Japanese Comickers by Designexchange, Fujiko Hiroshi, Hirofumi Fujiko, Noriko Meguro, Sunaho Tobe, Yu Kagei (2003, Paperback)

I really love this book! It's a total eye candy. It features 14 artists' works in glorious color. One piece of work by each artist is shown step by step with photos and descriptions. As a fanart artist, I get such a kick out of looking at gorgeous works of art as well as learning about each artist's method, tools, media, etc. It is very informative and most certainly inspiring. After feasting my eyes on this book, I can't wait to get started on my next work!

The only thing that I'd be concerned about is the somewhat misleading subtitle of "Draw Anime and Manga Like Japan's Hottest Artists". This book is primarily a showcase of the featured artists' works and not a step-by-step "how to draw anime and manga" for the beginning artists. Although I consider this book to be a great resource for the intermediate to advanced artists, beginning artists may find the explanations of the processes to be too advanced, too sparse, etc. This is a great book to see various distinct styles and methods used to achieve the unique and beautiful looks of anime/manga art, but if you're just getting started and looking for a "how to draw anime/manga characters" type book, there are others that address the issues more effectively.