Former god of futanari doujinshi, current god of anime character design Uno Makoto presents his first compiled volume of illustrations in the newly released UNO! artbook. When the news first came to us at the beginning of November I was overjoyed at the prospect of getting a book that would include not only his past material but also work on the currently airing Dragonaut series; with its pretense to comprehensiveness I was hoping that this would be a volume similar in scope to other artbooks we’ve recently reviewed here, but after looking it over I’m sorry to report decidedly mixed results:
Title: UNO! ~ Uno Makoto Artworks
Author: Uno Makoto
Release Date: November 30th, 2007
Pages: 88 A4 (full color) + one A3-size poster
Publisher: Shueisha
ISBN 13: 978-4087821604
Price: 2,800 JPY (tax included)
Availability: Amazon.co.jp, Mangaoh, Book1, BeNippon, Nippon Export, HLJ

About the Artist
Uno Makoto first came to my attention in 2001 as “Macha” (まっちゃ), the artistic prodigy behind some of the most evocative futanari art on the internet at the time. His site had only recently closed, and his work was still in plentiful circulation online; in the six years between now and then all traces of his former website and his doujin circle “OZONE” have vanished from the web, with a single exception: a lone [ERO] illustration sent to fellow artist Sirius☆ in April of 2000 that marked the closing of his site, and represents the only piece of futanari art by Macha that remains online in an official capacity.
The closure of his site and his cessation of doujin activity coincided with his employment as character design lead for the Love Hina TV anime (I didn’t know it at the time, but in hindsight that’s probably what attracted me to the series). His career from that point has consisted of character design work for Gravion (2002), Uchuu no Stellvia (2003), Witchblade (2006), and Dragonaut (2007), with stints keyframing for various other shows in between. He also drew a monthly comic strip for Newtype magazine for two years (April 2003 – March 2005), which is compiled for the first time in this book.
Book Contents
The pages of UNO! contain promotional artwork from the four shows Uno designed most recently (Dragonaut, Witchblade, Stellvia, and Gravion) with a heavy emphasis on Witchblade. The aforementioned Newtype comic strips are included as well, along with two pieces of original art first published in other settings.
In total there are three new images created exclusively for this book: the cover, the fold out poster, and this two page spread of the Dragonaut heroines. The bulk of the other material is drawn from promotional illustrations and posters found in magazines, DVD and CD cover illustrations, and limited edition extras distributed with past DVD releases.
If you think 88 pages is too few to claim comprehensive coverage of the art from four anime series, you’re right. Uno’s Dragonaut artwork is still coming in full force (as we saw in this month’s Megami), and there is much more official art for Stellvia and Gravion out there than is represented in the book. Of the four series only Witchblade can lay some claim to comprehensive coverage.
My initial impression after surveying the contents was “… this is it?”. After looking through it more closely my dismay was tempered by the realization that I had just received all of the cover art from the R2 Witchblade DVD releases without buying the DVDs, which was a good feeling, but with this review coming right after a look at INO’s Velvet Skin I can’t help but feel I didn’t get my money’s worth – no matter how you slice it, UNO! contains less than half the content at nearly the same price.
Obviously when it comes to ones favorite artists a cost/benefit analysis such as this doesn’t really enter the picture, but I can’t help wishing this had been a bit more substantial volume. Goodies such as character design development sketches are no doubt reserved for the official fanbooks of the respective series, but they would’ve been appreciated here; more text from the artist would have been nice as well, instead of just the briefly annotated entries in the bibliography.
I don’t regret the purchase of this book in the slightest, but from a purely objective standpoint it doesn’t have the same value for its price as some similar items currently on the market.
As a final note, it’s interesting to see the developent of Uno’s artistic style from Gravion through Stellvia and now Witchblade and Dragonaut. There is definitely a resemblance that ties them together, but it strikes me that the gap between Stellvia and Witchblade is a wide one indeed in stylistic terms, with his two most recent Gonzo series clearly standing apart from his earlier work. Also interesting to note is his recent experimentation with gradients in his coloring work (instead of cel shading). This can be seen here in the cover, the pinup poster, and his recent Megami offering; I’m not sure which style I prefer, but it’s good to see that he’s still experimenting and growing as an artist.
My biggest Uno-related dream is to see him branch out from anime into other media (even back into doujinshi) so we could see more of his work first hand. The job of an anime character designer isn’t one that really lends itself to massive volumes of polished work suitable for publication in artbooks, alas.
Yeah….the art is nice but this gets a pass. I’ll say it right now- if I’m gonna look at big breasted women and butt cheecks just bouncing here and there- I want them to be nekkid!
Looks like it’s INO and not UNO for me.
Thanx for the review Shingo.
Thank you so much for the great review. It’s a bit dissapointing that there is a lack of character design sketches as I loved the witchblade ones. The R2 dvd covers are more than enough though to seal my purchase. The Amaha poster is so beautiful, I would give my right arm for a figure to be made based on that art.
Bugger. I wish you’d posted this review *before* HLJ shipped out my FREEing Tsuruya.
And Uno Makoto did the designs for Love Hina and Stellvia? That…explains a lot :)
Also, I have a lot of Newtypes with those comics in them. I was disappointed when they stopped showing up :(
And that fold out poster is something special :)
Okay, I need to own this book. I’ve been a fan of Uno Makoto’s for a while, even before Stellvia.
Money… need more money. XD
Damn…I already have all the R2 Witchblade DVDs, as well as the artbook, so nothing new there mostly
Was hoping for more Gravion and Stellvia content, and at least some Dragonaut designs.
Already ordered it too…oh well.
Hmm, based on the pictures posted in the review, I think for once I can order this book and not worried about being arrested for importing pornographic art or getting the book cut up by the local censors.
It’s sexy, yet shows no naked nipples, privates or sexual acts (hetero, homo or otherwise). Naked butt cheeks are acceptable to the local censors here. 8\
Oh, and I like Uno’s drawing of Colonel Sanders of the KFC fame. 8)
There is indeed a lot of difference between the Gravion/Stellvia phase and the Witchblade/Dragonaut material. Seems there is this style of ballooning boobs and bums with drastically tapering limbs which some other artists also use. Interesting to see the name Sirius Star crop up again…
>>Work_Ethic
You’re missing out on Uno’s art… his designs are the inspiration for so many great ero doujinshi it seems worth it to go to the source every once and awhile. …Thinking about it, Uno shifting to character design duty may have done the fan scene more service overall than he did as a doujinka. Without him we never would’ve had Yayoi, or Masane, or Garnet… Hmm, that’s a perspective I hadn’t thought of before.
>>Devastator
I’m with you on a desire to see the poster made into figure form, that would be positively lovely. If someone rises to the challenge I hope it’s not Kotobukiya, their limited edition Megami Magazine Masane was a bit underwhelming. :/
>>kahm
Sorry, I wanted to get this out faster but my schedule has been pretty packed of late. Things should ease up a bit early next week so I should be able to present reviews in a more timely fashion. ^^;;
>>Richard “Pocky” Kim
I’m sure you can scrounge it up from somewhere, for Uno’s sake… :D
>>Purel
I feel your pain. There’s not a whole lot here for the Uno completionist, sadly, beyond the poster and a few pieces of new Dragonaut art. I was hoping for more, but what can you do…
>>blacklotus
I can guarantee that there is no pornographic content in this book, and unless Singaporean censors have a problem with sexiness it will pass through unscathed.
>>P Laskey
I like both his old and new styles, but something about his new experiments with gradient coloring leave me with a bit of a cheap feeling… I think he’s on more solid ground with his cel shading work.
Have you encountered Sirius Star in the past? I’ve met him once or twice at a few events over the years and exchanged a few words, but haven’t seen him recently; seems like he’s not so active these days.
[…] Link HeiSeiDemocracy. […]
Guh. I did not know that Uno Makoto did futanari work. I’m going to have to attempt to track some of that down.
Looks like someone should hit this book with a Wild Draw Four.
…I am SO sorry. I had to. You understand, don’t you? – ZM
ohhh, the artbook was sent from hlj a few days ago, hope i will love this artbook, i was trying to find a review to buy the artbook, to late for me hehe, just bought and coming to my house.
You can download the witchblade wallpapers here (from r2 dvd?)
http://www.funimation.com/witchblade/extras/extras.html
Yes, I am still going to buy this anyway. It’s a shame there’s not more in it, but I’ll take pretty much anything of his.
And it’s definitely good to have a guy like this doing chara designs for big shows. Who else would inspire the kyonyuu doujinshi artists?
Great, now I have to start digging for Macha doujinshi…
“Apologies for belated comment”
>>Have you encountered Sirius Star in the past? I’ve met him once or twice at a few events over the years and exchanged a few words, but haven’t seen him recently; seems like he’s not so active these days.<<
Yes, I have spoken to Sirius Star a few times over the past few years. Last time was last month in fact! He now has a highly responsible job, which probably explains his lack of artistic output more recently.
This is out already?
Looking at your review, Shingo, I can’t help but feel great disappointment. Most of the WB art I already have in the form of the WB artbook (a hell of a lot more pages than this book, I can tell you). This seems like an utterly pointless marketing / milking gimmick on the part of Shueisha. Meh.
Shingo: はいはい、分かりましたw Probably next year, then. XD
aiee I just discovered this site and already my wallet is preparing defenses to keep my hand away…
as it turns out, I’m watching Witchblade right now. Also previously saw Love Hina and Stellvia and enjoyed those two (especially Stellvia), so I guess that makes me a minor fan of his works?
His designs are definitely cute and attractive and suits my tastes. Time to add this to my amazon.jp wishlist. This book, INO, Happo Bijin, and Sano Toshihide’s illustration books can all sit in the checkout waiting room and chat up how they plan on sucking my wallet dry…
>> Yuichi
Thanks. I never actually explored the American witchblade site for witchblade anime stuff. I stopped going there after I stopped collecting WB comics. Guess it’s time to look around that site again and see what I’ve missed out for so long.
thanks for the review!
any link for his doujin stuff?
i’m inspired by Uno and i collect all his stuff (guidebooks, artbooks), but i don’t have his doujins.
here’s a sample of my style:
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/6811/neverendscelstylebybetovf3.jpg
i’m looking into doing a hentai doujin and hentai web animation series.
can anyone help me with links to his doujin stuff?
thanks!