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Anime News

Doujinshi Could Be In Trouble
Date: 2/2/2007
Recent sales of fan produced parody comic based on j-chara icon Doraemon have gotten so big that it may have created an uncomfortable situation with the original rights holders. Not at all uncommon in Japan, Doujinishi have enjoyed a long and healthy existance over the years in Japan in a mostly gray legal zone. "Doraemon Final Story" as it's titled, went on sale at Comiket 71 at the end of 2006. 400,000 people attended the event. The story collects elements from a chain mail of the same name that originated in the late 1990's. Mostly through word of mouth internet advertising, news that the unofficial manga would be published surfaced in late 2005. Over 2006 the planned title took on a buzz dynamic of huge proportions. The circle has sold 15,500 copies to date, huge numbers for a dojin. However, the authors didn't attain permission from official publisher Shogakukan, throwing the comic into a technically illegal "priacy" status. They contacted the group at the end of 2006 to cease circulation. J-Cast, our source for this news, asked Shogakukan for a comment. They were told the issue is unresolved, but gave the following statement: "Will severely deal with the piracy in the future." The situation is interesting becuase Comiket has been ongoing for 30 years and most of the fan-produced manga works you can buy there are based on existing copyrighted characters. What's more, many of today's mainstream, corporate backed manga artist stars got their start in dojin and at Comic Market. "Manga inc." underpins Japan's huge animation industry. The nation's exponentially growing soft power in the world is often tied to both of these pop culture corporate segments. If Doujinshi is agressively addressed in the future, could this have any effect on the entire system of contents creation that has existed in Japan in modern times? Where this situation will go from here is uncertain, but some believe this development could be precedent setting.
Source: Anime News Service