What do you think?
Rate this book
Chobits Art Book: Your Eyes Only
The stunningly gorgeous artwork is filled with pages of luscious full color art. Chi in all her lovely dresses interesting poses and her alternate personality!
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 29, 2003
157 people want to read
About the author
Clamp
756 books3,159 followersŌkawa Nanase 大川七瀬
[born: 2 May 1967; Ōsaka, bloodtype: A]
Mokona Apapa もこなあぱぱ
[born: 16 Jun 1968, Kyōto; bloodtype: A]
Nekoi Mick 猫井みっく
[born: 21 Jan 1969, Kyōto; bloodtype: O]
Igarashi Satsuki 五十嵐さつき
[born: 8 Feb 1969, Kyōto; bloodtype: A]
CLAMP originally began in 1989 as a twelve-member dōjinshi circle, but by 1990, the circle had diminished from twelve to seven. Of the remaining seven, Tamayo Akiyama, Sei Nanao, and Leeza Sei left the group during the production of the RG Veda manga. Other former members of CLAMP also included Soushi Hishika, O-Kyon, Kazue Nakamori, Yuzuru Inoue and Shinya Ōmi. Currently, there are four members in the group.
In 2004, CLAMP's 15th anniversary as a mangaka group, the members changed their names from Nanase Ohkawa, Mokona Apapa, Mick Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi to Ageha Ohkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Satsuki Igarashi (her name is pronounced the same, but written with different characters) respectively. The August 2004 issue of Newtype USA, a magazine specializing in events of the anime and manga subcultures, reported that the members of CLAMP simply wanted to try out new names. In a later interview with Ohkawa, it was revealed that initially Mokona wanted to drop her surname because it sounded too immature for her liking, while Nekoi disliked people commenting that her name was the same as Mick Jagger's. Ohkawa and Igarashi, wanting to go with the flow of Nekoi's and Mokona's name changes, changed their names as well.
In 2006, they made their first USA public debut at Anime Expo in Anaheim, California. They were well received at the convention, with 6,000 fans in attendance at their panel.
[born: 2 May 1967; Ōsaka, bloodtype: A]
Mokona Apapa もこなあぱぱ
[born: 16 Jun 1968, Kyōto; bloodtype: A]
Nekoi Mick 猫井みっく
[born: 21 Jan 1969, Kyōto; bloodtype: O]
Igarashi Satsuki 五十嵐さつき
[born: 8 Feb 1969, Kyōto; bloodtype: A]
CLAMP originally began in 1989 as a twelve-member dōjinshi circle, but by 1990, the circle had diminished from twelve to seven. Of the remaining seven, Tamayo Akiyama, Sei Nanao, and Leeza Sei left the group during the production of the RG Veda manga. Other former members of CLAMP also included Soushi Hishika, O-Kyon, Kazue Nakamori, Yuzuru Inoue and Shinya Ōmi. Currently, there are four members in the group.
In 2004, CLAMP's 15th anniversary as a mangaka group, the members changed their names from Nanase Ohkawa, Mokona Apapa, Mick Nekoi, and Satsuki Igarashi to Ageha Ohkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Satsuki Igarashi (her name is pronounced the same, but written with different characters) respectively. The August 2004 issue of Newtype USA, a magazine specializing in events of the anime and manga subcultures, reported that the members of CLAMP simply wanted to try out new names. In a later interview with Ohkawa, it was revealed that initially Mokona wanted to drop her surname because it sounded too immature for her liking, while Nekoi disliked people commenting that her name was the same as Mick Jagger's. Ohkawa and Igarashi, wanting to go with the flow of Nekoi's and Mokona's name changes, changed their names as well.
In 2006, they made their first USA public debut at Anime Expo in Anaheim, California. They were well received at the convention, with 6,000 fans in attendance at their panel.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 6, 2025
Gorgeous! The art book is compelling and invocative with or without the context of the story in the manga. The doll-like Chii, draped ambivalently in gorgeous intricate dresses, much like a still life... I really enjoyed reflecting on these larger prints. I wonder what it's like to exist as chii, in her world
June 28, 2020
Art - 4/5
Overall - 4/5
Overall - 4/5
December 5, 2022
5/5 estrellas.
Como siempre, el arte de CLAMP me deja sin palabras.
💜
Como siempre, el arte de CLAMP me deja sin palabras.
💜
April 12, 2025
I always loved Chobits for their artwork and I love this book because the artwork is really pretty.
October 23, 2018
Beautiful art work!
April 29, 2019
I think Tokyopop released at least two editions of this art book because my cover looks a lot different; it has "Chobits Art Book" in a purple block on top and the same "Your Eyes Only" text in non-cursive purple text that the Japanese cover has.
Odd.
Anyway, I'm so happy to finally own this art book! Chobits, Vol. 1, as you may know, is one of my favorite series (though I am not without criticisms) and a big reason why is the aesthetic and art used by CLAMP.
These art pieces are traditional works done with acrylic gauche, watercolor paint, colored ink, and copic markers, with the gauche being the main medium used by CLAMP when doing colored illustrations (I believe the line work is standard drawing ink with pen nibs). The color work is absolutely beautiful and the techniques utilized create a variety of beautiful effects, like transparent fabrics or high-detail hair shading. Every piece features Chii (and sometimes another character like Freya or Sumomo) in a new pose and all sorts of beautiful clothing full of lace, pearls, crowns, frills, etc. and they're beyond lovely! The styling of each art piece is just wonderful and despite these featuring Chii predominately without too much variety in expression or hairstyle, the variation in clothing and poses and backgrounds and color all make each piece its own.
The book contains a total of 66 sheets of paper (132 pages including front and back). A few are dedicated to title pages, lined art that isn't full color, pages to divide up sections, and the informational areas that act as an index of the art pieces. The book features a total of 42 full color pieces (41 if you count the pieces of Elda and Freya as a single piece, but I believe they were drawn on separate sheets of paper, which I count as being two separate pieces, albeit matching). Several of these are landscapes that are printed between 2 pages.
For me, the biggest flaw of this book is precisely that several works are printed between two pages. The binding of this art book is a paperback with a smooth coated card stock cover with a tight sewn and glued binding, so a section of each paper where it's bound together isn't visible unless you really pry at the binding, which could bend/crack/compromise the binding, and even then, part of the drawing is itself sealed up within the binding and could only be made visible by removing all the pages from the binding. On the portrait style drawings this isn't really a problem (it does affect a few, like Chii as a nurse; the left side of the drawing is obscured in part by the binding due to how they chose to size the piece and lay it out within the pages) but it does affect nearly all the art that spreads across two pages (it doesn't really affect the two side by sides of Elda and Freya, for example, since they were ultimately separate drawings).
I also ran into this problem when these were printed inside my large, four-volume bound editions of the manga. The binding was so tight and the spines so thick and tightly bound that to really see the glossy prints within, the spine had to be severely bent, thus creasing and cracking the binding.
I honestly think the binding on this should have been looser to allow the book to be laid flat for proper viewing or done up in binding more suited for a hardcover book maybe. I even would've preferred the landscapes to be smaller and printed vertically so that I just had to turn the book to the side to view them right side up.
Other than this hiccup, however, I very much enjoy the art and am so happy to have high quality prints of the official art at my fingertips to be part of my collection. I found the little information bits at the back interesting, too! Though, like with my Red River art book イシュタル it's kind of funny to me that art books are featured on GoodReads because there's almost nothing to read in this.
I happened to be lucky enough to find a super well-kept copy of this art book on eBay for just $13. A lot of copies tend to be more in the range of $25+ if not far more, since this was printed in like 2007 by a now out-of-business publishing company (thus making this out of print in its English edition), so if you're interested, definitely keep your eyes open for a good deal! And if you don't care much about the information, Japanese editions can be found for cheap sometimes too and aren't very different from the English release.
Odd.
Anyway, I'm so happy to finally own this art book! Chobits, Vol. 1, as you may know, is one of my favorite series (though I am not without criticisms) and a big reason why is the aesthetic and art used by CLAMP.
These art pieces are traditional works done with acrylic gauche, watercolor paint, colored ink, and copic markers, with the gauche being the main medium used by CLAMP when doing colored illustrations (I believe the line work is standard drawing ink with pen nibs). The color work is absolutely beautiful and the techniques utilized create a variety of beautiful effects, like transparent fabrics or high-detail hair shading. Every piece features Chii (and sometimes another character like Freya or Sumomo) in a new pose and all sorts of beautiful clothing full of lace, pearls, crowns, frills, etc. and they're beyond lovely! The styling of each art piece is just wonderful and despite these featuring Chii predominately without too much variety in expression or hairstyle, the variation in clothing and poses and backgrounds and color all make each piece its own.
The book contains a total of 66 sheets of paper (132 pages including front and back). A few are dedicated to title pages, lined art that isn't full color, pages to divide up sections, and the informational areas that act as an index of the art pieces. The book features a total of 42 full color pieces (41 if you count the pieces of Elda and Freya as a single piece, but I believe they were drawn on separate sheets of paper, which I count as being two separate pieces, albeit matching). Several of these are landscapes that are printed between 2 pages.
For me, the biggest flaw of this book is precisely that several works are printed between two pages. The binding of this art book is a paperback with a smooth coated card stock cover with a tight sewn and glued binding, so a section of each paper where it's bound together isn't visible unless you really pry at the binding, which could bend/crack/compromise the binding, and even then, part of the drawing is itself sealed up within the binding and could only be made visible by removing all the pages from the binding. On the portrait style drawings this isn't really a problem (it does affect a few, like Chii as a nurse; the left side of the drawing is obscured in part by the binding due to how they chose to size the piece and lay it out within the pages) but it does affect nearly all the art that spreads across two pages (it doesn't really affect the two side by sides of Elda and Freya, for example, since they were ultimately separate drawings).
I also ran into this problem when these were printed inside my large, four-volume bound editions of the manga. The binding was so tight and the spines so thick and tightly bound that to really see the glossy prints within, the spine had to be severely bent, thus creasing and cracking the binding.
I honestly think the binding on this should have been looser to allow the book to be laid flat for proper viewing or done up in binding more suited for a hardcover book maybe. I even would've preferred the landscapes to be smaller and printed vertically so that I just had to turn the book to the side to view them right side up.
Other than this hiccup, however, I very much enjoy the art and am so happy to have high quality prints of the official art at my fingertips to be part of my collection. I found the little information bits at the back interesting, too! Though, like with my Red River art book イシュタル it's kind of funny to me that art books are featured on GoodReads because there's almost nothing to read in this.
I happened to be lucky enough to find a super well-kept copy of this art book on eBay for just $13. A lot of copies tend to be more in the range of $25+ if not far more, since this was printed in like 2007 by a now out-of-business publishing company (thus making this out of print in its English edition), so if you're interested, definitely keep your eyes open for a good deal! And if you don't care much about the information, Japanese editions can be found for cheap sometimes too and aren't very different from the English release.
November 11, 2020
The Chobits artbook was the second I ever bought and it is still one of the most beautiful in my collection. Even among the works of CLAMP, this series has a particularly nice art style. The paint covers various parts of the outlines which gives the illustrations a soft touch. This book pretty much consists of Chi images and close to no other characters are features. That in itself is a little bit of a shame, but Chi is the star character after all.
I've always loved Chi's design and this is basically a series of images where she features a new beautiful outfit in each one. There's not a single illustration that doesn't stand out in one way or another - a beautiful artbook that can easily be appreciated without liking or even knowing the original series.
February 19, 2013
"In quella strana città non c'era proprio nessuno. Certo, c'erano delle case, e si vedevano anche le luci attraverso le finestre, ma lungo la strada non passava nessuno. Provai allora a sbirciare dentro una finestra. C'era una persona, ma stava insieme a "quella cosa". Allora guardai anche nelle altre case. E, come immaginavo, "quella cosa" era sempre presente. Anche questa città era uguale alle altre, dato che per i loro abitanti era più divertente stare insieme a "quella cosa" piuttosto che stare insieme ad altre persone. E così nessuno usciva più di casa. In questa città era come se non esistesse più nessuno.
Io parto per un viaggio. Provo ad andare in un'altra città. Spero che qualcuno mi trovi. Qualcuno che appartenga solo a me."
[Chobits vol.1]
Artbook pieno di bellissime illustrazioni dedicate alla dolcissima Chii e a tutti gli altri personaggi della serie Chobits. In una collezione "clamposa" che si rispetti non può assolutamente mancare!
Io parto per un viaggio. Provo ad andare in un'altra città. Spero che qualcuno mi trovi. Qualcuno che appartenga solo a me."
[Chobits vol.1]
Artbook pieno di bellissime illustrazioni dedicate alla dolcissima Chii e a tutti gli altri personaggi della serie Chobits. In una collezione "clamposa" che si rispetti non può assolutamente mancare!
June 8, 2012
Very lovely art, as always for a CLAMP art book. If you enjoy the style of the Chobits manga, you'll probably enjoy this book. The art has a lot of pastel colours, soft lines, and generally has quite a soft, sweet, flowing look. It's pretty much all pictures of Chi, so don't expect to be seeing the other characters form the Chobits series.
March 22, 2011
Really good... not really a read, more of a collection of beautiful pictures of Chi! There are small descriptions of the pictures with some insight behind them. This is only really good for avid fans of the Chobits Manga and Anime (& Manga art).
June 24, 2008
A book that showcase some beautiful pictures of Chobit.
April 7, 2011
Contains 99% mages of Eruja & Feruja.
October 5, 2015
CLAMP doing what they do best - fill pages upon pages with beautiful & detailed illustrations. Most of them just happen to be Chii
September 11, 2014
Another great artbook from Clamp, showing lots of nice pictures of Chi and her twin.
January 19, 2016
Drawings from the anime series. I like the drawings even though I think the anime itself was somewhat illogical in the problem it set up for the girl.
September 12, 2016
wogh there's so many laces and ruffles.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews