Comic Market 52 was held at Tokyo Big Sight in Ariake, Tokyo from 08/15/97 till 08/17/97. Comic Market is the largest event of Doujinshi cartoon free market in Japan as I wrote here. The entries at this summer were about 420,000 man-days.
Thereafter some reports appeared. You will find a guidebook easily. The title is "Comike Collection" published by Magazine House in July, 1997. It introduces some major Doujinshi-book circles and how to do the costume-play. As I wrote here formerly, costume-players plays the roles of TV-animation characters, say, Makoto Shishio, Misao Makimachi, Kamatari Honjou (these three are from Rurouni Kenshin), Utena Tenjou, Anthea Himemiya (these two are from Utena - La Fillette Révolutionnaire), and Firia from Slayers TRY. These six characters are easy to understand and are easy to make.
This summer two animation movies got popular in Japan. But one was much popular than the other. The latter was Eva. Many Eva-fan costume-players in Comike played the role of Rei Ayanami. Some of those costumes cost more than 600,000 yen ($5,000). The numerous female Ayanami-fans were very cool or very mad. Moreover they did not resemble Ayanami.
"The Princess Mononoke (Japanese: Mononoke Hime)" produced by Director Hayao Miyazaki got the most popular in Japan this summer. You can read two reports on it. One is "The Nihongo Journal, October, 1997" and the other is "Weekly Ascii, 09/01/97." Especially the latter reported Mononoke costume-players. Because the heroine "San" makes up her face originally, "San" is easy to understand.
The Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Comike in 09/18/97. This summer in Comike, some Doujinshi comics dealt with writers' daily life. Formerly when a great disaster happened, such comics were published. Instead this tendency is on normal daily life.
I show here a supplement on some Doujinshi cartoon samples on the second day of Comike. Doujinshi comics on Utena and Card Captor Sakura enjoyed great popularity.
Hall | Booth | Circle | Major or not | Doujinshi | Publishing Date | Contents | Price | Size | Cover | Pages | Extras |
East 2 | A 47a | Mo, Odori Gumi! | Major | Shiawase Ni Narou | 06/08/97 | They regarded Kenshin as a woman. Female Kenshin breeds her baby Sakura, Sanosuke's son. A childcare diary. | 600 yen | B5 | Full colored | 48 pages | |
East 3 | A 74a | Myao | Major | Kinema No Yaneura | 08/16/97 | Parody of Utena. Most of the sellers did costume-play. A cartoon consists of their costume-play photographs. | 1,000 yen | A4 | Full colored | 40 pages with 4 full colored pages | |
East 3 | Y 33b | PLUM | ALL PUSH! | 08/15/97 | Parody of TV animation type Rayearth. This circle has a popular official home page. You can see some pictures on those Doujinshi there. | 500 yen | A5 | Full colored | 52 pages | ||
East 3 | Y 33b | PLUM | Hitosaji Futasaji Koi No Aji | 08/15/97 | Parody of Ah! My Goddess. The aged belldandy appeared. | 400 yen | A5 | Full colored | 36 pages | ||
West 2 | Ki 25a | Mix Salad Alpha | Koitsu Ga Ichiban!! | 12/28/96 | Parody of Slayers series. "Angelique" is a video game title. The game is very popular in Japan at present. Most of the fans are not girls but female. In the game, a player as a girl must take a "Queen Examination (Japanese: Jo-ou Shiken)." Then nine nice knights help a player. Many players fell in virtual love with a knight. In this comics, Lina and Naga play the game and raise a disturbance shooting a Drag-Slave. | 500 yen | A5 | Full colored | 52 pages |
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Keywords:
Ah! My Goddess|Previous Column|Next Column
Card Captor Sakura|Previous Column|Next Column
Magic Knight Rayearth|Previous Column|Next Column
Neon Genesis Evangelion|Previous Column|Next Column
The Princess Mononoke|Next Column
Rurouni Kenshin|Previous Column|Next Column
Slayers TRY|Previous Column|Next Column
Utena - La Fillette Révolutionnaire|Previous Column|Next Column