Sorry for not posting for a while. Been busy with Enstars events and trying to figure out how to make better quality scans (tho I decided to go and buy a new & better one, one day…)
Anyway the Official Fanbook/Artbook for Enstars has finally released! If you want to see a spotlight on it (with shopping links) click here.
I couldn’t get the ebten limited set because I thought I could still buy it after the preorder period 😆 Well jokes on me because they’re no longer available to buy. If only I had realised this sooner. So I just bought a regular edition with CD Japan.
The contents of this book is more thicker than the debut book, tho it does include pages and pages of content from the past year compared to the debut book so lol. The first pages are filled with promotional artwork, most of the artwork used for Magazine covers, merchandise as well as the CD art for the Unit CDs and the Enstars Radio Show thing.
Next pages are the Profiles of every character (Except for Valkyrie, but also includes Leo and the teachers). Each page is dedicated to one character, showing off their school uniform ver. and unit uniform ver. as well as their different faces/emotions and a special interview about them and their thoughts on their unit. Tho that interview part originally came from the Starter Book that was bundled together with an old issue of B’s Log so no new information for me except for Leo’s I think? They didn’t have his profile/interview in the Starter book.
The main pages are all dedicated to Event CGs and Gacha CGs through the year (well from the first event/gacha until March 2016). The Gacha CGs have the cleaned up Bloomed CGs as well (tho its been hard for me to make a good quality scan of one of them).
Accompanying the Events/Gacha CGs are Artist/Creator’s comments on what they thought of the event or them commenting on their thought process when drawing the CGs.I think my favorite comment is K.M (the Lead Illustrator) talking about their train of thought on how to make White Day Event Rei to look sexy (but not too sexy). My second favorite comment is M.K’s (Illustrator) thoughts on White Day Event Kaoru (which made me cry). Like if you can read Japanese or have google translate/weblio on hand you’ll prolly have a blast learning some tidbits on what the creators thoughts for event/gacha cards because for me it was pretty fun lol.
I tried translating some comments on twitter, so here’s a few of my favorites:
My favorite fact behind the Hero Show Gacha’s Chiaki is that they did about 5 drafts of Chiaki sleeping in bed. Now I’m curious to see the previous scrapped drafts of Chiaki in different sleeping positions/angles lol.
Theres a staff interview with the main ppl who help create Enstars (particularly the visual elements), tho I haven’t read all of it myself it was interesting to see the work process and the ppl behind the art. They don’t reveal their full names but its nice to know who’s behind what, y’know? Like before this book all I knew was Akira-sensei and Yoshino Yuki did the story/scenario parts so its nice to see who does what illustration. For future reference, here’s the staff’s initial’s/what the book refers them as and their jobs:
M.T – Contents Creator. Contents Directing such as Setting, Scenario, Costume Supervision etc.
K.M – Lead Illustrator. In charge of Character Design, Official Illustrations, 4*~5* Card Original Pictures.
A.T – Illustrator. In charge of Character Draft, 3* Cards, SD Characters (chibi chara) Original Picture.
M.K – Illustrator. In charge of 3*~4* Card Original Pictures, Costume Design.
A.K – Contents Assistant. In charge of Characters and initial setting of the world view (world building I think).
M.H – Art Director. In charge of Illustration Art Direction and Live2D (Animation).
Also final bonus is we get an official map of Yumenosaki Academy andd backgrounds of its main landmarks (including where the pool is, which is like behind the archery place). I wonder if they’re ever gonna mention the pool because it was introduced in pool gacha and never to be heard from again. New characters are part of Pool Club maybe? Who knows.
My final thoughts? I think it was worth it, esp when you’re a big Enstar fan its something you have to get to commemorate 1 Year of Enstars Hell. Its even more worth it seeing the promotional art/merch art that I can’t even get my hands on, seeing it all up close and personal and appreciate it 😆 If they release this kind of thing yearly then I’m sure to buy it because I just love the art and reading the artist’s/creator’s comments. Plus this book is the only place you can see the clean versions of the Bloomed CG of Gacha Cards. Only complaints I could have is that I wish they showed off the rough sketches of stuff, the process of designing some of the characters and that I don’t know… Give Valkyrie more than just one page with both of the characters squished in, maybe? Jk. I can’t fault them for that because they just released and at least they added them in even if it was just their 3* cards… Maybe next year.
I’m sorry for not doing any Enstars Diaries lately, been pretty busy or at least I couldn’t find the motivation to do any. But with the Summer Camp Event coming up and Sexy Adonis is back then maybe I’ll think about doing an Enstar Diary for that.
Thank you for reading as always!
ときめきレイジーライフ💛 
ARGH being broke is so not fun rofl because this looks so worth the $!! Loved your translations, great as always! Sorry you didn’t get the limited edition, but like you said, the deluxe appears just as worth it.
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So cool *O*
I want this artbook too!!!
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