Yesterday, I went to Comic Market, known as Comiket for short (pronounced comi-kay), at the Tokyo Convention Center. The convention center is also referred to as the“Tokyo Big Sight.” Don’t ask me about the name; perhaps the designers of the building wanted to make you feel like you’re in a space station while visiting.
Comiket is the largest comic convention in the world, and occurs twice a year at the Tokyo Big Sight, once in August and again in December. Unlike the American Comic Con in San Diego, which showcases upcoming Hollywood movies and toy lines, Comiket is entirely for unknown, independent comic book artists.
One can buy the Comic Market magazine at any comic shop in Japan. The phonebook sized monthly publication lets any aspiring artist submit a picture and profile of their homemade character or series (for a small fee) to appear on the pages of the magazine. The hope is that the artist will get some sort of publishing deal or at the very least a growing fan base.
Think of Comiket as an indie music or movie festival only with comic books (manga). Because the convention supports aspiring artists and series, you will not find any of the canonical Japanese texts at the rows and rows of private vendors in the airplane hanger sized exhibition spaces. No Bleach, no Dragonball, no Fullmetal Alchemist, and certainly no Pokemon.
To say the event was crowded would be an understatement of epic proportions. Like the Asakusa fireworks show I wrote about earlier, I was packed ear-to-ear with people in the Big Sight. People line up hours before the event starts and stampede inside when the doors open to get to their favorite vendors and buy the all- important “limited edition” goods before they sell out. Many artists sit at tables and will draw personalized artwork featuring their characters for fans.
I didn’t know any of the series, so I breezed through each of the nine exhibition halls relatively quickly, dodging through the human obstacle course; however, some patrons were in it for the long haul, carting around rolling suitcases filled with purchases.
When I told my coworker that I was going to Comiket, she told me not to wear any of the promotional shirts that the anime department at Columbia had given me or they would likely be ripped off by rabid fans screaming, “Where are they selling this. WHERE ARE THEY SELLING THIS?!” Evidently this happened to her a while back.
Lovers of pornographic manga were likely in heaven at Comiket. Tables as far as the eye could see were filled with books and books of naked girls with bulging breasts, petite school girls, and vicious S&M specialty stuff. Unsurprisingly, people in this area were entirely male.
The newest fad in Japanese Manga is “Boys' Love” (BL) or homosexual male manga. Just like the heterosexual female pornographic manga, BL books feature guys having sex in romantic locations. Interestingly however, when I went to the exhibition hall that sold the genre, the artists, sellers, and purchasing fans were all women. I didn’t see a single man (straight or otherwise) in the area.
The only "name-brand" thing at the convention was a table sponsored by Ban-Dai that let you build a Mobile Suit Gundam snap-together model for free if you waited in line. I sat across from a ten year old Japanese boy who snapped his together in five minutes flat while barking orders at his mother for what piece he needed next. My chubby links shook as I tried to place the microscopic stickers on my Gundam's plastic chest plate. I left the Comiket feeling exhausted; I must be getting old.
B.E.W.
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