TokyoCentral has been restocking a number of Murata's doujinshi and items [plus a couple Tsukasa goodies] over the past week or so, including a number of fairly uncommon stuff. Most of it is gone by now, but a few items are left.

Anyway, a couple of the highlights: TEMPAO - Reverse Edition is a very uncommon book [that I never knew about until seeing it listed for sale] released in 1993 that has a pretty funny misprint-related backstory, and Pasta's Estab. 10th Anniversary Bibliography is an incredibly useful item that catalogs every single Murata release from 1992 to 2002. I managed to snag one of these, so expect to see better pictures here whenever it arrives. This item will also bring to light any other Murata products that we may have looked over, so I'm very anxious to see what kind of information it contains.

Range Murata has been announced as a guest for Katsucon 11. The convention will take place February 18-20, 2005 in Arlington, Virginia.

Character Design Bible Vol. 5 is out now.

Tsukasa Jun has updated his journal with information on upcoming items that will feature his work. First, Tsukasa will be providing the cover illustration for the PC version of Taisen Hot Gimmick 4ever, as well as art for two preorder-bonus telephone cards. Next, Tsukasa reveals that he'll be providing the as-yet-unannounced Playstation2 version of Hot Gimmick 2 new scenes involving series-newcomer Yuka Yamabuki. Finally, the retailer-dependent preorder bonuses for X-nauts' Sengoku Ace & Sengoku Blade compilation will include three telecards with new art by Tsukasa. He notes that while it's been a long time since he originally drew these characters (Koyori, Yunis, and Kaen) and his style may have changed, he really enjoyed drawing them again.

Character Design Bible Vol. 5 is due out in another week or so from Graphic-Sha and will feature an article on "How to Draw Like Tsukasa Bullet." The book will be A4 size, 172pp, and cost ¥1600.

You can order the book from TokyoCentral / Amazon Japan / akadotRetail