|
Anime Central - Day One - Doujinshi
|
| |
 |
The telephone directory for Arlington Heights, Ill. has 684 pages.
The pictured catalog for the August 1999 Comic Market has 1,300 pages.
Each of those pages is packed with small introductions for the thousands
of "circles," groups of fans who create their own doujinshi and sell them
at the bi-annual conventions in Tokyo. Imagine four times the attendance
of a Chicago Bears' game gathering at McCormack Place to buy fan comics,
and you get the idea of Comic Market's size. |
|
| |
| Dan Kanemitsu has visited several Comic Markets and has seen the intensity
of the fans, both those who strive hard to create their doujinshi and those
who try to buy everything in sight. It goes far beyond American comic fan
art, but it could develop in the U.S., with groups such as Studio APK trying
to create their own version. Part of the challenge facing those who would
make American doujinshi is finding a printer. Kanemitsu noted that the
U.S. doesn't have the doujinshi printing industry found in Japan, but there
are plenty of small industrial printers and instant print shops that can
handle that work. |
 |
|
| |
 |
Then there's the challenge of dodging any objection from the companies
that hold the copyrights to the original characters featured in doujinshi
parodies. Only a few Japanese companies object to the use of their characters,
since manga publishers recruit the best doujinshi artists and read Comic
Market books to find those artists. However, Nintendo has been known to
crack down on a handful of doujinshi creators, and American comic companies
object to any case where books using their characters are sold. Kanemitsu
thinks would-be American doujinshi creators can avoid those pitfalls: all
they need is for U.S. manga fans to be willing to support them by buying
their books. |
|
| |
| Many professional manga artists (former Anime Central guest Kenichi
Sonoda among them) still make doujinshi. Why go to all that trouble when
they already have a a stressful, deadline driven job? "It's a form of entertainment,"
he said. "If you're facing a deadline and doing the same material over
and over again, sometimes it's fun to do a nonsensical parody." |
 |
|
