When it comes to the manga industry, it is very easy to only focus on professional manga, particularly when professional manga tends to be the only form of manga licensed by Western publishers. However, this ignores one of the more strange but fascinating aspects of manga culture in Japan, that being the world of doujinshi.
First, let’s define what doujinshi is. The term doujinshi combines the terms “Doujin” which refers to people who share a hobby and “Shi” which refers to magazines. Basically, it refers to self-published series and is typically, but not exclusively, released by amateur artists. Many professional mangaka started their careers by releasing doujinshi with a particularly notable example being the series “Black Magic” which was originally released as a doujinshi before later being rereleased by a manga publisher and kickstarting the career of Shirow Masamune, creator of Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell.