What is a Doujinshi?
Definition of Doujinshi
A doujinshi is a magazine written, edited, and published by a coterie of people (people who like the same things) who pool their funds and write, edit, and publish the magazine themselves. As such, they range from manga to text-only books to books that feature mainly photographs.
Many people think that this refers to 2-time creation of anime and manga (if stories between their favorite characters, love stories, etc.), but this is not true. All non-commercial magazines are referred to as doujinshi, but this misunderstanding is caused by the fact that many groups are now publishing unofficial erotic books of anime characters. These also constitute copyright infringement when pointed out by publishers, etc., but are still treated as a gray area. The Tokimeki Memorial porn case and Pokemon being accused of copyright infringement are well-known cases. Therefore, although there are no rules, it is implicitly agreed to refrain from using expressions that may cause too much trouble.Doujinshi that develop original characters and stories also exist, but they are now in the minority. The reason for this is that stores dealing in doujinshi are more likely to assume that doujinshi based on anime and other works have a better chance of selling. This is also the reason why many doujinshis contain erotica.
Comic Market is usually held for three days. The schedule is roughly divided into genres such that the first day is for both men and women, the second day is for men, and the third day is for women. Although there are now corporate booths, there are some who question the original purpose of the event, which was originally intended to sell only doujinshi. However, there are popular game circles from Comiket (such as the company behind Fate and Tsukihime), so the fact that this happens is a sign that doujinshi has become well-known.
In the otaku community, doujinshi = thin book. This is because many books basically have fewer pages than commercial magazines.