Takami Akai Work Books
Source: 2000 赤井孝美オシゴトブック
Last updated: 2025-04-13
Original sources: 『赤井孝美オシゴトブック』 for 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002
Starting in 1999, Ninelives would come to conventions to distribute a series of limited run doujin acting as a year in review for all announced projects that Takami Akai had overseen.
These would come to be called the "Takami Akai Work Books", continuing to run even shortly after Ninelives was dissolved as a separate entity from Gainax.
Shared here is a subset of scans featuring Princess Maker media, from each of the four work books.
1999
The 1999 work book specifies the month in which Princess Maker Q was released, and the month when Princess Maker 4 had started development; July 1999.
There is a unique illustration of one of the rejected ("NG") princess designs in the Princess Maker Q section, predating Karen. Her bowl cut, rings and rags do make her look like a slightly more refined take on the main character of Akai's short lived manga "ヒメ HIME", published in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon.
Some UI concepts are shared of Princess Maker 4. Most of these sketches and illustrations follow the modern Tokyo setting proposed for the game, with the exception of a UI sketch illustrating a confident Karen duelling with a skeleton warrior.
2000
Ninelives mascot Milenya makes her first work book appearance in the 2000 volume, and last to date.
There's only a few sketches in between more prominent concepts for promotional telephone cards, such as the one featured on top of this article with Milenya leading a mouse and frog in the rain. Some of these mascots also show up in the Ninelives website from this period of time.
Far more Princess Maker 4 sketches and digitally coloured art are shown off here. An early version of Karen on a swing over Tokyo has her with a crown that never appears in subsequent art.
Eagle-eyed fans might notice that much of the art here was used in the screenshots shared with Korean video game media.
Ninelives and its first iteration "Akai Incorporated" are credited as putting this volume together, rather than any individuals.
2001
To my surprise given the massive amount of art and in-game content shared in previous volumes, the 2001 edition only has two pages of unfinished event art and minor details about the game assumed to still be in progress. The Ninelives mascot Milenya has disappeared.
The final page does credit individuals for a change; Keiko Mizumori (水守 恵子) and Yuuki Fukuda (福田 有希) acting as this book's editors.
Mizumori was an assistant of Akai's at Gainax who would later have production and writing credits on Princess Maker 5 and production credits on Akai's post-Gainax, Battle Skin Panic inspired Pretty Ninja Himekage and the remake Princess Maker 2: Regeneration. She does not have credits on any known Ninelives works beyond editing doujin books published after Akai returned to Gainax.
Fukuda is a mystery; there is a "Yuki Fukuda" actively credited as an in-between animator for various animated works through the 2010s beyond Gainax, however it's very unlikely to be the same individual. The kanji and pronunciation for their first name are completely different.
On the back cover there are five coloured event photos that haven't been seen in previous books, one of which had already been shown as an outline in the 2000 book, and one of which shows up later in the contents of the 2002 book in outline form and black and white.
Given the lack of truly "new" content, could Ninelives Princess Maker 4 have been on hold at this point in time?
2002
By the time of the 2002 year in review book, Ninelives is no longer mentioned, and Takami Akai has been back at Gainax for nearly two years. Karen from Princess Maker 4 still makes appearances, along with the new princess Yucie from Petit Princess Yucie.
To my knowledge, most of the Yucie art in here was never printed in any other source, barring the Cube art that's strikingly identical to the Cube from the Ninelives Character Book
Some of the finalized Akai art previously appeared as promotional, limited run phone cards.
Six new Princess Maker 4 images and their corresponding sketches are in this book, not counting the Karen shown in the title page above. All of these feature Karen in new, modern clothing, focusing on what appear to be vacation events. As noted in the 2001 section, one of these had already been shown in coloured form on the back cover of the 2001 book.
Keiko Mizumori (水守 恵子) is credited once more in the final page as the sole editor, with Akai making a brief appearance in cartoon form.
As mentioned earlier, Ninelives is nowhere to be seen. Only Akai's doujin group "Stilletto" (ステイレット) and Akai himself receive publishing credits.
Coloured versions of just over half of the line art featured in this volume can be seen on the back cover of the 2002 book.
