How to Draw Manga: Colorful Costumes

Rating:
Summary: Costume Reference
Review: An excellent collection of costumes from real-life establishments and current clothing trends in Japan. Ozawa has nifty sections detailing all the variations of hats, shoes, aprons, and shirts that you may use to put together your own costume.

Most of the sections had additional details such as type of shirt, uniform length, apron size, and even store policy such as length of hair, jewelry, nail polish, and cosmetic usage in the Restuarant section. More complex costumes such as the kimono and miko, he goes into step-by-step detail on how it goes on, how it's tied, etc.

I find the most vexing part of the book is that dark colored clothes made seeing the lines of the uniform difficult. Some may even view that the current uniforms depicted here will be outmoded in a few years except for the traditional costumes and long-standing restaurant uniforms.

Although the uniforms are mainly from Japan, the uniforms can be transfered to your own region especially considering the costumes of the restaurant tend to be theme and location inspired (French, Italian, American, etc). What's covered:
-Restaurant Uniforms (Well-known establishments)
-Nurse Uniforms (Nurse, Dentist)
-Traditional Japanese Costumes (Kimono, Festival Costume, Miko)
-Office Uniforms
-Exotic Costumes (Chinese, Thailand, Austria)
-Seductive Costumes (Bunnies, Race Queens)
-List of Contributing Establishments

All in all, this book may be used as a reference, not a step-by-step drawing book. All the pages are in color which comes in handy for color references, and shows quite a bit of info regarding Japanese restaurants - acting almost like a travel guide of must-go-to restaurants. No nudity present.

Rating:
Summary: Admit It, You Know You Love a Girl (or Guy) In Uniform!!!
Review: I suspect most aspiring American manga artists are attracted to the medium in part because of the fanciful, out-of-the ordinary costumes that many manga characters wear in fantasy, otherworldly or futuristic environments. But the setting in a good number of manga stories--even those featuring super-powered protagonsists--live in the "real world." It's often a greater challenge for a would-be manga artist to create a contemporary wardrobe for main, supporting, and background characters, than is the task of devising a "cool" costume. And what about service uniforms for restaurant workers, candy-stripers, and the like. Details for such outfits can't be faked or improvised!

"Colorful Costumes" is a wonderful intoduction to the world of service uniforms. In his illustrations, Mr. Ozawa has reproduced the uniforms worn by employees of over a dozen actual restaurants in Japan (of course they were accurate as of the time of the publication of the original Japanese edition of this volume). Ozawa also includes clothing worn in ethnic-themed eateries, roadside snack-stands, and hospitials. He includes a detailed description of each outfit.

All illustrations are in color (hence the higher price), and the models are primarily female, drawn in a near-realistic style. The drawings clearly display the construction of each outfit. Since most of the costumes are made in a Western style, the reader should have no trouble adapting the uniforms for his or her purposes.

You never know when you might need a waitress in a scene, so this book makes a good reference. Of course, you should also observe the many outfits worn by people of different professions in your own community.

Rating:
Summary: Good for details and coloring, but not drawing...
Review: This book is full of color pictures of uniforms (maid, restuarant, cat costume, female business dresses, and some "sexy" costumes.
The book shows the uniforms in simulated 3d both on a sample character and clothes only (no sample character in them). It will help you get a feel for the coloring and the details, but it doesn't have any steps for drawing the uniforms pretty much all you see is the final step. So if you want to see finished drawings of a good cross section of female uniforms and some costumes, then this is the book you want.