Dōjinshi

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Dōjinshi (同人誌^?, often transliterated as doujinshi) are self-published Japanese works, usually magazines, manga or novels. They are often the work of amateurs, though some professional artists participate as a way to publish material outside the regular industry. The term dōjinshi is derived from dōjin (同人^?, literally "same person", used to refer to a person or persons with whom one shares a common goal or interest) and shi (誌^?, a suffix generally meaning "periodical publication"). Dōjinshi are part of a wider category of dōjin including, but not limited to, art collections, anime, hentai and games. Groups of dōjinshi artists refer to themselves as a sākuru (サークル^?, circle). A number of such groups actually consist of a single artist: they are sometimes called kojin sākuru (個人サークル^?, personal circles).

Dōjinshi are made by artists or writers who prefer to publish their own materials. Avid fans of dōjinshi attend regular dōjinshi conventions, the largest of which is called Comiket (short for "Comic Market") held in the summer and winter in Tokyo's Big Sight. At the Convention, over 20 acres (81,000 m²) of dōjinshi are bought, sold, and traded by attendees. Dōjinshi creators who based their materials on other creators' works normally publish in small numbers to maintain a low profile from litigation. This makes a talented creator's or circle's dōjinshi a coveted commodity as only the fast or the lucky will be able to get them before they sell out.

Over the last decade, the practice of creating dōjinshi has expanded significantly, attracting thousands of creators and fans alike. Advances in personal publishing technology have also fueled this expansion by making it easier for dōjinshi creators to write, draw, promote, publish, and distribute their works. For example, some dōjinshi are now published on digital media. Furthermore, many dōjinshi creators are moving to online download and print-on-demand services, while others are beginning to distribute their works through American channels such as anime shop websites and specialized online direct distribution sites.

History

The pioneer among dōjinshi magazines was Morning Bell (明六雑志), published in the early Meiji period (since 1874). Not a literary magazine in fact, it nevertheless played a big role in spreading the idea of dōjinshi. First magazine to publish dōjinshi novels was Library of all sorts of things (我楽多文庫), founded in 1885 by writers Ozaki Koyo and Yamada Bimyo.^[1] Dōjinshi's publication reached it's peak in the early Showa era, becoming a mouthpiece for the creative youth of that time. Created and distributed in small circles of authors or close friends, it contributed significantly to the emergence and development of shishosetsu genre. During the postwar years the publication of dōjinshi as representations different literary schools and new authors gradually decreased, substituted by literary journals Gunzo, Bungakukai and etc. One notable exception was Literary Capital (文芸首都), published in 1933-1969. Few dōjinshi magazines survived with the help of official literary journals. Haiku and tanka magazines remain active till nowadays.

During the 1980s, the content of dōjinshi shifted from being predominantly original content to being mostly parodic of existing series.^[2]

In 2008, a white paper on the otaku industry was published, this estimated that gross revenue from sales of dōjinshi in 2007 were 277.3 billion yen, or 14.9% of total otaku expenditure on their hobby.^[3]

Perception

John Oppliger of AnimeNation stated that creating dōjinshi is largely popular with Japanese fans however not with Western fans. Oppliger claimed that because Japanese natives grow up with animation and manga "as a constant companion", Japanese fans "are more intuitively inclined" to create or expand on existing manga and anime in the form of dōjinshi .^[4] Because Western fans experience a "more purely" visual experience as most Western fans cannot understand the Japanese language, the original language of most anime, and are "encouraged by social pressure to grow out of cartoons and comics during the onset of adolescence", most Western fans participate in utilizing and rearranging existing work into anime music videos.^[5]

In Western cultures, dōjinshi is often perceived to be derivative of existing work, analogous to fan fiction and almost completely pornographic. This is partly true: dōjinshi are often, though not always, parodies or alternative storylines involving the worlds of popular manga, game or anime series, and can often feature overtly sexual material. However, there are also many non sexually explicit dōjinshi being created as well. The Touhou series for example, is notable for the large amount of dōjinshi being produced for it that are not pornographic in nature^[6][7]. Groups releasing adults only themed materials during the annual Touhou only event Reitaisai in 2008 were estimated at roughly 10%^[7].

Categories of dōjinshi

Like their mainstream counterparts, dōjinshi are published in a variety of genres and types. However, due to the target audience, certain themes are more prevalent, and there are a few major division points by which the publications can be classified. It can be broadly divided into original works and aniparo—works which parody existing anime and manga franchises.^[8]

As in fanfics, a very popular theme to explore is non-canonical pairings of characters in a given show (for dōjinshi based on mainstream publications). Many such publications contain yaoi or yuri (that is, homosexual) motives, either as a part of non-canon pairings, or as a more direct statement of what can be hinted by the main show.

A major part of dōjinshi, whether based on mainstream publications or original, contains sexually explicit material, due to both the large demand for such publications and absence of restrictions official publishing houses have to follow. Indeed, often the main point of a given dōjinshi is to present an explicit version of a popular show's characters. Such works may be known to English speakers as "H-dōjinshi", in line with the former Japanese use of letter H to denote erotic material. The Japanese usage, however, has since moved towards the word ero ^[9], and so ero manga (エロ漫画^?) is the term almost exclusively used to mark dōjinshi with adult themes. Sometimes they will also be termed "for adults" (成人向け, seijin muke^?) or 18-kin (18禁^?) (an abbreviation of 18歳未満禁止 "forbidden to minors less than 18 years of age"). To differentiate, ippan (一般^?, , "general", from the general public it is suitable for) is the term used for publications absent of such content.

Comiket

Comiket is the world's largest comic convention. It is held twice a year in Tokyo, Japan. The first CM was held in December 1975, with only about 32 participating circles and an estimated 600 attendees. About 80% of these were female, but male participation in Comiket increased later.^[2] Attendance has since swelled to over half a million people. Many attendants come to exchange and/or sell their dōjinshi.

In 2009, Meiji University opened a dōjin manga library, named “Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library” to honour its alumni in its Surugadai campus. It contains Yonezawa's own dōjinshi collection, comprising 4137 boxes, and the collection of Tsuguo Iwata, another famous person in the sphere of dōjinshi.^[10]

Reception

Despite being in direct conflict with the Japanese copyright law as many dōjinshi are derivative works and dōjinshi artists rarely secure the permission of the original creator, Comiket is still permitted to be held twice year and holds over half-a-million people attending each time it convenes.^[11] However, the practice of doujinshi can be beneficial to the commercial manga market by creating an avenue for aspiring mangaka to practice,^[12] and talented doujinshi creators are contacted by publishers.^[13] This practice has existed since the 1980s.^[14] Many Japanese publishing companies sponsor annual manga competitions in which the winner is awarded the publication of their winning story.^[15] Salil Mehra, a law professor at Temple University, hypothesizes that because dōjinshi market actually causes the manga market to be more productive, the law does not ban dōjinshi as the industry would suffer as a result. Lawrence Lessig, a professor of law at Stanford Law School, wrote in his book "Free Culture" that although authors are still to entitled to sue for copyright infringement, Japanese law firms do not have enough lawyers and resources to prosecute such cases.^[11]

Legacy

• Comic Party - a video game, manga and an anime based on being a dōjinshi artist
• The manga and anime Dōjin Work created by Hiroyuki is based on creating and selling dōjinshi.
• In the manga and anime Genshiken the second season's storyline focuses on the group's production of a dōjinshi.

Notable dōjinshi artists

• Clamp started out as a dōjinshi group of 11 known as Clamp Cluster.
• Ken Akamatsu, creator of manga such as Love Hina and Negima, continues to make dōjinshi which he sells at Comiket under the pen-name Awa Mizuno.
• Rikdo Koshi, creator of the manga Excel Saga, originally started out as a dōjinshi artist.
• Nanae Chrono, creator of the manga Peacemaker Kurogane, has published multiple Naruto dōjinshi, most of a yaoi nature.
• Maki Murakami, creator of Gravitation and Gamers' Heaven. Her circle Crocodile Ave. created Remix Gravitation AKA Rimigra and Megamix Gravitation, which were extremely sexually graphic.^[16]
• Kazuhiko Katō, also known as Monkey Punch, creator of Lupin III began as a dōjinshi artist.
• Artist Nobuteru Yūki sells dōjinshi based on his animated works under his pen-name "The Man in the High Castle".
• Yukiru Sugisaki, author of D.N.Angel and The Candidate for Goddess, started as a dōjinka. She released dōjinshi about King of Fighters, Evangelion, etc; all were gag dōjinshi.
• Yun Kouga, a longtime published mangaka and creator of two well-known BL series, Earthian and Loveless published dōjinshi for series such as Gundam Wing.
• Yoshitoshi ABe has published some of his original works as dōjinshi, such as Haibane Renmei. He cited the reason as, essentially, not wanting to answer to anyone about his work, especially because he saw it as so open ended.
• Hajime Ueda, the creator of Q·Ko-chan and the comic adaptation of FLCL.
• Rumiko Takahashi- Began drawing doujinshi before being discovered.
• Crimson Comics, a circle (or maybe even one person) of dōjinshi author(s) who have made well over 50 H-dōjin on well over 20 different series, ranging from the popular to the obscure, such as One Piece, Naruto, Bleach, Black Cat, Final Fantasy, and more.
• Masaki Kajishima, creator of Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki, has long used the dōjinshi format to produce additional information about the series he has created, primarily Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki and Tenchi Muyo! GXP. These dōjinshi can either be completely filled with his work, or he will contribute a work to the dōjinshi title. Kajishima-sensei's dōjinshi works break down into one (or more) types of works: manga-style (where he illustrates a new story, usually with limited text), interviews, early drafts of scripts for the series (giving fans great insight into the creative process), storyboards drawn by Kajishima-sensei that ultimately were not animated, story notes (or short stories) giving further little details of various characters, situations, or places in Kajishima-sensei's World of Tenchi. As of this writing, Kajishima-sensei does two dōjinshi titles a year under the circle names "Kajishima Onsen" and "Kamidake Onsen". He has also used these to communicate with fans about his current projects, namely the Saint Knights Tale spinoff anime featuring Tenchi's half-brother and the GXP novels.
• Datendō, the pseudonym for Yūki Nagase, created hentai doujins for the Dead or Alive and Rumble Roses series, titling them DOA Lost Eden 00-11 and Jumble Roses 1-2, Endless Desire 00-18, Kasumi Cullus, Ayane Culls, and Ragna Cross. His website is http://daten.maid.ne.jp .
• Shimoyakedō, a circle created by Tokiichi Ōma, author of over 30 H-dōjinshi mostly parodying the Tsukihime and Fate/stay night series.
• Yoshihiro Togashi, creator of YuYu Hakusho and Hunter x Hunter, has authored doujinshi such as Church!.
• Kazushi Hagiwara, creator of Bastard!!, and his group Studio Loud in School have published popular Bastard!!-related doujinshi such as Wonderful Megadeth!, as well as various Capcom-related doujinshi.
• Minami Ozaki, creator of the boylove manga Zetsuai, is an extremely prolific doujinshi creator who has authored numerous yaoi publications, most notably featuring characters from the soccer manga, Captain Tsubasa.
• Dekker Dreyer, creator of Tentacle Grape soda, illustrated the original label parodying La Blue Girl and other Tentacle Rape genre anime.
• Kiyohiko Azuma, creator of Azumanga Daioh and Yotsuba& started out doing doujinshi.
• 07th Expansion, creators of both Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Umineko no Naku Koro ni.
• Dragonball AF Created by Toyble.
• naked ape, creator of switch and Dolls, draw dōjinshi of Naruto, Code Geass and of their own work under the name 'acute girls'. Most is somewhat yaoi in flavour.
• Kodaka Kazuma, creator of Kizuna, Rotten Teacher's Equation (Kusatta Kyōshi no Hōteishiki), Love Equation (Renai Hōteishiki) and Border among others, has published several parody yaoi dōjinshi as K2 Company of Prince of Tennis and Fullmetal Alchemist, as well as an original dōjinshi series called 'Hana to Ryuu' (Flower and Dragon).
• Sanami Matoh, author of FAKE, has published parody yaoi dōjinshi (mostly of One Piece) and original dōjinshi as East End Club.

See also

• Dōjin
• Dōjin soft
• Dōjin music
• List of hentai authors
• Niigata Comic Market

Related concepts

• Amateur Press Association (APA)
• Fanzine
• Self publishing

References

External links

• Doujinshi Online: Reference site with circle/artist listings
• Passion: Popular dōjinshi fanlisting site
• Doujinshi DB: Huge user-submitted database of dōjinshi artists, circles, and books, including name translations
• Ultimate Anime Doujinshi: U.S. dōjinshi site with search page listing information on several thousands dōjinshi and large