillary jack. 'Twas in a rather odd place: the glove compartment. Who puts it in there? Anywho, with the auxiliary jack found, we headed to the outlet centre for some shopping. Didn't get much there, maybe $130 worth of clothes between the four of us. We went to Walmart to pick up some kitty litter for Warren's cat and some chips that aren't in Canada.

Dinner at Carino', an italian restaurant, that interestingly enough, was flying the American flag, the Canadian flag and the Italian flag. After dinner, we headed north to cross the 49th back to the 604.  And that's pretty much the day!