It is quite amazing the quantity of fanart in the web of almost any subject. The oldest contact I had (besides my own sketches) back when I was a kid were probably the drawings people would send to videogame magazines like Electronic Gaming Monthly. Usually not very sophisticated, it was rare to see something published on the pages that could actually impress me. Nowadays you can find trillions of images in the internet. The ratio of good to bad illustrations on the web seems to have remained the same as back then on EGM, but now it is easier to find something that can actually astonish me.

Idolm@ster illustration based on a scene from the Kare Kano opening. The mischievous twins Ami and Mami Futami on the front and the cheerful Haruka Amami on the back.

I’m surprised I still remember the basic commands of Adobe Illustrator. It’s odd that whenever I draw, I keep thinking of what my friend Daniel would complain about. He always grumbled that halfway through my works, I would always get lazy and want to conclude things haphazardly.

Something probably many don’t remember is that the Sega Master System appeared in the show. Below are some screenshots of J.J. playing it on the 30th (next-to-last) episode.

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Last edited on December 2011 (Japan Media Arts Festival 2011).

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C – Control – The Money and Soul of Possibility has an extremely cool logo. The dirty and disorganized look suit really well this show about people battling each other with money on a strange realm called Financial District. Despite the unclean look, the logo is made of shining squares. That adds the idea of something modern. Bits and data. Besides the logo, another thing I really like are the scenes where the characters of the other realm speak to the protagonist. Part of the screen is covered by black rectangles. As these characters speak with a modulated voice, a transcript of what they are saying appears on white text. Like this.

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai (あの日見た花の名前を僕達はまだ知らない。) translates to We Still do not Know the Name of the Flower we Saw that Day. What a challenge to make the logo of such a long title. Problem solved with a simple solution: build it like it was written on piece of paper. I love the font utilized here. The missing and excessive ink in the details of each character is gorgeous. Evokes the idea of something delicate, unique, and handcrafted. Two thin strokes wrap the structure and cleverly add movement. The idea matches perfectly with the show. The story revolves around a group of friends who drifted apart after the death of one of them. The girl who died returns as a ghost a few years later and the old friends will need to reunite to grant her forgotten wish.

The logo above comes from Moshidora (もしどら), a baseball show about a girl who uses Peter Drucker’s Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices to administer the team. Great utilization of the squares. It instantly reminds me of the baseball field and the bases. The arrangement and the color make it light and ebullient. The arrow surrounding the hiragana も nicely brings the idea of organization and direction. Below the logo, it is written もし高校野球の女子マネージャーがドラッカーの『マネジメント』を読んだら which translates to What If a Female Student Manager of a High School Baseball Team Reads Drucker’s “Management. Moshidora is a bit easier to enunciate.

Nichijou (日常) has a very simple logo. And that is part of the joke. The title translates to Everyday, sort of transmitting the idea of ordinary, commonplace. The show is the exact opposite. It’s a comedy that depicts the frantic life of some students and a young inventor who built a robot-girl to take care of her. Below is the fun logo of the show within the show called Helvetica Standard.

From Bakuman, Kaya Miyoshi holding a movie ticket:

Billboard from Gauche the Cellist:

From Fruits Basket, below is a Mogeta film poster found in Saki Hanasaki’s room: