It’s me. I’m still alive. This is not a Beowulf cluster of Linux PS3s that accidentally gained sentience in a freak thunderstorm and subsequently infiltrated the server that hosts this blog. In any case, this is (or has been) my first weekend out from boot camp and, as promised, here’s my article for the week.

I’m finally writing my Comiket article, two and a half months post incident. It’s an internet miracle.

Although this article is so late that it should given birth to two sets of octuplets by now, the delay also presented me with the opportunity to bring further introspection to the topic due to the obscene amount of time I spent staring blankly at the various concrete features that make up the pristine scenery surrounding my company line. Also, I happened to read Stalingrad by Antony Beevor while cleaning my SAR 21 rifle in camp and found it relevant to the horrors of Comiket.

Introduction

Comiket is a twice annual event that celebrates the pinnacle of moé civilization, but it is also a merciless war zone where participants fight to fuel their primal desires. Comiket old timers earn their limited edition goods just as soldiers earn their Purple Hearts: though sweat and blood (although the ratio of sweat to blood differ slightly in each case). And as time passes and the glory of the past fades into the distant memories, both the lifelong otaku and the grizzled war veteran come to the startling realization that those badges of achievements they proudly display in their bookshelves are really just cheap trinkets made in China.

Planning

Planning is an important for a successful Comiket raid, just as in any wartime operation. The first step is battle intelligence, which comes in form convenient form of the official Comiket catalogue. It provides all the necessary timings and locations you need to know, albeit in a somewhat confusing and unfriendly manner.

Catalogue on the extreme right

Of course, planning is not foolproof and reality doesn’t always play nice. As can be observed from Hitler’s mistake in his obsessive micromanagement of the Sixth Army, detailed plans that look good on paper can be completely worthless when that battalion of elite infantry on your strategic war map turned out to be a handful of Romanians with pack mules.

In the same manner, just because you have marked out and memorized the optimal routes to get yourself from booth to booth at Comiket doesn’t mean that you will actually get to buy everything you want. Sometimes it’s just impossible to get through the crowd, sometimes the doujinshi you want sells out, and sometimes the queues are just insanely long. Sticking to a plan carved in stone is dumb.

Staging

Getting to the battleground and supplying your troops is just as challenging as figuring out the best way to kill your enemies. Hardcore Comiket goers camp overnight to secure their places (it is a myth that overnight camping is not allowed at Comiket) while others take the first train there. The most important precaution for participants is to ensure that you have a proper bag that can be used to hold your expensive porn purchases without crushing them. If you end up carrying your loot in bits and pieces, you will end up moving from booth to booth at a much slower rate.

Spot the unprepared guy

Your bag should be larger than you think you require, because Comiket is always full of unexpected booby traps that suck away your money. The Germans thought the Eastern Front was going to take a few weeks and ended up staying for two winters without any winter supplies before being encircled in the kessel of their final doom.

Battle

As you queue up around the perimeters of Tokyo Big Sight and go through last-minute checks of your equipment, mentally prepare yourself for the adrenaline rush of zero hour. When the gates open, it’s like a tamer version of the Soviet landing ships hitting the Volva’s western bank. People wearing Comiket armbands can be found every few steps directing the flow of human into and through the convention halls and ensuring that no one disrupts the preplanned pathways by taking shortcuts, just as the Soviet commissars watched over the herds of conscripts and prepared to shoot any potential deserters.

“Go comrade!”

As a participant, there is only one way forward in this initial mad rush. Everyone tries to maintain a half-run walk so as to maximize speed without breaking the rules against running, and the sheer number of people around you means that it is highly impossible for you to steer yourself freely. It gets better later in the day as the number of combatants moving about drops.

Queuing and moving from booth to booth is a treacherous process that cannot be described with words alone. Proper meals are out of the question as the dining facilities in the area are overwhelmed by the demand. Much as how real wars consist of weeks of tedious marches and tasteless bread before the soldier dies from a stray bullet to the head within the first five minutes of a chaotic battle or perhaps capturing an objective or two if he’s lucky, the majority of Comiket experiences consist of standing in line for hours for a few seconds of gratification as you are finally relieved of your money. Just pray that the booth doesn’t run out of stocks just before your turn.

Loot!

Eventually, the war toll adds up. In late afternoon, the convention halls become noticeably quieter and rows of war casualties line the empty spaces next to walkways. Those who failed to secure their coveted merchandises look tired and dejected, while the victors proudly showcase their hard-earned loot.

But unlike Stalingrad, for Comiket there’s always next year.

There are more to write about, but unfortunately I shall have to cut things short. In a few hours, I will be on my way back to camp to resume my patient wait for the next weekend while I perform the menial mind-numbing duties of a lowly recruit and live in the constant fear that my brain is slowly disintegrating from the lack of cognitive stimulus.

I’m finally back in Singapore. It’s really hot even in my air-conditioned room. Gah. But anyway, here’s my damage report for Comiket 75. I didn’t buy much. Really.

Basically I had only three things on my wishlist for Comiket: Heart Work, Afterschool of the 5th Year (5年目の放課後), and T2 ART WORKS.

Coincidentally, the three circles have their booths on different days, so I ended up queuing for one item a day, a rather relaxed and stress-free arrangement that meant that I did not have to do any overnight queuing or prior planning.

5年目の放課後

Day 1 was Gonenme no Houkago (or as the circle translates it “Afterschool of the 5th Year”). It is a relatively obscure circle probably best known online for its drunken Haruhi illustration. I wrote a post on 5年目の放課後 before.

Their C75 release information can be found on the blog. It’s basically a coloured illustration book, a monochrome ero-sketch book, and a mini poster.

Heart Work

Day 2’s queuing was for Heart Work, Hiro Suzuhira‘s one-person doujin publication. It is a compilation of her recent illustrations and sketches.

Heart Work release for C75

She is probably best known for her character designs in various Navel games such as Shuffle! (Asa, Nerine, Sage) and Soul Link. She often collaborates with her good friend Aoi Nishimata, whose doujin publication is called JOKER TYPE and who designed the other half of the Shuffle! cast (the crappier half that includes Kaede).

Incidentally, the illustrations found in the recently-desecrated Akikan! novel series are among some of Hiro’s older works. They still look better than the anime.

Heart Work phone card

Hiro is my hero(ine).

T2 ART WORKS

The final day of Comiket brought T2 ART WORKS, the awesome release from Tony Taka. His latest release (NSFW) is Clannad-centric with a fulfilling dosage of Tomoyo, hands down the best character in an otherwise overrated generic Key franchise. *Ducks for cover*

Tomoyo megane moe

Tony is probably one of the most successful doujin artists and runs a rather commercialized operation. Personally, I don’t really care about the distinctions between indie and mainstream as long as the art/song is good, but a direct result of Tony’s popularity is that his releases are more costly than most.

Back and front covers of the doujinshi (NSFW but too late)

He also sells his own product sets that change in design every Comiket but are generally the same things. I bought them last year too.

Goodie bag content

In fact, these Comiket-exclusive goods are basically the only reason why you would want to queue for T2. The doujinshi itself is always available brand new from any Toranoana outlet, albeit for 50 yen more due to tax. In fact, I picked up his C74 release (Macross F) at the Akihabara branch. The goodie bags on the other hand can only be found in collector stores at jacked up prices after the event.

Others

Those were my planned purchases. Now for the rest of the random splurges that are the natural consequences of wandering around the Comiket event halls filled with shiny stuff.

Bought for the cover art

Kyonko

Doujin Little Busters! calendar

Rather nice art

Although I’m not really a LB fan

My only purchases from the commercial booths

And some other stuff I won’t go into details about… *cough*

And finally, what might arguably be my most awesome Comiket purchase ever…

IKINOKORITAI!!!

P.S. I have multiple copies of T2 and Heart Work releases… (When you’ve already queued for 2 hours, you might as well.) I wonder what I should do with them.

The three-day long holy celebration of otakuism that is the Winter Comic Market came to a close yesterday. This is my second Comiket, and probably the last one in a long time. I am still in Japan right now, so I may not have time to blog about the last three days in greater details until I get back, but here are the cosplay photos for now.

I did not take any pictures of the event other than the cosplay this time. However, since Comiket mostly consists of the same old huge crowds and long queues, you can take a look at last year’s pictures for that purpose.

I have to say that with the freshness gone, Comiket is basically one huge shopping experience — extremely chaotic and yet simultaneously subtle compared to a real anime convention loaded with constant entertainment and shiny objects. That said, the cosplay never gets old.

The good thing about Winter Comiket is that the stench of bodily fluids is minimal and queuing for two to three hours to get your hands on a few pages of hardcore pornography is probably a whole lot more bearable than in summer (or so I imagine). The bad thing is that cosplay pictures look like crap because the sun is always at an inconvenient angle.

Of course I could easily solve this problem by investing in a proper external flash for my DSLR, but I prefer to blame the climate and planetary alignments when things go wrong. (Also, solar flares wiped my hard disk.)

Since whining doesn’t solve my problem, mostly due to the unsympathetic laws of physics, you guys will just have to deal with the unfortunate fact that a great number of cosplayers appearing in this post have empty voids of pitch darkness in place of their eyes.

Like

This

And as a bonus, sometimes the entire face is black (not being racist)

I’m sure you are terribly annoyed by my constant monologue interrupting the flow of pictures, so I shall stop. Enjoy.

Actually it’s quite amazing how Japanese girls seem to be immune to the winter chill. Oh right, sorry. I’ll shut up now.

The next post will be out some time next year. In the mean time, you can check out my C73 coverage from last year. It’s about the same.

On another note, during the time it took for me to queue for various reasons during three days of Comiket, I collected all eleven Crystals in Dissidia. Japan is the undisputed global leader when it comes to forming and managing long queues.