Shopping Guide
On Aug. 15, one of the world’s largest doujinshi exhibition and sale events, Comic Market 86 (Comiket), has opened its curtains at Tokyo Big Sight. Many people are attending despite the scorching heat, and the number of guests on the first day reached 170,000. Comic Market has been held twice a year in summer and winter since December 1975, and it features a rich amount of otaku content, such as anime, manga, games, idol goods, garage kits, and cosplay items. Many cosplayers participate in the event, and the photographing area is packed every time. This year, they are planning a display of 35,000 doujin circles in three days. On the first day, there were 1,800 circles on display, mostly related to games and anime such as Free! and Kantai Collection.
Among the company booths, there is a mass gathering of animation and game-related companies, including Aniplex, the developer of the SAO series, Type-Moon, known from Fate and Beyond the Boundary, and companies like Shaft, Nitroplus, and Bushiroad among others. Apart from the currently broadcasting SAO II and Momo Kyun Sword, there were also trailers and advertisements of new anime scheduled to air this fall. On the first day at the doujin booths, an area was formed that was dedicated solely to the browser game Kantai Collection, for which an anime adaptation is underway. There was a long, windy line at each of the booths comprised of customers aching to get their hands on Comiket limited edition merchandise. Regardless of doujin or company booths, all of them were popular to the point of selling out just after opening the gates.
This year, the car manufacturer Honda is participating for the first time, and they are exhibiting a car with a visual panel that has the ability to talk to people and also plays movies. A representative of Honda commented, “We are not only putting a car on display at this year’s Comiket, we are proposing a new way of expression which uses cars as its medium. Our idea is, why not interpret the connection between man and car as a new form of communication? By extending our voices to younger people, we want to strive for a richer society.”
Comiket 86 is being held for three days, until Aug. 17. A similar number of guests for the following two days are projected as well.
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original article.
