Dog Eaters

Comiket — or as they say in English: Comic Market

Posted on 08.14.09 4:04AM under comiket, cosplay, Uncategorized

We saw how they do it in San Diego. Now we see how they do it in Tokyo. Unlike San Diego, the emphasis is on fan art. It’s 90% fan art, 10% corporate. 90% of the fan art is copyright infringement of existing intellectual properties. They turn your favorite characters into gay lovers or porno. Interestingly, female artists like to draw boys, coupling. They do not identify with their art, they are voyeurs, innocent but … how do you say, “depraved” in a neutral, non-judgmental way?

There are cosplayers, but not to the extent you see in San Diego.
cos_club

I estimate there were 100,000 people on the first day. There were lines to get into lines. We were led in through different doors by very efficient volunteers and the wait was only 45 minutes. Admission is free! Catalogs are 2000 JPY or a little more than $20 USD, though. And you need a catalog to find what you’re looking for. It’s like a telephone book for a city, over 1400 pages in all. Each day, the booths change.
comimarket
catalogpages
Each image on the page is a booth. Each booth is like a cell of a honeycomb. Tokyo Big Sight is comprised of the West Halls, which is an architectural wonder.
bigsite
West Hall and the monorail tracks curving in front.
bigsight1
Frontal view.

And the East Halls, which are huge and sprawling. In terms of participants and viewers, this is a much, much bigger than San Diego Comicon. And yet Comi Ke couldn’t hold our attention for a full day.
easthall2
East Hall with the monorail tracks above.

As mentioned, the fan art is based on IP (intellectual property) which the fan artist does not have the rights to. Their work is an inspired mash-up or rip-off, depending on how you look at it. Yet the owner of the IP does nothing to stop it and even seems to encourage it. Why they would allow a Gundam character to be in a porno is a mystery…
cogito_detail
Detail of cover (you should see the rest): “Cogito, ergo sum.” Artist: Junki Mutoh (female)

Female artists love to depict boys coupling. They will riff on something like “Boondock Saints,” (Willem Dafoe played a gay cross-dresser) and run with that motivation. Here are some examples:
coupling_1
This one is called: “Western Child”
coupling_2
A couple of large posters

delicatezone
Here’s one called, “Delicate Zone.” The small figures are like paper dolls.

jerktrick
This one is called, “Jerk Trick.”

Well, I think you get the idea.

So the female artists are into boys coupling. What are the male artists into? Take a guess. Ummm… well, porno. Corporate imagery is not as explicit but Kotobuki did have these shower curtains.
kotobuki
These go for 8000 JPY or a little more than $80 USD.

Here are some large posters. I think that since about 50,000 people saw them today, it’s okay to show!
pornbanner
Big lines for whatever these people were selling.

pornbanner2
Lot’s of this kind of stuff. And girls draw it as well.

Here are some examples of shopping or swag bags.
bags
bags2
bags3
bags4
bags5
Would you walk down the streets of your home town with bags like these? I thought so!

For those of you who enjoy seeing cosplayers, here are a few images. You’ll notice they don’t hold anything. It is against regulations to have any accessories longer than one foot and absolutely nothing that looks like a weapon. In San Diego, there were so many realistic weapons, it would have been easy for someone to smuggle in a real gun or sword.

Here is one of the Cosplay zones (down below) where you were allowed to take photos.
cosplay_zone
I think there was another zone which probably had better cosplayers, but you can get the idea.

cos_chubba2
She’s cute!

cos_club3
What did you say?

cos_club41
Come closer, please…

cos_clubchubba
Oh, that’s who you wanted to come closer!

cos_crossred
This guy was wearing a padded bra. I think his day job is figure skater…

cos_eyepatch
Sweet couple!

cos_hanged
This character has auto-asphyxiation issues…

cos_redhed2
You are the only one for me!

cos_redhed4
And she doesn’t take, “No,” for an answer!

cos_redweird
Another lovely couple.

cos_muscles
At the end of the day, this character is sure to get better muscle tone because of all the flexing and isometrics he did for the cameras.

cos_whitemini3
She casts a mean spell.

cos_pink
Your standard pink-haired bunny character.

We went by car and were lucky to find parking. Note to self: definitely take the train next time!
3cars
However, we did see these great cars, tricked out in manga motifs in our parking lot.

Here’s the car on the left.
suzuki
The hood.

suzuki2
Side window.

suzuki3
Rear view.

This is the middle car.
silvercar
This one has cushions with a manga motif.

silvercar2
The rear right bumper.

We saw a couple of cars on the road as well.
blackcar
This one was headed for Big Sight.

We slowly overtook this car at about .001 mph in heavy, heavy traffic.
whitecar

It took us about 20 minutes to pass him.
whitecar2
He was in the lane to turn to see the giant, full-size Gundam. That was where we were going, too. But it was just too agonizing.

We skipped it for today and went back over Rainbow Bridge. And you can see Gundam from there.
gundam
He’s just a bit far away. But we’ll catch him later!

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