>>Ronin
The term “doujin” reflects the nature of a project as a group endeavor, but doesn’t speak to the media involved (“shi” designates the media as printed, hence “doujinshi”).

Doujin software, doujin music, and other doujin items can be seen as very much in the original doujin tradition provided they’re produced with a “by fans for fans” mentality, by amateurs, though the market has grown to the point where some of the more successful are able to support themselves full time on their doujin work (and others, like Lilith, are professionals who merely take advantage of doujin distribution methods).

Just wondering though, how come “proliferation of doujin items to media beyond the traditional books” is considered within the domain of the so-called “doujin”? Curious rat I am.

>>uncensored
I think you may be reading a bit more into this than I intended. The stance I have on the development presented here is neutral to generally positive; more artists able to create 2D art professionally is a good thing in my book, though it potentially comes at the cost of draining talent from the “official” creator’s pool.

I was more interested in simply presenting what has happened without passing judgment; I’m glad that despite how high the stakes have become for some doujin creators us small fry are still able to get in at ground zero and exist in the same arena they do. The doujin world is one of the most artistically democratic spaces I know, and as long as it stays that way I’ll be one of its most fervent cheerleaders.

As an aside, I’m positive that J-List never carried Nuye (despite the best efforts of our book guy, alas).

>>Tyrenol
I don’t know much of anything about the American licensing situation, but Lilith is another case in point when it comes to the synthesis of doujinshi and eroanime (thanks to their Pixy brand). They’ve managed to prove that high quality eroanime doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg, and I’m pretty sure their sales have been doing incredibly well.

There is also the case of Soft Circle Courreges’ Discode doujin games, which were made into an eroanime trilogy by WHITE BEAR. I expect we’ll see similar cases in the future as doujin software becomes a wider segment of the eroge market.

Regarding the eromanga titles you mention, it’s significant to note that they’re not doujinshi (Secret Plot and Take On Me were both serialized eromanga, I’m not familiar with Wereslut). The publishing companies that serialized them are likely to have bigger clout when dealing with anime makers in terms of seeing them through to eroanime adaptation, and the recent rise in eromanga to eroanime adaptations (Hatsuinu, Aneki, etc.) is certainly encouraging in this regard.

Meanwhile the translation between less censorable doujin towards anime is smoother than ever. Plus, we all know that the internet is still a difficult monster to deal with.

So yeah. Slow-going is better than nothing at all. But I wish for one day to experience the hentai anime versions of works like “Secret Plot,” “Take On Me,” and “Wereslut.” Uncensored, and (hopefully) with English dubbing. (SHUT UP. WE’RE IMPROVING.)

But isn’t that typical for the dojinshi market? When I think about the whole eroge industry in Japan then I think they try their best to maximize the posible. I think of the wacky censorship and the lolicon. I think dojinshis tested how far they can go in countless situations in the past. They marked the spot for mainstream productions.
Since dojinshi circles consist mainly of young people with few capital they risk more. They know the newest technologies and try to use them for production or distribution. Big publisher don’t want to risk money. They hire lawyers to not interfere with the law. New distributions or media cost money and might have sideeffects not known yet. They will only use it if it proofed to be profitable. Some dojinshi circles might take the risk. But its easy to colide with the law that way. I see the CSA sticker case that way.

I have got the Nuye artbook from nippon export too. I think at the time I ordered it JList had it too. I hope you value the new link its a great source for imports. Very fair prizes, great support and a lot of items not easily found by other online stores. Only thing is you have to be fast. If it’s gone it’s gone. But that is a curse everyone should know already.

Don’t worry about your circle’s eye view of things. I can count on one finger the number of gaijin I know of who have gotten deep into the production side of Japanese fan culture. Your efforts are doubling that number!

You keep writing, I’ll keep reading.

Now, if we can just needle some artwork samples out of you. :3

Part of the reason I’ve been writing fewer articles that take a distanced view of the doujin scene, moe, and whatnot, is that it’s hard to get a good distanced perspective when one is right smack in the middle of things. All I can really speak to are the day to day practicalities of existence in this environment, so I suppose it’s up to outfits like Wired to look at it from the outside and tell us what’s going on from a meta perspective.

I do intend to keep on relaying what impressions I can muster from my position in the trenches, and hopefully some will find them of interest.

One thing I’ve been realizing of late is that none of this is permanent; the foundation upon which doujin culture rests is constantly shifting, and there never really was a status quo (perhaps for stretches of time prior to the emergence of the internet as a serious influence, but I don’t have any firsthand knowledge of that). Events we took for granted yesterday (ABC, Futaket) may no longer exist tomorrow, but they didn’t exist five years ago either; who knows what will come next?

The high point is definitely when the writer takes some CCS doujinshi with him to an interview with CLAMP.

>>Zeb
Thanks, I’m glad you got something out of it. I hope to have the time to write more on the subject before too long.

>>DrmChsr0
This piece has nothing to do with the crackdown, actually (other than perhaps helping to explain why the doujin market has finally grown to the size where authorities are taking notice).

>>Ialda
Awesome! I hadn’t heard of Nippon Export until you mentioned it, but that’s a superb find. Post edited to suit, and I’ve added them to the list of online shops in the blogroll.

Got mine at Nippon-Export.

Thing is, this shifts from crackdown to cold-blooded murder, and if anyone wants to uphold their copyrights, it will eventually boil down to this. Because the offenders are people, and they won;t change their opinions regardless of death threats, money or whatever.

Thankfully, the few people who have the balls to do this either are not paid to do so (Iraq pays more, much more) or really don’t want to go down this path. But greed can and will turn destructive.

If the Akiba Liberation Front were willing to kill and pretty much disrupt Comiket to free Akiba, a much baser reason to kill otherwise harmless people would not just happen if not nipped in the bud, but will also have devastating effects on the doujin industry, otaku human rights and Japan as a whole.