What exactly is Doujin?
In Japan, Doujin usually refers to activities which individuals with same interest gather and create things such as comics(Manga), novels, games and other goods. This type of person not necessary professional artists or writers. Lots of doujin items are developed by armatures like a hobby and often published by their particular expense.

Group formed by people with common Doujin theme can often be called “Circle”. Within Circle, creators exchange their ideas and show functions the other. Doujinshi or software program is often created by Circle.

You’ll find countless Doujin Circles in Japan. Lots of the Doujin merchandise is publicized by Circle instead of individual.

Doujin Circle and community is now Japan’s huge art culture and manga industry’s phenomenon.

Reputation Doujin

Definition of “Doujin” was first acknowledged when Shotaro Ishinomori gathered artist friends and established “East Japan Comic Society” to share a corroboration magazine “Manga-Shonen”. Then Doujin Circle activities gradually started 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 king’s ransom, thus one bundled comics were passed in one Circle member to an alternative, by adding their pages and circulating among the creators for viewing.

The realm of “Doujin” is continuing to grow because the quantity of participating creators increased. Circles did start to form within universities like high schools and universities. Therefore, Circles could receive funds using their institution, as a result it gave the chance for their Doujinshi being printed. (Offset Print)

Individual Doujin activities started to increase when the animation series, “Gatcha-Man” was televised around 1972. Yet it absolutely was still not just a regularly found trend simply small selection of of Circles were gathering and exchanging their works. Doujin community used to be a closed realm.

Comic Market locked in 1975 has contributed a whole lot for that general acknowledgement of Doujin culture. It begun with 32 Circles, and 700 participants, forming a location to switch and then sell one another’s Doujin art works. The Comic Market gradually became as a major Doujin event from year to year.

At beginning, a lot of the Doujinshi were featuring animation parody, however gradually gained more erotic components who have made an erotic Doujinshi an increasingly popular theme.

Once a certain Doujinshi gains its popularity, the volume of creators who participate to the Circle increases. Therefore, they’re able to afford more costly printing method like offset. As a result that made the caliber of such Doujinshi better.
Doujin Circles which did not have enough financial resource would publish their Doujinshi by copying or making of an printer. In the past, printing was pretty expensive, but now days it may be cheaper.

Numerous animation arrived on television within the 80th, more Doujinshi featured such anime themed Parody, including Yaoi and erotic Doujinshi. A few of the popular titles featured by Doujin creators then were: “Gundum” (1981), “Urusei-Yatsura – Only You” (1983), “Macross – Remember Love” (1984). Within the late 80th, titles such as “Saint Seiya” (1980) and “Top o Nerae” was a huge hit which raised excitement among Doujin creators.

Around this time, Yaoi Doujinshi started to obtain a general acknowledgement as a consequence of popular anime titles like “Saint Seiya” and “Samurail Trooper”, which featured friendship between men.

Also, “Doujin Software” began to appear during this time period because PC was starting to become a well known domestic tool. Much like “Comiket”, a conference “Pasoket” was formed as being a location 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 made to run using these platforms. Those types of, X68000 especially attracted many core-users for the high machine spec which leading to many sophisticated Doujin software titles to become born.

In the 90th, a title such as “Sailor Moon” has been a huge hit among kid and even adult. “Sailor Moon” became and 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 away from Sailor Moon.

In the mid 90th, Game themed Doujinshi begun to gained popularity. Many were featuring an erotic scene and Yaoi theme of in-game characters. Variety of game company that featured “Bisyoujyo Game” (Pretty Girl’s Game) has risen and a lot of Doujin creators did start to give attention to Bisyoujyo Game due to its demand and recognition.

During this time period, lawsuits about copyright issue between commercial and Doujin publication stared to rise. Creating Doujinshi out of copyrighted characters was considered legal since it was based on the thought that these Doujinshi are intended for non-commercial purpose, but also for leisure. There are no licensing fee and business agreement involving the copyright holder and Doujin creator. Consequently, copyright holder was not in a position to restrict copyrighted character themed Doujinshi though he failed to like how these characters were presented on these Doujinshi. Even if this has been a continuous problematic trouble in the industry in fact it is being said that there ought to be some kind of law to put a rule. (Text by: Torakichi Hayama)

Class of Doujin

Original
Doujin works which all story and characters were originally manufactured by the creator.

Ani-Paro
Anime Parody. Featuring already existed anime characters or anime theme.

Yaoi
Doujin work which features love or sex between male. Sometime stage system Boy’s love.

Yuri
Doujin work showcasing love or sex between female. This word was born being an the complete opposite of “Bara” (Rose) showcasing male homosexuality. The word “Yuri” was considered originated from a motion picture called “Yuri-zoku series” by “Nikkatu Roman Porn”.

Loli-Con
Abbreviation for Lolita Complex. Doujin works featuring Child Pornography. It absolutely was declared that the term was comes from the sunday paper “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov, a mid-life man loving an underage girl. **In the us, Loli-con that presents child obscenity and pornography is unlawful by CPPA (Child Pornography Prevention Act). Take note to understand regulations carefully if you are planning to write down Loli-con themed Doujinshi. This law pertains to virtual characters too.

Shota-Con
Doujin work showcasing underage boy relationship. The definition of originated from a personality named Shota Kaneda from “Taiyou no Shisya Tetsujin 28 Gou”.

Neko-Mimi
Doujin work featuring female characters with cat ears. Basically, a lot of the main Neko-Mimi characters are female. Their personality is very 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, but this Doujin work features human looking character with partially animal-like.

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