Chiho Saitoâs 1999 Revolutionary Girl Utena Original Illustration Collection
ITâS HERE. ITâS DONE. ITâS FINISHED. NOWâŚITâS YOURS. Happy Holidays, my friends.
Vanna here! I have posted some already about this project, and the responses I got, public and otherwise, have been absolutely incredible. Yâall have been reblogging and hyping this before it even finishedâŚI havenât felt so encouraged about an Utena project since the musicals! (Yes, streams soon, I promise.) You can read the other post to get more details, and catch my post here with more details about the process if youâre interested. The long and short of it?
This is the first artbook I ever scanned. I did it in 2001. In Photoshop, using multiple scans per page that took hours to process. But it was 2001. A half megabyte file that was 1250px wide was considered extremely hardcore and impressive. Thatâs just always been the business Iâm in when it comes to Utena art, you know?Â
Itâs now the latest artbook Iâve scanned, and so much of the process, and effort involved, is unchanged. What has changed, is the result. Welcome to your new desktop background. Your new phone background. Your new poster print.Â
What Iâve done here is attempt to create definitive digitized images of Chiho Saitoâs work as offered by this book--I have removed the print moirĂŠ of the original scans, and used my literal decades of experience to try and tease out as much information from them as possible. Without being physically in front of the original artwork (which is a thing Iâve had the great fortune to get to do) this is The Most Chiho Saito you are ever going to get. Iâve tried my best to make sure there is a way to get it that works for everyone:
Do you just wanna scope 'em out? Look at some disaster gays? Grab your favorite one or two? This is the path for you! Check out the âcompressedâ (not very) 10k âweb friendlyâ (not really) copy at the Bibliothèque, the media archiving wing of the Something Eternal forums at Empty Movement*. All the following links are also available from here. Do you want these copies? All of them? Don't just grab them individually, friend. This batch is 375MB and can be downloaded as a zip of the individual files here on our Google Drive.
Do you like digital archiving? Are you looking for a copy that preserves the archival quality of the effort but sits nice and comfy in a single file? This is for you. A minimally compressed 10k, 513MB version worked into a PDF is now up, shiny and chrome, on the Internet Archive. Do you like the idea of the minimal compression, but want the individual files in a zip? Yep I did that too, here's the drive link.
Are you looking to print these in a larger size? This is probably the only reason on Earth youâd ever want them, and yet a bunch of you are going to go straight for these. Here are the zero-compression JPG full size copies, most of them are 15k across, like simply a ridiculous size. Pick your fave and download it from our Google Drive!Â
I am genuinely really proud of this work.** I was able to tease out so much new detail from theseâŚher incredible layering techniques, the faintest brush of her highlights, and the full range of her delicate hand at whites and blacks⌠details commonly lost in digitization. I sincerely hope you find something here that youâre looking for, as an artist looking for inspiration, as a weeb looking for a desktop, as an archiver excited to see incredible 90s manga artwork saved forever in the digital realm. I feel like I have already said so much about them, and could keep going, but you know what? This work speaks for itself. Enjoy, use, explore, and definitely tell us what you think!
We love yâall. ~ Vanna & Yasha
