Volume Infinity - A Guide to a Rare Sailor Moon Artbook

UPDATE: This blog post has been updated in Nov 2023 to alert collectors of the new bootlegs of this book that are now on the market. 

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Volume Infinity is the self-published volume of Sailor Moon arts and notes that Naoko released in 1997. It includes messages from members of the anime and manga staff as well as some lovely artwork by Naoko. We don't know how many copies of this rare artbook were made or sold, but it is a highly sought after collectable that fetches very high prices when it does show up for sale.

Unfortunately, it seems there are now bootlegs of this artbook. A version of it surfaced on Reddit in 2023 that has small but significant printing differences that do not align with older, official copies. If you want to collect one of these rare gems it's good to know what they look like now that fakes are apparently circulating. 

Here's some notes about Infinity:
- the book is a white hardcover with a slip jacket
- the binding on the book is not very good so many of these books have loose pages from being opened too often; I take care not to open mine more than a few inches so there's less stress on the binding
- the insides of the covers are lined with a gold paint that shows finger prints when you touch it (the new bootlegs have gold interior but its not sensitive to touch)
- because the book was self published, the ISBN inside the back cover is mostly 0's with USAGI in there, too
- there is a semi transparent rice page inside the front cover that allows the first image to be seen through; it has a solid white texture pattern that criss-crosses all over it with the title and infinity volume marking. When you look at the page over the inside art it reads the right way while it's covering the art.
- the art of Chibimoon on the back has weird colors and this can throw people off into thinking it's a fake. It seems to be possible it was a digital work?
- unlike the other artbooks, the writing on the front it NOT metallic; it is flat gold

- printing on the potentially fake books appears slightly darker than originals

- there are subtle ways things line up on the cover to indicate it is an original print. Please check the image at the bottom of this post for examples. 

Photos of legit book:

front of dust jacket

back of dust jacket

back of hardcover

front of hardcover

binding of hardcover

gold interior

semi transparent rice page with textured white markings and title

first page

back inside print information with fake ISBN "USAGI"

gold paint shows fingerprints

Here's some photos comparing a legit book (left) and the bootleg (right). Other than the rice paper being reversed, the printing mistakes are minor and very hard to notice at first glance. I have so far confirmed two older artbooks to match (both differing in the same way from this "new" version). I will continue to seek additional images of older books to try and document the consistencies. 

Images on the left in this guide are the real books and the images on the right are the newer, bootleg books. The reversed rice paper is the most obvious. Big thanks to reddit users Upper-Rip-7876 for the photos of the potential bootleg and PandoraChyan for this nice comparison edit. I have confirmed my original copy of this book purchased from another collector in person in 2010 matchest PandoraChyan's book. I am looking for additional references to confirm all the older books match. 

Please also see this twitter thread for many additional comparison photos.

Messages from people who've bought the new bootlegs indicate they 'smell new' which is also unlikely from a book supposedly printed in 1997.