Comiket 73 Catalog

The exhibition center is divided in East Exhibition Wing, West Exhibition Wing, and Conference Tower. The doujinshi circles (publishing groups) are housed in East Halls 1-6 and West Halls 1-2. The cosplay and corporate booths are located in the 4^th floor of the West Wing. Naruto Cosplay takes place here.

Open Hours – Doujinshis circles are operating  from 10 am to 4 pm, and corporate booths are open from 10 am to 5 pm (except last day of Comiket).

It is especially crowded in the mornings when tens of thousands of eager participants are standing in lines blocking traffic. The committee puts a lot of efforts into organizing these lines and guiding them in open spaces and nearby parks.

To cope with increased traffic most public transportation services in Tokyo change their schedule, it includes Yurkamome elevated train line, the Rinkaisen Train Line, Tokyo Metropolitan Bus Lines.

There is no entrance fee in the Comiket, yet you are strongly encouraged to buy the official catalog.

Each doujinshi circle gets half a desk (90 x 45 cm), a couple of chairs, and some little space for storing inventory. The cost of participation as a doujinshi circle is 7500 yen, or 65 USD per single space. The total number of circles who apply for space is 46 500, and a lottery is held, so that only 80 percent of those actually get a place in the Comiket.

Popular circles attract many people, so they are placed separately in such a way that lines could be extended out into the truck yards. These circles sell thousands of books in a single session of Comiket.

Corporate booths are located on the fourth floor of West Wing. There are about 150 booths housing 130 corporations. The corporations fall into following categories: PC game software manufacturers, comic book publishers, music content publishers, TV and radio stations, as well as retailers that specialize in novelty goods and other items.

There are many activities going on here like rock contests, lotteries, autograph signing with celebrities, and handshaking sessions.

Cosplay Appearances

Many attendees put clothes of their favorite personalities, including manga, anime and/or game characters. There is a special dressing room for cosplay that is setup at the 4^th floor, and the cost of registration is about 800 yen (7 USD). There are many restrictions and regulations regarding cosplay due to congestion. Naruto Cosplay appearances take place here.

For each male cosplay persons there are 4 or 5 females.

Doujinshi Circles Demographics

Usually it is believed that doujinshi are male dominated, yet statistics show that among participants of doujinshi there are 71 percent women, and only 29 percent are men. The average age of a circle organizer is 28 years, both for male and female.

For general attendees the demographics are different – 57 percent women, and 43 percent men.

The breakdown of circles’ genres is as such – 41 percent manga, 9 percent anime (since manga titles only gain fame following its adaptation into the animated medium, the manga genre is really larger), 30 percent games, and 20 percent other. Breakdown of other genres: 40 percent history, literature, novels, 35% music, celebrity related, sports, 18 percent live action monsters, science fiction, mechanics related, military related, trains and travel, 7 percent critiques and various information booklets.

The Comic Market Preparation Committee and Comiket Ideals

The total staff includes 2400 people, all volunteers. The Committee is a volunteer based organization that has no legal entity status. The Committee was incorporated in 1985, and changed to its present form in 1996.

There are no “customers” in the Comiket. It is operated, maintained and comprised by those who take part in the event.

All participants are treated equally, and the Comiket must always be a place where freedom of expression is maintained. So the Committee must make all possible effort toward securing as much freedom as possible.

So every side supports and ads to a concept of comic market as an open space. Participating circles provide works and concepts, general attendees are readers and supporters of the creative efforts, and staff participants provide the space. So in order to remain a space with the greatest freedoms possible, self-reliance of the participants is important, but the event cannot operate properly without individual moral awareness, mindfulness of manners, and invested interests toward up-keeping this space.