Photos and text by ZACHARY CHU  

It’s the season for Comiket Tokyo. One of the pound-for-pound greats, if not the greatest, gathering of anime and manga fan conventions of our time. Typically held at the venue Tokyo Big Sight, also known as Tokyo International Exhibition Center, Comiket is a semiannual event held during the “Summer Comic Market” (Natsukomi) and “Winter Comic Market” (Fuyukomi). Fans old and new have been enjoying this grassroots-managed convention for over 50 years, with every last edition bringing something fresh that crops up where you least expect it.

Now, why Comiket over any local comic convention in your area? Why is the Comic Market all the way in the bustling streets of Tokyo? What makes it so special, you may ask?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. However, standing among the busy shoes of a Comic Market-goer feels almost indescribable; a picture isn’t enough. It’s almost customary to expect fans from all fandoms to congregate in a setup like no other, a convention made by and for them. Comic Market isn’t trying to sell you anything different; to stand among giants, it’s much closer to a step up.

It brings to the table the unique appeal of sheer vibrancy in community interactions, where meeting circles often feel like joining hands. With the long tenure of the event, it has become ritualistic to rub shoulders as a social gathering, where the usual dispersed network of friends and familiar faces gets to share in the social fabric that weaves connections.

A fan, who goes by the alias John Reeds and is originally from the US, has attended Comic Market twice a year for over a decade. He went into detail about Comic Market’s strength, saying, “It’s just not that same sense of community, and more like as a whole where we're all part of that greater community.”

When asked for insights into their previous experiences, he spoke on how, “Back home, it’s almost like, ‘Hey, I’m here to make transactional purchases.’ Like, this is just a place for me to buy stuff. Whereas here, even if the artist sells out, I can still go have a conversation with them, and I can have conversations with everybody else in line that I just wouldn’t get at any other fan event in the world.”

With the many hands that hold up this social phenomenon, it is bound to be that in recent years. Many things have changed with the coming and going of Covid-19. Due to the clear rise of consumer attitudes toward anime, manga, and Japanese culture as a whole, the event that was formerly largely known via word of mouth has adopted the tongues of many other languages.

This unique aspect of globalizing sensation has brought about great change, as the once Japanese-only speaking tables and booths have slowly started to accommodate English communication. And for good reason: a slew of international fans fly all over the globe not only to attend but also to participate, especially from English, Chinese, and Korean creators.

If you’re a first-time attendee, expect to see independent artists and doujinshi (self-published works) as the face of the event, weaving in a mix of professional and amateur creators. As the beating heart of the event, artists of all styles and media gather, many for general audiences, with a significant portion also targeted toward adult audiences.

If you like the sound of cosplayers, original writers, fanfiction writers, games, and famed overseas artisans, then this giant artist alley is definitely for you. Fans quickly gathered, forming a multitude of self-organized purchasing queues around many well-performing doujin artists.

Astonishingly, right next door were booths that sold both a book on culinary criticism and a specific tech guide under the same banner. It was a revolving door you’d be blissfully lost in across all the exhibition halls.

Every convention held is always different from the last. Comiket 108 may have ended, but the sun will rise again for Comiket 109.