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INTEREST: C93: The Corporate Booths Reveal How Anime is Now Mainstream

This is the beauty of Comiket. Even if you aren't interested in doujinshi, you're sure to find something in the corporate booths that will appeal to your tastes. Anime has become mainstream without sacrificing any of its niche appeal.

WOTC seems to have given up on the Japanese market, now they're going after the streamer market.

I miss booth babes. The annual RSA trip isnt the same without them.

Marketing towards a specific gender makes sense. You know the old saying, try to please everyone, end up pleasing no one. Any peripheral demographics you snag along the way is just a bonus.

Anime has become mainstream without sacrificing any of its niche appeal.

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This is the beauty of Comiket. Even if you aren't interested in doujinshi, you're sure to find something in the corporate booths that will appeal to your tastes. Anime has become mainstream without sacrificing any of its niche appeal.

How nice for them. I realize there's legal differences and tolerances that keep it from being possible, but it's always annoyed me a bit how we always acknowledge Comiket is a big deal in Japan - and yet the idea of anything like that existing in, say, the US, is oft dismissed. Just as an idea. Again, not legally likely to begin with (fair enough, and I imagine usually where the dismissal comes from), but it does strike me that it has been a strength that things like Comiket exist over there, and it sucks we're stuck with pure corporatism over here. It would be nice, is all I'm saying.

How nice for them. I realize there's legal differences and tolerances that keep it from being possible, but it's always annoyed me a bit how we always acknowledge Comiket is a big deal in Japan - and yet the idea of anything like that existing in, say, the US, is oft dismissed. Just as an idea. Again, not legally likely to begin with (fair enough, and I imagine usually where the dismissal comes from), but it does strike me that it has been a strength that things like Comiket exist over there, and it sucks we're stuck with pure corporatism over here. It would be nice, is all I'm saying.

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Anime has become mainstream without sacrificing any of its niche appeal.

What a load of BS

Blame D**n*y. *cough*
And Western market's generally "outdated" view on fanworks. I mean, less than 20 years ago you can't even write and publish fanfic on internet without fearing the writer might suing you.

Nowadays, it's much better since plenty of the current creators came from the fanwork side, thus leading to more tolerating environment (not that it stop the corporate) but still decades apart from Japan. Still, I wish there are more big name western companies/creators with more welcoming community guideline like Toby Fox's guideline on Undertale fanworks.

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Anime has become mainstream without sacrificing any of its niche appeal.

What a load of BS

Heh, I'm pretty amused to see Wizards of the Coast promoting Magic: The Gathering considering their disastrous campaign in the mid-00's to try to sell it to Japan. (We got Duel Masters out of it though.) All in all, it does make sense for them to be at Comiket if you consider it as a source of fanfiction (and Wizards is one of the few western media companies to embrace fanfiction of its works, and continues to do so after it was bought by Hasbro, as Hasbro is another western company to encourage fanfiction), though I don't know how well it'll pan out.

Kicksville wrote:

How nice for them. I realize there's legal differences and tolerances that keep it from being possible, but it's always annoyed me a bit how we always acknowledge Comiket is a big deal in Japan - and yet the idea of anything like that existing in, say, the US, is oft dismissed. Just as an idea. Again, not legally likely to begin with (fair enough, and I imagine usually where the dismissal comes from), but it does strike me that it has been a strength that things like Comiket exist over there, and it sucks we're stuck with pure corporatism over here. It would be nice, is all I'm saying.

Depends on what you mean. Do you mean about Comiket's focus on doujinshi, which would be the equivalent of a fanfiction convention here in the United States?

VanGosroth wrote:

Quote: Anime has become mainstream without sacrificing any of its niche appeal. What a load of BS

Yeah, anime has not become mainstream in the least! Look at all the late night anime appealing to a small group of people!

Meongantuk wrote:

Blame D**n*y. *cough* And Western market's generally "outdated" view on fanworks. I mean, less than 20 years ago you can't even write and publish fanfic on internet without fearing the writer might suing you. Nowadays, it's much better since plenty of the current creators came from the fanwork side, thus leading to more tolerating environment (not that it stop the corporate) but still decades apart from Japan. Still, I wish there are more big name western companies/creators with more welcoming community guideline like Toby Fox's guideline on Undertale fanworks.

It's not just Disney, but an overall protectiveness of media companies with their IPs. What they're terrified of is not the fact that fanfiction exists, but of the possibility of fanfiction that could change the overall public perception of an IP. Of course, there's also the fact that this stuff is bought and sold at Comiket, which can easily be viewed as cutting into a franchise's profits. (And this is actually happening with some fandoms. As dedicated as Bronies are, for instance, they largely buy and sell fan-created works and ignore official stuff except for the TV show, meaning Hasbro does not profit much from them. It actually perplexes me that franchises like Touhou and Kantai Collection can be mostly run by the fans and not drive the creators out of business.)



I'm honestly not sure how Japanese companies can turn a blind eye to it so well. Maybe it's the nature of doujinshi communities in Japan and how they keep to themselves, versus western fan communities who more often than not want to proclaim it to everyone? I mean, in both parts of the world, there will be plenty of parents who will be shocked and appalled to find Frozen porn and vow never to buy anything related to Frozen for their kids ever again, but I take it that in Japan, they make sure these parents never find them.



I really have no clue though.

That's why I say "outdated".

I'll tell you a certain (public) secret about the Comiket and doujin culture in general: The company can turn blind eye towards the fanworks sold in comiket because majority of the participants don't actually make profit!
Furthermore Comiket limit the fanwork gross profit at 10000 yen (around $88) per booth while the printing cost, transportation, etc can easily double that number (or triple if you're not from Tokyo). The only ones who do make profit are the popular ones who also publish original works. Not to mention each compay has their own rules a.k.a the aforementioned "community guideline" pertaining the fanmerch (e.g Nitro+ only allows you to print up 100 per item). Which is something that most western creators/company don't or at least,most of their rules are just one big NOPE. Of course this doesn't mean something like Bronies incident in your post never happened, but they're rarer.

As for porn, because they have separate hall (and day) for R-18 stuff. They're pretty easy to avoid. Not that many people are insane enough to bring kids to Comiket (not because the porn but because the waiting line). The same goes to shops like Toranoana and Melonbooks. If parents bringing their kids to R-18 section and then found porn, they can only blame themself for being a massive dumbass who can't read sign or the shop attendant for not noticing underage waltzing to R18 section.

And oh, having hentai in your work list isn't as big deal as in the west since there are plenty who came from similar background.

Other than legal issue, I think the one reason why Western media companies don't tolerate fan-made items is that there are many unscrupulous, undisciplined, and out-of-control people who'll stop at nothing to make bucks from derivative works even with set-rules. Even though places like conventions have self-policing which limits such method, but there are some opportunists out there who'll print and sell stuffs indefinitely as long as there is demand.

For Comiket's case, fan artists have implicit agreement among the community and companies which allows them to print and sell very limited copy of derivative fan works. Plus it's the Japanese dojinshi artists who complain about unscrupulous foreigners trying to sell e-book version of scanned dojinshi on Amazon without artists' permission. Artists themselves are following the rule, but unscrupulous foreigner are not and thus making artists look bad.

It's also still common for Japanese anime conventions to have booth babes, a practice which is largely obsolete in the US.

Having said that, you can still see ads like these in the corporate booths:
....
On one hand, it's not surprising to see youth culture embrace lewdness as an art.

On the other hand, it is worth noting what the existence of ads and products catering to the male gaze does to a convention that is otherwise popular with both men and women

To many female attendees, it gives off a feel that they're secondary to the men there.

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On the other hand, it is worth noting what the existence of ads and products catering to the male gaze does to a convention that is otherwise popular with both men and women

Is ANN going to pretend there aren't any women artists at comiket pandering to "male gaze" nor "booth babe" women who enjoy the attention cosplaying and advertising the products?

Why aren't you complaining about catering to the woman gaze at fujo parts of the comiket?

Is ANN going to pretend there aren't any women artists at comiket pandering to "male gaze" nor "booth babe" women who enjoy the attention cosplaying and advertising the products?