Items of Interest from C75 Day 3, or How to Spend 30,000jpy on Comiket Day 3 on Nothing but All-Ages Doujin
Day 3 was pretty tame, all things considered: got up early but not too early, stood in line behind East hall, got in at around 10:10 and bought things until I couldn’t buy no more. I spent a good chunk of money, but somehow didn’t purchase any pornography for dudes on what is normally known as the pornography for dudes day. I did get hit some bigger-name circles (ABe, KEI, etc), but they’re not terribly interesting and I’m sure those are all on share or PD or the bittorrent or whatever. Here are some of the mildly interesting and less common things I bought!
Akiba ni Sumu
Akibakurashi wo Tanoshimu Hon
A couple of circles were selling books about Akiba, which I could not help but buy.
Akiba ni Sumu is a very data-driven book, with detailed information on Akiba’s bus stops, zoning laws, history, when the last train you can take from basically anywhere in Tokyo to get back to Akiba is, you name it. Haven’t gotten around to fully reading it yet, but it looks to be a treasure trove of information. Samples of issues are available on the site here.
Akibakurashi wo Tanoshimu takes a different approach, with a lot more pictures and fewer obsessive details. The booth was being run by a middle-aged couple, if I recall correctly, and this reads more like a nice neighborhood guide more than anything, with reviews of restaurants in the area, a small diary of goings-on around the area (festivals, notable store openings), and a small section with floor plans and prices of apartments in the district. A boy can dream, right? They were selling their back issues (1-5, they had a new issue 6 out as well) as a set for I believe 1500 yen, which was quite a deal considering these are 50 pages and well-printed.
Temjin-14, Te-vap 15
Now since I’m studying in the Kansai region at the moment, all this information on Akiba won’t do me a whole lot of good during the school year. Thankfully, Bashi Denden-Kumi, who have apparently been doing this since at least the year 2000, put out a biannual book on the stores of the Nippombashi area. I picked up their summer offering as well as their free winter supplement. The summer book even has a nice fold-out map. I’m sure there are websites that do this, but there’s something really nice about being able to hand 400 yen to the folks that really know and love the area in exchange for a physical volume.
Tsurukawa Bunko - Osama-san 6 (nida), Holy Warriors Taliban 3
Apparently this guy’s books are kind of famous if you’ve been around the internet long enough, but this is like the third time I’ve bought from him and every time it feels like he’s giving me one of those Japanese death glares even though I’m 99% sure it’s all in my head. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Holy Warriors Taliban is about Osama and Saddam fighting off the US trying to steal all their oil, with the cover blurb of “Martyrs for Independence, Defeat America!” Also, Condolezza Rice is a Planet of the Apes figure. Also, Osama is Optimus prime, complete with transforming action. Also, DBZ parodies such as Obama playing Vegeta to Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Christopher Hill’s Napa. (“Maybe you won’t be such a disappointment… IN THE NEXT DIMENSION!!!”)
I hope I don’t get arrested for these at customs.
Doriyasu Koujou - Shikaban Kannagi, Hidamari Sketch
Prolific Gegege no Kitaro crossover circle Driyasfabrik’s C74 and C75 offerings. They’re basically everything you think they’d be. Case in point:
it's a catchphrase
C2 ARCHITECTURE - Index of BAKERY
I have to admit, I’m a total sucker for glossy, well laid-out full-color doujins, even if they’re about girls sitting on Nordic furniture (not my fetish, i swear), or in this case, girls eating bread. This is C2 ARCHITECTURE‘s first Comiket offering, and it’s all reviews of smaller Tokyo, particularly Shibuya-based bakeries, and illustrations of girls eating bread from these bakeries. Simple, unique, effective, they manage to actually use the “lets sell everything with moe” boom for good, not evil. Looking forward to their “Diorama Novel” this year.
Inside samples here, aniblogs are OFP-unfriendly enough as-is
OTAKU_BOOKS's OTA-PICTO Project, Otaku to Design's Otaku x Design 3
More things found in the criticism/information block of day 3. The OTA-PICTO book, by OTAKU_BOOKS starts with a brief discussion of the usage of pictograms and signs in otaku culture, then goes on to propose its own set of pictograms with which to label goods sold. I really wish I made it in time to get some of his other books, it looks like he had one on SHAFTxShinbo shows!
Otaku x Design is much longer and much more wordy, and again I haven’t gotten through the whole thing. It looks very interesting though, and the main article basically asks “when did otaku start paying attention to design?” from the jumping-off point of Toranoana. Smaller articles like interviews included as well. Overall, another very slick production.
Well, I had some words here about one last thing, Comic Mavo, but wordpress apparently hates long posts and makes the entire post go away if I type that many words. Maybe some other time! I’m going to sleep.