Zines are something that is slowly getting more popular. Whether you’re looking for fandom zines advertising on Twitter or Tumblr or the more traditional zines with unusual poetry and pictures, you can always find something for you. Zines themselves aren’t new, they’ve been around for many years, but in Japan, there’s been a particular form of manga that are essentially zines.
Doujinshi.
So today, I want to talk a little about doujinshi. I’m going to explain what it is for those who don’t know and just say why you should all think about getting some. Or, y’know, try drawing some if you’re into that.
I’m pretty sure that most if not every anime and manga fan are aware of it. There are entire conventions dedicated to doujinshi, there are massive circles, and you can easily buy it secondhand online. It’s actually a bit of a dream of mine to visit a doujin con like Comiket and pick up a ton of doujinshi. I own about four doujinshi currently and do plan on buying more. I love looking at the different types of art and seeing the characters you love pictured differently. You can even buy fanart illustration books, of which I own one on top of the other doujin, and I think it’s so worth it.
Some famous manga-ka have even drawn and sold doujin in the past. CLAMP started as a doujin circle back in the 80’s way before they started drawing RG Veda, their first series. Other manga-ka like Sakura Kinoshita and Kazuko Higashiyama has drawn doujin of their own series. Tactics was a teen manga series, but they did release an 18+ yaoi doujin of the two main guys. Something they wouldn’t have been able to get away with within the main series. They did it under another name, but it did give them a chance to do something different with their own characters.
And that is something you should bear in mind with doujin. At least, fan-doujinshi. I’m not sure about original doujin, but a lot of fan-doujin are 18+. Sites like Otaku Republic do have filters, so you can avoid anything more adult if you want. You can definitely get some decent doujin that’s just cute as I don’t own anything pervy. I don’t plan on buying anything pervy, actually, as most of my ships have underage characters in. So that’s a big NOPE from me.
It’s a really fun thing to collect though. Sometimes you can even find stuff with smaller characters as they may be more popular in Japan. Which is how I own doujin of Yamikumo from BNHA as people in Japan were really into the protos a few years ago.
If you’re really into an anime or game series, they’re definitely worth looking into. They’re something that feels very special. I know that some doujin circles also create original doujin, as I briefly mentioned earlier. It’s not something I know much about but is something I have seen portrayed in manga series like Comic Party – yes, I’m showing my age now – which I believe showed a doujin circle. So I know it definitely exists, but I’d probably only check some out at a convention, but I would like to one day.
So that’s basically it. Do you collect doujinshi? Do you think you’d like to? Let me know down below.
Lace and Dagger Books 