The fifth volume in the Girls Girls Girls! series published by Etsu (E☆2 ) just came out on June 1st, and like always it brings together another beautiful girl collection of illustrations. Girls Girls Girls!5 ~Pure Girl Collection~ features newly drawn art work by Tinkle on the cover along with several more of their illustrations inside.

In fact, the first six pages of the book are all Tinkle illustrations, though none of them are new. Tinkle has regularly been featured in the Girls Girls Girls! series of books and Etsu (E☆2 ) magazine, having also done the cover for the last volume.

After the Tinkle illustrations, there are as usual several two-page spread illustrations from the calendar images that ran from Etsu (E☆2 ) magazine volumes 14 through 18. The artists featured in this section are Ryohka, AM-DVL, Mamoru Yokota (横田守), Mikeou, Mitsui Mana, Takahito Ekusa (江草 天仁), Kouji (弘司), Misakura Nankotsu, Sakana, Shintaro, and Hinayuki Usa whose C77 Touhou doujinshi I recently reviewed. Those illustrations take up the first 31 pages of this 96-page art book.

For the most part, the rest of the illustrations are presented on single full pages, and grouped in themed sections that came from various issues of Etsu (E☆2 ) magazine. The first section of works have a theme of "Hajimete no XX (はじめてのXX)". Hirano Katsuyuki starts off the section, and artists like Luna (The Sacred Blacksmith), Tanaka Shoutaro, Hayase Akira, and refeia all have an illustration in this section.

The next theme is "Graduation", having first appeared in Etsu (E☆2 ) vol. 14. There's a lovely one by A=g, whose art work I seldom see outside of Etsu. Refeia's second illustration is in this section, featuring a group of school girls with swords mourning a classmate who didn't make it until the graduation. Seems like a dark one for Etsu ^^; Siro, Nacht, and Maruchan appear in this section along with other artists for a total of 10 illustrations.

The third theme is First Love (初恋) with a total of 15 illustrations. There are a few girls with love letters, and others falling in love with their teachers and the like. This section starts out with art by Izumi Sakurazawa, with Miyama Zero, Fuyuno Haruaki, Kamiya Maneki, Hinayuki Usa, Minase Lin, and Miwa Yoshikazu all contributing an illustration. I was surprised how many of these illustrations I hadn't seen, coming from such popular artists.

The last section, which goes straight to the end of the book---there isn't an index---features "Girls by the Water" which gets interpreted many different ways in the 23 illustrations in this section. Hato Rami contributes three art works in this section, one of which is a two-page spread. Kobuichi, Fuyuno Haruaki, dak, Kaya Kuramoto, Kamiya Maneki, Nacht, Tokumi Yuiko, and Sakana are just a sampling of the other artists in this section.

Overall, Girls Girls Girls!5 ~Pure Girl Collection~ has proven to be a good purchase once again, with many illustrations that I haven't seen before because they're from older issues of Etsu. I've kept up with the newer magazines, so future Girls Girls Girls art books may prove less interesting, but for now I'm happy with it. Add to that a lack of repeat illustrations from previous volumes along with a full color presentation all the way through and Girls Girls Girls!5 is looking better than ever ^^

• Title: Girls Girls Girls!5 ~Pure Girl Collection~
• タイトル: ガールズ ガールズ ガールズ!5
• Pages: 96
• Release date: 06/01/2010
• Buy: Amazon Japan