Rating: 
Summary: An interesting and colorful guide book
Review: Generally, this book isn't really essential for beginner manga artists, but it does go into a considerable amount of detail. This book provides six different girls as examples and explores how they arrange their rooms, their clothing, cosmetics, kimono-style, whether they prefer a bath or shower, what they wear to bed, and many other details (there are even examples of how they paint their nails!). Almost all of this is illustrated in detailed, full-color images, many of which are looking through more than once.
Overall, this is more of a guide for a for someone who has already grasped the basic drawing concepts of manga. However, Girls' Life Illustration File
is fully capable of keeping it's readers interested throughout most if not all of the entire book.
Rating:
Summary: Characteristic Generalization to the max!
Review: I bought this book and was Very pleased with it! I give it a four out of five stars, four because there is sometimes unnecessary nudity in the book. The nudity occurs mostly in section four subtitled "The bare essentials." Section four is only useful if you're looking to understand the different reactions by the different personalities given.
The title of this book is "A Girl's Life: illistration file," so you can expect that it's going to give a lot of information on the qualities that you could expect to see from different personalities, versus information on drawing the characters. I suggest a different book if you're interested in drawing diversified characters and need the 'know how's' for figure frames and so on.
As for me, this book fulfilled my every expectation. I draw on an intermidiate level, I'm generally satisfied for now with that, so I was looking for some material to strengthen my understanding of character psychology so to speak so I could break out of my cosier and bland character selection and give my characters more defined personalities. This book gives plenty of starting base with its clothing styles, hair styles, typical poses, and environmental affects to accomplish diversity in characters.
So, if you're like me and you're needing something more than suggestions for setting up frames and general stuff, I highly suggest this book!
Rating:
Summary: Just take a look at it in the library
Review: I bought this, and I really do enjoy it.
Athough the girls all look similar, it's fun to see into all of their closets, apartments and see the styles of clothing they liked to wear.
This dosen't really help you to draw at all, but it's super fun, and original.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book
Review: I gave this book a 5 becuase it has very good pictures and info. But if you think it goes into the basic of the circles and stuff to draw it then this book would not be for you. anyway I love the book and its very awesome.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not THAT good
Review: I liked this book because it was really fun to look at! Although it does have some nudity, all the girly "details" are covered up and all. It's very colorful, which I like, but it DOES NOT at ALL show you how to draw manga. It does give you a peek in the lives of several girls, which is fun, but if you are expecting a how to draw book, don't buy this.
Rating:
Summary: A very useful book to have for reference!
Review: I'm very satisfied with this book - the only thing keeping me from giving it 5 stars is the price (then again, How to Draw Manga books are always overpriced).This book is based on six stereotypes: Perky, Sporty, Dreamy, Precocious, Shy, and Uppity. It includes many details of each girl's behavior pattern, taste, lifestyle, etc. as well as general details of what a [Japanese] girl does in a day. There are...
- five chapters that are literally illustration files
&
- two short tutorials... one is one page and is about - finally - "how to draw" the girls and the other is two pages and are pointers on how to improve the character design However, although most of the book doesn't literally teach the reader "how to draw" a girl, the information is very useful for any artist interested in drawing young Japanese girls. Chapter 1, Home Sweet Home, encompasses floor plans of each of the girls' rooms, the items each of them have in their closets, the way they organize their items, etc. Chapter 2, Girly Stuff, prove to be useful (and I think that guys would especially find the information helpful!), as it has sections like Inside the Schoolbag, A Peek Into the Jewelry Box, Dieting, Skincare, Cosmetics, etc. Chapter 3, Fashion Statements, is in full color!! (other chapters only have a few colored pages here and there) Every girl is drawn out in their preferred daywear, nightwear, yukata (summer kimono), and lingerie. Chapter 4, The Bare Essentials, are literally, the BARE essentials. It's basically a collection of seven pages (all colored - that was nice), each girl had a page of her own (except Perky Girl, who had two) with their nude illustrations. I suppose it's a good reference for poses and it shows their personalities, but otherwise quite useless. Chapter 5, No Boys Allowed!, is a look at some places where only girls hang out (i.e., the girls' locker room). I liked this because the black and white sketch illustrations showed how these places look like in Japan - it's useful for anyone who wants to make a manga that takes place in Japan but isn't familiar with the country. While many(/all?) other HTDM books are in black and white, How to Draw Manga: Girls' Life Illustration File has many colored pages - it makes the highg price of the book more tolerable. Also, the artwork by the author/artist Kazuko Tadano (director of Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon R.: the Movie) is a lot better than the art in other HTDM books (my opinion, of course!). I would recommend this book. (I bought it for about $21 at Japan town in SF, but on Amazon it seems to be a bit cheaper - that's a plus!)
Rating:
Summary: the beeeeest book
Review: Inside this book had colours !
but... not every page... It's OK because in the pages that do not or have colours are Very Very GRRREAT !
and there are more coloured pages than non-coloured pages(the first pages had colours)But don't look in chapter 4 :
The Bare Essentials,because there are JUST ... NAKED (NUDE)
Pictures!So,THIS BOOK IS VERY USEFUL and...FUN !!!
BUY IT !!!!!!!!!!But...I wanted to say that this book DO NOT
Kept you learn drawing step to step but it's meaning
is for you, drawing or Knowing a Girl's life and it had writted:
Girl's life.......illutration file...that do not (doesn't) mean that you should Copy ECXACT the same,but you should know
the importants (like as the ECXACT same hair,heads)of the manga
Girl drawing ( If you'd like to see boys , buy HOW TO DRAW MANGA--MALE CHARACTERS and I hadn't buy it so can someone write a review of that book if someone has it and begin writting :
Dear Lucie...(My name is Lucie)Please?)
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books for girls
Review: Personally, the first time I saw this book, I thought it would be useless. Having poured through it though, it's quite informative in some cases. The part I liked the most is how Tadano goes into the houses of each character type and show how they would live - their room size, furniture, kitchen, bathroom, and foyer. It's basically an inside look into a Japanese and stereotypical manga girl's life. Includes their personality types, where they would live, how they would dress, what they would carry, what they would have in their study desk, and other specific details that someone (especially a typical guy) would not know.
In short, this is a good way to learn how to build up a specific female character personality and create your own. A good reference for the beginner artists and manga-ka but if you're more experienced than that, avoid this like the plague. Nah, just kidding. Just don't bother getting it unless you have money to burn and want to add it to your How to Draw Manga collection - you otaku, you. ;)
On a side note, there is nudity in this book but it focuses on how to draw nude figures without showing everything (i.e. crotch and nipples) including the shower and bathing scenes.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not THAT good
Review: This is a fun and interesting book to read, but doesn't help much with drawing, however, advanced manga artists may find some parts helpful. There is some nudity as well.
Rating:
Summary: O.K.
Review: This is a fun and interesting book to read, but doesn't help much with drawing, however, advanced manga artists may find some parts helpful. There is some nudity as well.
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