Comiket - Tokyo’s summer comic festival

19 Aug 2005 Category: Events & Exhibitions, Japan

In my opinion if you don’t embrace who you truly are, you’re going to live a cold and bitter life, and you’ll probably do stuff like pretend your cat is a real person. However, when trying to fit into regular society, we tend to keep certain things to ourselves. For example people are often forced by the invisible boundaries of polite chit-chat, to talk about generic rubbish like work, soccer etc. That’s fine if you are one of those people who actually enjoys talking about sports, but what if you are someone who enjoys…well…something a little different. Of course, it depends on the situation, you can’t be all:

Yeah yeah enough about soccer. Hey, do you like bestiality?

BUT today I am throwing caution to the wind as I am going to introduce you to one of MY secret fetishes, I mean hobbies. This is the world of Japanese comics, cosplay and doujinshi and last weekend I went to big comic event in Tokyo to get my fill of all three. This is my report of COMIKET.

“Comiket” is short-form for “Comic Market”, a 3 day festival held once a year in Tokyo, for Japanese “cosplay” and “doujinshi”. For the uninitiated, these are two very unique facets of modern Japanese culture. Cosplay is an amalgamation of the words “Costume” and “Play”, and is basically the act of dressing up in costumes to look like your favourite anime or manga character. Doujinshi is fan-drawn unofficial comics, using the art style and characters from the original comics, but in stories dreamed up by the fans. A glorious 3-day extravaganza of the cute, the cool, the weird and the wow-look-at-her-she-has-a-tail-that’s-kinda-hot.

My main aim at Comiket was to have a little bit of fun and also to exploit the fact that there were literally hundreds of women dressed up as PINK CATS and the like, by taking copious amounts of digital photos.

Looking around at all the fan-drawn comics (some looking incredibly professional) and all the cosplay costumes displaying varying levels needle-craft mastery, it was obvious that these objects weren’t just “things”, these were the blood, sweat and tears of this, a throbbing legion of comic-fans, in their element for 3 glorious, consecutive days.

The number of genres covered by these fan-drawn comics is mind-boggling. Truly, there was something there to satisfy ANY interest. Anyway, generic themes such as sports, sci-fi etc were well-represented, as well as more esoteric themes such as being an up-and-coming musician in the highly competitive Japanese music industry.

Walking around the convention center I was easily distracted by all the cool things on offer and I had lost track of my original goal. Which was? To seek out COSPLAYERS.

As you can see from the pictures along the side, I did just that. The amount of work that these cosplayers put into their hobby is staggering. To create a costume like the ones you see along the left, you would have to buy all the stuff yourself, check every detail of the comic characters costume by looking at hundreds of pictures, put it all together and also make sure that it actually FITS you properly - it truly is something of a modern art.

I wish I had the patience to do all that, and the confidence to prance around posing for photos once it’s all done.

Enjoy the photos! What a great summer memory that turned out to be :)

Written by KNYM
Translated by Jon

Comiket posters on the subway station wall
Comiket posters on the subway station wall

"Are you happy enough for COMIKET?"　NO I AM NOT. But I expect to be made happy soon. Very soon.


Comiket is located at a place in Tokyo called
Comiket is located at a place in Tokyo called "BIG SITE"

WHOO HOO COSPLAYERS. I have no idea what they are cosplaying though.
WHOO HOO COSPLAYERS. I have no idea what they are cosplaying though.
So many comic fans. Whodathunkit.
So many comic fans. Whodathunkit.

The doujinshi (fan-drawn comics) corner!
The doujinshi (fan-drawn comics) corner!
Green things.
Green things.


buying up lots o' stuff
buying up lots o' stuff

look at that massive queue!
look at that massive queue!
My accomplice Nakazawa-kun looking at a poster that says,
My accomplice Nakazawa-kun looking at a poster that says, "Walk slowwwly!", as some friendly advice to all the over-excited comic fans.

And now, in the convention center itself, my digital camera springs to life...
And now, in the convention center itself, my digital camera springs to life...
It's Misalin from DEATH NOTE!!11 What? You don't know her? Oh. Just me then.
It's Misalin from DEATH NOTE!!11 What? You don't know her? Oh. Just me then.

Dunno who this is meant to be, but she's cute.
Dunno who this is meant to be, but she's cute.
Thaaat's it....look at me......*k-ching!*
Thaaat's it....look at me......*k-ching!*

ooh ooh someone from GIOGIO!
ooh ooh someone from GIOGIO!
ooh someone from
ooh someone from "Fushigi no umi no Nadia"! It's always cool to see people dressed as characters that I recognise.

Yuhna from Final Fantasy X. Note she also has the pose down to a tee - that's equally as important as the costumes.
Yuhna from Final Fantasy X. Note she also has the pose down to a tee - that's equally as important as the costumes.

11 Comments

  1. Do I get a free Ping Mag gift for finding a mistake… and being an anime geek? Well the bottom-most left picture is not actually Yuhna from FFX. She is Anemone from Eureka Seven (which started airing last year). But she does have the “pose down to a tee”.. check it out :
    http://www.eureka-prj.net

    Posted by: tsouk on May 5th, 2006 at 6:29 pm

  2. well i have lots of experiences in japan but i ve never been to the comiket but i ve dreemed of it,maybe i ve not read very well everithing you ve wrote but can u tell me some more information about it ?
    is it done all the same days all the years ,when ? if not when it is this year or when can i know it (web site)
    can everibody can go to it (age)
    sorry cause my english is not very good but im doing my best
    ^^ thank u for u help
    victor

    Posted by: victor on May 30th, 2006 at 12:03 am

  3. sry i ve forgot to give u my e mail adress u may need it
    vhudelot@hotmail.com

    Posted by: victor on May 30th, 2006 at 12:40 am

  4. i’am not old inof to go to festivals in tokyo.

    Posted by: jose villegas on December 12th, 2007 at 5:19 am

  5. interesting style

    Posted by: kurye on February 16th, 2008 at 11:13 pm

  6. thanks for subject. it is very intersting post

    Posted by: nakliyat on February 28th, 2008 at 3:16 am

  7. thanks for subject. it is very intersting post

    Posted by: konteyner on December 24th, 2010 at 5:47 am

  8. I wish I had the patience to do all that, and the confidence to prance around posing for photos once it’s all done.

    Posted by: perdeci on December 24th, 2010 at 2:03 pm

  9. So “improvement” does not necessarily mean “make it look all futuristic and cool ooh this would look great in my new hover car”. However, the rash of designers setting out to improve the design of the humble clothes hanger are actually managing to combine some pleasing designs with a marked improvement in the actual functionality of the design, too. Well, most are.

    Posted by: amed on December 25th, 2010 at 11:09 am

  10. goruntulu sohbet edin super bir yer ya girin amk ne duruyonuz

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