Let's review!
I like:
- It's a thick PB, around 140 pages!
- It features Rena in roughly 18 different outfits/settings, which is also a lot. Nice variety.
- It doesn't follow the traditional idol PB rules. In a way it's reminiscent of Yuko's first PB which also had a very 'raw' feel.
- Some of the shots are really well done. I particularly like the black and white series and the Rena in the fishbowl ones.
- I really dig the bed/waking up scenes for personal reasons, haha. The outdoor shots near the end are the Rena I most like to see.
I don't like:
- My main complaint about this book, and it's a pretty big one, is that the vast majority of the photos are a bit out of focus or unclear. I'm not sure if they did this on purpose to make it more artistic or if it's crappy print quality. The latter would explain the relatively cheap price of 1500 yen (compared to 3K+ for most idol PBs). I've seen another PB with the same issue, but I can't recall which one it was atm.
- A lot of these shots place emphasis on some sort of sexual appeal, which at times is just ridiculous. Examples include "Rena casually eating a banana," "Rena and the bowling ball" and tons of various up-skirt and cleavage pics. There's just no need for them. I mean, there are plenty of sexy series in the book, so there's no need for this eternal innuendo in every other pic as well.
- Why so sad? The theme was Rena's daily life taken over a couple of months? Her life must suck. My favorite shoots are the ones near the end of the book where she is casual, outdoors and smiling.
- The book is about 1.5 CM wider than for example "ATSUKO" which makes it annoying to stall. Minor complaint, but it's not like they make specific use of this extra space in the book. It seems to be there to keep the poster safe.
So yeah, really mixed feelings. Epic potential, but I think they didn't make the most out of it. They tried too hard? More natural Rena, or even classy fashionable Rena, instead of going for the easy sexual appeal shots would've been nicer. Secondly, the print quality/photo quality is pretty poor imo. On the plus side, it's by no means a boring book. There's tons of variety and Rena looks great throughout the book. I can't rate it, I just can't.
Topic: [2012.03.01] Rena Matsui - 1st Solo Photobook "Kingyo" (Read 29225 times)