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KYMG Yusuke Kozaki Illustrations

November 28th, 2009, 8:06PM by nat | 9 comments

The Smoking Gun

Kozaki Yusuke's name has recently been all abuzz in the Vocaloid scene with his design for the newest Vocaloid character, SF-A2 Miki. But he's also the guy behind anime, manga and video game character designs from Speed Grapher, No More Heroes, Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, and Karasuma Kyouko no Jikenbo. And his collection, KYMG Yusuke Kozaki Illustrations makes sure to dip into all that and more.

KYMG Cover Title page

Under the slip-cover of this book, there's a white-on-black sketch of the cover illustration, which looks really cool. It just has that "chalkboard" look that immediately makes any line art look more interesting :P

Karasuma Kyouko no Jikenbo Karasuma Kyouko no Jikenbo

Biting the Bullet Crawling with a Gun

The first series covered in KYMG is Karasuma Kyouko no Jikenbo, a detective story set in future Tokyo, with the sixteen year old lead Kyouko as the special division case solver. The art work for the series focuses mostly on Kyouko, and the pictures are all dynamic and gorgeous. Though I haven't read the series, it looks like it should be amazing. But you know how that goes :P

Detectives on the Mountain Top Gun Blades + Blood

White Sheets and a GunHair on the LeavesPunk Stripes

There are about 32 illustrations on 30 pages in the Karasuma Kyouko no Jikenbo the majority of which are color, but there are three pages done in the comic-ink style that Kozaki Yusuke often uses. Most of the illustrations are displayed on a full page, with a couple images getting half-pages.

Speed Grapher

The next section is Speed Grapher, which displays many of the same illustrations that were in an earlier Kozaki Yusuke art book, Shutter Kill. Shutter Kill however, focuses only on Speed Grapher, so many of the images that are in this book in half and quarter pages, get full pages in the Shutter Kill art book.

Speed Grapher ElectromanKagura Speed GrapherKagura Speed Grapher

Kagura + SaigaSpeed Grapher GroupsDiamonds and Dentists

If your only interest in KYMG is the Speed Grapher illustrations, I would definitely recommend getting Shutter Kill instead, as it has character sketches, larger illustrations and a better paper texture.

Speed Grapher Blue Skies

That's one thing I didn't like much about this book. A lot of Kozaki Yusuke's illustrations are dark, and use dark colors, but the paper used for the book is visibly textured which has a bit of a downside. On the one hand, this means that the print DPI can be higher and you can't make out the dots with your naked eye without really trying.

DiebusterGiant Red Devilbakumatsu kikansetsu irohanihoheto

bakumatsu kikansetsu irohanihohetoirohanihohetobakumatsu kikansetsu irohanihoheto

The bad side is that dark colors don't really standout and to your eyes, they appear to blend together. So black outlines or clothing details on a dark gray coat, or a gun become kind of invisible at certain angles. I think it's most noticeable in some of the Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto because of the main character's dark clothing.

Gundam Wrong Tempo

Wrong Girl Rei Ayanami

Love that Rei Ayanami illustration. I never get tired of seeing so many different artists drawn the characters of Evangelion. That one specifically was a Gainax Top Page image at one point. The cover illustration pictured above is original for KYMG.

Green Haired FighterNo SmokingFantasy Fighters

Black and White PiratesThe MobSkull Panties

The Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto section has about 15 illustrations, and several are from the DVD covers. The book also has a few more non-series sections, titled things like "Attacks Mellows" and "[KYMG] Classics 1999" which are several of the art works that graced Kozaki Yusuke's website and other original illustrations. Oddly, some of the images printed in the "Classics" section have been up-scaled, which looks really bad when printed. But it's just a couple of black and white ones, and for the most part the illustrations are well done like the ones above.

No More HeroesUnconventional WeaponsBloody Mess

Sparkling VilliansBatter Up!Kozaki Yusuke's Pets

The last illustration section is "No More Heroes" which contains about 24 illustrations of the characters from the video game. I've haven't played it yet, but the main complaint I keep reading is that it's too short. But I guess that also means it's good enough to want more of it, so that's a plus. The designs really have a lot of range and are really creative, even for the male designs.

Kozaki Yusuke's Pets KYMG Index

You'd be surprised how many artists have pet pictures in their art books ^^; KYMG Yusuke Kozaki Illustrations is a top-notch 125 page art book. And as with most art books, it had a limited print run so it can be hard to find, but it does show up occasionally on Amazon Japan for a direct purchase ^^


  • Title: KYMG Yusuke Kozaki Illustrations
  • タイトル: KYMG—コザキユースケ画集
  • Release Date: 05/2008
  • Pages: 125
  • Buy: Amazon Japan, eBay
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Anonymous

14 years, 3 months ago

 

nice, very nice colors

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bloore

14 years, 3 months ago

 

Seems promising, the two page illustrations specifically, and that Rei. Nice artbook but, will you scan it?

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MrDisco

14 years, 3 months ago

 

shoot amazon.jp is sold out :|

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Anonymous

14 years, 3 months ago

 

I feel your pain brother

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nat

14 years, 3 months ago

 

It came out May 2008, so it's been a while. Akadot looks like it has it in stock though: http://www.akadot.com/yusuke-kozaki-illustrations-kymg-p-25223.html And it's worth looking for on e-bay and the like, as it's probably cheaper than using Japan auctions. It goes for a lot over there.

edit: It's out of stock on Akadot now, looks like someone grabbed it :3

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MrDisco

14 years, 3 months ago

 

ok this is rather sad. i put an order at HLJ, though they're on backorder and chances are will cancel orders. a copy i was watching on amazon.jp got sold, while akadot's shipping charges are quite high. i found a copy on ebay and almost hit the buy it now button but got distracted. a little bit later i checked my spreadsheet and it turns out i already have this book (somewhere!). phew that would have been an expensive mistake.

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nat

14 years, 3 months ago

 

Lol! I laugh, but I can't pretend I haven't done that before too XD That's awesome that every time you tried to buy it, you couldn't quite get it. Looks like your subconscious knew the truth and intervened ;D

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booshdy

14 years, 1 month ago

 

This book was extremely hard to find, even ebay let me down! luckily I found it at www.archonia.com and it arrived yesterday. Good luck finding it guys, worth every penny.

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Lonigus

13 years, 10 months ago

 

Waiting for mine like few weeks already from HLJ ...