Doujinshi: a platform for artistic freedom and a gateway to the professional manga industry

Doujinshi is amateur manga created in small numbers by artistic circles and sold at specific conventions. Some of these conventions are small in scale, while others are notoriously large. The largest doujinshi convention – Comic Market (or Comiket for short) drew over 590 thousand attendees in December 2011. Doujinshi can feature popular manga characters with a new plot or a different setting, but can also offer stories, characters and original worlds. Since doujinshi are self-made and do not need to adhere to strict censorship guidelines imposed by professional publishers, the artists behind them enjoy an almost free hand when it comes to both their doujinshi stories and their description. . The conventions in which doujinshi are bought and sold tend to be lenient in their attitude toward nudity, but enforce, to some extent, depiction of violence or political views. Problematic doujinshi will need to be redrawn or censored before being approved for publication.

The relative freedom found in doujinshi allows artists to express themselves fully without legal or bodily restrictions. This has led to experimental, avant-garde and artistic doujinshi. It also made it possible for doujinshi based on existing popular manga series to be published without the need for complicated legal permissions. The freedom that doujinshi posts allow has not been ignored by professional manga artists. Several famous artists, such as Yoshitoshi ABe and Akamatsu Ken, draw doujinshi as a respite from their professional works. Creating doujinshi gives them the freedom to create whatever they want (rather than following the instructions given to them by their supervisors and editors at their respective companies) and also allows them to interact with their fans in a more intimate way.

While doujinshi are a non-commercial product, they can attract a lot of fans if they are skillfully drawn. Circles with talented manga artists tend to become famous and sell all their copies faster than others. Since skilled artists tend to stand out, doujinshi conventions have attracted talent scouts from big publishers looking for up-and-coming new artists to add to their companies’ arsenal. Some famous manga artists started out as doujinshi artists and then were selected by publishing companies and moved on to professional manga drawing. These professionals include Akamatsu Ken (Love Hina), Takahashi Rumiko (Ranma 1/2), Clamp (Card Captor Sakura), and Tony. As some of these artists continue to publish their own original doujinshi alongside their professional manga, there have been instances where a doujinshi from a well-known professional artist ends up being adopted by their publisher and turned into a professional product. Such cases include:

• Yoshitoshi ABe’s Haibane Renmei doujinshi that was adapted into an anime series.
• Tony’s illustrations of Crypton’s Hatsune Miku, which were later endorsed by the official company and published as an official commercial art book.
• Amano Kozue’s Aqua doujinshi that was adapted into the Aria commercial manga (and later spawned an anime series).

Some of these artists, who began their careers as amateurs drawing doujinshi for small events, have contributed greatly to the evolution of both amateur and commercial manga visual presentation over the years.