What exactly is Doujin?
In Japan, Doujin usually refers to activities which individuals with same interest celebration and build items like comics(Manga), novels, games and other goods. They are not needed professional artists or writers. Many of doujin products are developed by armatures as being a hobby and sometimes published by their unique expense.
Group formed by people with common Doujin theme is often called “Circle”. Within Circle, creators exchange their ideas and show works to each other. Doujinshi or software program is often provided by Circle.
You can find a huge selection of Doujin Circles in Japan. Many of the Doujin items are publicized by Circle instead of individual.
Doujin Circle and community has become Japan’s huge art culture and manga industry’s phenomenon.
Good reputation for Doujin
Concept of “Doujin” was initially acknowledged when Shotaro Ishinomori gathered artist friends and established “East Japan Comic Society” to create a corroboration magazine “Manga-Shonen”. Then Doujin Circle activities gradually began to prosper with the “reader’s communication page” on a magazine “COM” (Now discontinued), that was first publicized in 1967. In those days, self publication was costing a lot, thus one bundled comics were passed from Circle member to a different, with the help of their pages and circulating one of many creators for viewing.
The world of “Doujin” has grown because the amount of participating creators increased. Circles started to form within educational facilities like high schools and universities. If so, Circles had the ability to receive funds using their institution, as a result it made it possible for their Doujinshi to become printed. (Offset Print)
Individual Doujin activities begun to increase once the animation series, “Gatcha-Man” was televised around 1972. Yet it absolutely was still not only a widely spread trend simply small number of of Circles were gathering and exchanging their works. Doujin community was still being a closed realm.
Comic Market locked in 1975 has contributed a good deal for that general acknowledgement of Doujin culture. It begun with 32 Circles, and 700 participants, forming a location to change and then sell one another’s Doujin artworks. The Comic Market gradually became as being a major Doujin event from year upon year.
At beginning, a lot of the Doujinshi were featuring animation parody, however gradually gained more erotic components who have made an erotic Doujinshi a very popular theme.
After a certain Doujinshi gains its popularity, the volume of creators who participate towards the Circle increases. Therefore, they are able to afford more costly printing method like offset. Consequently that made the standard of such Doujinshi better.
Doujin Circles which was lacking enough financial resource would publish their Doujinshi by copying or making of a printer. Before, printing was pretty expensive, but now days it has become cheaper.
As much animation came out on TV in the 80th, more Doujinshi featured such anime themed Parody, including Yaoi and erotic Doujinshi. A number of the popular titles featured by Doujin creators then were: “Gundum” (1981), “Urusei-Yatsura – Only You” (1983), “Macross – Remember Love” (1984). In the late 80th, titles such as “Saint Seiya” (1980) and “Top o Nerae” became a huge hit which raised excitement among Doujin creators.
During this time period, Yaoi Doujinshi started to acquire a general acknowledgement as a consequence of popular anime titles such as “Saint Seiya” and “Samurail Trooper”, which featured friendship between men.
Also, “Doujin Software” did start to appear during this time period because PC was growing a favorite domestic tool. Similar to “Comiket”, an event “Pasoket” was formed being a destination to sell and exchange PC Doujin software. NEC’s PC-9801 series, Fujitsu’s FM-TOWNS and Sharp’s X68000 were popular hardware, thus Doujin software and CG were mainly designed to are powered by these platforms. Among those, X68000 especially attracted many core-users for the high machine spec which resulting in many sophisticated Doujin software titles being born.
In the 90th, a title like “Sailor Moon” was a huge hit among kid and even adult. “Sailor Moon” became additionally a popular theme among Doujin creators. Since characters from “Sailor moon” were “Bisyoujyo Character” (Pretty Girl Character), many erotic and lesbian themed Doujinshi were made beyond Sailor Moon.
In the mid 90th, Game themed Doujinshi began to gained popularity. Most of them were featuring an erotic scene and Yaoi theme of in-game characters. Quantity of game company that featured “Bisyoujyo Game” (Pretty Girl’s Game) has expanded and many Doujin creators began to concentrate on Bisyoujyo Game due to the demand and popularity.
Around this time, lawsuits about copyright issue between commercial and Doujin publication stared to elevate. Creating Doujinshi from copyrighted characters was considered legal given it scaled like the notion that these Doujinshi are intended for non-commercial purpose, nevertheless for leisure. There was no licensing fee and business agreement involving the copyright holder and Doujin creator. Consequently, copyright holder was not capable of restrict copyrighted character themed Doujinshi though he would not like how these characters were presented on these Doujinshi. Of course this is a huge continuous problematic trouble in the industry and it is being declared there must be some type of law setting a guide. (Text by: Torakichi Hayama)
Class of Doujin
Original
Doujin works which all story and characters were originally developed by the creator.
Ani-Paro
Anime Parody. Featuring already existed anime characters or anime theme.
Yaoi
Doujin work offering love or sex between male. Sometime it is called Boy’s love.
Yuri
Doujin work showcasing love or sex between female. This word came to be just as one opposite of “Bara” (Rose) featuring male homosexuality. The definition of “Yuri” was considered originated from a movie called “Yuri-zoku series” by “Nikkatu Roman Porn”.
Loli-Con
Abbreviation for Lolita Complex. Doujin works featuring Child Pornography. It turned out declared the phrase was originated from a singular “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov, a middle age man loving an underage girl. **In the usa, Loli-con that presents child obscenity and pornography is prohibited by CPPA (Child Pornography Prevention Act). Please be aware to be aware of regulations carefully if you are planning to write Loli-con themed Doujinshi. This law applies to virtual characters also.
Shota-Con
Doujin work which features underage boy relationship. The word originated in a character named Shota Kaneda from “Taiyou no Shisya Tetsujin 28 Gou”.
Neko-Mimi
Doujin work showcasing female characters with cat ears. Basically, almost all of the main Neko-Mimi characters are female. Their personality is incredibly just like Neko (Cat) and act like it. On Doujinshi, these characters might talk like “~meow” at the end of their words.
Kemono
Different from Neko-Mimi, however Doujin work features human looking character with partially animal-like.
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