Artbook Tuesdays: Shiho Enta

Hello everyone \(^v^)/

As you may or may not know, with AN swiftly approaching, I've been stressing like crazy over reviewing the staff manual and procedures for those of us who man the registration table during the con, fighting with my cosplay line up, and preparing all my stuff for the nomi. Needless to say, I'm frazzled and sleep deprived. Not to mention I strained my hamstring last week, so I've been forcibly prevented from going on my daily run... It wouldn't do to not be able to walk after all ^^;

Naturally, with all this stuff going on I didn't even notice that a whole week has passed since my last post Σ(ﾟﾛﾟ;) so today while nursing my insomnia and celebrating over my completed cosplays, I decided to start up another cheesy weekly/biweekly post from my collection. This time for artbooks! And it just so happens that I received this gorgeous artbook by Shiho Enta in the mail towards the end of last week.

Shiho Enta is a Japanese illustrator who has designed many book covers. One that many of you might recognize is the haunting cover design of Yukito Ayatsuji's Another. If you haven't read this yet, I encourage everyone to give it a chance. Yen Press released a hardcover translation of the complete story in October of last year.

I find it somewhat difficult to articulate the nature of Enta's style as I instinctively tend towards describing it as being smooth with a soft palette, however her palette is not limited to peach and pink hues. In fact, she has expressed her preference to using darker colors. Still, it is the contrast between the inky blackness or vivid ginger and vermilion against the ethereally pale yet life blushed skin of her subjects that intrigues me.

Another unmistakable feature of her work are the eyes of her subjects. Enta claims that her aim is to create pictures which will enrapture the viewer - that they just won't want to stop looking at. Especially pertaining to cover illustrations, she wants their eyes to meet our eyes no matter where we're looking from - to make us stop and stare. She aims to create covers which one can only fully grasp after having read the book they adorn. You can be the judge whether she's succeeded in her goal. I personally think that she does, and the cover for Another, took on new depths of meaning for me after having completed it.

If I had only one word to describe the nature of Enta's art, it would be "sensual," as her pieces arouse and stir the soul. A delicate, innocent sort of sensual that sounds like a summer breeze and smells like floated camellias. A haunting sort of sensual, filled with transient phantasms.

I adore Enta's work and am ecstatic to say that this book, collecting some of her most notable works from 2005 -2014, is now a part of my collection. I look forward to her future work, particularly hunting down all her illustrations that accompanied the serialization of Tow Ubukata's novel, Hana to Yume, which depicts the culture and atmosphere of the imperial court during the Heian period and in the life of Sei Shonagon.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed my first artbook post! Check back soon, for more of my collection, and final updates on Nomi sales for this years' Anime North.