Review by Joy

The new Sailor Moon Raisonne artbook produced directly by Takeuchi Naoko is well-made and lovely, if a bit small. The paper stock, cover and wraparound are all made of thick, durable material with some sparkly metallic finish. The quality of the art itself is somewhat variable because at least half of the book contains resized, recolored artwork reproduced from seven (7!!!) previous artbooks with much larger dimensions by the creator/mangaka, whose career spans from 1991 to present. That said, the inclusion of never-released material and cover art, dated 2023, more than makes up for it. I know some people want the deluxe version with the holographic wraparound cover that is exclusive to Sailor Moon Fan Club members, but the only new things it has are the holographic cover and a protective case; the basic artbook itself more than holds up. Note that the artbook text is in Japanese, but you don't really need to understand it because the images are so pretty, colorful, and mostly self-explanatory. It came double-wrapped courtesy of CDJapan: the first plastic film wrap was from the publisher, the second bubble wrap from CDJapan itself. I really appreciate the extra protection for an artbook with a limited print run. I was also pleasantly surprised to receive this a week early, along with the Persona 5 artbooks I ordered at the same time. Thank you for sending this and my other artbooks safely, CDJapan!

Firstly, I was very surprised this particular artbook was still available, because it was a 2016 release and it's highly coveted among fellow fans of Persona 5. However, when I saw they were doing a pre-order for another artbook that was released in May 2024 (more on that on another review), I decided I could no longer pass this up. I warn you that it's still pricy, but no more than other third-party shops are. I do think I was able to avail of this and three others via an ongoing promotion (possibly a birthday thing because my birthday was in March and I ordered this in April). That said, it's also a whopping 512 pages of full colour, and even if I don't read Japanese as well as I used to I can still appreciate it as a treasure trove for videogame design and production work. Now, I have to give major kudos to CDJapan. They figured out I would rather get this and my other artbooks in one delivery box, so even if the original order form said these would ship at an earlier date from the pre-order book's availability, they chose to pack them all in very carefully together in one box since it seemed the pre-order release came out a week early. And when I say carefully, each artbook was enclosed in bubble wrap, which was a godsend since only the pre-order book had its own separate wrapping; it was also slightly hilarious because the pre-order book also had a second layer of bubble wrap! So all the books came clean and pristine, with no damage whatsoever. I'm also glad that they came a week earlier than expected. I was always a bit wary of third-party stores selling merchandise from Japan, but this experience has proven completely worth it. I'm hoping some of the other artbooks I'm looking for are available again so that I can keep ordering from them!

Firstly, I was very surprised this particular artbook was still available, because it was a 2018 release, and while the animated spin-off is seen as inferior to the Official Setting Art Book for the original Persona 5 videogame, it's still coveted among fellow fans of the videogame series. However, when I saw they were doing a pre-order for another artbook that was released in May 2024 (more on that on another review), I decided I could no longer pass this up. I must warn you that it's still pricy, but no more than other third-party shops are. I do think I was able to avail of this and three others via an ongoing promotion (possibly a birthday thing because my birthday was in March and I ordered this in April). Now, I have to give major kudos to CDJapan. They figured out I would rather get this and my other artbooks in one delivery box, so even if the original order form said these would ship at an earlier date from the pre-order book's availability, they chose to pack them all in very carefully together in one box since it seemed the pre-order release came out a week early. And when I say carefully, each artbook was enclosed in bubble wrap, which was a godsend since only the pre-order book had its own separate wrapping; it was also slightly hilarious because the pre-order book also had a second layer of bubble wrap! So all the books came clean and pristine, with no damage whatsoever. I'm also glad that they came a week earlier than expected. I was always a bit wary of third-party stores selling merchandise from Japan, but this experience has proven completely worth it. I'm hoping some of the other artbooks I'm looking for are available again so that I can keep ordering from them!

Firstly, I was very surprised this particular Persona 5 artbook was still available, because it was a popular 2019 release and it is still highly desired among fans of the videogame series particularly because P5R/Persona 5 Royal has so many quality-of-life improvements and additional story/gameplay elements. When I saw CDJapan was doing a pre-order for another, non-Persona artbook that was released in May 2024 (more on that on another review), I decided I could no longer pass this up. I must warn you that it's still pricy, but no more than other third-party shops are. I do think I was able to avail of this and three others via an ongoing promotion (possibly a birthday thing because my birthday was in March and I ordered this in April). CDJapan deserves major kudos because they figured out I would rather get this and my other Persona 5 artbook orders in one delivery box. What ultimately happened was that despite the original order form saying these 3 artbooks would ship at an earlier separate date from the pre-order book's availability, they chose to pack them all in very carefully together in one box since it seemed the pre-order release came out a week early. And when I say carefully, each artbook was enclosed in bubble wrap, which was a godsend since only the pre-order book had its own separate wrapping; it was also slightly hilarious because the pre-order book also had a second layer of bubble wrap! So all the books came clean and pristine, with no damage whatsoever. I'm also glad that they came a week earlier than expected. I was always a bit wary of third-party stores selling merchandise from Japan, but this experience has proven completely worth it. I'm hoping some of the other artbooks I'm looking for are available again so that I can keep ordering from them!