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Nele Noppe

Comic Market: How the World's Biggest Amateur Comic Fair Shaped Japanese Dōjinshi Culture - 0 views

  • the world's largest regular gathering of comic fans today is Tokyo's biannual Comic Market
  • dōjinshi phenomenon did not start with Comic Market, Comike and dōjinshi are inextricably linked, having shaped each other's history for three decades.
  • Comike convention has shaped the most important trends defining the development of dōjinshi in Japan today
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  • In 1975, a woman who had made critical remarks about the Manga Taikai was excluded from that convention, and [End Page 234] subsequently a firestorm of anger among fans produced a movement against the Manga Taikai led by the famous circle Meikyū (Labyrinth), which resulted in the conception of a new alternative convention. On December 21, 1975, the first Comic Market—"a fan event from fans for fans"—was held in Tokyo.6
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  • Comike's underlying vision was of an open and unrestricted dōjinshi fair, offering a marketplace without limitations on content or access.
  • With the advent of these fan-consumers (as opposed to fan-creators), dōjinshi became demand-driven publications. Greater competition gradually fostered rising standards of quality, which in turn attracted more circles and buyers. Higher sales shrank production costs and boosted profits, which could then be reinvested in the dōjinshi themselves. Small printing companies, many of which had begun in the minikomi (microcommunication) boom of the early 1970s, were able to use the profits derived from greater demand for their services to modernize their equipment, lowering production costs further and enabling them to construct their production schedules around each Comike.8 Additionally, lower printing costs freed smaller groups from the dependence on bigger groups, which often had strict rules on content and style to avoid conflict among their many members. Having lost their raison d'être, these big clubs and circles gradually faded away, leaving dōjinshi creators to produce stories they liked, in the manner they liked.9
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  • aniparo parodied popular anime series, and in doing so, attracted a new type of fan to Comike, beyond its core group of 2000 or so attendees. These were female fans, mostly middle and high school students strongly influenced by the 1970s florescence of shōjo manga. They began to create and consume dōjinshi in which the (bishōnen or "pretty boy") male protagonists of popular anime and manga were transposed into a very particular sort of erotic story typified by the phrase: "without tension" (yama nashi), "without punchline" (ochi nashi), and "without meaning" (imi nashi)—and hence the contemporary genre title, yaoi.10
  • The eleventh Comic Market in spring 1979 saw the popularity of the cute and pure bishōjo or "pretty girl" (strongly influenced by 1970s shōjo manga) skyrocket among men's dōjinshi circles, attracting many new male participants.
  • The Comic Market was dominated by women from the beginning (90 percent of its first participants were female), but in 1981, thanks to lolicon, male participants numbered the same as female participants for the first time in Comike's history.13
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  • Internal conflicts on the Comike planning committee underlay some of these developments: they marked the ascendancy of the faction led by Yonezawa Yoshihiro, who favored Comike's unlimited expansion.15 Though he was criticized for purportedly selling dōjinshi out to commercialism, Yonezawa couched his plans for Comike in terms of a collective organization of the convention by all participants, including staff, circles, and visitors.16 Whatever the underlying reality, these public principles remain little changed today.17
  • Faced with this loss of identity, talent, and space, every other large fan convention except Comike dissolved. Yaoi Boom But in the middle of the decade, one manga and its anime not only saved dōjinshi fandom from near extinction but was responsible for its biggest boom yet. Takahashi Yōichi's Captain Tsubasa (1981–88, Kyaputen tsubasa),
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  • New dōjinshi conventions appeared, and manga shops began selling dōjinshi on commission. Comparatively lush, custom-made, oversized dōjinshi with more than one hundred pages became common, and popular circles could now live on their fanworks' profits
  • professional creators like Toriyama Akira of Dragonball fame participating,
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  • Despite the self-censorship brought on by the mass media's criticism, Comike nevertheless continued to thrive. Young men tired of new, tighter restrictions on professional manga turned to Comike, and attendance once again swelled to 230,000 in the summer of 1990.23 Hardcore lolicon was now passé, and erotic dōjinshi for men had greatly changed. New genres were introduced with such aspects as fetishism and a new style of softcore eroticism enjoyed by men and women alike; in particular, yuri (lily), or lesbian stories, emerged.24Dōjinshi also became smaller and shorter due to professional publishers recruiting talented dōjinshi creators en masse: the bulk of dōjinshi were the works of the less talented creators left behind.25
  • Other factors contributing to the increased interest in dōjinshi and in fanworks were the development of fixed otaku landmarks and the spread of computers. Almost everyone could now afford to make digital dōjinshi as well as audiovisual or even interactive dōjinshi (i.e. dōjin music and dōjin games).
  • The personal technology revolution meant [End Page 239] simplification of fanworks' production processes as well as completely new possibilities for communication and new digital genres. With the growth of dōjinshi in other media, the term "dōjin products" (dōjin seihin) has gradually come into use to describe fanworks of all genres.
  • Further, the conversion of Tokyo's Akihabara "Electric Town" into a district full of shops selling otaku-related goods, as well as the nationwide expansion of otaku-goods retailers and the establishment of Internet communities and message boards in the late 1990s, enabled otaku to live out their interests and to communicate nonstop with like-minded people everywhere. Their interests and culture were easily shared, and consequently information on Comic Market and dōjin culture spread around the world.
  • The rise of the Internet also meant that Comike lost its monopoly as the center of otaku and dōjinshi culture. Nevertheless, Comike remained the most important event for Japanese fans, especially after companies with otaku-related products started to exploit it.28 Firms had been interested in Comic Market for decades as a never-ending pool of promising new talent and as a place to exploit them commercially, and they were willing to pay much money for direct access to these masses of otaku.29 Starting with NEC in the summer of 1995, companies were granted exhibition space to market or to sell their newest products. This was the birth of the dealer booth at Comike, and, as with dōjinshi circles, the number of applicant companies was much higher than that of available spaces: a self-sustaining event with such high attendance was too important for any related company to ignore.30 Companies accepted the existence of unlicensed parody dōjinshi using copyrighted material (albeit in a transformative and thus arguably fair-use manner) since they could now sell exclusive goods at Comike (Figure 3) or use it as a marketing place, attracting to the convention people who were not interested in dōjinshi.
  • In the summer of 2004, 5 percent of all circles participating in Comike were headed by a professional mangaka or illustrator, while another 10 percent had some professional experience.
  • Despite its relative newness, Higurashi became one of Japan's biggest media phenomena, and at the seventy-sixth Comic Market in summer 2009, Tōhō Project became the first dōjin title ever to receive the honor of being considered its own genre.
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  • It seems that dōjinshi circles are not switching entirely to the Internet but rather are using it as an informational and marketing platform for themselves and their creations, spreading the knowledge of and fascination with Comic Market to new spheres.
  • With high attendance, positive media attention, and industry support, Comike's position seems invulnerable. Even the deaths of important figures such as Iwata Tsuguo in 2004 and Yonezawa Yoshihiro—who was the face of Comike for decades—in 2006 did not harm its position. But unresolved problems, such as the use of copyrighted material in parody dōjinshi and the child pornography questions inherent in lolicon and shotakon, remain.
  • Comike was neither the first nor the biggest dōjinshi fair when it was established; its main purpose was to provide the freest market possible, and that freedom has come at a price. The dream of a Comic Market open to every one and everything was never realized, as there were too many physical, financial, and legal restrictions. Even today, the Comic Market suffers from a lack of space, a lack of money, and a lack of legal security. Only two-thirds of applicant circles can participate due to constraints, since, as a small independent operator Comike's financial resources are limited and most of the work is done by volunteers.
  • s the center of attention, with its size and its links to the industry, it is undeniable that Comike possesses the power and the means to influence social, market, and even political developments. In [End Page 244]
  • recent years it has not been reluctant to use this power. Whether through conferences on copyright issues or on the establishment of a "National dōjinshi fair liaison group" (Zenkoku dōjinshi sokubaikai renrakukai) in 2000, it has taken on the responsibility of representing and of regulating Japanese dōjinshi culture.
Ariane Beldi

OtakuTimes.de - serious about anime & manga - 0 views

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    Die neue Initiative namens Anime Copyright Allianz stellt eine Kooperation von Fans, Conentanbietern und Medienakteure dar, die gemeinsam die Respektierung des Urheberrechts in der deutschsprachigen Manga- und Animeszene fördern will.
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    This is a German website about promoting the respect of copyrigths in the field of animes and mangas. I know that this is an issue of debates, but I think it is worthwhile to read what people on both sides have to say.
Ariane Beldi

Digital Manga Publishing Detail New Venture to Launch Over 1,000 Manga Online // Siliconera - 2 views

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    Hikaru Sasahara, president of Digital Manga Publishing (Berserk), revealed, this week, to Anime News Network, a new venture his company is planning, by which fans will be able to provide their scanlations online, and these would then be distributed legally with the permission of the original copyright holders.
Ariane Beldi

Le débat sur la fanfiction relancé ? - Elbakin.net - 5 views

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    Diana Gabaldon (ci-contre) et George R.R. Martin, tous les deux opposés à laisser ce genre de liberté aux apprentis écrivains, viennent en effet de relancer les discussions autour du sujet.
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    This is in French, but it is about a debate on fanfiction, in which authors hold varying views on this phemonemon.
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    In my opinion, they haven't launched a debate so much as joined other commercially published authors such as Anne Rice and Lee Goldberg in endlessly repeating the same extremely wobbly arguments against amateur writing. They misunderstand intellectual property and the creative process in a variety of ways -e.g. by assuming that somebody using a character they created is the same as somebody stealing a physical object, and by labeling their creations 'original' while dismissing fanfic writers as people unable to come up with good ideas of their own. Not impressive at all, but unfortunately, big-name authors decrying the defilement of their creations by supposed thieving amateur pornographers make good media copy :P This post does a rather good rebuttal of the arguments usually raised against fanfic by enumerating commercial works that are just as "derivative" as fic: http://bookshop.dreamwidth.org/999259.html
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    To tell the truth, I'm not very knowledgeable in this field of copyrights issues. I'm just starting and need to read more. So, when I was tipped about these blog posts by people on Facebook, I thought it might be interesting for you and others. But apparently, from what you're saying, they are just going over and over the same old arguments. I'll check your link and we'll keep it for later thinking. ;-)
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    It is an excellent post! I love the section about Virgile being a fanboy from Homer! I had to translate and learn Chant 6 of the Aeneid for my final high school exam! She could have added that Dante Alighieri is a huge fanboy of Virgile (he actually considers him as his spiritual master, despite the fact that more than 1000 years separates them both).
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    Oh, it's a very interesting topic -my favourite ;) I'm doing a lot of research on the position of fanworks in cultural production at the moment. IMHO, published authors who rail against fanfic seem to be rather hung-up on an author-as-God idea that is terribly outdated today, has never had much basis in reality in the first place, and does nothing at all to promote creativity. Also, the arguments about the supposed harm fanfic inflicts are just plain silly. There certainly isn't any economic harm (ficcers are your biggest fans and very likely to buy your products and attract new readers), and somebody using your character is not the same as stealing your car because your character remains intact and available to you no matter how many fics are written (or how sexually explicit these fics are). Er, I'm going to stop before I go on a five-page rant. Have some more links: http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007464.html is good and short, as is http://www.kristinabusse.com/cv/research/ip09.html (and many other articles on that site). http://www.tushnet.com/legalfictions.pdf talks about fanfic and copyright in more detail.
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    Thank you for all these links. I'm keeping them as well!
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    No prob! I'll send more if you're interested (Gabaldon generated a huge amount of intelligent rebuttal posts in the last couple of days), but let me know, I don't want to bury you in readings just because it's my personal favourite ranting topic ;)
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    Well, that would be with pleasure. I might not be able to read everything through and through immediately, but I'll keep the urls in my Diigo and return to it later. But I'm definitely interested in those issues. I also have a colleague who's into this as well, so I'll forward these resources to her. And she is supposed to write a dissertation about Shakespeare, but she doesn't know what! She feels that everything that could be written about him has been written. Maybe, there would be something for her to dig in these.
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    Maybe your friend would be interested in Elisabeth Woledge? She works for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (http://www.shakespeare.org.uk/content/view/428/439/) and has done a lot of work on fanfic, too. She gave a very interesting keynote speech for a fanfic conference last February (abstract here: http://www.mos.umu.se/forskning/cyberekon/symposiumabstracts.htm) in which she discussed Shakespeare as well. I believe the keynote is archived on http://stream.humlab.umu.se/, -search for Woledge and it should come up. As for the Gabaldon issue, you can find a lot of links to discussions about her statements in this post on the Metafandom community: http://www.journalfen.net/community/metafandom/142097.html
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    Woaw! I'm printing all these references and will bring it to her later this afternoon! We might be able to take a coffee together. I will also of course keep all these links! This is really great! Thank you so much!
Nele Noppe

Cartoon Law goes live in UK - 0 views

  • Today – April 6 2010 – is the day on which various sections of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 come into effect, including those (sections 62 to 68) that specifically criminalise possession of "a prohibited image of a child". The purpose of this offence is to "close a loophole" and to target certain non-photographic images of children, possession of which is not covered by existing legislation.

    Henceforth, you will be committing an offence if you possess non-real, non-photographic images that are pornographic, "grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character" and focus on a child’s genitals or anal region, or portray a range of sexual acts "with or in the presence of a child".

Nele Noppe

Icarus Publishing · Last thoughts on Detergent Magma - 1 views

  • I believe I’ve done this before, but given some of the stuff I’ve been reading on forums and the like, I feel the need to once again address plagiarism and doujinshi, especially how the two are not related.
  • Yet how do Japanese artists and readers reconcile their rejection of plagiarism with the wanton copyright infringement observed in most doujinshi?  Well, plagiarism is only a subset of copyright infringement, one which seeks to obscure true authorship.  Parody doujinshi are derivative work, but there is no confusion over the originator of the characters and ideas, no attempt to hide the source.  And there is still an expectation that the expression is original, that what one sees in a doujinshi – the artistry, the craft, the performance – is honest and real.  Comic art is indeed a performance, the paper is its stage.  Sometimes, one might borrow other characters for his play, but one cannot scratch the name off the director’s chair and replace it with his own.
Ariane Beldi

Rock legend Gene Simmons' son in manga plagiarism storm | CNNGo.com - 1 views

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    This is an additional ironic twist of fate. American pop music star copying Japanese mangas....when for decades, Japanese have been accused of copying everything that was coming from the West and being unable to create anything of their own. However, besides this anecdotic issue, this story points out another that is a lot more preoccupying, that is piracy and copyrights violation. From what I can see on the livejournal entry that offers a frame-by-frame comparison of Simmon's manga and Bleach, it does look like he has been heavily copying not only the graphic style but also the character design and whole scenes from Bleach. However, this doesn't really tell us how much Simmon actually took from Bleach, especially at the narrative level. Did he also heavily take from its story or did he simply inserted scenes that he found cool and inspiring within a fictional universe of his own? This isn't really clear from any of the comments. But then again, when one looks at the extraordinary resemblance between graphic design and characters from one manga to the other, it might also be difficult to accue him of plagiarism. After all, even though there is some diversity of representations in manga, it is kind of limited by some aesthetic codes. In the end, manga heroes within the same genres do tend to look extraordinarily alike to the point that it isn't rare to confuse them, if they are taken out of their original context.
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