Forum - View topicNEWS: Wired on Doujinshi
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Lady Multi
Posts: 673 |
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Hmm, doujinshi... I love doujinshi...
I only wish I could go to Japan an browse through all of them I can find instead of having to hunt them on the internet. *sigh* Prehaps I shouldn't though...I'd be broke. |
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Dargonxtc
 Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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I am sorry, I don't know much about doujinshi. But maybe someone can answer this, as I am sure someone here can. But to me all these story lines in these fan fics, seem well, cheesy. Or is that the appeal? I mean every one of the ones that were mentioned in the article seemed pretty cheesy, and well cheap. I guess I don't understand the appeal.
Or is it just the insatiable need to slash everything, and everyone? |
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Patachu
Past ANN Contributor
 Posts: 1325 Location: San Diego |
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It's kind of ... the same reason that people wish for a second Cowboy Bebop season, or for a second Haruhi Suzumiya season, or for CLAMP to finish X, you know? They become attached to the stories and characters in commercially-produced works, and want to expand on the story in new directions. Some of these directions are less meritorious than others, but if someone is a fan and they also have a creative streak, it is entirely their right as a creator to produce fan-derived works in order to cater to their imaginations and to reach out to fellow fans. That's the nature of the human mind -- we ask "what if...?" and "why not...?" to just about everything. Sure, there are some of us who can only passively imbibe whatever kind of entertainment the industry poops out at us, but for anyone who's ever been able to write, or draw, or imagine, the world of doujinshi is a natural outlet for expression where you can "discuss a series" with other fans in the form of creative fan-works. (Note that there are also original doujinshi as well, because doujin basically just means self-published, and not necessarily fan-derived.) As for the "cheesy" storylines, well, it's not like commercially published works are cheese-proof either. Try summarizing some popular series and see how dorky it sounds to say "So there's this kid who can kill people by writing their names in a notebook" or "These two brothers turn things into other things and they're trying to find the Philosopher's Stone to get their body parts back." |
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evilnekohilda
 Posts: 166 Location: Wichita, KS |
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No kidding!! In the Shibuya Mandrake, I limited myself to browing for Naruto and Fullmetal Alchemist (not exactly niche fandoms though, I know...) and I bought, like, 20 books in one go or so. The nice thing is that they're much cheaper in general when you buy from stores like Mandrake or direct from the circle instead of buying on eBay and such :3 |
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Dargonxtc
Posts: 4463 Location: Nc5xd7+ スターダストの海洋 |
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Although I scoff at the notion that I have an uncreative mind, but thanks for the well thought out response.
And while I have never been an advocate for Cowboy Bebop 2nd, I would think another movie would be nice. I guess in growing up I have always asked more of "what is", more than "what if", as I have learned that that later usually leads to projects like Alien vs Predator. Of cousre I have to remember that I enjoy the works of CLAMP, and Ken Akamatsu both of which started as doujinshi. So I have to be thankful there is a market for it. A market that is really a proving ground, and I would rather wait for the proven than to flip through a hundred duds(not to say that every professional work is great though, as you pointed out). Although in a way I am thankful as Lady Multi eluded to, my wallet would suffer more than it already does. As for your descriptions of Deathnote and FMA, as written of course they sound cheesy. But I don't think anyone would write those sentences and just stop there. But I get your point nonetheless. The only thing I don't get is "discuss a series" via fanfic. I don't see how you are dicussing anything, when you are just making stuff up. I think I will save my money and headache by discussing things the "old fashioned way". Anyway I think I understand the draw a little bit better. |
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FeralKat
Posts: 402 |
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I think the article was a little one-sided. There are a lot of doujinshi that are original works (not inspired by an existing series at all) and not all doujinshi authors are yaoi fangirls, either... |
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unhealthyman
 Posts: 306 |
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The article kind of reminded me of an article I read in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago. Basically it is like a Harry Potter convention with quite a bit emphasis on Harry Potter fan-fiction. I found the article pretty fascinating (and I hope someone else might find in interested and not TOTALLY [OT] - although this clearly is at least semi-OT...)
Anyway, back on topic, I have never really seen any proper Doujinshi, although isn't Haibane Renmei technically a Doujinshi, but of a very different type to the ones in the Wired article? (I may be wrong, but I'm sure I remember reading that it was somewhere.) |
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ShikamaChU
 Posts: 79 Location: Evergreen State, Olympia Washington |
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I'm not a big doujin person, but Japan is scary abut it.(You thought there was a lot in stores, but my friends at school and host sisters got most of their doujin from the internet. People don't write fan-fic there, they draw it 99.9% of the time...even if they're not that good.)
There’s about 5 million times more doujin in publication than there is anime/manga. Doujin is sometimes just bad (a lot like fanfic, all out-of-character, and sometimes just creepy. Middle-aged Housewives who need more hobbies) but some is actually pretty interesting and has nothing to do with weird romantic pairings at all. For instance, Game doujin. There's a ton of Video game doujin, some of it's 'official-like' and recruited by the game's company if they think it'll sell (Like (I'm assuming anyway, I'd have to check to make sure), the 'Tales of___' doujin, and the Suikoden stuff) while others are huge compilations of good fan stuff by a particular publisher that supports doujin compilations (they're like doujin circles), based on the characters, and just about giving a different side of a story of delving into what the author thinks the character's thoughts should be (Like the crazy huge circle for the 12 kingdoms (game) doujin.) Especially in games, a lot of character development doesn’t tend to happen like it would in manga (there’s just less of a need for it in game mechanics), especially when it comes to character relations, and just simple cute side story, which doujin, official-like and non, really help with, so the fans feel better about how the story develops. ^^ It's hard to explain, but I think even doujin had different classifications. It's not all 'like fanfic', although I agree, most of it is. ^^ |
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cyrax777
 Posts: 1825 Location: the desert |
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im sure im getting gouged something fiece on my dojins. oh well in a couple years ill be going to comiket. |
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Dejiko
 Posts: 276 Location: Holland (between Great Britain and Germany) |
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Outside of Japan, doujinshi manga are often presented as the visualized version of fan fiction, but frankly, there's a lot of work that would fall flat on its face when presented in a text only format. Besides, doujinshi manga are just a part of this movement, which also produces fanmade games, stationary, movies, magazines, animation and... novels (hey!
 ).
It's a bit of a shame that most fans outside of Japan only get to see the explicit stuff (especially through less than legal means like the internet). It's comparable to the attitude towards visual novels and other ren'ai type games, which are also widely equated with porn-only material 
Doujinshi can be fanmade smut, but so many other things as well. It'd be a shame if its established image keeps non-Japanese creators from participating in this celebration of fandom and creativity, *sigh* Well, enough rambling from me. To end on a positive note, here's a couple of 4koma parody gags me and my friends did recently (try to do that with text only  )
Fullmetal Alchemist Azumanga Daioh Inu Yasha |
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fighterholic
Posts: 9193 |
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Dejiko
Posts: 276 Location: Holland (between Great Britain and Germany) |
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Fate was made after TYPE-MOON went pro, so it doesn't exactly qualify as a doujin product anymore. Then again, both of them are very popular among doujinshika, seeing how many books are based on these titles
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Gauss
 Posts: 519 Location: Finland |
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Oh, they just want to wank off to their favourite characters. Heh, exaggerating a bit since I do know non-erotic doujins are not that rare. However, the stories are not as easy to follow as in hentai, so it's basically only the few translated ones that we non-Japanese speakers see floating around on the net. Even so these few translated doujins are usually not that good and the best ones are usually done by artists who soon land a contract with a publisher. The more entertaining doujins are usually por... parodies. Kiyohiko Azuma did a really funny take on the whole ZOMG REI! phenomenon in one of his pre-Azumanga doujins.
"That's a whopper, I can tell from the words and from having seen quite a few Japanese fanfics in my time". You probably won't get that joke but I've surfed many sites of Japanese artists and some of them also write fanfics in the form of short stories (which they abbreviate to SS). That's the people who actually have a bit of talent at drawing, the ones who don't have any graphical talent at all happily write stuff instead. |
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DarkMirage
Posts: 19 Location: Singapore |
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There are a few female-targeted shops in East Ikebukuro, but it's quite a huge stretch to call it the female's answer to Akihabara, especially when the only seven-storey building I can think of is just Animate, which doesn't sell doujinshi at all.
I was quite surprised to find that, considering the timing of this article, Comiket 70 is only given one generic paragraph of coverage. For Haruhi's sake, who cares about random doujinshi shops in Ikebukuro when the largest doujinshi event in Japan was just held less than a week ago? |
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Pleroma
 Posts: 443 Location: Eromanga island |
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I really think the vast populariy of fan work is the major reason why the Japanese anime and manga industry never seems to grow stale. There is always a lot of creative imput and an interaction with fans that simply isnt seen elsewhere.
While indeed a lot of doiujinshi are rather sub-par stuff I ahve come across a few that completely blew my mind. Evangelion re-take in particular (the last volume of which is being eagerly awaited) is of such high visual and narrative quality that I actually prefer it to the official works. I don't really understand the slashing mania but I find that the best doujinshi are the ones that most closely mimic the original style. Hence why a rather violent Negima one and a certain quite popular H Azumanga and Yotsuba Doujinshi are some of the best I have ever seen. |
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