According to an annual research by research agency Media Create titled “The 2008 White Paper on the Otaku Industry”, the total combined size of game, anime and related goods sales amount to 186.8 billion yen (about 1.65 billion USD) for the year of 2007. This is a slight 2% increase over last year’s 182.1 billion yen.

Based on surveys conducted, Media Create determined that 31 % of otaku have been to maid cafes, 48% to doujin sales events and 49% purchased items online.

The agency divided the products into five categories: anime (DVDs and CDs), published content (manga and light novel), games, figures and goods, and doujinshi. Based on these categories, they conducted interview surveys with specialist shops and 1500 “otaku” found in those places. Doujin sales figures were obtained from event organizers and online retailers.

They also reached an interesting conclusion that there’s been an increase of so-called “light otaku”, or people who enjoy anime and games on a more casual level. This growth is attributed to the Internet, which seems to be the cause of everything nowadays, where it is easy for people to interact with others who have similar interests.

The paper also contains analysis from economist Takurou Morinaga and costs ï¿¥17,800 for 184 A4-sized pages. Probably a good read for anyone in the business. (Or thinking of starting one.) Personally I’m interested in finding out the breakdown of revenues in terms of the five defined categories.

[ Source: Yahoo! Japan News ]

Crypton, the creator of VOCALOID2 software Hatsune Miku and the upcoming Kagamine Rin/Ren, sent a cease-and-desist order to doujin circle CLOCK☆HEARTS.

The circle was taking preorders on its website fan-made dakimakura covers of Miku and Rin. (Sort of NSFW: Hatsune Miku | Kagamine Rin) In response, the circle has taken down the pictures of the covers and will be refunding all the preorders.

[ Source: 痛いニュース ]

Short commentary after the break.

Some 2ch posters are calling this the end of the VOCALOID phenomenon. Miku’s popularity online is largely viral in nature and depends a lot on the fans to continue to spread the meme and create new ones that prolong the franchise. As with all 2ch memes, becoming a part of Comiket is a natural process and indeed it is completely expected. Having doujin works based on your product is in a way a validation of its popularity and is part of promoting a lively community that creates room for the original IP to grow.

Walt Disney is well-known for its strict policies against doujinshi: you won’t find any Disney characters in Comiket. This doesn’t hurt them a bit because their fanbase doesn’t depend on the kind of grassroot support that many small Japanese studios live off. Moreover, the Comiket-going demographics and Disney’s target audience seldom overlap, so it really doesn’t make sense for Disney to risk damaging the public image of their IP by condoning doujin works with questionable content in exchange for no tangible gains.

But of course the same does not apply for Crypton. They very much depend on the tech-savvy otaku crowd for the success of VOCALOID2 and, with such a target audience, doujinshi is implicitly part of the deal. So it’s understandable why some people are upset over this.

That said, the fact that Crypton is not sending ceast-and-desist to other doujinshi circles indicates that perhaps this particular issue has more to do with the product itself rather than the 18+ content. I’m pretty sure there are quite a number of C73 publications being planned for Miku and her little sister (poor girls), and yet there doesn’t seem to be any indication that any other groups have received notices from Crypton.

If you take a look at the C73 product page of the doujin circle in question, it says that the covers come in two types of material and cost ï¿¥10,000 or ï¿¥14,000 respectively. That’s a frigging lot of money, especially when you consider that COSPA’s officially-licensed dakimakura covers cost around ï¿¥9,000 to ï¿¥10,000.

It is therefore questionable as to whether this kind of doujin goods really embodies the spirit of fan creations. Doujinshi and fan art allow aspiring artists to showcase their works and their love for the characters. Sure, they make money off selling the books, but the measly profit that can be made from selling a few hundred books at an annual event, after weeks/months of hard work, is really not the primary motivation behind doujinshi creation. And it’s not supposed to be.

Of course, when it comes to fan-created products, it is sometimes difficult to draw a clear line between reasonable compensation and overly-commercial interest. But in this particular case, I am leaning more towards Crypton’s side of the argument.

For one thing, I believe that doujinshi and doujin games exist to answer certain needs that cannot be fulfilled by the original right holders, whether due to the nature of the topic (i.e. 18+ material) or the lack of commercial interest to do it (i.e. 99% of doujin games). That is the value which they add to the community.

But does anyone seriously think that Crypton isn’t well on its way to creating every merchandise imaginable for its still-fresh cash cow? There are already Miku T-shirts on COSPA, an official dakimakura cover can’t be that far off. There just isn’t a need for an unofficial third party to come in, especially when it concerns a huge amount of potential profits for the original right holders.

The difference between a doujin artist and a bootlegger lies in the creativity embedded in the finished product and the intention. I think that making an overpriced dakimakura cover, with predictable art designed to locate the shortest path into the wallets of Miku fanboys everywhere, crosses an important line somewhere.

P.S. Please don’t sue me for the banner. T_T

Haruka Asamiya is bored with her school life and decided to have some fun by starting the UFO-dan together with Jun, Kurumi Kohinata and Miyu Nagase…

The game cost ï¿¥1,500 excluding tax. You can find some NSFW CGs on the official website. I need to find the time to obtain a copy of this from somewhere.

Anyway, as you can probably guess, I’ve been quite busy in the real world. I spent 80% of my waking hours during the weekends away from home and barely managed to clear the new episodes that came out last week. I have applied primer to my Miina, but that post will have to wait. I got home at, like, 10.30pm today because I was celebrating a classmate’s birthday. I still have undone school work due tomorrow. I want my hikikomori life back…

P.S. Something good will probably happen tomorrow and I may be blogging about it. :P

Some people were wondering where the picture of Haruhi in my new banner came from. It’s a doujin art by a circle called 5年目の放課後 (go-nenme no houkago) or as the doujin covers say, “Afterschool of the 5th Year”. It sounds only slightly less weird in Japanese… XD

I really love the cowgirl Haruhi picture. I was planning on using it for the site banner, but the angle and the cropped gun barrel made it difficult to position. I only realized that after I was almost done with photoshopping away the background… gao.

The picture is actually the cover page for his/her latest doujinshi; “t.y.s. 21” stands for “tachiyomi senyou vol.21“. You can see the rest of the doujinshi here, except for vol.1-3 which, according to the site:

……これより古いのは無かったことに。
……Let’s pretend the ones older than vol.4 didn’t exist.

lol. Anyway here’s the original image used in my banner.

And the latest illustration on the website. Apparently it’s goign to be the cover art for vol.23 (coming soon).

Other than Haruhi, 5th Year also has a LOT of cool illustrations from various series. Such as this one from NHK ni Youkoso!

I just absolutely love this picture of Saber for some reason. Maybe it’s the burger. It’s just cool. This was one of the pictures considered for my new banner, but alas it didn’t fit either.

And here’s Sasara from To Heart 2!!!!!!

Of course it can’t be complete without Maaryan-senpai!!!!!!~!

5th Year also seems to have a thing for Yuki Kotonomiya from Suigetsu and Manaka Komaki from To Heart 2. Although I’m not much of a Manaka fanboy, this picture is nice.

Just about the only complaint I have with 5th Year’s art is the complete lack of Tama-nee. ._. You can take a look at the rest of the illustrations on je-pu-pu ‘s listing for 5th Year.

P.S. I am sooo buying the issue with the Haruhi cover.

I wasn’t expecting much from a doujin game, but Yuuetsu has surprisingly high production value. The game is fully-voiced and the art, especially the background art, approaches commercial level (then again, most commercial AVGs aren’t that high quality either).

The game is very short, but you can tell that quite a lot of thought has been put into the script. Most of the dialogues are very appropriate and feel like they could have come from the novel itself. The grammatical quirks that each character has are all preserved faithfully and it really helps to make the game feel like the original.

Basically the story is about Haruhi winning free onsen tickets in a lucky draw and the whole SOS-dan going on an onsen trip. I think you can imagine the rest…

Personally I quite like the in-game art, especially event CGs for Mikuru and Haruhi such as the two below. Well there are plenty of ero-scenes too but they seem to be of a lower quality than the non-ero CGs. Maybe it’s just that the flaws in the art are amplified when you remove the clothes, or maybe the artist just can’t draw H.

Voice-acting is really, really good for a doujin game. I can’t stress this enough. Although I won’t say that they sound just like the original cast, the seiyuu do a superb job of imitating the style of each character according to the anime adaptation. The only problem I have with the voice-acting is that the seiyuu for Tsuruya sounds like she’s trying too hard…

…and Itsuki is gay. Gay as in not happy or lame, but homosexual. I’m pretty sure there’s yaoi somewhere but I shall not confirm that.

Music-wise, the game consists mostly of remixed tracks from the TV series. They could have been better but they do the job so I’m not complaining.

The ending was kind of abrupt but Haruhi’s tsundere-ness towards the end was the win. ^_^ Taken from the manual that came with the game:

Ｑ　なんかハルヒがただのツンデレキャラなんでããŒã€‚
Q. Why does Haruhi seem just like a generic tsundere character?

Ａ　作者の妄想でãã€‚お察しください。
A. Please respect the author’s fantasies.

Oh oh oh! Here’s another funny one:

Ｑ　俺のみくるんは、あんな積極的な子じゃない！！１１！
Q. My precious Mikuru isn’t that kind of girl!!11!

Ａ　俺のみくるんは誘い受けだと言ってるじゃないでãã‹ï¼ï¼ï¼
A. Didn’t I say that my Mikuru is a sasoi-uke!!!

For those of you who do not know what’s a sasoi-uke, maybe it’s for the best…

I end this review here with screenshots from the ending sequence.