Though 無謀王ああさあ has a varied art style, drawing original characters across different themes or render known characters from various franchises, am mostly enamored by his creations in this specific style.

The simplicity of the school girl sailor uniform with its recognizable styling helps shift focus to the more alternative composition and refreshing framing used in this illustration.

Cutting off parts of the subject’s body using tighter framing is tricky, but Mubouou Aasaa masters it well, creating an intriguing image that tells the viewer a story and remains full of mystery by hiding the girl’s face.

The nape of a young maiden’s neck by itself is already an alluring subject, but the stark shadows, desaturated colors and focused framing more often seen in photography really turn this illustration into a striking artwork.

While more traditional angles, distance and composition have their merit and this alternate style is hard to pull off, I do like this style, as much as I enjoy seeing it in photography.

Although framing a subject such that it cuts off the head at the neck near always leads to disaster, here it works well, leaving us to wonder what the girl drawn in the image could look like, what her facial expression is, what her mood might be.

Personally really feel enthusiastic about these illustrations by Mubouou Aasaa which to me really merge photography elements with anime style imagery.

This particular illustration not only catches the eye with its sensual atmosphere due to the girl’s state of partial undress, but the composition enhances that aura by leading the eye to her collar bones, shape of her chest and taut shirt.

Again, by cutting off the image just above the mouth, unable to see most of the girl’s face it adds mystery to the image.

Being into amateur photography, love to capture my Dollfie Dream in front of the lens, so anime style art like this is not only striking but refreshingly inspiring by its unique framing and composition, which you don’t encounter much in such art.

You can see more at 無謀王ああさあ’s blog or on Pixiv.

Got this black training with a recent order at Dollmore, picked it up considering its leisurely look and affordable price.

Actually got it for Tsukiko as her white skin body type should contrast nicely with the black cloth. Even though my experience with black cloth Dollmore outfits is terrific in terms of staining, wasn’t keen on trying it on Tsukiko right away so trying it first on Shizuko.

Oddly, seems one of the sleeves may have other thread or wasn’t pre-treated well as it did stain the vinyl, the rest of the outfit didn’t leave a mark.

While the first photo has a soft look due to indirect daylight lighting conditions, made these other shots with direct afternoon sunlight filtered through some curtains, giving them more punch.

Still have several sets of photos of Tsukiko to process, will get to that soon and then share them with you, so be sure to keep an eye out on my Flickr photostream.

Must confess the rain effect is artificial tough, the water drops were created by spraying water mist on the flowers using a basic spray bottle, a nice trick had read about on a photography blog once.

These violets were actually part of a flower arrangement, the green foliage and white petals on the flowers helped to calculate the exposure as well as obtain a good color balance for the purple petals, as my Canon 450D usually seems to have trouble correctly rendering purple hues.

Learned the hard way why it’s recommend to not photograph outside in bright sunlight between 10am and 2pm with some photo series taken during that time which all failed, but decided to take a chance and made these photos shortly after 10am in the harsh light of the bright sun.

Quite glad these shots turned out ok. Used the Canon 100mm macro lens for these photos so actually needed plenty of light.

You can see more of my photography on Flickr.

The original run of the “けいおん!” manga by Kakifly concluded at the same time as the anime adaptation, wrapping up the story of the high school light music club with the graduation of Yui, Mio, Ritsu and Tsumugi.

No doubt due to the success of the franchise, Kakifly resumed “K-ON!” with two separate manga story arcs, one following Azusa’s life in high school and another following Yui, Mio, Ritsu and Tsumugi’s adventures in college.

While the story arc following Azusa in high school is apparently continuing, the one following Yui and the others in college will end. Followed both story arcs, so can fathom the high school arc is more popular even though it only has Azusa from the former lead characters along with Ui and Jun.

Having introduced only two new characters with Sumire and Nao, the high school story line is easier to follow and caters more to the audience as it remains much closer to the original “けいおん!” vibe. It also has some semblance of a core plot with Azusa trying to form a band to rebuild the light music club, much like Ritsu and Mio originally did.

The college arc following Yui, Mio, Ritsu and Tsumugi instead feels splintered, without real purpose as the four girls lack a tangible goal, it also introduced a plethora of new characters that haven’t all been properly fleshed out yet.

Being a fan of Azsua’s character, the unique bond she had with Yui and how her presence as a doted on junior was a driving force in the dynamic of ‘Houkago Tea Time’, can only conclude that after tearing Azusa away from the group, Kakifly was unable to construct a new suitable dynamic for Yui, Mio, Ritsu and Tsumugi that had the same warmth, liveliness, and joy of the original.

As a side note, must confess that the manga in itself never had the appeal to me that the anime has, with Kyoto Animation’s sublime work in transforming “K-ON!” into an epic slice-of-life series full of joy that has a great aura much like “Aria” or “Tamayura ~hitotose~”.

Am curious to see what Kakifly will do with the high school arc, as I’d hate to see this franchise die off in such an inelegant fashion, never having been able to recapture that unique magic it had.

At least we still have the “K-ON!” movie release to look forward to.

Based on the first volume of the light novel series “古典部“ byYonezawa Honobu, “Hyouka” is primarily advertised as a mystery show centered around the four members of a high school classic literature club.

“Hyouka” impresses from the first scene on with stunning visuals by Kyoto Animation, which proves again this studio can excel in creating an enchanting visual canvas with lush backgrounds, great lighting and even bokeh effects. Seems they set out again to redefine the standard of moe by making Chitanda irresistibly cute.

Loved the first two episodes although am unsure yet what direction the series will take. Even when considering the basic plot and advertised mystery genre, these episodes still leave the core genre and plot rather wide open.

Overly simplified, “Hyouka” seems like a mash up of “The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi” thanks to Chitanda’s rather forceful and energetic personality in dragging Oreki around, mixed with “Kami-sama no Memo-chou” due to the various mysteries and overall visual styling. Though the first two episodes also had a slice-of-life and romantic vibe at times.

Especially the first episode has a few scenes with poetic visuals to suggest that Oreki is blown away by Chitanda and getting pulled into her world, her pace. Perhaps even falling for her?
Those scenes definitely suggest this series could have a significant subplot in a romance between Chitanda and Oreki or in developing their characters, showing how they grown after meeting each other.

Satou Satomi voices the energetic and cute Chitanda, she also voiced characters like Ritsu in “K-ON!”, Aria in “Seitokai Yakuindomo” and Manami in “Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai”.

Fiesty Ibara is voiced by Kayano Ai, she previously voiced Inori in “Guilty Crown”, Isana in “Yumekui Merry”, Ume in “Ben-To” and Millia in “Last Exile ~Ginyoku no Fam~”.

Quite a bit of other interesting seiyuu are mentioned in the voice cast list, like Chihara Minori who is set to voice Yuri or Toyasaki Aki who’s voicing Rie. However, as I am not familiar with the original novels and considering their characters have yet to appear, cannot say if their roles will be significant or not.

Am very interested to see which direction this series will take and which genre it will mainly be.
Will it be a slice-of-life series in a school setting of these four friends spiced up with a weekly mystery?
Or will it be a more romantic show where the romance is character driven by exploring Chitanda & Oreki’s personalities and their developing bond?