Comiket

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Comiket
Elaborately dressed cosplayers at Comiket 69, circa. December 2005
Status	Active
Venue	Tokyo Big Sight
Location	Ariake, Tokyo
Country	Japan
First held	1975
Attendance	550,000 in 2007 (summer)
Official website

Comiket (コミケット, Komiketto^?), otherwise known as the Comic Market (コミックマーケット, Komikku Māketto^?) or CM, is the world's largest comic convention, held twice a year in Tokyo, Japan. The first CM was held in December 1975, with only about 32 participating circles and an estimated 600 attendees.^[1] Attendance has since swelled to over half a million people. It is a grassroots, DIY effort for selling dōjinshi, self-published Japanese works. As items sold in CM are considered very rare (because dōjinshi are seldom reprinted), some items sold at CM can be found in shops or on the Internet at prices up to 10 times the item's original price.

The continuing operation of CM is the responsibility of the Comic Market Preparatory Committee (CMPC).

1 Time, date, and location
2 Admission
3 Size
4 Comic Market catalog
5 General rules
6 Problems related to Comiket
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Time, date, and location

Comic Market is held twice a year; once in August, and once in December. These are referred to typically as Summer Comike and Winter Comike respectively. Summer Comike is 3 days long, and usually is held during the weekend around August 15th. Winter Comike is 2-3 days long, and usually is held between December 28th and 31st. The current convention location is the Tokyo Big Sight convention center near Ariake, in Odaiba, Kōtō, Tokyo. The major part of the convention runs from 10AM to 4PM, though the company booths run all the way until 5PM. On the last day of the convention, the company booths and Cosplay Square close an hour earlier, at 4PM and 3PM respectively. Since it is such a large event, the official Comic Market website recommends getting there in the afternoon if you don't want to wait in line to get in. Otherwise, if you get there at 10AM, you'll have to wait in line for about an hour, and get in around 11 or 11:30, and if you show up on the first train, you'll have to wait about 5 hours, and you'll get in around 10 or 10:30. The most recent Comiket was Comiket 73, on December 29-31, 2007, and the next Comiket will be Comiket 74, which is planned for August 15-17, 2008.

The line up at Comiket 68 in August 2005.

[edit] Admission

No entrance fee is required for admission to CM, however attendees are strongly encouraged to purchase the Comic Market Catalog.

[edit] Size

Approximately 35,000 sellers, known as circles, participated in CM as of 2001.^[2] An estimated 510,000 attendees converge in the course of 3 days, but this number continues to increase. With the addition of police, guards, staff, volunteers, there are over half a million people. Because of the extreme number of people gathering in a single place, mobile phone companies set up temporary antennas that are usually employed when stationary antennas are out of service. Area hotels, trains, and bus services also make special arrangements to accommodate the large crowds.

[edit] Comic Market catalog

[edit] Catalog

The CM Catalog contains information about the buyers and sellers at CM and other general event information. It is available in print and CD-ROM format. The print version is roughly the size of a small phone book. It contains lists of all the participating circles, maps of the convention layout, maps and directions to get to and from the convention, rules for the convention, and arguably the most useful, a picture or two for every participating circle. The visuals are extremely helpful, especially for non-Japanese speakers.

The catalog is not required for admittance, but without it the event is nearly impossible to navigate. Catalogs are often sold at tents in and around the event for the benefit of latecomers.

The CD-ROM edition of the catalog includes the following features:

Advanced search functions by day, location, circle, title, genre, etc.
Custom color coded checklist creation
Customized map and list printing with customizeable lists and fields
Clickable layout map for navigation
Importing and exporting circle and image data (presumably for new versions)
Saving lists as .csv files for use in a spreadsheet program

To date, there is no English edition of the catalog available.

[edit] Where the catalog can be purchased

The CM website usually has a list of stores (by prefecture) where you can order the catalog. Please be aware that not all stores have the CD-ROM version and some may not have the print version. This is also on the list of stores on the CM homepage. Catalogs can be ordered from overseas, depending on the store.

[edit] When the catalog can be purchased

The catalog typically comes out two weeks before the convention. Up until the first day of CM, large manga shops such as "Tora no Ana", "Mandarake", and "Animate" tend to still have catalogs in stock.

[edit] General rules

The general rules for the convention are all outlined in the CM Catalog and are fairly basic.

Running is forbidden, to prevent injury.
Lining up before the day of the convention is forbidden, as pre-convention "parties" have drawn complaints from local residents in previous years.
Taking pictures of cosplayers outside of the Cosplay Square is forbidden. In the past, there have been problems with unscrupulous photographers snapping unsolicited shots.
Do not take pictures of cosplayers without their express permission.

There are additional rules which apply to cosplayers as well.

[edit] Problems related to Comiket

As the number of circles participating and number of participants increase rapidly, the event has become very crowded. In order to buy their favorite items (and especially famous items, such as dōjinshi from famous authors or special limited-edition items), thousands of people line up outside the Tokyo Big Sight convention center days before the event starts, causing serious security problems. Hence, in recent years lining up before the day Comiket is held on has been prohibited.

Recently there has been a rumor spreading that cosplay photography has been completely forbidden at Comiket, beginning with Comiket 68. However, that was only a rumor. During Comiket 69, 70 and 71, the cosplay photography event has been celebrated as normal. The specific rules, however, restrict unsolicited photography only, and do not ban photography as a whole.

[edit] References

^ Wilson, Brent; Toku, Masami. "Boys' Love," Yaoi, and Art Education: Issues of Power and Pedagogy 2003
^ http://www.guidemag.com/temp/yaoi/a/mcharry_yaoi.html

This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.