went last year, never want to do that again. way too crowded.

fujoshis are cute though.

>>5263273
Out of terrible curiosity I looked up the band's website

This is what the singer actually looks like
I just...

On topic, I really want to hear stories of westerners going to Comiket. I personally know next to nothing about the event so I can't really help.

>>5263282

I was afraid of that. All the pictures of it looked crazy crowded.
Is it basically just a)buy comic books inside b)cosplay pictures outside?

>>5263303
I've only been to Summer but basically, yes it is. You can wear costumes in the halls but you cannot take pictures inside, you change in the changing rooms, you DO NOT leave the Comiket area in cosplay, you DO NOT wear your costume to Comiket, the trains are insanely crowded, and you repeatedly thank the heavens that Japan is so orderly because this building is so insane that an American crowd would turn this into a riot. You also need to get a Comiket catalog in advance and plan out which circles you want to get to which days; the lines for entering Comiket in the morning are ABSOLUTELY FUCKING INSANE, so it's better to come around eleven or noon, but by that time some of the most popular circles will have sold out of their books, so you need to plan!

...you know what, OP? Just read Genshiken.

Although I'll also say that whether you know Japanese or not, if you want to cosplay, you better fucking know the kanji for women and for men (for the changing rooms), and if you want to buy things, you need to be able to read hiragana and katakana and recognize the kanji for east and west. Oh, and be prepared for a few circles to raise a stink and not sell to you if you aren't Japanese. It sucks, but there ain't jack crap you can do about it.

>>5263303
for westerners yeah
if you can speak japanese then you might try talking to the artists if they're not doing anything, other comiket goers about their purchases and what they've seen that might be cool, cosplayers about whatever the hell.

basically, it would be like being at a western convention minus the lack of things like panels and the like. if you thought the opening of the exhibit hall at a stateside convention was tough, well, comiket is worse. many times worse. if you don't mind going for the super popular stuff that sells out you can walk in at noon and have no problems though. without stuff to keep most of the consumers at big site a lot will go home.

>>5263333

So it's like an con who's entire draw is the artist alley that sells almost exclusively art?

Sounds fascinating.

>>5263327
>>5263333

This is all good info. I'm not planning on cosplaying (i meant more for taking pictures) and I don't really have an eye out for anything specific to buy really. (I actually don't know what to expect from it)

So I guess I'd be better off coming into the con when it's calmed down

>>5263363
If you can speak Japanese somewhat and you're there to photograph AND you have a costume of your own (even if it's kind of ghetto), you should go after Tokyo Big Site closes over to the TFT building across the street and go to Tonari de Cosplay/Tonacos. It gets a lot of costumes that people just don't want to take to Comiket proper, because its rules on what you can and cannot wear are incredibly looser, there's more organization to protect cosplayers from creepy photographers, and it's both indoor and less crowded making certain types of costumes more practical. It has stricter rules for how you change into costume, and it's more expensive than the Comiket changing hall (as well as costing more if you're a photographer than if you have a costume), but it may be worth a check if you want to photograph some really cool stuff and you can speak enough Japanese to ask for a picture and ask if it's OK to go on your blog.

Oh, and please make sure that you follow Japanese photo etiquette. If you are posting photos from a Japanese event online, BLUR OUT THE FUCKING FACES IN THE BACKGROUND. Or paste over them with Laughing Man or pixelate them with a mosaic or something. This isn't just a polite custom. This is about potentially costing somebody their job if a clear photo of them hanging in the background of an otaku event gets forwarded to their boss. Anime and cosplay and Comiket and general non-conformity are so much less tolerated in Japan than here that it's not a joke that posting someone's photo without permission or forgetting to censor a background face possibly could fuck up someone's life severely.

Don't be a dick. Make sure you can convey that you know this.

>>5263327
>Oh, and be prepared for a few circles to raise a stink and not sell to you if you aren't Japanese. It sucks, but there ain't jack crap you can do about it.

On the plus side it gives you the chance to experience being a persecuted minority. If you want to cultivate a lifelong hatred of the Japanese, travelling to Japan is a good way to do it.

>>5263354
>almost exclusively art
That isn't actually the case necessarily! Yes, the majority of what you find at Comiket are doujinshi comics, but you can also find doujin CDs, games, and other goods. I bought custom-printed doujin-made T-shirts for two of my fandoms the last time I went, as well as a few fandom-related printed fans and tote bags, and one printed towel of all things. I saw a booth that was actually selling handmade booze, but I stopped when I thought how much the tariff on that would be to try and take back and how I wouldn't have time to drink it before going home.

There's also trying to find some of the cosplayers on whatever day they have it (it was day 3 in the summer) selling cosplay ROMs. Some of them are for porn purposes, and some of them are cosplay circles who get a photographer and a really good backdrop and make an entire CD full of beautiful photos, videos of behind the scenes, etc. You get to see them IRL selling their ROMs though, which can get kind of... interesting sometimes.

I saw that one Queen's Blade cosplayer this summer with the absolutely enormous tits. She definitely does not have photoshop on her boobs, nor did they move like implants. They're just simply the largest natural breasts I have ever seen in person.

>>5263408

I'm not a professional photographer or anything, so I'm not insane/hyped about taking pictures. I was just going to take a few for fun. But I don't know if I would have thought to blur out the faces, so thanks for that.
And I'm definitely not ballsy enough to cosplay in Japan

>>5263432

See, I've been before and I didn't meet one rude person my whole trip. Of course, I was in Tokyo where they are a lot more used to foreigners but..yeah. Haven't experience that bit yet, and hopefully I won't.

>>5263440

The more people explain Comiket to me the more I feel like I will probably not enjoy it. I am not really interested in moe, comics i cannot read (unless hilarious to look at) or slutty cosplay ladies.
Oh well, it's an experience I guess.

>>5263481
It's an experience and it's free, plus picking up some of the doujin merchandise makes for fantastic gifts for people back home. It's just an EXPERIENCE that's worth doing just to say you've done it.

>>5263503
indeed.

>>5263408
Only a minority of Japanese photographers can be bothered to blur faces. The Japanese know it's extremely unlikely anybody gets in trouble for being seen at Comiket or other events. They're public gatherings and if somebody cares about personal privacy they'll wear a white mask. The ones who actually put their reputation on the line are cosplayers and their hobby is thriving like never before. Fact is conformity has been heavily eroded over the past 20 years and nobody really cares anymore.

For some reason I have a burning hatred for that video of yours.

Hello there. I went to the winter comiket a few years ago and can share a little.

I went there like purely as an anthropologist really. I don't care about dojinshi or comics much at all so there was no point to going super early. I arrived after noon and it wasn't that bad to get in. I just kind of shuffled around with the crowds, marveled at the variety of stuff and people, took some cosplay pics and bought a little bit of CCS dojin porn.

One thing that is interesting is people's shopping bag collections. For some reason otaku need to collect shopping bags from their favorite porn manga stands, and the bags always have some fabulous volume of jizz covering a young girl. Many people bought manga just to receive these bags.

About half of the convention are professional manga companies and the other half are all small dojin circles of friends or school groups. You can also judge how popular a manga is that year by how many dojin copies there are of it.

I'll be attending and cosplaying with my boyfriend (pic related). Thankfully my japanese is ok enough to not get labelled as "dirty gaijin" instantly, but I hope that the weather will be warm enough because it's been pretty cold in Tokyo these days.

I'm planning to go to next year's Summer Comiket, so all this info is great.

>>5263327
>Oh, and be prepared for a few circles to raise a stink and not sell to you if you aren't Japanese. It sucks, but there ain't jack crap you can do about it.

Wow, that sucks. It's the first time I heard an experience like that from a Comiket attendee. I supposed if you were fluent enough to ask and communicate in their language, they wouldn't mind -so much- to sell their stuff to a dirty gaijin otaku/fujoshi.

>fluent enough to ask and communicate in their language
All the more reason to think you're one of those filthy scanlators.