I usually shy away from anthologies, because although you get some of the best, famous artists in them, you can also get some pretty lousy stuff, and pairings you'd rather avoid. But I finally decided to spring with Naruto, and picked what looked like the most promising out of a sea of anthologies. I was most pleasantly surprised. I may also eventually go for the event anthologies by Cubic, as they look pretty good, but a lot of the other stuff... bleh.

Title : Shinobi no Okite Gaiden - Upper Volume (Rule of Ninja - Supplementary biography) Published : 4/Mar/2001 Size : A5 Comments : Published by Primo. 11 comics, 12 colour pictures, although 8 are half-page. 5 of the half-page pictures actually were drawn for a 2001 Naruto doujinshi calendar based on Japanese legends. I love the Adumi Tohru cover and was disappointed to find that's all she did! And Yu-kiriko did a colour illustration, but no comic! ;_; At least Rena Izumibara did lots of stuff (TWO stories & a colour illos). Amazingly, all the artists are quite nice. None have glaring proportion problems or anything like that. Other popular circles that appear are WASAB'z, RII System (with a Sakura story! :D), and then Yamada*D*Yonezou and Jidou Tengoku both have colour illos. Quite a bit of Sakura in this, and only a little bit of KakaIru and SasuNaru shounen-ai. Other characters that appear substantially are Gaara, his sister, Lee, Hinata, Kiba, and Zabuza as a child. (Why do Japanese people in manga always smile as they commit suicide for someone else?) In the end is some doujinshi information of participating circles, and after or before most of the stories is a little page for the artist, including the circle and artist names and comments. Overall, I like it. :) Even without Yu-kiriko... =_= [170 pgs]

Title : Shinobi no Okite Gaiden - Lower Volume Published : 21/Dec/2001 Size : A5 Comments : Published by Primo. 12 comics, 12 colour pictures, although 8 are half-page. I think this contains the rest of the doujinshi calendar illustrations. Most importantly to me this has comics by Yu-kiriko (yes!), Rena Izumibara (kawaii!), and two by WASAB'z (one by each member). There's also a story from RIISystem and Yamada*D*Yonezu, a story about Kiba's group by K'NDS, a short about the deaths of Hana and Zabuza, and a few others. Kujira contributed two stories and two colour pictures but their artwork is great anyway. The other colour illos were by WASAB'z, Yamada*D*Yonezu, Piyokokko, Jidou Tengoku, RIISystem and a few others. There's a bit of shounen-ai. The RIISystem story is kind of KakashixSasukexGaara and Yamada*D*Yonezu's appears to be KakashixNaruto. Once again, it's a nice doujinshi, and worth getting to sample Naruto dj artists. [170 pgs]