So a few days ago, Blowfish posted a writeup on the Queen’s Blade Leina Battle Book. It’s a great-looking book and the best part about it is that it features Nyx, the peasant girl-turned-sorceress-turned-tentaclebait. However, that means that his site has more tentacles than mine. I’ve been running this site for over a year, I’m a big fan of tentacles, my site is even named after tentacles, but now Blowfish has more tentacles on his site than I do on mine. That’s unacceptable, it’s completely unacceptable, and I need to do something about it. So to restore balance to the universe, here we have a quick review of the artbook Mahou Shoujo Ai Illustration Collection.

Mahou Shoujo Ai – localized in the United States as Sexy Magical Girl – follows the crusade of the sullen, taciturn heroine Ai Kagano against the various slimy, lecherous baddies plaguing her city. She was first introduced in an h-game developed by colors and subsequently appeared in two anime series, Mahou Shoujo Ai and Mahou Shoujo Ai San: The Anime. Unfortunately for tentacle fans, the US licensor of the first anime seems to have no plans for releasing the fifth and final volume of the show and most of the second series isn’t as good as the first, apart from its first episode’s opening sequence, which is epic.

This artbook actually comprises three volumes, the main book which is almost entirely artwork with very little text, a second book which mostly shows off some of the CG sequences from the games, and a third book which has a few full-page pieces from different artists and then covers some of the Mahou Shoujo Ai merchandise that is available. One note: I’ve seen this book referred to as Groundwork of Ai, but the pages say “Illustration Collection,” so that’s what I’m going with.

Here’s the front cover of the main book inside the dust jacket.

I’ve said elsewhere that I’m not a big fan of flat-chested girls, but Ai is definitely an exception. She’s feisty, she’s spunky, she gets molested quite a bit, and she’s the only hentai heroine I know of who uses her teeth when she can. She’s a great character and fun to watch in the anime.

The brown-haired girl is Rin; I’m not sure if she has a last name. Actually, I don’t know much else about her at all, as she didn’t figure into the first anime series. The large-breasted magical girl is Meg, whose last name also seems to be Kagano, so I’d guess she is related to Ai.

I’m not entirely certain which artists are featured in the book. Masahiro Kuroki did the original character designs and the art here is done by Ugetsu Hakua (best known for his Burst Angel character designs), but there’s some other artwork in the book whose style I am unfamiliar with.

There we go, getting raunchier.

And getting cuter, with chibi versions of magical girls and tentacle monsters. I’ve got the feeling you won’t ever see nendoroids of these characters.

The first half of the book (about fifty pages, with some pages containing multiple illustrations) is composed of color illustrations, and it’s not actually overly explicit, although there are a few tentacle rape pictures. The second half is all sketch art, and it’s entirely explicit, as you can see here.

If I knew how to draw, I’d probably spend all my time drawing subject material not overly different from this.

The second book shows off sequences from the video games. Here’s Ai in battle …

And here’s how the bad guys celebrate after they win.

It wouldn’t be a magical girl game without the obligatory nude transformation sequence.

And it wouldn’t be a tentacle rape game without, well, tentacle rape.

Sora says, “I like it, but is it art?”

Here’s the cover to the third book. Very classy.

Some more art following the common theme here. The piece on the right was done by Takuya Inoue, who’s inspired a couple of Orchid Seed figures, perhaps most noticeably this one of Al Azif.

I kinda get a Rei and Asuka vibe from this picture on the right. Ai’s definitely more emotive when she’s angry than Rei is, though.

Some coverage of the various figures that have been produced of Ai and Rin and Meg. I always wanted that Volks X-brand figure, and I’ve seen it up on YJA a few times; maybe I ought to think about possibly putting in a bid one of these days. This book was published in 2004 so it doesn’t cover some of the more recent Mahou Shoujo Ai figures that have come out, like this one by Miyabiya, which doesn’t look all that great. Hmm … I’ve got this figure of Shiraki from Bible Black preordered, and it’s also by Miyabiya; that’s a bit concerning.

And some pictures from the anime. The first anime series is fantastic, although I’m guessing the drill and pillar sequences in the third and fourth episodes may make some people queasy, and if that doesn’t, the gore and violence in the later episodes may very well turn viewers away.

Overall, this is a very nice set of books, particularly the main volume. I very much like the emphasis on art at the expense of words, and as a fan of Ugetsu Hakua and Masahiro Kuroki as well as tentacles in general, the pictures are very pleasing to the eye. This is an older book so it may be a bit difficult to track down but I think that tentacle lovers will enjoy it.

Up to the tizzop