From: doi@jrd.dec.com (Hitoshi Doi =?ISO-2022-JP?B?GyRCRVowZj9OO1YbKEI=?= )
Subject: [Curtis Hoffman] comiket
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Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 02:38:23 GMT
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   I was originally expecting that Robert Woodhead would be posting a
detailed description of the Comiket Doujinshii (fan manga) convention
that occurred this weekend (Aug. 15 & 16.)  But I just talked to him
tonight (Saturday,) and found out that he's too busy to go this time
(plus, he'd only have gone on Sunday, anyway.)  So...

   You old-time netters know what doujinshii means, and probably
remember Robert's description of the con he was at last year.  But for
the neos out there, a doujinshii can be considered a Japanese fanzine.
It is an amateur press publication that can be given such royal treatment
that it looks like a professional magazine, or manga volume.  Since the
artists are just fans, the artwork can range from really bad, to REALLY
good.  A doujinshii can contain just artwork, fan manga, or pure text
stories and poetry.  The stories can be about original characters and
situations, or can be parodies of existing manga and anime.  Because of
possible copyright violation problems, the doujinshii is not usually
sold to make a profit.
   There are three types of doujinshiis: Amateur, Semi-amateur, and
Professional.  Yes, many of the established manga artists started out as
fans, and still occasionally contribute parodies of their own characters
to some of the doujinshiis (not-for-profit.)

   Robert tells me that the first day of the convention last year was
dedicated to girls' manga, and the second day was for boys manga.  Since
I can't read the con guide (which is about 3/4" thick,) I just have to
assume that the same holds this time.  I'm also told that there were
160,000 people at last year's convention.
   I arrived at the convention center at 11:00 AM.  From the front gate,
I had to walk down to Tokyo Bay to get to the end of the waiting line.
There was a trickle of people when I started.  As I walked, there were
more people.  I walked, and saw more people.  And I kept walking, and
there were more people.  And I walked, and walked, and walked.  The place
is HUGE.  Along the way, I saw people in costumes, street clothes, and
dressed up as everyday punks.  I even saw a black van with "Tank Police
Vehicle" stenciled on the sides and front.  Yes, we're talking about
serious otaku here (but not really different than western fans.)
   The line snaked back and forth in such a way that could be used to
teach the Disney Parks something about crowd containment.  The sky was
clear, and the sun was very hot (I am sunburned on my face, head, and
arms.)  There were some vending machines at one end of the line, but
they'd been sold-out sometime earlier.  Most of the people were
Japanese, but there seemed to be a few East Indians, and a couple from
my home state of Minnesota (the guy was stationed at a base in Okinawa.)
   I did not actually get inside the first building until after
2:00 PM -- all of the 3 hours in the meantime was spend standing in the
sun.  There was a soda vender working a table inside, and I downed two
cans (one of Ambasa White Water, the other was a coke) within two minutes.
The building was huge, and packed with tables and people.  Without any
real airflow, it was also rather humid and hot.
   There's no entry fee, but Comiket does sell Comics Guides for 800
yen.  The guides are all in Japanese, and contain many pages of
small character images.  Looks kind of like a demented yearbook; I had
no idea what is being said in it.  The first building I went in seems to
have been for the amateur doujinshiis.  And most of the people running
the tables were women, so I guess Saturday was for girls' manga.  Most
of the parodies were of PatLabor, Five Star Stories, Dragon Quest, and
Dragon Ball Z.  The other stuff was from the pure girls' manga genre,
and concentrated heavily on beautiful male homosexuals (with graphic sex.)
   Many of the people running the tables were wiped out and tired, but
the others were desperate to have the fans simply LOOK at their work.
They were happy, even if you didn't buy the stuff.  There were
high-quality books, cheap repro-half-page pamphelets, stuffed animals,
buttons, toys, and hand-made posters.  Most of the prices ranged from
300 yen to 1500 yen.  I didn't care for most of what I saw of the
amateur stuff, but there was a LOT of it, which I consider the important
part.
   Along the way, I found a little stuffed Devilman doll.  When I called
it "kawaii" (cute,) the woman selling it gave me a different little
doll for free.  I'm not sure what the doll is -- a stubby-nosed yellow
elephant, or a big-eared yellow pig -- but it's cute.  I'm going to call
it "Debel-chan" (which could mean either "Double-chan," or "Devil-chan.")
   In the second building, the doujinshiis looked better, making me
think they were the semi-amateur works.  Unfortunately, it was then
4:00 PM, and the convention started shutting down for the day.  I got to
see 1/6 of the tables in there, and found one table that had Dragon Half
parodies.  It was here that I was told that some of the professionals had
been in earlier, giving out autographed sketches, but I missed that.
   I bought a doujinshii parodying 3x3 Eyes (with pictures of
Pia-napple, and Pia-can,) PatLabor (looks more like something from
Clamp,) painted-faced punks (including the main guy from the Fuji film
commercials, who is so popular that the fans are writing original manga
stories about him, and dressing up with his kind of face-paint and
plastic-coated spiky hair) and of Dragon Half.
   Some of the costumes worn Saturday rival many that you'll see at any
of the bigger western conventions, and were very nicely done.  Basically,
if you compare a doujinshii con with a western SF con, you'll notice
that the doujinshii con is just one huge series of hucksters rooms.
   And many of the people creating the things are office ladies
(secretaries,) businessmen, and high school students.  That is, these
are the very people who, in the west, normally wouldn't be caught dead
reading comics, much less spending lots of their free time drawing it.
They are, in short, otaku.

   On day two, I arrive at 8:30 AM (the hours again are 10:00 to 4:00.)
There's already several thousand people in line ahead of me, and I don't
get past the front gate until 12:45 PM.  The day started out cloudy, so
I didn't bring an umbrella.  But, the sky quickly cleared up and I got
even more sunburned on my arms, neck, face, and head.
   Once inside, the crush of people today was much worse than Saturday.
There was much pushing and jostling -- if you hate crowds, DO NOT come
to Japan.  Saturday was much more pleasant than today.  I had killed
time in line trying to figure out the comics guide.  Turns out that
there are two listings of exhibitors -- one for each day.  There are
listings all of the people at all of the tables, broken down by building,
plus examples of their work to let you know if you want to visit any
given table.
   The most noticible difference today is that there are many more
tables selling fan-written software games.  Most of the games are for
PC's running Japanese DOS, and are almost all softcore porno written by
guys.  There are more doujinshiis concentrating on 3x3 Eyes, porno with
lesbians, and Street Fighter (originally an arcade game, now out as anime
OAVs.)  I bought a Ranma 1/2, general interest, Master Keaton, and Dragon
Ball Z doujinshii, plus a plastic pin, and a cassette tape of amateur MIDI
music.  (All total, I spent about 8000 yen for the two days, including
drink and train fare.)
   One of the buildings had one floor dedicated to a costume show.
THE most popular costume was the female villian from Street Fighter
(about 10 of them.)  I also saw a Gargoyle from Nadia, street punks,
Dragon Quest characters, and several people in Chinese Army uniforms.
The most impressive costume was the 8-foot tall Transformer Giant Robot.
   I wasn't all that impressed by most of the doujinshiis, because they
did look like fan art (and had too much straight writing in kanji that
would be too much work to read.)  But the production values were very
good, and one of the advertisers in the comics guide was a printer
company.  There's lots of money tied up in making these things.
   Over all, it was a very draining experience.  I left at 3:15 PM, and
it took until 9:00 PM for me to recover from the heat and people.  I
didn't see any of the professional artists, but that was probably
because I either didn't know who to look for, or they'd left before I
got on the grounds.
   I don't know if I'll go to the next con, but I am thinking about
sending mail to several of the groups that had their addresses listed
in the guide.  Also, the Japan Times newspaper had an announcement last
week from someone trying to do their own doujinshii.  The ad only
listed a fax number, but it was in English.  If things work out, I may
join this new group/guy simply as a writer.  If so, then I WILL go to
the next con if I'm still in Japan 4 months from now.

Hints: If you ever decide to come to Japan, and visit a doujinshii
convention, keep the following in mind.  Bring something to drink and
snack on while you are waiting in line.  You will probably be in line
for at LEAST 3 hours.  Try to arrive around 8:00 AM -- the serious otaku
will arrive before 7:00 AM, so that they can buy the rare stuff that
only they would care about, and the regular otaku expect a long wait and
many will get there early too.  If it is summer, bring an umbrella as
protection from the sun; or sunscreen.  Also bring something to kill
the time.  If you come with some friends, bring a cooler.
   Don't worry about the type of clothing to wear (beyond being
comfortable,) because there will be a number of Japanese that will look
just like you (including the bleached hair.)  There were a few women
waiting in line wearing high heels -- I suggest against it.  Also bring
something to carry your purchases in.  If you buy enough, though, you can
get your stuff boxed up, and even mailed to a local address.

                                         Curtis H. Hoffmann
                                         Aug. 16, 1992

--
Hitoshi Doi, International Open Systems Engineering        doi@jrd.dec.com
Japan Research and Development Center               decwrl!jrd.dec.com!doi
Digital Equipment Corporation Japan                     doi@decvax.dec.com
Xref: sparky rec.arts.manga:813 rec.arts.anime:17771