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.
However, when I hear the term doujinshi, I typically think of works that are based off of existing manga, anime, video games etc. One of the easier ways to understand this is to look at doujinshi through the lens of fanfiction in that many expand on characters that fans become obsessive about. It’s also worth noting that, just like fanfiction, a lot of doujinshi focuses on sexual content and shipping characters.
Doujinshi is exceptionally popular and makes up a significant part of Comiket, short for Comic Market, one of the largest conventions in the world with an estimated 750,000 attendees in 2019, the last time Comiket was held as of this article. It is estimated that the doujinshi industry is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and, considering how large this industry is, you’d think that many of the legal issues would’ve been ironed out by now.
However, this is not the case. Since a considerable amount of doujinshi use intellectual property without the permission of their authors, many of these fan works could be considered in breach of copyright law and, technically, illegal. However, many Japanese IP owners do not consider doujinshi to be competing with the original property and, therefore, allow them to exist in a legal gray area.
However, that does not mean that all doujinshi get away with no legal action. Famously, in 1999, Nintendo attempted to sue a doujinshi artist who was creating “smutty Pokémon doujinshi”. This was received rather negatively by the public but that didn’t stop the Fujiko F. Fujio estate from taking action against someone who wrote an imagined final chapter of Doraemon. While these legal actions are rare, they do highlight the legally gray area that doujinshi reside in.
The world of doujinshi is both strange and fascinating and I’m always eager to learn more about this particular area of the manga industry. I would also love to know what doujinshi, obviously originals that have no outstanding legal issues, have been translated into English and released. Let me know your thoughts on doujinshi, whether you have come across or read any, your thoughts on the legal gray area that doujinshi exist within and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!