I have always found that the hardest part of buying Japanese art books, doujinshi and magazines is answering the question: What's in it?

Imported goods aren't cheap, so it's important to know what you're buying.

When I first started buying art books and magazines in 1997, I would literally judge the book by its cover. If I liked the cover art or knew the series, I would take the risk and buy it. This led to many expensive purchases I ended up regretting.

As online art book shopping improved, so too did my access to online reviews. But even still, they were often lacking the one thing that always helped me make a final decision: pictures.

So I've decided to do reviews the way I would like to read them, with book information, plenty of pictures, and the opportunity to easily ask more questions.

So whether you're a first time art book buyer trying to make the right choice, or a collector who just needs his memory jogged once in a while, or on the shopping spree opportunity of a lifetime in Japan, I hope my reviews can help you out.