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My copy of the 24th issue of Keiji Gotoh's Gocky Club doujin released at Comiket 76 arrived today, complete with her ecchiness Ruri-Ruri on the cover, a Panchira shot of Eclair and some Kiddy GiRL-and artwork.

Details contents for the calendar is:

• Bakuretsu Hunter (Jan/Feb)


• Gatekeepers 21 (March/April


• Hyper police (May/June)


• Utakata (July/August)


• Gigantic Formula (September/October)


• Kiddy Grade (November/December

I didn't think Gotoh was releasing anything this Comike, but a sudden update to the Gocky Club site reveals he will be selling a calendar. Other than that, all I know is that it includes at least one image of Ruri.

In other news, it appears that KCO has decided to stop updating the Gotokei fansite, which is a big shame as it was one of my primary sources of information, particularily regarding stuff like Gotoh's work schedule, magazine artwork and under-the-radar stuff like the Gigantic Formula artbook.

My copy of Gokikura 22 arrived via SMJ the other day and I finally have time to throw an entry together about it. This is, to my knowledge, the second full colour volume but it is no Gocky Colour 02 - the title is Gokikura Compilation (soushuuhen) and that is essentially what it is - most of the art inside is reproductions of the covers of the preceeding 21 volumes and some other colour art. It is a lot thicker than Gocky Colour 01 (Gokikura 14, Summer 2004), but then there's not that much in the way of new artwork inside.
I have taken a few sample photo's which you can see here (I also got the plastic bag and the midget dakimakura), but I would of course urge you to obtain your own copy if you are a fan of Gotoh's work. I'm also hoping someone can provide a translation of the text on the Kiddy Grade pages and save me a lot of hassle with the IME pad and Excite's translator. One of the Uta Kata covers I didn't initially recognise - I thought at first there was a volume I'd missed, but it is simply that the image looks so much better when it is printed on white paper rather than the orange card used for the cover of volume 16.
There is still no return of the guest artist section, something that has been missing since volume 13, and while I can't read much of the text one thing I did notice was a shoutout to KCO, who runs the Gotokei fansite.

The Gocky Club site has been updated. As well as a new top image (the old top image has been archived to a new gallery page) the products page has been updated to indicate that the Gocky Colour 2 book I reported previously has been postponed, so volume 22 is instead going to be a regular issue. Cover art (under the cut) is of Kamishiro Mana and Amano Utsumi from Gigantic Formula, although there is no information on what the content will be.

Gotoh's blog also has a new entry for the first time in ages, the best I can make out by babelfishing is that he's working on something new but cannot say what it is. Kiddy Grade 2 would be nice please..

A piece of news that I would have posted back when it broke were the site not also broke at the time, is that along with the Gocky Club 22 there is also going to be a Gotoh illustrated dakimakura (body/hugging pillow, link somewhat NSFW) cover on sale at the Summer Comiket (Comike 74 in August) featuring Akasaka Mitsuki, a character from the game Double Cast for which he was the character designer. I have not use for it, but I'll probably end up getting one anyway when I'm sourcing the doujin from Yahoo Auctions (hopefully from the same seller to save postage).

--edit--

And if I'd just waited a day.. the Gocky Club site has been updated again with more information and larger pics (now even more NSFW). There look to be two different versions; the one on sale at the comiket is 9cm × 24cm (price to be determined) and the other one, priced 16800 yen, is 50cm × 160cm and has blood which the other one doesn't, but I'm not sure how it is to be made available.

I wasn't initially going to make an entry for this, but I figured what the heck.
Gotoh's last blog entry mentions that he's doing new illustrations for both NewType and Animage, (probably) for the volumes due out in June - I believe that is the July edition in both cases. That's about all I can make out and I don't know what series (if any) they are for (if anyone bothers reading this and happens to also be able to translate feel free to comment..)
It would be nice if they were illustrations for KG2 (indicating that it is still in the pipeline), but they may be for the original Kiddy Grade (what with the recent TV showing and DVD re-releases) or even something else altogether.

--edit June 13th--
As it turns out, something else.
Newtype: Kurenai article - page 1, page 2
Animage: Macross Frontier - page 1, page 2

The Gocky Club site has had a bit of a redesign. The only new thing, except maybe a couple of new banners, is that Gokikura 22 will be out in August 2008 (At comiket 74 in other words). The (provisional) title is Gocky Colour 02, which means it will likely be full colour again like Gokikura 14 (aka Gocky Colour 01). I've never actually scanned the cover of that one (it is on Minitokyo and has Eclair on the front, Lumiere on the back and "keep out!" tape) but I do have a scan of Manatsu from the inside cover.
In other news, they are showing re-runs of Kiddy Grade on AT-X starting on the 28th of April.

Just thought, having just turned up some valid comments from months ago that were lost in this blogs junk filter, I'd point our that all comments on this blog are moderated and may well not appear, if ever, or be replied to quickly since, due to the volume of spam comments, I have the filters turned all the way up and it takes hours either paging through deleting junk manually or running custom SQL queries to sieve out the valid comments (ironically, the only comments that make it through the junk filter are usually junk..)
For general comments or queries I would recomment visiting the forums rather than relying on comments.

In other news, Gotoh has put a now top image up on his site for the first time in over a year.

The Gocky Club site has been updated. There's no real content as yet, but there is confirmation that the circle will return at Comiket 73 in December. Here's hoping for some Kiddy Grade 2 art and some more non-kamichu'd Gigantic Formula art.

I've just noticed a link on gotokei.com to a new Gocky Club site that is apparently "coming soon". Whether it is a replacement for the old site or another fan site like gotokei.com itself I'm not sure, but Kano certainly seems to be involved since the banner on her site has artwork that is not on the site itself and both domains appear to be using the same registrar and host.
[edit]Just realised - it is listed in the official section of the links page, so it apparently will be an official site of some description then.

My copies of Gocky Club vols. 19 and 20 arrived today from SMJ.

Volume 19, "Groundwork of Variety", features random pieces of conte from series that Gotoh has worked on, including Blood+, School Rumble 2, Nana, Aria etc. Also included is a fold-out colour poster of Éclair (2nd TV version) and B+W sketches of Éclair (1st TV version), Cocoon, and Ucchii. There's a page with a block of text that mentions K-G.2 (as 『キヂィ２』), Gigantic Formula and Gemini Knives, along with an illustration I've not identified yet. The final section has a bunch of settei, that look like Gotoh original designs, under the titles 『ラビィ☆ディテクティブ』 (Rabbie Detective, a game I believe) and 『いきなり はっぴぃベル』 ("Ikinari: Happy Bell", definitely a game; cannot get the makers site, Terios, up at the moment but it's on gamefaqs.)

Volume 20, "Shadow Case Design Works", has rough versions of a number of Gotoh's illustrations, many of which were in Kinetic Girls.

I hope to have a few scans, from volume 19 in particular, up online soon.

Update:
Got one image up. Took a long time to get it to stick cleanly (I can never get two half of an image to scan at exactly the same angle and it takes forever to line them up properly, at least with Photoshop Elements). Not finished touching it up yet as fold lines are something else I'm not very good at fixing. You're also going to have to live with that blurry bit near the spine as I'm not going to flatten the book any more than I already have without a backup copy.
http://www.kiddygrade.info/scans/gokikura/index.php?image=gokikura19_poster.jpg

Now got that B&W drawing of Cocoon:
http://anime.thenexxus.org/gemini_knives/scans/gocky/index.php?image=gokikura19_pg03.jpg

From the latest update on gotokei.com it would appear that the Gocky Club doujin being released at Comiket 71 on the 29th December will have art from Gemini Knives. It would also appear a second novel is on the way, although there is no information given and it is not yet listed on Amazon.

It's been quiet on the Gotoh front, nothing tangible since the Gemini Knives book - no posters in Megami for example - and no updates to his site for ages, but he's suddenly added a new top image (of Yurika) and set up a new blog.

Can't actually read any of it on my current machine (not that my Japanese is great anyway..) but from that Nifty says it looks to be mostly talking about his his diet is going... There was mention on the Gotokei fansite of a sequel to Gemini Knives or something though.