It's not even November yet and the first illustration anthology for the Year of the Rabbit has already been released. Bishoujo Illustrations New Year Collection 2011 brings together 50 artists to illustrate New Year's postcards, incorporating the rabbit in a variety of beautiful and adorable ways.

Bishoujo Illustrations New Year Collection 2011 is an A4-sized, 112 page art book that also includes a data CD with PDF postcard versions of all the illustrations in the book. The PDFs are included so that you can print out as many postcards as you like to send to friends for the New Year. They're all high resolution, and high quality, but unlike the art work in the book, they all have New Year's greetings written upon them. The printing for the book itself is very high, like the kind you're more likely to see in a doujinshi than an art book.

The book is laid out with a full illustration on every other page. On the page opposite the illustration is information about the art work including the illustrator's name, a rough sketch of the work next to the postcard version on the CD, programs used to create the art work, and a few Q&A's directed at the illustrator. The illustrations above are by H2SO4 and Chiba Sadoru.

The art book is divided into different sections with more focused themes on the Year of the Rabbit. The first section is titled Japanese Style and includes characters in traditionally Japanese dress or locations. In total, there are 21 illustrations for this section. The pictures above from left to right are by Aikei Aki, Ichiri, Kazami Haruki, Kusana Houki, Takoyaki, and Tanaka Nyan.

The mixture of artists is very impressive, with some well-known ones along with virtually unknown ones, but everyone's work is so professional and well thought out that it doesn't feel like your average anthology where a few good art works are supporting the rest. The illustrations above are by Tohgarashi Hideyu, Nauribon, Haruse Hiroki, and Mizusawa Mimori.

The second section is called Usamimi Style and includes a total of 14 illustration featuring girls with rabbit ears. Even though this section is specifically for rabbit-eared girls, there are plenty through out the other sections of the book. Pictured above are illustrations by Amaa (あまー), Kazuto Izumi, Sakana (魚), Nio, Nanao, and Himukai Kyousuke. And for the most part, the girls in this section are not traditionally dressed.

There's a very brief section titled Wonderland Style which features the girls in an Alice in Wonderland theme. There are only four illustrations in this section, though I wish there were more since it's a theme I enjoy ^^ The artists featured in this section are Amimi, Kumajet, Sody and Hinasaki (not pictured).

The final section of the book is titled Adult Style and has a total of 11 illustrations. While there is a bit of nudity in this section, the illustrations are for the most part very tame. Pictured above are illustration by Hiura R (火浦R), Hidari Kagetora (左カゲトラ), Mizushima Sorahiko, Youta, and rato.

All in all, Bishoujo Illustrations New Year Collection 2011 presents us with 50 beautiful new illustrations to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit. The great selection of artists even led me to a few I'll be newly following because of their great work in this book.

• Title: Bishoujo Illustrations New Year Collection 2011
• タイトル: 美少女絵師50人 年賀イラスト集 NewYear Collection 2011
• Pages: 112
• Release date: 10/28/2010
• Buy: Amazon Japan