, more commonly known as or , is a semiannual ''doujinshi'' convention in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

, Japan. A grassroots market focused on the sale of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, Comiket is a not-for-profit fan convention administered by the volunteer-run Comic Market Preparatory Committee (ComiketPC). Inaugurated on 21 December 1975 with an estimated 700 attendees, Comiket has since grown to become the largest fan convention in the world, with an estimated turnstile attendance of 750,000 in 2019. Comiket is typically held at Tokyo Big Sight in August and December, with the two events distinguished as and , respectively.

Programme

''Dōjin'' marketplace

Comiket is focused primarily on the sale of '' dōjin'': non-commercial, self-published works. Approximately 35,000 circles (a term for groups or individuals who create ''dōjin'') participate in each edition of Comiket. Different circles exhibit on each day of Comiket; circles producing works on a common subject, such as a particular media franchise or manga genre, are typically grouped on the same day. The most common item sold at Comiket is ''

dōjinshi , also romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of existing works and created ...

'' (self-published

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

, novels or magazines), while a smaller number of circles sell ''dōjin'' soft, analog (board/card/etc.) games, music, clothing, and other goods. These are often

derivative In mathematics, the derivative of a function of a real variable measures the sensitivity to change of the function value (output value) with respect to a change in its argument (input value). Derivatives are a fundamental tool of calculus. ...

fan works based on

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

s, and other media, legal according to Japanese law ( shinkokuzai). Since Comiket's inauguration, sample copies of all works sold at Comiket are collected and archived by ComiketPC, with over 2.1 million works having been archived.

Trends in derivative works

Cosplay

Comiket is a major outlet for cosplay enthusiasts. Since Comiket 80 in 2011, restrictions on cosplaying have been gradually relaxed, with a shift from regulating objects (e.g. a ban on items that could be used as weapons) to regulating behavior (e.g. a ban on swinging around long objects). Some general contemporary guidelines include not wearing clothes that are too revealing, not imitating uniformed officers, and being out of cosplay when arriving/departing from Comiket.

Corporate booths

Comiket hosts 190 corporate booths each year. This includes both large commercial companies, such as video game studios and

manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

publishers, as well as celebrity meet and greet sessions.

Operations

Schedule

Comiket is held twice yearly, in August and December. These events are distinguished as "Summer Comic Market" (''Natsukomi'') and "Winter Comic Market" (''Fuyukomi''). Since 1995, both events have run for three days each, with Summer Comiket generally occurring Friday to Sunday in mid-August, and Winter Comiket generally occurring the three days prior to

New Year's Day New Year's Day is a festival observed in most of the world on 1 January, the first day of the year in the modern Gregorian calendar. 1 January is also New Year's Day on the Julian calendar, but this is not the same day as the Gregorian one. Whi ...

. Starting with Comiket 96, the events have been four days long. Both events run daily from 10:00a.m. to 4:00p.m, with corporate booths open until 5:00p.m and the entire convention closing an hour early on the final day of the event. Comiket has been held at Tokyo Big Sight in Ariake, Tokyo since 1996. Comiket 98, which was planned for August 2020, was the event's first cancellation in its history as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

; Comiket 99, which would have been held in December 2020 was instead held in December 2021, two years after the last time it was held, and ran for only two days.

Event size

Comiket is the largest fan convention in the world, growing from fewer than 10,000 attendees in 1982 to over half a million by 2004. Since 2007, attendee numbers have fluctuated in the region of 500,000 for Winter Comiket and 560,000 for Summer Comiket. Because of the extremely high volume of attendance at Comiket, mobile phone companies set up temporary antennas, while the Tokyo Metro makes special arrangements to accommodate the large crowds. Hour-long queues to enter Comiket during peak hours are common, while some attendees queue up to five hours before the event to ensure early admission. Popular circles are frequently placed near the venue's

loading dock A loading dock or loading bay is an area of a building where goods vehicles (usually road or rail) are loaded and unloaded. They are commonly found on commercial and industrial buildings, and warehouses in particular. Loading docks may be exterio ...

s so that their queues can extend outside. ComiketPC recommends that first-time attendees arrive in the afternoon to avoid queues.

Catalog

For every Comiket, a catalog is released that contains information about the event. The catalog includes a list of all participating circles, maps of the convention layout, directions to and from the convention, rules for the convention, results from surveys held among Comiket participants, articles about topics relevant to ''dōjinshi'' creators, and one to two pictures ("circle cuts") for every participating circle. It is available in print and DVD-ROM format, and since Comiket 83, is available online behind a partial paywall. Catalogs are made available for sale at stores two weeks before the event. The print version is roughly the size of an average phone book, while the DVD-ROM version includes features such as advanced search functions and a clickable map. To date, there is no English edition of the catalog available, though the catalog does contain a four-page basic guide for attending Comiket in English, Chinese, and Korean. Prior to Comiket 96, a purchased catalog was not required for admission to Comiket (see 2020 Summer Olympics changes below).

Participants

The overwhelming majority of Comiket circle participants are amateur and hobbyist artists: 70% of participating circles lose money, while only 15% turn a profit. The majority of circle participants at Comiket are female, with women composing 57% of participating circles at Comiket 84. General attendees at Comiket tend to skew male, with men comprising 64% of attendees at Comiket 78. (Comiket 84 pie chart is on page 19) Of the Comiket circle participants, a 2011 poll showed that nearly half participated because attending the event and showing off their work is enjoyable, and a significant percentage came to spread their works to the public. A smaller percentage of dōjinshi creators' goal is to promote an idea or opinion through attending Comiket. The majority of those participating in circles in 2010 said that they are a part of a one-person circle (59%), while two-person (20%) and three person (8%) circles were also common.

Philanthropy

Since 1993, ComiketPC has donated over ¥60 million to

sustainable forest management Sustainable forest management (SFM) is the management of forests according to the principles of sustainable development. Sustainable forest management has to keep the balance between three main pillars: ecological, economic and socio-cultural. ...

to offset paper used in the production of dōjinshi. Since 2007, ComiketPC has worked with the Japanese Red Cross Society to organize bloodmobiles at Comiket events, with donors given Comiket-exclusive posters depicting characters from anime and video games. The Red Cross receives an estimated 1,500 blood donations at each Comiket.

History

Comiket was inaugurated in 1975 by , a ''dōjin'' circle founded by Yoshihiro Yonezawa,

Teruo Harada Teruo (written: 輝雄, 輝男, 輝夫, 辉夫, 昭雄, 照雄 or 照夫) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese footballer *, Imperial Japanese Navy admiral *, Japanese karateka *, Japanese sumo wres ...

, and Jun Aniwa while studying at Meiji University. The first Comiket was organized amid a period of immense change and upheaval for manga as a medium, characterized by the closure of the experimental manga magazine ''

COM Com or COM may refer to: Computing * COM (hardware interface), a serial port interface on IBM PC-compatible computers * COM file, or .com file, short for "command", a file extension for an executable file in MS-DOS * .com, an Internet top-level d ...

'' and the ascendance of the Year 24 Group. A 1975 incident in which a ''dōjin'' creator applying for

Nihon SF Taikai The is an annual science fiction convention held in Japan. Each of these conventions is officially the , but they are more popularly known by the official nicknames given to them based on their locations, e.g. TOKON (when it is held in Tokyo) or ...

was refused admission after criticizing the convention's focus on professional guests over ''dōjin'' creators in her application became a catalyst for the founding of Comiket as a fan convention. As Comiket grew, a lottery system to allocate exhibition space was implemented in 1979, as the number of applications from circles began to surpass available space. In 1981 the event moved to and began publishing an event catalog in 1982. Comiket would change locations frequently throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, as the Japanese bubble economy led to an upsurge in trade shows that made it difficult to secure a consistent venue. The murders by Tsutomu Miyazaki and subsequent

moral panic A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society. It is "the process of arousing social concern over an issue", us ...

against otaku would lead to further difficulties in Comiket's ability to secure a venue. Tokyo Big Sight hosted Comiket for the first time in 1996, and remains the convention's primary venue. In 2012, anonymous threats made against circles creating works related to '' Kuroko's Basketball'' led Comiket to prohibit the sale of all ''Kuroko's Basketball''-related items at Comiket 85 (see Kuroko's Basketball § Controversies). Organizers refunded the registration fees for the roughly 900 circles producing ''Kuroko's Basketball'' items, resulting in a loss for Comiket of roughly ¥10 million. In 2015, ComiketPC organized a special event specifically focused on doujinshi related to the series. Affectionately nicknamed "Kuroket", the event hosted approximately 2,400 circles producing ''Kuroko's Basketball'' items. In August 2018, ComiketPC announced modified schedules for Comikets 96, 97, and 98 due to the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

. As the east wing of Big Sight closed in 2019 for renovations in advance of the Olympics, the corporate booths of C96 and C97 were moved to

Aomi Exhibition Hall is an area in Kōtō, Tokyo, Japan. Its subdivisions consist of Aomi 1, 2, 3 and 4 ''chome''. Aomi is part of Tokyo Bay Landfill #13 and Tokyo Rinkai Satellite City Center. Many important facilities are located in Aomi, such as the Miraika ...

, and both events expanded to four days of programming. Admission to both events required the purchase of a wristband – the first time in Comiket's history it was not free to attend – in order to offset the cost of running the event across four days, and to depress attendance in light of the smaller venue space. Wristbands for all four days were included with the purchase of a print event catalog, while individual wristbands for each day were available to purchase at Big Sight the day of the event. C98 in 2020 was slated to be moved to Golden Week in May in order to not conflict with the Olympics in August. On 27 March 2020, ComiketPC announced that C98 had been cancelled due to the

, making it the first time a Comiket event has been cancelled. On 12 July 2020, it was announced that Comiket 99 would be postponed to 2021, taking place during Golden Week as C98 would have in order to not conflict with the Summer Olympics, which were also postponed. A virtual event titled "Air Comiket" was held in December to replace its originally planned dates. Comic Market 99 was ultimately delayed to December 2021, and ran for only two days with entry limited to 55,000 people per day by requiring ticket purchases.

Event history

Notes

References

External links

Official Comic Market website
(in Japanese)

(in English) {{Coord, 35, 37, 51, N, 139, 47, 48, E, display=title, region:JP-13_type:landmark_source:dewiki Anime conventions in Japan Book fairs in Japan Comics conventions Doujin Otaku Recurring events established in 1975