Comiket 84

It was only a matter of time, wasn't it?

For the first time since my arrival in Japan, I found myself at an anime and manga convention. With an estimated 500,000 attendances, Comiket is the largest, most monstrously crowded self-publishing convention of its kind. Being an unapologetic video-gamer and a once big-time anime fan, I couldn't quite pass on this.
Accompanied by Ken and Aala (and two other friends off-camera!) I delve into the heart of geek-dom. Not without secretly enjoying it. See, I'm not much for waiting and watching. It's also fun to just jump in and do something crazy here and there.
Sexy things, cool things, bizarre things, long line-ups, and fat, smelly bastards who wait only for this time of the year to come out from their flats await!
Here we go!

I care only for Solid Snake!

 Comiket is held twice a year outside Tokyo, a half hour or so from where I live myself. Within the spacious grounds of Tokyo Big-Sight, the hoard of otaku (Japanese for geek) can sprawl out in numbers and still leave (a small amount of) walking space allowing people to circulate. The event itself is divided into grounds for well-known published manga and amateur manga, with the rest being fair territory for cosplayers, which is by far the most interesting part of the convention (for me at least!)

 Not to say that the rest isn't interesting. The amateur manga and fan-fiction section of Comiket stretches for over a hundred square meters I'm positive. While I'm sure there was talent to be found, though, a lot of it wasn't too impressive, to me, at least. There's all kinds of obscure wonders and treasures to be found in this pool, though.
Fun fact! A surprising amount of amateur pornographic comics are drawn by women!
 Other fun fact! Attendance of Comiket was predominantly female only until the more recent years, where male attendance has risen.

But the cosplay really takes the cake. Here's the part of the event that appeals to geek and non-geek alike (I think?) There's a little something for everyone here. It's interesting to stop here if you want something sexy to gawk at, or something silly to laugh at, or if you just want to be marveled in general by the effort some people put into the costume they'll only wear once or twice a year. Some of these pieces are months in the making. But sometimes it takes a little less than that to gain the attention of eager geeks from across Tokyo. The amount of skin you'll see from some of these people is also quite remarkable.

Cross-dressers! But of course!

Ken's pet thing.

Identify this anime? I can't. Neither can Aala.

Altogether Comiket was my kind or recipe for a good time.  Since the event is held twice a year, I'm likely to return in Winter, as well, for Comiket 85. Aala wants to dress up as something. I'll allow myself to try to think of something to dress up as, as well, if only to have an excuse for doing flips in public and later find my pictures elsewhere online. It's something to look forward to!