Case Study: Doujin Circles
Another branch of the otakus is the doujin creators. Doujins, as defined by Tamagawa, is "self-financed, self-published works created by an individual or collaboration between individuals" (108). While often times doujins refer to fan made manga, it is not limited to such and are allowed to include other media such as music and games. Given that doujins are self-published works, the methods of distribution is not something set in stone. However, one of the biggest modes of distribution is a biannaul event called the Comic Market, abbreviated as Comiket. Comiket is "an exhibition and market for amateurs" where "participation by commercial and professional organizations is excluded as a rule" (108).
Comiket was originally intended for doujin circles of original content to come together and sell their manga. While during the early years original works free of commercially printed media constituted majority of the doujins, it has since become dominated by derivative works which reuse characters and settings of commercial anime and manga. Hence, commercially created characters are increasing in recognition and being spread around by fans at no cost to the industry. This situation is very similar to the fansubbers, where the anime, which is licensed by the industry, was distributed amongst foreign fans, creating a market for the industry with no investment from the industry. Furthermore, there is little to no hindrance to the sales of the original works due to sales of doujins because the derivatives cannot exist without the original. Furthermore, while the characters of the originals may be reused, the appeal of the doujins is that fan favorite characters are being placed in plots and situations that were not present in the original. Hence, buying a doujin would not prevent a fan from buying the original since they are inherently different.
A prime example of the pure profit that the industry enjoys is Kantai Collection (Kancolle) music doujins. Kancolle is a browser based game sponsored on DMM which contains no central plot. The main purpose of the game is to collect cute females, drawn in anime style, who are called Kanmusus, or ship-girls. Each Kanmusu represents a specific ship from the Japanese navy during World War II, and a player does battle against computer enemies with these ships. In the most recent Comiket, C87, there were many Kancolle doujin music groups, who would make remixes and their own variations of the background music of Kancolle. As is obvious by the purpose of the game, the background music is something completely trivial in regards to the main selling point of the game. Hence, the sale of doujin music clashes in no way with the original work. However, DMM still enjoys free publicity via the fan music.
How about the precarity of doujin creation? To show that doujin creation is indeed a precarious job in the third space, we turn to the surveys taken by the Comic Market Preparations Committee, the organization which plans Comiket. During the 65th Comiket, there were 35000 doujin circles participating such a large amount of circles shows how competitive the market for Comiket actually is. This is further proven by the fact that more than 50% of the groups were unable to sell even 100 copies of their doujins. Only 2.7 percent of the groups were able to sell over 1500 copies. Furthermore, "relatively few circles make money at the Comiket. According to the Comiket Preparations Committee (2005), about 70% of all circles show a loss" (Imai). Since the official industry is not allowed to participate in Comiket, the risk of competitiveness is pushed completely onto the doujin circles.
Finally, the motivation for doujin creators is clearly not one motivated by monetary profit, as only 0.8% of the groups mentioned as profit being their reason for producing doujins (Imai). Hence, their motivation lies somewhere else, particularly within the third space of doujin creators. The motivation for the doujin creators then is the same as those for fansubbers.
References:
Imai, Nobuharu "The Momentary and Placeless Community: Constructing a New Community with regards to Otaku Culture" Web.
Available at: https://journal.hass.tsukuba.ac.jp/interfaculty/article/view/9/11
Ito, Mizuko, Daisuke Okabe, and Izumi Tsuji. Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World. New Haven: Yale UP, 2012. Print.
Comiket was originally intended for doujin circles of original content to come together and sell their manga. While during the early years original works free of commercially printed media constituted majority of the doujins, it has since become dominated by derivative works which reuse characters and settings of commercial anime and manga. Hence, commercially created characters are increasing in recognition and being spread around by fans at no cost to the industry. This situation is very similar to the fansubbers, where the anime, which is licensed by the industry, was distributed amongst foreign fans, creating a market for the industry with no investment from the industry. Furthermore, there is little to no hindrance to the sales of the original works due to sales of doujins because the derivatives cannot exist without the original. Furthermore, while the characters of the originals may be reused, the appeal of the doujins is that fan favorite characters are being placed in plots and situations that were not present in the original. Hence, buying a doujin would not prevent a fan from buying the original since they are inherently different.
A prime example of the pure profit that the industry enjoys is Kantai Collection (Kancolle) music doujins. Kancolle is a browser based game sponsored on DMM which contains no central plot. The main purpose of the game is to collect cute females, drawn in anime style, who are called Kanmusus, or ship-girls. Each Kanmusu represents a specific ship from the Japanese navy during World War II, and a player does battle against computer enemies with these ships. In the most recent Comiket, C87, there were many Kancolle doujin music groups, who would make remixes and their own variations of the background music of Kancolle. As is obvious by the purpose of the game, the background music is something completely trivial in regards to the main selling point of the game. Hence, the sale of doujin music clashes in no way with the original work. However, DMM still enjoys free publicity via the fan music.
How about the precarity of doujin creation? To show that doujin creation is indeed a precarious job in the third space, we turn to the surveys taken by the Comic Market Preparations Committee, the organization which plans Comiket. During the 65th Comiket, there were 35000 doujin circles participating such a large amount of circles shows how competitive the market for Comiket actually is. This is further proven by the fact that more than 50% of the groups were unable to sell even 100 copies of their doujins. Only 2.7 percent of the groups were able to sell over 1500 copies. Furthermore, "relatively few circles make money at the Comiket. According to the Comiket Preparations Committee (2005), about 70% of all circles show a loss" (Imai). Since the official industry is not allowed to participate in Comiket, the risk of competitiveness is pushed completely onto the doujin circles.
Finally, the motivation for doujin creators is clearly not one motivated by monetary profit, as only 0.8% of the groups mentioned as profit being their reason for producing doujins (Imai). Hence, their motivation lies somewhere else, particularly within the third space of doujin creators. The motivation for the doujin creators then is the same as those for fansubbers.
References:
Imai, Nobuharu "The Momentary and Placeless Community: Constructing a New Community with regards to Otaku Culture" Web.
Available at: https://journal.hass.tsukuba.ac.jp/interfaculty/article/view/9/11
Ito, Mizuko, Daisuke Okabe, and Izumi Tsuji. Fandom Unbound: Otaku Culture in a Connected World. New Haven: Yale UP, 2012. Print.
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