Book Review: 藤島康介画集『ああっ女神さまっ』1988‐2008 (Kosuke Fujishima 'Oh My Goddess!' Illustration)

I used to collect Oh My Goddess! (ああっ女神さまっ) manga mainly because of the amazing costume designs. Kosuke Fujishima (藤島 康介) knows how to draw his flowing dresses. I've since sold my manga books away so I'm really happy there's this art book for Oh My Goddess!.

This is a 190-page paperback art book. The paper is thick matte, typical top Japanese art book quality.

As the book title suggests, this is a collection of illustrations from 1988, the year Oh My Goddess! came out, to 2008. The manga is still ongoing, by the way. This book is filled with coloured illustrations, picked from the covers, chapter splash pages (with colour added) and other personal works. They are mainly watercoloured and many are full page illustrations just like the one on the cover.

Character design at the beginning was a bit rough. Facial proportions don't look particularly pleasing. It improved after 1993-94 and most of the art featured in this book are actually after those initial years — thankfully. Character style is relatively chibi throughout.

One of the main reasons to get this book is really the costume designs. The dresses are elegant and beautiful, and get better later in the series. About half of this book are on the three heroines, Urd, Belldandy, and Skuld, in their goddess-worthly dresses.

Highly recommended book for fans of Oh My Goddess! manga and those into costume designs.

This book is available at:
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This book is available at:
Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon Japan | YesAsia USA | Play-asia.com

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