Forum - View topic

Answerman - What Do Manga Artists Think Of Dirty Doujinshi?

How is selling doujinshi, which is atype of fanart and fanfiction, completely legal? Is it simply because it was made and originally sold in another country?

I cannot make a fan-comic of, say, Spider-Man and sell it here in the United States.

Oh dear, yet again it seems someone hasn't done their research.

Quote:

Seeing fujoshi interpretations of male friendships is a slightly newer thing, but the fujoshi has been such a boon to the shonen manga market that many series flagrantly hint at gay relationships just to pander to these fans.

2. Series flagrantly hinting at gay relationships? I'm sorry but can you please give examples of those many major shounen manga series that hint at actual gay relationships instead of simply applying m/m fanservice for shippers? ...Yeah, though so. What's actually happening is editors, having finally realized the buying power of this particular segment of the audience (and the self-sustaining nature of fandom that can also sustain series by buying merchandise, etc. even if there's no anime adaptation airing) cater to them with homoerotic subtext, which then fans can enjoy in whatever way they want. Homoerotic subtext =/= actual gay relationships (this is actually one of the issues LGBT critics tend to point out).

leafy sea dragon wrote:

How is selling doujinshi, which is atype of fanart and fanfiction, completely legal? Is it simply because it was made and originally sold in another country? I cannot make a fan-comic of, say, Spider-Man and sell it here in the United States.

I think it'd be more accurate to say "who the hell cares?!?" Copyright usually comes down to "who is complaining/threatening a lawsuit". And simply put, none of the Japanese companies have enough presence to complain about a bookstore selling doujinshi of their works in America. There's a SMALL chance you'd get problems if they were selling doujinshi for Disney/Marvel properties, since Disney tends to aggressively defend it's copyrights, but if the stores steer clear of major US property doujinshi, no one cares.

For comparison, there is a long, long, LONG history of Asian markets selling/renting bootleg Asian TV shows, including anime and dramas. They've done that for literal DECADES and still do that today. There's a Japanese market here in town with a wall of discs with typed/printed covers that're clearly just burned off copies from the internet or something. That store has had that stuff for all the years I've stopped by it. And I've never seen them getting any hassles. Because the Asian community appreciates getting entertainment from home and none of the authorities have any reason to go digging around in there. It's not like the copyright office has a million people canvasing the country looking for violations in every small store across the country.

Is there a law that states that doujinshi can only be sold at events like these? I'm wondering because the Kinokuniya in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles sells doujinshi (it's on a small table near the registers), and I never gave it any thought because I thought they could be sold anywhere as long as the owner of the premises allows it.

I keep seeing mention of doujinshi artists who work solo. Are there any writer-artist teams, like what you see in official manga?

Definitely. Doujin generally come from groups called "circles", although there are paradoxically a lot of "circles" with only one member. Other circles are composed of multiple artists who will all have their own sections within a book. CLAMP started life as a doujin circle and out of the remaining members I don't believe Ohkawa does any drawing work.