The Old School Otaku Lounge

My J-friend in Tokyo asked me if I'd go with him to the Winter Comiket. But since that is always right around New Year's, I couldn't go because I was going to spend time with my family in Nagano-ken. Besides that, I'd already just visited Tokyo the week before that. I think I might like to visit the summer Comiket. I'm not sure if I will get much out of it, but it would certainly be an experience. I'd rather go to Wonderfestival again, though. (The Winter Wonderfest will be in February, but it's not likely that I will go to that.)

greg wrote:I think I might like to visit the summer Comiket. I'm not sure if I will get much out of it, but it would certainly be an experience.

Truthfully, I rarely buy anything at Comiket, but it IS an interesting experience. There's all manner of interesting people there and a wide array of stuff. (2011, the last time I went, was the first time I ever wanted something specific and the first time stood in the "opening" line. The book I went for sold out about 4-5 people in front of me ) My wife loves going tho, and regularly comes away with a bunch of stuff and THEN goes and buys up a ton of stuff on Otome Road in Ikebukuro. (she often loves getting parody doujinshi for western properties like "Lord of the Rings")

But it's certainly worth going to at LEAST once, unless you have a serious issue with copious amounts of drawn porn.

Heero wrote:But it's certainly worth going to at LEAST once, unless you have a serious issue with copious amounts of drawn porn.

That's not until the final day, right? At least that's what my friend back home in Arizona told me. He's been there a few times, as well as his friend. They told me that the final day is when all the hentai stuff is on display. I wouldn't say I have a serious issue with it, but I'd sure be rolling my eyes a lot and possible injure my eyesockets as a result.

At least at Wonderfest, all that stuff is in its own area that is sectioned off to keep kids out. Then again, Wonderfest targets model making and such and is generally an all-ages thing. I'm not so sure about the doujinshi world. I would like to go sometime to experience it for myself, and maybe take some video to share with the world on YouTube.

greg wrote:

Heero wrote:But it's certainly worth going to at LEAST once, unless you have a serious issue with copious amounts of drawn porn.

That's not until the final day, right?

No, it's pretty much all three days. Although day 3 IS the "heaviest". From what I recall, GENERALLY speaking it goes:
Day 1 = General Doujinshi
Day 2 = Doujinshi targeted to girls
Day 3 = Doujinshi targeted to guys (hence, the increase on day 3)
But you will certainly see it on all three days, they MIGHT be a bit more blatant about it on Day 3. Our "joke" was that if you see anything drawn well (artist has talent) then 90% of the time, no matter what the cover looks like, "it's porn". This MIGHT be an exaggeration based on where we went and what we looked at specifically, but it is my experience that "sex sells" therefore, many people draw such in order to move books. (or, we can pretend that they do so to practice drawing the human body)

Now, I will say, if you have no (or very little) intention to BUY, and therefore just want to look "around" the event and not necessarily through the doujinshi themselves, you may "see" less porn on days 1 & 2. Some people draw truly exquisite covers that beautifully mask the perversion within their book.

(as an aside, the actual proportion of porn at the WHOLE event is probably much less than 50% on day 1 and probably day 2, maybe even on day 3. Afterall, there's now people pitching music and games and other things (on the "questionable" side, there's also cosplayers hawking image CDs), and a large number of circles put out doujinshi that is all "written" (little/no art at all). But seriously, in my experience, unless the artist has already "made it" (like mangaka or anime pros who are at Comiket, and there ARE a fair amount), and sometimes even then, if the art is good then more often than not, it is porn. (if the art is bad, it's a crap shoot ) Again, if you are ONLY looking at covers, then that may not matter much, but if you peek inside the book... well, then things can get crazier.)

Heero wrote:From what I recall, GENERALLY speaking it goes:
Day 1 = General Doujinshi
Day 2 = Doujinshi targeted to girls
Day 3 = Doujinshi targeted to guys (hence, the increase on day 3)

If it's not the above, it MIGHT be:
Day 1 = Male Doujinshi
Day 2 = Female Doujinshi
Day 3 = "HARDCORE anything goes school of martial doujinshi"

Considering what guys "want" in their doujinshi, you can guess how day 1 goes though, and maybe day 2 just has naked/mostly naked dudes lying on/next to each other. I dunno for sure, I admit I don't really flip through "books for the ladies". We laughed when 有馬 啓太郎 gave me a book and was worried that it might offend my wife, since I'm more the "prude" than she is.

Dave, when we were in one of the Nakano Mandarake locations, you pointed out a spaceship that was from a Japanese show that was used as an episode of MST3K. Was that from Fugitive Alien? I just recently saw the two MST3K Fugitive Alien episodes. Or was it from something else?