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Doujinshi (同人誌), alsoromanized asdōjinshi, is the Japanese term forself-published print works, such as magazines,manga, and novels. Part of a wider category ofdoujin (self-published) works,doujinshi are often derivative of existing works and created by amateurs, though some professional artists participate in order to publish material outside the regular industry.
Groups ofdoujinshi artists refer to themselves as asākuru (サークル, circle). Several such groups actually consist of a single artist: they are sometimes calledkojin sākuru (個人サークル, personal circles).
Since the 1980s, the main method of distribution has been through regulardoujinshi conventions, the largest of which is calledComiket (short for "Comic Market") held in the summer and winter inTokyo'sBig Sight. At the convention, over 20 acres (81,000 m2) ofdoujinshi are bought, sold, and traded by attendees.
The termdoujinshi is derived fromdoujin (同人, literally "same person"; used to refer to a person or people with whom one shares a common goal or interest) andshi (誌; a suffix generally meaning "periodical publication").
The pioneer amongdoujinshi wasMeiroku zasshi (明六雑誌), published in the earlyMeiji period (since 1874). While not a literary magazine,Meiroku Zasshi nevertheless played a big role in spreading the idea ofdoujinshi. The first magazine to publishdoujinshi novels wasGarakuta Bunko (我楽多文庫), founded in 1885 by writersOzaki Kōyō and Yamada Bimyo.[1]Doujinshi publication reached its peak in the earlyShōwa period, becoming a mouthpiece for the creative youth of that time. Created and distributed in small circles of authors or close friends,doujinshi contributed significantly to the emergence and development of theshishōsetsu genre. During the postwar years,doujinshi gradually decreased in importance as outlets for different literary schools and new authors arose. Their role was taken over by literary journals such asGunzo,Bungakukai, and others. One notable exception wasBungei Shuto (文芸首都; lit.Literary Capital), which was published from 1933 until 1969. Fewdoujinshi magazines survived with the help of official literary journals.Haiku andtanka magazines are still published today.[2]
It has been suggested that technological advances in the field ofphotocopying during the 1970s contributed to an increase in publishingdoujinshi. During this time, manga editors were encouraging manga authors to appeal to a mass market, which may have also contributed to an increase in the popularity of writingdoujinshi.[3]
During the 1980s, the content ofdoujinshi shifted from being predominantly original content to being mostly parodic of existing series.[4] Often calledaniparo, this was often an excuse to feature certain characters in romantic relationships. Male authors focused on series likeUrusei Yatsura, and female authors focused on series likeCaptain Tsubasa.[3] This coincided with the rise in popularity ofComiket, the first event dedicated specifically to the distribution ofdoujinshi, which had been founded in 1975.
By February 1991, there were somedoujinshi creators who sold their work through supportive comic book stores. This practice came to light when three managers of such shops were arrested for having alolicondoujinshi for sale.[5]
Over the last decade, the practice of creatingdoujinshi has expanded significantly, attracting thousands of creators and fans alike. Advances in personal publishing technology have also fueled this expansion by making it easier fordoujinshi creators to write, draw, promote, publish, and distribute their works. For example, somedoujinshi are now published on digital media. Furthermore, manydoujinshi creators are moving to online download and print-on-demand services, while others are beginning to distribute their works through American channels such as anime shop websites and specialized online direct distribution sites. In 2008, awhite paper on theotaku industry was published, this estimated that gross revenue from sales ofdoujinshi in 2007 were 27.73 billion yen, or 14.9% of total otaku expenditure on their hobby.[6]
To avoid legal problems, thedōjin mark (同人マーク) was created. A license format inspired byCreative Commons licenses,[7] the first author to authorize the license wasKen Akamatsu in the mangaUQ Holder!, released on August 28, 2013, in the magazineWeekly Shōnen Magazine.[8]
Due to the self-publishing nature ofdoujinshi, distribution tends to fall on the creator to facilitate.Doujinshi conventions make it easier for creators to distribute or sell their works at a larger scale directly to fans. Other forms of distribution also includedoujinshi shops and websites.[9]
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Since many bookstores only sell from registered commercial publishers,doujinshi shops allow for the sale of self-published physicaldoujinshi. Examples include shops such asComic Toranoana.[9] The creation ofdoujinshi by a single person has made it so that monetization must also be the responsibility of the creator. This has allowed for a distribution system separate from mainstream manga publishing. Additionally, creators ofdoujinshi are more likely to also monetize other forms of self-made content, such as music or lyrics.[10] Some creators choose to instead selldoujinshi online, whether it be on their own website or in a digital marketplace.
Doujinshi circles also encourage community among creators, allowing for the exchange of information and self made works, primarily taking place at conventions such as Comiket. Conventions such as this one are an example of spaces in which Japanese sentiments encourage fanmade or self-published works.[11]
Other collections ofdoujinshi available for viewing outside of monetization also exist. In 2009,Meiji University opened adōjin manga library, named "Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library" to honor itsalumni in its Surugadai campus. It contains Yonezawa's owndoujinshi collection, comprising 4137 boxes, and the collection of Tsuguo Iwata, another famous person in the sphere ofdoujinshi.[12]
Comiket is the world's largest comic convention. It is held twice a year (summer and winter) in Tokyo, Japan. The first CM was held in December 1975, with only about 32 participating circles and an estimated 600 attendees. About 80% of these were female, but male participation inComiket increased later.[4] In 1982, there were fewer than 10,000 attendees, this increased to over 100,000 attendees as of 1989, and over half a million people in recent years.[13] This rapid increase in attendance enableddoujinshi authors to sell thousands of copies of their works, earning a fair amount of money with their hobby.[14]
Like their mainstream counterparts,doujinshi are published in a variety of genres and types. However, due to the target audience, certain themes are more prevalent, and there are a few major division points by which the publications can be classified. It can be broadly divided into original works andaniparo—works which parody existing anime and manga franchises.[15]
As infanfics, a very popular theme to explore is non-canonical pairings of characters in a given show (fordoujinshi based on mainstream publications). Many such publications containyaoi oryuri (stories containing same-sex romance) themes, either as a part of non-canon pairings, or as a more direct statement of what can be hinted by the main show. These works can be considered within the genre ofBL, or Boys' Love, which also has roots withindoujinshi communities.[16]
Another category ofdoujinshi isfurry orkemono, often depicting homosexual male pairings of anthropomorphic animal characters and, less often,lesbian pairings. Furrydoujinshi shares some characteristics with theyaoi andyuri genres, with many furrydoujinshi depicting characters in erotic settings or circumstances, or incorporating elements typical ofanime and manga, such as exaggerated drawings of eyes or facial expressions.
A major part ofdoujinshi, whether based on mainstream publications or original, contains sexually explicit material, due to both the large demand for such publications and absence of restrictions official publishing houses have to follow. Indeed, often the main point of a givendoujinshi is to present an explicit version of a popular show's characters. Such works may be known to English speakers as "H-doujinshi", in line with the formerJapanese use of letter H to denote erotic material. The Japanese usage, however, has since moved towards the wordero,[17] and soero manga (エロ漫画) is the term almost exclusively used to markdoujinshi with adult themes. Sometimes they will also be termed "for adults" (成人向け,seijin muke) or18-kin (18禁) (an abbreviation of "forbidden to minors less than 18 years of age" (18歳未満禁止,18-sai-miman kinshi)). To differentiate,ippan (一般; , "general", from the general public it is suitable for) is the term used for publications absent of such content.
Mostdoujinshi are commercially bound and published bydoujinshi-ka (doujinshi authors) who self-publish through various printing services.Copybooks, however, are self-made using xerox machines or other copying methods. Few are copied by drawing by hand.Comiket is well known, but there are various doujinshi events in Japan. Authors avoid the word "sale(販売)" and prefer the word "distribution(頒布)". However, there is also a system for puttingdoujinshi into circulation, which is generally referred to as "consignment(委託)".
Not all category terms used by English-language fans ofdoujinshi are derived from Japanese. For example, anAU doujinshi is one set in an alternate universe.[18]
Manydoujinshi arederivative works that are produced without the permission of the original creator, a practice that has existed since the early 1980s.[19]Doujinshi are consideredshinkokuzai underJapanese copyright law, meaning thatdoujinshi creators cannot be prosecuted unless a complaint is made by the holders of the copyrights they have violated. In 2016, Prime Minister of JapanShinzo Abe affirmed thatdoujinshi "don't compete in the market with the original works and don't damage the original creators' profits, so they areshinkokuzai."[20] Copyright holders take an unofficial policy of non-enforcement towards thedoujinshi market, as it is seen as having a beneficial impact on the commercial manga market: it creates an avenue for aspiring manga artists to practice,[21] and talenteddoujinshi creators are often recruited by publishers.[22] Salil K. Mehra, a law professor atTemple University, hypothesizes thatdoujinshi market causes the manga market to be more productive, and that strict enforcement of copyright law would cause the industry to suffer.[21]
In 1999, thePokémondoujinshi incident happened, where the author of an eroticPokémon manga was prosecuted byNintendo. This created a media furor as well as an academic analysis in Japan of the copyright issues arounddoujinshi. At this time, the legal analysis seemed to conclude thatdoujinshi should be overlooked because they are produced by amateurs for one-day events and not sold in the commercial market.[23][need quotation to verify] In 2006, an artist selling an imagined "final chapter" for the seriesDoraemon, which was never completed, was given a warning by the estate of authorFujiko F. Fujio. His creation apparently looked confusingly similar to a real Doraemon manga. He ceased distribution of hisdoujinshi and sent compensation to the publisher voluntarily. The publisher noted at this time thatdoujinshi were not usually a cause of concern for him. TheYomiuri Shimbun noted, "Fanzines don't usually cause many problems as long as they are sold only at one-day exhibitions," but quoted an expert saying that due to their increasing popularity a copyright system should be set up.[24]
In 2020, theIntellectual Property High Court ordered adoujinshi sharing website to pay¥2.19 million to a creator whosedoujinshi were uploaded to the website without their consent. The file sharing site claimed that as thedoujinshi was a derivative work it was not protected by copyright law, though the court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to classify thedoujinshi as an illegally derivative work. The ruling was noted by commentators as potentially broadening rights fordoujinshi creators under commercial law.[25][26]
John Oppliger ofAnimeNation stated in 2005 that creatingdoujinshi is largely popular with Japanese fans, but not with Western fans. Oppliger claimed that because Japanese fans grow up with anime and manga "as a constant companion", they "are more intuitively inclined" to create or expand on existing manga and anime in the form ofdoujinshi.[27] Since Western fans experience a "more purely" visual experience as most Western fans cannot understand the Japanese language, the original language of mostanime, and are "encouraged by social pressure to grow out of cartoons and comics during the onset of adolescence", most of them usually participate in utilizing and rearranging existing work intoanime music videos.[28]
In most Western cultures,doujinshi is often perceived to be derivative of existing work, analogous tofan fiction and almost completely pornographic.[29] This is partly true:doujinshi are often, though not always, parodies or alternative storylines involving the worlds of popular manga, game oranime series, and can often feature overtly sexual material. However, there are also many non sexually explicitdoujinshi being created as well. TheTouhou Project series for example, is known to be notable for the large amount ofdoujinshi being produced for it that are not pornographic in nature.[30][31] Some groups releasing adults-only themed materials during the annual Touhou only event Reitaisai in 2008 were only estimated at 10%.[31]
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The story is an AU Swan Lake set after the Princess Tutu anime series... F.A.Q... What does AU mean? Alternate Universe.
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