Comiket 87

Happy New Year's everyone! I've been going around here and there, attending end of year parties, events, and traveling out of Tokyo. I have quite some catching up to do in order to put it all on the blog, but it's coming. Here we go, starting from the top.

It's been a year and a half coming, but here I am once again, staring at massive crowds of passionate geeks running about from booth to booth, collecting their manga goods and shipping them home, and rushing out again to collect some more. And all this despite it being a rainy Monday.
More specifically, I attended the second day of the 87th bi-annual Comic Market. This being my second time, though, I knew what to expect - or so I thought. If you're interested in a summary about what Comiket is about, check out my coverage from the 84th!

Amateur publications - imagine this, times 300, and you've got Comiket!

Of course, this being the Winter Comiket, I did find that the event wasn't quite as grandiose as its Summer counterpart. Understandably, it's a little more difficult for people to come out in the cold of Winter than it is on a sunny Summer day - and twice as much so when it comes to people dressing up for cosplay. Still, that isn't to say the event itself was small in any way. In truth, I probably wouldn't have imagined it could be any bigger than this if it had been my first time. And when it comes to costumes, there's still quite a sizable amount of people out there doing their thing.
 Mind you, in Winter like in Summer, the area for cosplay is outside of the building! One can't help but marvel at the girls in skimpy outfits doing their things out in the cold. Once again, there's a little something for everyone here.

Whether cute...

   

...or cool,

...or simply out of the ordinary.

At any rate, thus concludes my brief coverage of Comiket 87. It's been fun, and I never really get tired of seeing what people can concoct when they're this driven by...anything, really. Fandom is at once something dreadful, powerful, and awe inspiring. All you have to do to see that is check out Comiket for yourself.

Ambassadorship! Kind of.

A while back I was referred to a government-sponsored cultural program by Aala, who told me about the means to become a part of the exclusive group named CoFesta.
 What's the role of a cultural ambassador? Well, basically, to be doing what I'm doing anyway, sharing (hopefully) exciting news about happenings in Japan with people from other countries by using social media such as this very blog.
 CoFesta's ambassadors get some pretty cool benefits. I ain't getting paid, but there's a bunch of enriching experiences to be had. VIP tickets to big events are made available for us, as well as a right to take photographs in said events that is usually reserved for the press only.
 Coming up is a visit to NHK's studio and a meeting with high-profile producers for hit television shows in Japan. I'll be attending that and hopefully a whole bunch of other events I can free my schedule for. Hurray!

Roppongi Art Night

We're ready for this!

Roppongi...is kind of a cesspool of sweaty drunks and loud people who have a hard time controlling hormonal imbalances. Most Tokyo people know this for a fact. Being a person who does not wish to contract any form of airborne AIDS, I tend to avoid Roppongi.
 But once in a while, something nice happens in Roppongi! And in this case, it was the annual Roppongi Art Night, once again brought to my attention by Eri the Receptionist (who has notably been moved to another branch of my workplace since the last big outing. Boo.) More or less unaware of what to expect at the event, we ventured into the heart of an infamous district we weren't very well acquainted with.

The Roppongi Art Night is a massive explosion of assorted modern art happening throughout the whole district over the course of a mere 24 hours, indoors and outdoors. During this time, the streets run ablaze with artwork of all shapes and sizes, some merely nice to look at, and others deeply conceptual and interactive.
As Eri and I stumbled around town in a fittingly confused and disorderly fashion, we were drawn from one section of the event to another in somewhat of a scavenger hunt to track down all the major pieces scattered throughout Roppongi, grabbing food and information where we saw it and stopping at every wonderful and unusual sight.

For the most part, the theme of the event was apparently "ships and lighthouses," so many of the artwork exposed on the streets were some form of either, but the indoor portion contained within the Tokyo Art Museum touched upon other themes such as the important, if depressing, results of the March 11 earthquake that shook Japan.

My highlight was probably the amazing Korean exhibit that focused on bringing to life the drawings of children aged between 5 and 7 year old. I used to enjoy re-drawing my younger cousins' drawings in great, realistic detail, so this really struck a chord with me.
All in all, in good company, the Art Night is an amazingly endearing experience I would voluntarily do again next year and probably the year after as well. And the one after.

 Lots of these pictures taken by Eri! Credit where it's due!

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!