Takumi Inoue “Queen’s Gate – Kanu” artbook
Been a while since a “Queen’s Gate” publication caught my eye, but considering this latest book features Kan’u Unchou, one of my favorite characters from “Koihime†Musou”, had to take a closer look into it.
Takumi Inoue (井上巧) created the illustrations for this “Queen’s Gate – Warrior God Of Shu Kanu” (クイーンズゲイト 蜀の武神 関羽) book, after having previously contributed the art for the “Queen’s Gate – Dizzy” book.
The artist managed to render Kan’u well, perfectly capturing her proud demeanor and fierce gaze in those pages that showcase martial poses. In more ecchi images, her shocked, blushing facial expressions is spot on.
While I do like Takumi Inoue’s art style, can’t help but wonder what it might have been like if Katagiri Hinata (片桐雛太), who created “Koihime†Musou” art for Baseson, would have provided the art of Kan’u for this book instead.
Fans of “Ikki Tousen”, another franchise loosely based on the ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ stories, may be disappointed it is not the Kanu from that particular manga that’s featured in this book, but instead Kan’u aka Aisha from the “Koihime†Musou” visual novels.
Do like Kanu from “Ikki Tousen” but always had more of a soft spot for this incarnation of Kan’u like we also saw her in the various “Koihime†Musou” anime seasons, including “Shin Koihime†Musou” & “Shin Koihime†Musou Otome Tairan”. Prefer her visual styling and characterization more.
Considering this is a “Queen’s Gate” battle book where like in the original “Queen’s Blade” books, the main goal is to enjoy illustrations of shapely maidens and other babes in alluring outfits battling it out, most often it will feature the girls conveniently experiencing a state of partial undress or torn clothing.
Of course, this book is no different. Hence, next to many dynamic action poses where Takumi Inoue managed to convey a lot of graceful martial movement in still renderings of Kan’u, it is spiced up with plenty of images where Kan’u’s outfit suffers auspicious tearing or other wardrobe malfunctions.
Keeping that in mind, must stress that this book is not suitable for all audiences and may not appeal to all. Though it is worth to note that nothing explicit is ever shown, most images are ecchi to a degree and some are just very suggestive.
If you are a fan of Kan’u or “Queen’s Gate”, can definitely recommend this “クイーンズゲイト 蜀の武神 関羽 ” book, you can find it at Hobby Search or HobbyLink Japan.
Blue Blue Wave 
That’s quite interesting, wish there is an easier way for us to play this game book via online battle, that would be quite awesome actually.
@Wolfheinrich
That makes me wonder… how many people in Japan actually buy these books to engage in the battle game?
Sometimes I think the whole concept of these battles based on the Lost Worlds system is just an excuse or a medium to launch and sustain a franchise whose real goal is to sell books, figures, DVD’s filled with babe sin skimpy gear knowing there’s a target audience for it.
Finally some clear shots of the interior might pick this up along with with Pyrrha’s book. 😀
@Smithy
Am guessing there… I hope… would go for a more proper online version of this instead of a reskinned SRW from Bamco XD
As to be expected… Sooooo ecchi. I don’t mind though. ^ ^
@Devastator001
It’s definitely worth it, it’s chock full of lovely Kan’u art. ^^
@Yi
For “Queen’s Blade” related works, yes, it’s to be expected. But in mu opinion this Kan’u book still managers to keep it’s ecchi and suggestive content within reasonable limits and all in good fun. Some of the books alas degenerate into more vulgar, uninspired ecchi art.
@Wolfheinrich
Though I don’t like tooting my own horn, there are 2 ways to play the proper QB battle game, both with my site’s desktop app, and at Leon’s online site (http://qbwebgame.net/).
Of course, if you mean just going online and playing as if it was a MMORPG or something… we might need servers for that ^^U