June 22nd, 2010, 6:34PM by nat | 14 comments
Even though I bought Tony Taka's T2 Art Gallery months ago (and I think I even mentioned it in passing) I've only just gotten around to reviewing it after being reminded of the Toranoana artist gallery 'pamphlets' due to Alpha's (有葉) recent exhibit. And in retrospect, though I over paid for it, I would have ended up paying even more if I wanted to get it now -_-
T2 Art Gallery is a large B4 sized, hardcover art book with roughly 60 illustrations in total. It's a very well made book, even though it was described as a "pamphlet" for the Toranoana exhibition. As it was made as a companion book for the exhibition, it was only sold at the gallery at Toranoana, which is the reason for the inflated re-sale prices. If you're an avid collector of Tony Taka's releases, you'll have seen many of the illustrations before. But they really come from a variety of sources---previous volumes of Tony's self-published Graph doujins and Fancy Frontier Magazine covers are present, although nothing that was featured in Tony's Ciel Chronicle appears in this book. But there is a significant amount of overlap with the Collect1 doujinshi.
For some reason, Tony Taka is one of the few artists for whom I'm not bothered by repeated illustrations in different art books and collections. I guess it's because there are generally a good amount of new illustrations along with the older ones. Plus in this case, having the art work at this size and quality is something entirely different than the smaller B5 doujinshi that make up his normal releases. Either way, I'm always glad to see more substantial releases from artists, even when they're not commercial releases.
There is one new illustration in the book, the final work on the closing page with a "thank you" message and printed autograph from Tony Taka. As with any Tony Taka release, there is a lot of nudity, though still it's not as explicit as his Collect1 Comiket 76 release. As the price for this book has seriously skyrocketed, I'm pretty sure most people would pass on Tony's T2 Art Gallery. But as with anything, if you can get it for a good price it would be worth it! Oh, and the prices are better by auction at the moment than Mandarake ;)
- Title: T2 Art Gallery
- タイトル: T2 Art Gallery
- Release Date: 11/20/2009
- Pages: 68 (including covers)
- Buy: Mandarake, Yahoo Japan Auctions
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14 years, 5 months ago
Wonderful! Thank you very much.
14 years, 5 months ago
Never seen a bad TT artbook!
14 years, 5 months ago
Thanks for the write-up! Yeah, you can never be disappointed by Tony art double-dipping, for that T2 ART WORKS publications are just too good to mind that. And totally agree on the pricing issue in connection with this artist/Circle releases - some can be a real steal at their release (i.e. once FancyFrontier is going on/shortly after the event new installments to the Graph series as well as other jp artists attending are available on Taiwanese auctions almost at @event pricing - got Graph IV for about 700 NTD) while Japanese shops tend to stock in such special/non-Japan event market releases at skyrocket prices.
If you don't mind me to ask, did you sneak-up the ALPHa Pamphlet as well? If so I sure hope you'll provide us with some insights on that too (sadly it seems to be gone from Tora no Ana's upcoming stock-in releases now as well >_<).
14 years, 5 months ago
Wow, that is a major steal on Graph IV. I remember going to the K-BOOKs in Akihabara and seeing it for 12,500円 in a glass case last summer -_- That would be quite a price per page XD
I did get the Alpha pamphlet, I even photographed it with the Tony book, since they're the same size and that way I wouldn't have to re-adjustment my setup for next time. Will probably have a review for it next week, but it had a lot of overlap with the recent commercial release, Akabei Soft Illustrations: Konna Gashu ga detara Boku wa mou...!!!, which is definitely easier to get.
14 years, 5 months ago
Gorgerous artbook. If you don´t mind me asking, I would like to know how you keep track of all the doujinshi releases out there? I too often miss out books like this >.<
14 years, 5 months ago
I do miss a lot of them, and end up paying for it ~_~ But for the most part I just browse Toranoana regularly, since they list new inventory everyday. Also, Akibablog and Moeyo mention the more notable releases like this one.
14 years, 5 months ago
Ok, thank you alot^^ Though I really suck at toranoana - navigation..
Also, since I am already at it; Would you have tips for which proxy to use for ordering at toranoana? As for amazon.jp, can someone order there without a proxy and how horrific is the shipping cost for artbooks?
sorry , for asking so much >.< you don´t have to answer if you don´t want to.
14 years, 5 months ago
For Toranoana, this is the best starting page if you're after doujinshi. The bits with the pictures are recent releases and they're grouped by events or themes for the most part. Along the side, there's a calendar, and you can pick a date so see the latest in doujinshi they're pushing, along with new ones and re-stocks. And when the days are colored in pink, it means there's an event going on so there will be more new stuff on those days.
I have a casual guide here for buying doujinshi and shopping on Amazon. You don't need a proxy service to order from Amazon, provided you have a internationally recognized credit card like VISA, or Mastercard. Then it's just like using your country specific Amazon.
Shipping to the US is via Fedex Express, and the flat rate for a book is 3000円. So, don't buy just one book at a time and your shipping evens out. I pre-order a lot at a time, and then books ship out as they release, usually one by one. If you're in a country that has customs tax on books, then you may want to try another way.
14 years, 5 months ago
Thanks a lot for the information^^
Does shipping out one by one doesn´t mean you have to pay shipping everytime?
And yes, my country has taxes on books (+10%) so one by one could get expensive..
starts reading your guide
14 years, 5 months ago
No, you still pay shipping on each. But if I place an order, and the shipping costs for 14 books is 7000円, then each time one ships a little money from the 7000円 pool gets taken. So one book will ship at the cost of 750円, etc until it's all out. If all that's left from the shipping costs pool is 150円, they'll ship it at that. But you're still paying overall, 7000円 in shipping.
And yes, 10% in tax would definitely make me stop doing that... Best to gather them up and get them all out when they're all released.
14 years, 5 months ago
They count together ordered books as one shippment, though they can be shiped out seperatly..is this how it works?
and that 10% is not as bad as the 20% we have on almost everything else..for example pvc figures >.< Living in Austria sux..
14 years, 5 months ago
Yeah, I think they try to ship out as soon as they have it so that you won't or can't cancel :D To be honest, I don't know if it works this way with every country. But so far Amazon ships out books that I pre-ordered individually as they become available, all from the same order.
14 years, 5 months ago
TT rules as usual, his art is the best!
14 years, 5 months ago
That Mandarake price tag is indeed frightening... am an avid fan of Tony's sublime art but at that price and considering I already have the Collect1 book I'll most likely skip on this one (from a cursory view it looks like as good as all the images shown here are in Collect1 too).
It's still tempting though...