Still cold, still miserable, I hate this season. Why can’t it be fall forever? ;–; New semester in uni too, got a couple of courses that will likely kick my ass. No matter, the reviews will keep flowing!
Aaand, to wrap up the month, also being the single post of this month, a double feature! It’s two artbooks so, since there is not as much to comment, I figured I could get two excellent purchases out of the way. We’re talking about two artists who, if you stroll around the japanese Twitter-sphere or PIXIV, you probably already encountered: Mocha and わいっしゅ. They’re both very well known for their work as background artists, professional and dōjin, and a fixture in PIXIV’s most viewed. Mocha also had, recently a solo exhibit.
But let’s take it one step at a time. 廃墟探求 (“Exploring Ruins”) is a 36 pages, full color artbook from 2019 by Mocha, whose only real flaw is the panoramic, rectangual format I hate so much because it makes fitting the dōjinshi on my shelf an absolute pain :S aside from that, what we have in our hands is an excellent, professional-grade publication that fully displays Mocha’s penchant for beautiful, msyterious landscapes firmly rooted in ‘realism’ (to a degree, of course), colored by that touch of nostalgic whimsy that would make this work a perfect fit for the next Shinkai flick’s backgrounds. There are, surprisingly, remarkably few ruins depicted: instead, there is a whole lot of rural japanese countryside, from forlorn stations to endlessly stretching country roads — occasionally dotted by schoolgirls, or families out for a walk. There is definitely a nostalgic feel to it: one could believe they’re watching cel art from a slice of life anime.
Like a sibling, similar but entirely different, stands Yyish‘s background work: they are a professional (and a certified instructor) in the field of computer graphics, and it shows; while their art is still unmistakably bakground art, the spirit and attitude by which the matter is approached couldn’t be more different. Artworks 14 (from 2023) is a slightly slimmer affair than Mocha’s, though still full color, consisting entirely of full page spreads of largely fantasy background artwork, rendered with a precision and detail that leaves one speechless: there is no painterly intention, only the painstaking rendering of art that could well befit a high quality JRPG. The level of detail is, frankly, astounding. One other difference to note is that, unlike Mocha, わいっしゅcompletely banishes the human figure from the setting: the architecture, its lights and shadows, stand on their own as the true protagonists of the scene depicted.
While I have no conclusive proof, it seems to me that CG and 3D play a much larger part in Yyish’s work compared to Mocha’s: nothing wrong with that, they are different ways to approach background art, both valid and, as we can see from the results, both equally successful. What one likes more is entirely a matter of taste: personally, I appreciate Mocha’s nostalgic spirit, as much as I appreciate Yyish’s painstaking rendering of light and matter.
So take your pick – for me, I’ll go for both 😛
