Magazines and Photobooks - Recommendations and Reviews

[sweetwater]

On 6/17/2020 at 1:16 PM, Maggie13579 said:

Hi Guys, this is my first time purchasing Yuzu photobook!

I have noticed that there are 3 photobooks for 2019-2020 season.

I have been eyeing on Yuzu ll be back. 

Do you think this is a good choice? 

Thanks so much in advance!

I saw the last one of the three books today. Here is my quick review:

 

Ice Jewels photo book by Nobuaki Tanaka
Fantasy on Ice occupies 25-30 percent of the whole pages. It also has a compilation of results in the 2019-2020 season and a hand-written message from Yuzu.
It was really nice to be able to look back at FaOI2019 now since we don't have it this year... and his hand-written message was very sincere and touching. As to the photos, I have a slight beef with Tanaka san. Not sure why, but Yuzu in his photos sometimes looks a bit flatter than he actually is. I wonder if Tanaka san is erasing the slight shades and small wrinkles on Yuzu's face or it is the lighting or the quality of the print. Maybe we are seeing Yuzu very differently since a photo reflects the photographer's point of view as much as a painting reflects the painter's.

 

Hochi photo book by Toru Yaguchi
It is huge, heavy, and square. Consists of photos taken at the competitions in which Yuzu competed in the 2019-2020 season. The quality of the print is definitely the best among the three. I felt as if I was watching Yuzu with Yaguchi san through the finder. As the pages are square and most of the photos are rectangular, there are blank white or black spaces on many pages, and that enables you to immerse in each photo. On several pages, you'll find the text by Megumi Takagi looking back at the last season originally published on hochi website.
https://hochi.news/articles/20200406-OHT1T50170.html

 

Yuzu'll be back II (Sponichi photo book) by Yoshiki Kokaito and Yutaka Nagakubo
Slightly thicker than IJ photo book. Consists of photos taken at the competitions in which Yuzu competed in the 2019-2020 season. It also contains transcriptions of the long interviews given after each competition. Of course, the focus is on Yuzu, but they wanted to show the connection between him and his coaches, ex-teammates, other skaters, and fans. So, you will find many smiley Yuzu, and some of you may find yourself in the photo of Yuzu throwing the koala. As Yuzu revisited many old programs in the last season, they sometimes put an old photo of Yuzu wearing the same costume or skating the same program next to a photo from 2019-2020.

 

My favorite is probably Hochi's. It reminds me of what I felt in this season (except FaOI) most strongly. If you want to see Yuzu showing all kinds of emotions in shows, you should buy the Ice Jewels photo book. If you have a weak spot for Haru yo koi, Notte Stellata, Ghislain, and Javi, you may like Yuzu'll be back II the most.
 

ETA: My explanation of Hochi might be a bit confusing. It doesn't have many completely blank pages except for the one after the title page and the two after the colophon. What I meant to say was that Hochi's pages have larger margins.

[EternalSpin]

37 minutes ago, sweetwater said:

Yuzu in his photos sometimes looks a bit flatter than he actually is

That's exactly what came to my mind when I was looking through the Ice Jewels photobook. But the overall quality of the photos is great (by my standards), there are not many blank/white/black pages and I liked the idea of giving more attention to the FaOI show, so, I still recommend it. 

[Aydmen]

On 6/19/2020 at 5:41 AM, sweetwater said:

I saw the last one of the three books today. Here is my quick review:

 

Ice Jewels photo book by Nobuaki Tanaka
Fantasy on Ice occupies 25-30 percent of the whole pages. It also has a compilation of results in the 2019-2020 season and a hand-written message from Yuzu.
It was really nice to be able to look back at FaOI2019 now since we don't have it this year... and his hand-written message was very sincere and touching. As to the photos, I have a slight beef with Tanaka san. Not sure why, but Yuzu in his photos sometimes looks a bit flatter than he actually is. I wonder if Tanaka san is erasing the slight shades and small wrinkles on Yuzu's face or it is the lighting or the quality of the print. Maybe we are seeing Yuzu very differently since a photo reflects the photographer's point of view as much as a painting reflects the painter's.

 

Hochi photo book by Toru Yaguchi
It is huge, heavy, and square. Consists of photos taken at the competitions in which Yuzu competed in the 2019-2020 season. The quality of the print is definitely the best among the three. I felt as if I was watching Yuzu with Yaguchi san through the finder. As the pages are square and most of the photos are rectangular, there are blank white or black spaces on many pages, and that enables you to immerse in each photo. On several pages, you'll find the text by Megumi Takagi looking back at the last season originally published on hochi website.
https://hochi.news/articles/20200406-OHT1T50170.html

 

Yuzu'll be back II (Sponichi photo book) by Yoshiki Kokaito and Yutaka Nagakubo
Slightly thicker than IJ photo book. Consists of photos taken at the competitions in which Yuzu competed in the 2019-2020 season. It also contains transcriptions of the long interviews given after each competition. Of course, the focus is on Yuzu, but they wanted to show the connection between him and his coaches, ex-teammates, other skaters, and fans. So, you will find many smiley Yuzu, and some of you may find yourself in the photo of Yuzu throwing the koala. As Yuzu revisited many old programs in the last season, they sometimes put an old photo of Yuzu wearing the same costume or skating the same program next to a photo from 2019-2020.

 

My favorite is probably Hochi's. It reminds me of what I felt in this season (except FaOI) most strongly. If you want to see Yuzu showing all kinds of emotions in shows, you should buy the Ice Jewels photo book. If you have a weak spot for Haru yo koi, Notte Stellata, Ghislain, and Javi, you may like Yuzu'll be back II the most.
 

ETA: My explanation of Hochi might be a bit confusing. It doesn't have many completely blank pages except for the one after the title page and the two after the colophon. What I meant to say was that Hochi's pages have larger margins.

Thank you for these reviews! 

I liked the Ice Jewels photo book, but did find Yuzu will be back II more uplifting. 

 

I am trying to find Hochi's Photobook but on amazon.jp it's only buyable by third parties (at 4.100¥)?

[Patch]

On 6/25/2020 at 12:52 PM, Aydmen said:

Thank you for these reviews! 

I liked the Ice Jewels photo book, but did find Yuzu will be back II more uplifting. 

 

I am trying to find Hochi's Photobook but on amazon.jp it's only buyable by third parties (at 4.100¥)?

hello!! i'm new here  i think cdjapan just opened another preorder for the Hochi photobook :))   https://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/NEOBK-2501371?utm_source=SNS&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=Yuzuru_Hanyu_Tp200605

[SitTwizzle]

On 6/26/2020 at 7:49 AM, Patch said:

hello!! i'm new here  

Welcome on PlanetHanyu!

I'm somehow new too and enjoy it quite a lot.

And I am still far from having seen all the wealth of it in the so many threads.

[Patch]

Hello! i'm not sure where to post my question. It's about cdjapan. They sell brand new photobooks right? unless it says otherwise? like there's two listed Aoi Hono, and one of them specifically said in the title that's it's a second hand. 

[monchan]

2 hours ago, Patch said:

Hello! i'm not sure where to post my question. It's about cdjapan. They sell brand new photobooks right? unless it says otherwise? like there's two listed Aoi Hono, and one of them specifically said in the title that's it's a second hand. 

Yes. They are new books except stated otherwise.

[Patch]

59 minutes ago, monchan said:

Yes. They are new books except stated otherwise.

Thank you~ got worried because it does not really say in the description. just saw one in the title

[Lunna]

In case of 3 new photobooks it's really a matter of taste. I happily have all 3. My friend after looking at them decided to have Ice Jewels and Yuzu'll be back II (it has cutest pic with koala  and the inside cover with IB Origin ) , at the same time I know many prefer Hochi's quality - it has really big pages, but not all photos are full page size, some are for 1 page (but the cover pic is a great moment, it's inside too). In case you want only one I personally will choose  Ice Jewels cuz of FAoI photos which I adore.

[SitTwizzle]

I have a question, I hope not unwelcome.

I suppose "real" photobooks pay fees to JSF or a Yuzuru Hanyu's supported charity, but what about "figure skating magazines"?

[sweetwater]

21 hours ago, SitTwizzle said:

I have a question, I hope not unwelcome.

I suppose "real" photobooks pay fees to JSF or a Yuzuru Hanyu's supported charity, but what about "figure skating magazines"?

This may not exactly the answer to your question, but as to Aoi Honoo I and II for which Yuzu is credited as the author, Yuzu is receiving royalties and donating them to Ice Rink Sendai. He is credited as one of the authors in YUZURU and YUZURU II, so I think he can receive a certain amount of the royalties for these books as well. As to the other photo books, publishers have gotten permission from Yuzu and maybe from JSF as well, and pay some fees to use his images, but we don't know who receives what. Most of the figure skating magazines published in these few years are probably paying some fees to JSF. Until a few years ago, there were some publishers publishing magazines consisted mostly of Yuzu photos bought from some photo agencies without going to a competition or paying such fees. They used the system in which the press can use the images for free in news reporting and sold their magazines as reports on competitions. However, such magazines became obsolete being ignored by fans and policed by JSF.

[monchan]

Quick review of FS plus vol.4

 

[Ririka]

Hi guys, looking for anything from the 2020-2021 season, anyone has any recommendations? :)

[sweetwater]

7 hours ago, lynnidolz said:

There are seems to be a lot of Yuzu photobooks..i just wondering did anyone knows whether Yuzu will get royalties from the sales or only the publisher/photographers?

 

Sorry for being lazy that I am going to recycle my own old post:

On 7/9/2020 at 12:22 AM, sweetwater said:

This may not exactly the answer to your question, but as to Aoi Honoo I and II for which Yuzu is credited as the author, Yuzu is receiving royalties and donating them to Ice Rink Sendai. He is credited as one of the authors in YUZURU and YUZURU II, so I think he can receive a certain amount of the royalties for these books as well. As to the other photo books, publishers have gotten permission from Yuzu and maybe from JSF as well, and pay some fees to use his images, but we don't know who receives what. Most of the figure skating magazines published in these few years are probably paying some fees to JSF. Until a few years ago, there were some publishers publishing magazines consisted mostly of Yuzu photos bought from some photo agencies without going to a competition or paying such fees. They used the system in which the press can use the images for free in news reporting and sold their magazines as reports on competitions. However, such magazines became obsolete being ignored by fans and policed by JSF.

Among the photobooks released this year, "Be the Light" is in the same category as YUZURU and YUZURU II. "YUZU'LL BE BACK III" is the one that got permission from Yuzu. "SEASON PHOTOBOOK 2020-2021" most likely got the permission as it did in the past seasons. "The Real" has his autograph on its last page, so I guess this one also got it. 

[sweetwater]

Here is REGROWTH's page on Amazon. It says 羽生結弦 (著) which means Yuzuru Hanyu is the author. So Yuzu will receive a royalty for this book.

 

ETA (July 5/2021) : Please read the following post: