Moeru iPhone Reader, released December 14th, is the newest in the ever growing series of artist collections featuring girls using some kind of everyday item. Moeru's iPhone Reader is great advertising for Apple---an iPhone is prominently placed with every girl---so the individual aspects of the illustration focus on the app being showcased, and how the girl is using (or not using) it.

Moeru iPhone Reader is a B5-sized book, full color and 130 pages. The cover art work is by Nagi Ryou, and appears without the cover text though in a smaller size on the first page of the book. There is the usual mix of artists that these books tend to have, with famous artists along side new names. Pictured above are Nagi Ryou (x2), Kazuhara Kina, Midori Foo, Puaka, and Mota. Other artists at the beginning of the book were Virus, Sody, Moso, Yuhi Alfa, Yukiu Con, and Yazzz.

The layout is no doubt what you would expect from this kind of book by now; one page features the illustration with the other page focusing on the iPhone app with screen shots and information about it. As usual, I'm not in it for the information, so I can't judge that part of the book. The illustration above is by Quiqui.

The illustrations above by Kamo, Izuru, Fuji Choko, and Saitom and were some of the better works in the book. Izuru was new to me up until Quarterly Pixiv Vol. 02, where he received the illustration x art process treatment. And Fuji Choko (along with several other artists) has really become a regular in these types of publications; aside from this book, she's also done illustrations for Moeru Classic Heroine Collection and Railway Girls and Scenery Pictorial Book.

Yoshinori Shizuma and Jyuu Ayakura have also been making semi-regular appearances in these kind of books. Yoshinori Shizuma's illustration actually had nothing to do with the corresponding app being reviewed, which makes me think some of the reviews may have changed at the last minute ^^; Duca's illustration shows off a lot of growth in just the past year, with a less angular and more refined style.

I thought the inclusion of NIL's illustration was a bit odd, as he's an illustrator who is popular because he intentionally draws like redjuice. It's eyecatching, but I'm sure he can find his own style... Sime, Vania600 and Fruit Punch's illustrations were all as impressive as usual.

Pictured above are illustrations by Kiryu Tsukasa and Zerokichi---whose work I've previously only seen in other people's doujins. The book ends with interviews with Sakuya Tsuitachi, refeia, and Yoshitoshi Abe---none of whom had an illustration in the book. The index provides the artists' websites and Pixiv accounts when available, so it becomes another useful tool for exploration. Moeru iPhone Reader is a pretty standard collection in this genre, but there are enough standout works to make it worthwhile ^^

• Title: Moeru iPhone Reader
• タイトル: 萌えるiPhone読本
• Pages: 130
• Release date: 12/14/2010
• Buy: Amazon Japan