MOEOH Selection's Ten Colors ~ Juu Nin To Iro ~ finally came out last week, after weeks of hearing and talking about it. And if you're at all familiar with the Dengeki MOEOH magazine, you'll know that means art work from the 10 artists featured each month for the past two years: Satoshi Kiba, Aoi Kimizuka, Koharu Sakura, Tinkle, Mamoru Naruse, Yu Narumi, Matsuryu, Suigun Murakami, Morinaga Korune, and Mitha.

The subtitle for Ten Colors, "juu nin to iro (十人十色)" is quite literally "ten people, ten colors" though it has a more colloquial meaning of "different strokes for different folks." I think the literal translation really is exactly what the collection is though. On the cover art, you can see each of the artists' new illustrations for the book that follow the theme of "girls in love."

Each artist has a total of 11 illustrations; 10 that were published from 2008 to 2010 in Dengeki MOEOH magazine, and one new illustration made exclusively for the book. The first artist that appears in the book is Satoshi Kiba. The art works appear in publishing order, so the newest illustrations are at the end of each section. Satoshi Kiba is one artist who really stayed consistent in style and quality throughout.

Aoi Kimizuka comes next, with her template collection of girls. I'm not a fan of this artist; I dislike the way she draws eyes, clothing, poses... everything really. No, that's not true. I like the coloring. That being said, I really do think some of her best work appears in Ten Colors; it seems like when themes are given, creativity blossoms. Her original illustration is a true deviation from the other "girl in love" pictures in the book.

Sakura Koharu is one of those artists I follow in that, if she's part of a random collaboration of artists (or a light novel I can't read), I'll buy it just for her art work. When looking through her section, you can really see a lot of variety in situations, details and settings that sometimes get forgotten with other artists, once they've finished the character illustration. I would have bought the book for this section alone ^^;

Always the crowd pleaser, Tinkle has the next 11 illustrations with beautiful doll-styled girls who have more hair than body mass. I've kind of hit a point with this artist team where I think I'm seeing the same illustrations over and over again. They're still amazingly detailed (ruffles master) and delicate, and everyone can appreciate that regardless of personal tastes ^^;

Mamoru Naruse, who was also a featured artist in the newest Dengeki MOEOH issue, is the next artist. I've always found this artist's work disturbingly similar to Mitha's, but considering they're both Moonstone artists, it makes sense. I wasn't a fan of the new illustration, it seemed too plain.

I think Narumi Yu's style really fluctuated during the time she did the Ten Colors art works for the magazine. I liked her illustrations at the beginning and the end (which are pictured above), but the middle was a bit shaky.

Matsuryu is another artist whose style progression is visible over a time period as short as two years. The older illustrations by this artist have a very Kouhaku Kuroboshi style in coloring and design to them. Again, I really find the caliber of illustration in the Ten Colors collection much better than what these artists often do on their own.

I think the best example of that is in Murakami Suigun's illustrations. For the most part, his art works tend to be on plain white backgrounds, without any real setting to them. Especially true if you bought his recent art book, Lily White ^^; But in for Ten Colors there is definitely a semblance of a background in all of the works, even though they don't quite reach the level of detail that some of the other artists achieved.

Another master of lace and ruffles, Morinaga Korune manages to keep on theme without ever sacrificing her signature style. It's especially amusing when it comes down to the "Swimwear Girls" theme from the Dengeki MOEOH August 2008 issue, and the girl still has a ruffled little top on over her bathing suit.

The final artist is Mitha, finishing the collection with her colorful selection of girls. If you haven't already noticed, each of the illustrations has an overall theme that was featured in each magazine issue. Girls in flowers, girls with knee socks, girls in swimwear, girls in lingerie, girls in ribbons; all of these were themes in past issues of Dengeki MOEOH. As you can see, Ten Colors ~ Juu Nin To Iro ~ really has something for everyone!

• Title: Ten Colors ~ Juu Nin To Iro ~
• タイトル: 画集Ten Colors~ジュウニントイロ
• Release Date: 02/26/2010
• Pages: 130
• Buy: Amazon Japan