Kawaii Otaku » Dojin

Comiket 83 Report

Yohco — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:17:43 +0000

Comiket 83 (コミックマーケット83) was held in Tokyo from December 29 to 31. Comiket, the world’s largest self-published comic book (Dojinshi) fair is held twice annually, each event attracts about 500,000 visitors. This time, the total number of visitors over the three days was about 550,000, which is the highest of winter season’s Comiket ever. This biggest otaku event is gaining more popularity every year.

There are about 30,000 participant groups over the three days, but the categories vary from day to day. I usually visit the day one and two. The day three is often for male’s categories.

In front of Tokyo Big Sight at 13:00. When I arrived there, the long line had disappeared.

For your information, you can see the video of long line in the morning.

So many people…(×_×)

Tiger&Bunny section. T&B is one of the biggest categories of the day one.

Gintama and other Shonen JUMP manga section. The main section for me!!! Gin♡Hiji (>_<*)

Unfortunately, Comiket planning committee banned the participation of groups that belong to Kuroko’s Basketball categories in just before the scheduled date, because intimidation cases against the artist and publisher of Kuroko’s Basketball have been occurring one after the other. According to the report, the criminal holds a private grudge for the artist. I hope Japanese police force arrests the selfish criminal as quickly as possible. This sections are for the 900 groups… What a sad sight. Kuroko’s Basketball was the third biggest category of this Comiket.

At the Comiket, there are not only dojinshi groups but also participant companies. You can buy various official anime goods at each company booths.

Kawaii umbrella!!

What’s more Comiket than cosplay?

★Catch at Comiket 83

Dojinshi of Gintama, Reborn, PSYCHO-PASS, Tiger&Bunny, Hakuouki, Uta no prince-sama and more… This is a piece of that.

Tsuritama goods by Noitamina Shop. Kawaii!!!

Comiket 82 Flash Report: Day Two

Yohco — Sat, 11 Aug 2012 17:41:52 +0000

Comiket 82 day two came to an end. The number of visitors today was about 190,000, an increase of 30,000 over the day one. Cosplay areas were also extremely crowded, so the photoshoot was not as easy as expected. Anyway, I would like to share the hard-won pictures of lovely cosplayers, following yesterday!

In front of Tokyo Big Sight around 12:00. There were more people than yesterday.

P.S. Today’s catch at Comiket 82

My favorite, Gintama dojinshi! These two artists are the best of Gintoki×Toshiro manga!

Comiket 82 Flash Report: Day One

Yohco — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:21:29 +0000

Finally, Comiket 82 has started. It was a beautiful day today, and was perfect weather for Comiket. I could meet many beautiful and cool cosplayers, now I would like to share the wonderful pictures!

In front of Tokyo Big Sight at 11:30. When I arrived there, the long line had disappeared.

The inside was jammed with people, despite it being a weekday.

People wait in line for hours for a new dojinshi created by popular dojin artist.

Found a couple of well-made dolls of Kotetsu T. Kaburagi and Barnaby Brooks Jr.

P.S. Today’s catch at Comiket 82

Dojinshi of Tiger&Bunny, Uta no Prince-sama, Bakuman, and Sengoku BASARA. I always buy too much…

The magic of “Gijinka”

Yohco — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 13:11:40 +0000

As you know, there are millions of genres in dōjin world, from Weekly Shōnen Jump’s manga to Vocaloid characters. But you may not know, there is an unique genre, “Gijinka (擬人化)”.

Gijinka means personification. In the gijinka genre as the name suggests, characters who are not human in the original piece are described as ikemen (イケメン, handsome boy) and bishojo (美少女, pretty girl). And the genre composed of many genres.

This is one of gijinka. Guess what characters are personified?

↓

The answer is…Anpanman!

By personifying, we can imagine various stories which are different from original one. Pokemon characters are personified officially in the website.

Why don’t you transform your favorite character into ikemen?

Coruscating Dōjin World

Yohco — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 05:06:48 +0000

Have you ever seen dōjinshi?
Dōjinshi (同人誌) is the Japanese term for self-published manga, sometimes include novels. Dōjinshi are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. Groups of dōjinshi artists refer to themselves as a sākuru (サークル, circle), and in many cases each sākuru consist of members with the same favorite manga or anime. A number of such groups actually consist of a single artist: they are sometimes called kojin sākuru (個人サークル, personal circles).

I’m crazy for dōjinshi, and I have several hundred dōjinshi on Gintama, Reborn!, Sengoku Basara, Uta no prince sama, and everything else. The piece of them is here.

Dōjinshi is worked by amateurs, but they have professional-level proficiency. They build side stories of some manga or anime, and create our paradise. Sometimes our favorite characters fall in love, and sometimes powerful and heroic battles unfold. Dōjinshi offers a different way of how to enjoy manga that has even attracted otaku, and the market is estimated at more than 50 billion yen.

You can get Dōjinshi at The Comic Market, and Dōjinshi stores like “Mandarake”, “Toranoana” and “Animate”. The average price of them is from ¥500 to ¥2000, depends on the page count.

Link to Mandarake (English, Japanese, Korean)

Toranoana (Japanese)

Animate (Japanese)

You can get some dōjinshi on Amazon.com.