Golden Week and the Doujin Flood

16Apr10

For people living in Japan, Golden Week is generally recognized as that random series of holidays that occurs between the end of April and the beginning of May. Ideally, the holidays end up strung around the weekend which can lead to nearly a full week of vacation-tastic fun time that…no one in Japan seems to really take advantage of. Clearly, the workaholic nature of Japan is something to be feared. When I studied at Tohoku University many years ago, I rather enjoyed those days of not needing to worry about classes.

According to Japan Guide, Golden Week will have an isolated holiday (Showa Day, 4/29) followed by a 5 day weekend. Of interest to otaku perhaps, is the tendency for stores to go completely out of their way to offer discounts and otherwise try to get rid of stuff to perhaps take advantage of the absurd influx of people going around doing a whole lot of nothing. Outside of “day 4″ of Comic Market (aka Comiket), expect to see Akihabara absolutely flooded with people. Of certainly greater interest are the large number of doujin-related events happenly in Japan during this time.

Comic1☆4

First up, we have Comic1 on April 29th. Comic1 has been a surprise, given the size of the event despite it’s young age compared to venerable events such as Sunshine Creation. Comic1 draws in around 25,000 people at each event which would really put it on par with some of the largest anime-related conventions in North America. Certainly, doujin events are a different beast from the anime conventions, but I will leave that for another time when I feel like talking about anime conventions. Anyhow, Comic1 is considered the successor to the older Comic Revolution that was held in Ikebukuro. Given the size of the World Import Mart building in Ikebukuro where Comic Revolution, Sunshine Creation and even Reitaisai was held, it is probably a good thing that Comic1 is held at Tokyo Big Site.

Those of you who may be considering making the journey to “Mecca” ala Comiket, may want to consider doing a warm-up for the big one by attending this event. For one thing, it is a sizable event that also occupies the same building as Comiket does. Thus, one can get used to the joys of preparation such as waking up at the crack of dawn and hopping the first train into Odaiba or braving the cold night and camping at Big Sight. However, given past history, I would suggest against camping at Big Sight. Honestly, there are better things to do with your time. Consider Comic1 as normal mode to Comiket’s lunatic mode.

Another bonus to attending Comic1 are the large number of major circles who participate at the event. With the exceptions of Tony, who is probably too busy to even bother, expect to see circles such as Fujitsubo Machine, Joker Type, Cut a Dash, and AMR to aim a few. As always, it’s good to grab a catalog and F5 the circle webpages to verify that they are in fact attending.

Super Comic City 19

Fans of everything BL will want to look into this event which rolls into Tokyo Big Sight on May 2nd and 3rd. As you can imagine from this advert, Super Comic City is all about boys love and more or less nothing else. Granted, that is not entirely the case as folks interested in hunting down non-adult doujinshi can occasionally find some great stuff here. I’ve attended the event once many years ago and I was surprised to find quite a number of fantastic non-BL Fire Emblem doujinshi which in general are fairly hard to come by. That, and I suppose if you are looking to pick up on some fabulous fujoshi, there are plenty around.

Comitia 92

Comitia falls on May 4th and is also held at Tokyo Big Sight. The Tokyo edition of this event is held 4 times a year and features entirely original works. By original that means materials that are not based off copyrighted material unless of course they are materials created by the artist themselves who are participated in the event. Certainly, there is great opportunity to find a lot of new stuff. I originally had not put a lot of thought into attending this event in previous times but a comrade did recommend it as a good event to look into.

One of things I noticed when I attended Comitia 89 last August was that there was, of course a lot of the same circles who attended both Comitia 89 and Summer Comiket 76. Given the smaller attendance, this basically meant that it was possible to pick up books from circles who might’ve sold out at Comiket but printed more books for sale at Comitia. Given the frenetic pacing of Comiket, it was nice to attend an event where I could pick up stuff I missed while also being able to take my time going through the aisles. Another interesting aspect of the event was the music that was played in the hall. Other than Comiket and Reitaisai, I’ve never been to an event that had music being played over the PA system. I don’t recall 100%, but I believe the playlist had a number of 80s American pop music tracks. Different, but interesting no less.

Expect to see circles such as AB, Pasta’s Estab, Yellow Tag, and Ryusuke Works in attendance. Again as mentioned above, often times the crowds are not too bad compared to Comiket which also leaves the opportunity to chat with the artists. Practice that Japanese and take it easy!

M3

To finish off Golden Week, we have M3. M3 stands for Music + Media Mix Market and is an event that covers doujin/indie music. This is an event I’ve wanted to attend in the past but have never had the chance to do so. The event is held at the Tokyo Ryutsu Center which is located on the Ryutsu stop on the Tokyo Monorail. Assuming I have the chance to attend this event this year, I will definitely have more to write about it.

And there you have it. Nearly a full week of nothing but doujin events. Should you find yourself in Tokyo during Golden Week with nothing better to do, why not hop a train and take in an event or two?