Colorful Dreams Artbook

I’ve never read the Monogatari series but I’ve always been drawn to the beautiful art VOFAN features on each cover. I had no idea what to expect when I picked this up, so I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the book without being familiar with such a huge series. Luckily, this artbook is separate from the Monogatari series and you can enjoy all the pretty pictures without feeling out of the loop.

I’m a sucker for good design and art, so I latched onto this artbook the moment I saw it up for pre-order. If I had some extra time when I was scrolling through our website, I’d click on this artbook and check out the details. The colors were vivid and unique, the composition was interesting, and the sense of whimsy made me so excited to see what else VOFAN had in store.

The illustrations in the book are different stylistically, but the heart is still there. Each piece is a little softer with fewer fine details, but I was able to get used to it. There’s also a fair amount of photography sprinkled throughout these pages, which was a nice surprise.

With this being an artbook, I was expecting mostly illustrations or sketches with the occasional paragraph or caption. What Colorful Dreams actually offers is 14 unique short stories inspired by dreams and moments in VOFAN’s past. These little vignettes follow a similar format but feature an interesting mix of stories that feel grounded in reality while still feeling like fleeting memories. If you want to learn even more about the artist, there’s an interview featured in the back of the book.

There are a lot of things about this book that I like, but I’m feeling a little nitpicky. I’m sure this won’t be an issue for most people, but there were some unusual type choices that took me out of the moment. I feel weird bringing up something 90% of readers won’t care about, but this artbook does so many things well that those less than stellar moments really stood out. Those design choices are few and far between, and a lot of the other spreads look great, so I’ll end my complaints here.

Digital illustration has always seemed daunting to me, but VOFAN’s art appears effortless. I’m glad that I was able to pick up a copy because I’m sure I’ll use it for inspiration in the future.