Comiket attendance numbers are apparently in long-term decline, prompting much speculation as to why – and some scepticism about the official position that lingering disruptions from the earthquake and the strong yen driving off barbarian attendees being the main cause of C81’s “low” numbers.
According to official estimates, Comiket 81 saw some 500,000 attendees over the 3 day period it was held, making it of course the largest event of its kind.
However, these numbers appear to be declining precipitously – overall attendance is down for the second Comiket running, with 20,000 fewer visitors on the third day than on last year’s winter event (C79 saw 200,000 on day 3).
Comiket 80 saw 540,000 visitors, whilst Comiket 79 saw 520,000 (the record for a winter Comiket). Summer 2009’s C76 is the event’s high water mark, with 560,000.
Organisers claim this decline is “primarily due” to “the influence of the earthquake” (this appears to be stretching things as there is no longer any discernible impact outside Fukushima prefecture), and “the strong yen” (which implies that tens of thousands of international otaku have been discouraged from attending, something which there is some scepticism about).
Strangely, the fact that Tokyo is being run by a political clique of elderly LDP curmudgeons who view the culture of young people as aberrant is not mentioned – Comiket’s organisers have apparently chosen the winning strategy of hoping their critics will go away if they do nothing hard enough, perhaps noting how effective it was in fending off the Tokyo government.
The status of the event is also not helped by the fact police and city authorities could shut it down on a whim – most of the doujinshi featured are actually illegal as they involve gratuitous copyright infringement (although usually this requires a complaint from the copyright holder).
Japanese police have also occasionally randomly arrested ero-manga publishers for publishing “obscene” comics; the imbecilic censorship featured in such comics is supposed to protect them from “obscenity” charges, but as the only definition of obscenity is what the police decide not to allow, authorities have enormous leeway in this area.
The recent Tokyo manga ban may also technically outlaw most of the sales at the event – although Tokyo reassuringly promised that although it has banned the event and can shut it down at any time, it will not.
This has not stopped the organisers from banning various material themselves in the hopes of pre-empting attacks from the authorities – most notably ero-cosplay CDs, which have largely been driven out of the event along with (allegedly) some of the ero-cosplayers themselves.
Given the direction Japan appears to be heading in recent years, they may be the first of many to disappear from the event.
News of the declining attendance has prompted the expected otaku hysteria:
“Comiket is finished.”
“Harsh.”
“Only 500,000?”
“Were there really tens of thousands of foreigners attending Comiket?”
“The Gundam generation are all in their forties now. Anyone with a decent life won’t be thinking of Comiket. And with the declining birth rates attendance can only go down from here on.”
“It certainly was easier to get in this time.”
“It’s just a cosplay party now.”
“Amazing that there are 500,000 visitors…”
“I only went to day 3, but it was very clear that there were fewer people there. Like 30 or 40 thousand less, for sure.”
“Who needs doujin manga? Dlsite is far superior when it comes to doujin eroge and so on.”
“The doujinshi you get now are really nicely made though, although they are quite thin.”
“They probably only just started counting the numbers honestly.”
“The gender balance is really shifting in favour of women. Animate is just packed with fujoshi, you don’t feel nearly as much of a masculine presence now.”
“You guys don’t know anything about this business!”
“In this day and age, paper is just too finished.”
just got one of these through http://www.celga.com
yey!
bleh.. let them know that the government can earn more and they will come…capitalists that is.
anyway, life is not so good anymore with most of the prices going up-even publishing costs more than what you earn. every doujin made is a gamble just like in a manga so the decline arrives.
strong yen makes japanese richer, thsu making them more likely to purchase goods because things they buy are cheaper. The world is insane to think weaker yen is better for society
i used to go to comiket… but then i took an arrow to the knee
“In this day and age, paper is just too finished.”
That part honestly is the scariest part to me. Because it’ll probably be true.
Maybe they’ll do some kind of a futuristic tablet/doujinshi thing? Then it’d be kind of silly to line up on a comiket for stuff like that. But it’d be cool if people keep up the tradition somehow.
‘The strong Yen.’
Wait what?
…um, I was just at Comiket. It was fucking crowded to all hell. This number barely makes a difference really.
Well, its the internet. So if an event with 500k visitors is finished, a damn lot of events would have to close down. But the internet would say it’s finished if even one person less than last time would have come.
No reason to worry.
HOLY CRAP IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD
When you are talking about half a million people, 20,000 seems like a drop in the bucket. There could be any number of reasons for s small fluctuation such as this. Saying that ‘Comiket is Finished’ is just nonsense.
oh man this is so funny how do they spect to see the birth rates coming up if you cant even look at a woman in the street without being arrested or persecuted.
yeah funny shit
also quality is going down hill so…
“plunge”
more like it is due to the earthquake, less foreign visitors are going to Japan (and of course, to comiket)
many people that was previously going to comiket but is effected by the Earthquake probably didn’t go.
There are many reasons for the decline, but 500,000 is a very strong number, and is far from “finished”
500,000 is a lot for any Con of this sort in the US.
ah, it’s so nice to open sancom and see there’s always good news to read and cheer up our day
WTF 500,000 AND THEY ARE BITCHING I think some people need to stop smoking lolitas for lunch and get some medication.
I went to Comiket last winter for the first day with a group of friends, ran into NO problems whatsoever. People were generally chill and nice nor were we denied being able to purchase anything.
Hell, I was looking at a booth selling calenders after lunch. The one I wanted was sold out from what they told me, and they gave me the one they had on display for free. Really wish I could’ve gone back this year =/
“is finished” another sankaku’s speciality, misleading title
I like the part where they’re complaining that 500,000 people is “low”. None of the US gaming, anime, or comic conventions are anywhere near that large.
No one is really complaining about it. It’s just the usual exaggerations of Sankaku Complex.
..so what was the WEATHER like in Tokyo last weekend?
Every western convention I’ve been to has had attendance fluctuate as much based on the weather that weekend as anything else because the locals can go do other things (or not).
C79 was fairly cool outdoors so they could just open the halls’ shutters and the indoors was bearable.
This is exactly all Mogudan’s fault for not putting up a new doujin this year on Boy’s Day.
Make less touhou and more people shall come.
Actually, make less BL/yaoi and more people will come.
Dont forget make less yaoi too
Maybe it has a little something to do with being all horribly predictable Touhou and Yaoi (and the het stuff is pretty worn out too).
i’m afraid the police will arrest me for walking by a loli in japan.
Oh Japan. Blaming foreigners again.
Oh fellow Anon, letting Sankaku bait you hook, line, and sinker.
They’re right about dlsite, getchu, etc., being much better options really.
If you want to see the cosplayers you’ll see them in galleries, and avoid the HIDEOUS and/or 35++ year old ones like in the “Day 3” gallery..
But I guess it’s built into them to go to comiket..
Those Japanese Police should arrest Ishihara for false policies like banning Anime and Manga.
Whiners gonna whine.
It’s over 500-thousand!
Who cares about the rest? If they’d care,they’d ban all those tohous and hetalias from entering,maybe then some more would come that don’t want to see tohou at one in 3 stands…
Well,I guess there are about 400-500 k Otakus that visit it like a ritual,so the numbers won’t drop that far anyway.
sankaku is finished
They are really asking for a reason when they face open hostility from just about everyone in Japanese society?
Not too smart.
its because of the traps
Nigga prease-
Having attended two previous winter comikets, including C79 there were NEVER ‘tens of thousands’ of foreign devils there. At C79 I could count the number of fellow whiteys I saw on my hands and feet, meaning less than 20. Probably I missed quite a few, and ther are those who go now purely for cosplay but I’d still say these numbers were EASILY less than a couple HUNDRED at most.
And really – ~10% fluctuation in attendance for any semi-annual event? That’s purely seasonal variation. Guess what- more otakus got dates and couldn’t go?
I’d be more concerned about the long-term effect of making the event 50% Touhou content which drives out all the regular pornhounds.
Less than 20? Even 20 sounds like a lot. I went to C75 and I only saw about 5 foreigners throughout all 3 days, and some of them seemed like they live in Japan. But yeah, I agree with what you said about Touhou. IIRC, one of the days was dedicated to it. Some anime tend to generate a large following for a few Comikets, but I’m worried that the large amount of Touhou stuff is diluting the doujinshi market, especially considering that it’s getting pretty old now. Hell, even Haruhi and Lucky Star don’t have THAT many booths!
You would think with over 500k attendees. I wonder how many are from Tokyo. I also wonder how many are from Tokyo that didn’t vote against Ishihara.
Maybe they were afraid of getting arrested for voting against him thinking that doing so would get them in trouble.
Stay Classy, Sankaku.
“It’s just a cosplay party now.”
True Story………..
Ero manga and all “ero” content will fall to, so, better to go back to good stories in the 90’s instead of gratious and nonsense naked girls fucking every fucking guy.
20,000 less in comparison with 540,000 doesn’t really sound like an ultimate loss. The numbers are big but the difference is just meh. Now if it’s anything like Virgil Wrestling Superstar then that’s one article worth written with “..is finished.”
Scott McCloud put it this way, about America’s long running “Comics Code”;
“Imagine if the requirements to make a G-Rated movie were much more stringent- and NO other type of movie could be produced!”
It led in part to America’s literature in the comics (and due to Disney) animation field being crippled. They were seen as “Kids or nothing” by society so any adults liking either usually hid them and of course was bored by kids choices and reading level.
It also led in part to appeal of manga/anime in the west, despite entrenched racism and xenophobia. (WW2, “The Jappy-Neeze are buying everything!”) That’s why I liked it. I have no love or obsession with Japanese culture/people, don’t hate ’em but couldn’t care less. BUT, I loved that they respected (in past tense now) art and animation as a medium that was just another form of literature, not kids only…well weird adults…keep away from them, think of the Childreeeeennnn….
The missing ones were washed away after that earthquake at the 1st of the year and the others are hanging in sucicide forest some where.
“Comkiket is finished!” Stay classy, Sankaku.
well, if the organizers actually had the galls to challenge the government on issues regarding manga they might be doing a little better.
Course these are the same people who collaborate with the manga/anime industry so the lack of creativity is not really surprising.
This is the duty of the citizens, not commercial interests. If you wait for big business to stand for your rights you will end up in the same boat as the USA.
comiket is mother nature’s intention to gather all the otakus so she can swallow them all.
Mother nature eh? My chainsaw may have something to say about that.
You know, if the idea is that otaku should become productive, baby-making members of society, you’d think they’d *encourage* ero-cosplay DVDs.
At least that would be more in line with the government’s seemingly-official position that otaku need to be socially engineered away from their love of 2D characters.
If they didn’t censor so much, i can guaranty that they will see that the amount of attenders will rise dramatically.
Nice work but I think it could be better XD
Hahaha, Comiket can handle to have LESS people. This was my third time going and the 3rd day is STILL fucking ridiculous. Big Sight is just BARELY big enough to handle the masses. They could handle to lose about another 50k probably. There are still 1-3 hour long lines for any major circle.
A 4% reduction from winter/2010 to winter/2011 sounds acceptable given the factors, hardly “precipitous”. High yen has a terrible impact upon exports, what i paid for the 5 centimeters per second bluray global edition would make anyone in my area doubt my sanity.
Get rid of isahara and everything will be good again I think government cracked everything down again. Hell even china told japan stop censorship. Sell uncensored stuff people will come
Funny how everyone already forgot Mr Ishihara and his laws in favour of Otaku … 🙁
All his actions are rippling far and will continue until God knows when.
Now be USA and law SOPA that is going to castrate the internet and probably other countries will take advantage of the situation and spread the tyranny on the WEB..
oh, a no ero cosplayers? i knew it! i knew those beautiful girls from previous years had to be undercover whores. it’s sad but true. normal cosplayers are 89% ugly.
i rember almost getting killed for saying that in a 2009 SDCC, but it’s the truth if you are ugly please stay away from Pincess Leia Bikini as well as from any Sailor Moon outfit!
While I don’t think everyone who aren’t remotely attractive should deter from cosplay, I do agree on always looking for costumes that either match or complement your body, and many costumes that aren’t revealing or skin tight can be used to hide/enhance curve, so yeah girls, if you can’t fill a bikini (or you overfill it) then choose another costume.
“In this day and age, paper is just too finished.”
Don’t get the fossils at Kodansha & Jump hear that, they’ll have a heart attack.
“Organisers claim this decline is “primarily due” to “the influence of the earthquake” (this appears to be stretching things as there is no longer any discernible impact outside Fukushima prefecture”
That’s cute. Come and visit the coast in any one of the three prefectures hit in Tohoku.
20k difference?? unless its something like 100k, I don’t think 20k would impact the comiket itself. And looking at those numbers, isn’t it normal to be randomly fluctuating? Either way, comiket will stay as it is unless the government actually bans the event itself.
On the side note, I’m so sad that I wasn’t able to attend… left at 25th, just couple of days longer I could of attended!!!
Is summer Comiket bigger than winter? That’s the impression always had.
500 000 Participants is amazing. If i was there i probably wouldnt even notice 40 000 was missing. These people are amazing to notice. This is zooo amaazziinngg.
Thousands of people Die in Earthquake/Tsunami.
Wonders why there are less people in attendance???
lol yea you have a good point there…
520k, 540k, 500k… aren’t we just seeing random statistical fluctuations?
i think its a quick prediction from number of copy officially reported to sell.
Exactly. 20,000-30,000 out of 500,000-560,000 is like a fluctuation of around 5-10%. I would be more alarmed if the fall in attendance is over 50,000, so all this hysterical doom mongering is a bit OTT if you ask me.
I went yesterday on the 3rd day and the place looked rather packed to me. Though I did noticed there weren’t that many Caucasian visitors around this time around, so the high yen excuse might actually have some weight. And you’d be surprised by the amount of doom mongering in foreign media reports about how Japan is becoming inhabitable after the 3-11 quake and nuke incident. While it may not stop the very devoted “gaijin ota” from coming , it might just be enough to deter the more gullible and less informed ones.
It’s a fluctuation of about 4.5%. That’s generally well within normal shifts. It seems that the median attendance is around 500,000, if attendance drops below half that, then worrying would be justified.
But this is just typical Chicken-Littling.
Did it make it easier to get the items you wanted? I went on day 1 and day 3 of C78 with day 3 unable to get anything I want (heck, popular stuff so cannot complain too much)…
Would have wanted to go if my winter break was any longer than 1 week though… Not the piss rich type that can casually afford a 1.4k ticket to Japan for under 1 week.
4 words…
“Much ado about nothing.”
2 words…
“Sankaku Complex”
I also love how there’s always “one line in sitation marks” in headline as to make it seem the sentence was heard from a mouth that isn’t sankaku complex, even though it is.
absolutely. just another case of media sensationalism.
Let me ask to make sure!
To all Sancom Comrade.
Are there SanCom conrade don’t want to come to Comiket ? ( I mean if someone else prepare for you the trip ticket / place to stay during 3days of Comiket )
PS: – If my comments down-rate then I think Comiket really finished.
– But If it up-rate then nothing to worry about.
And it’s totally impossible keep doing comiket in smaller scale?
No it’s not impossible.
i wanna fuck so badly!!!
Probably still too early to decided if its finished but I am pretty sure if they won’t allow anymore loli doujin that will be the end of the world…
>> Earthquake
>> (supposedly) Radiation scare
>> Strong yen
>> Censorship
>> ZUNE’s Touhou Ban
And half a million still came.
They worry too much, I tell ya.
There’s sure to be ups and downs for any event attendance. And its Comiket for crying out loud, it’ll never die.
Sure it won’t die, but it sure won’t be getting any better while the manga ban and such is still in place. Artists and authors aren’t just willing to risk their necks for some corporate bullshit and morality police.
probably a combination of things
of course the new silly laws, the availability of everything online including every single doujin released in comiket is fairly easy to find.
As far as wanting to attend the event itself… im not one for cosplay. Also this is probably just myself but after learning how hostile these guy seem to be to ‘barbarians’, on a personal level i dont want to deal with that stuff if i’m to be viewed as an unwelcome guest.
Funny thing is i used to spend thousands and thousands on otaku related good spending every penny i made from my part time job. now that i have a great paying job and more free time i find my interest waned quite a bit, so for me its not about lack of money at all, though I suspect for most it probably is that reason.
“the availability of everything online including every single doujin released in comiket is fairly easy to find.”
haha, no. There’s a number of niche titles that never make it to the scanner. Unless you were talking about legitimate trade, in which case those titles may find their way online.
It just feels like the Japanese are saying to any foreigner at the moment:
“Welcome to Japan! I hope you enjoy your stay you stupid inferior barbarians. Remember to buy lots of our stuff and go back to your trash heap of a country and stay there. Thanks!”
…maybe I’ve seen too much 2ch. Then again 2ch pretty much embodies how Japanese really feels.
What? If 2ch embodies how they really feel, then does 4chan and Sankaku embody how Americans feel? It seems like it’s pot and kettle all over again.
that’s pretty much it, actually.
boost foreign tourist dollars, keep foreigners out of the public baths/onsens & red light districts, make it difficult to stay for extended periods and block international shipping of japanese goods.
Oh look its human sheep!
Oh look, it’s a Rand sheep.
I should still be sleeping, but my stupid bitch of a sister-inlaw called me at 6:40 AM after she stayed up all night drinking, to whine about how nobody likes her now that my brother’s dead. Well, yeah, you’re a FN nasty, crazy in the head drunk bitch. What’s to like about that?
Sorry. Just had to vent anonymously. 😆
she wants to fuck
sex sells everything
Told ya having a “life” and abandoning otaku life sucks..
Sorry about your bro, though.
Dude she totally wanted you to jump her bones.
Dunno what you meant with nasty, but if she was hot you totally blew it.
This is why girls think men are stupid.
Stupid boy thinks a girl talking to you = she wants sex with you
You must be in friend zone a lot.
Spoken like someone who doesn’t have any siblings. Grass. Greener. Other side.
if 05:54 has siblings or not that doesn’t make the fact less true…..
I need to stop this.. I’m arguing with myself again.
So you should still be sleeping, but your stupid bitch of a sister-inlaw called you at 6:40 AM after she stayed up all night drinking, to whine about how nobody likes her now that your brother is dead. Then thinking she’s a FN nasty, crazy in the head drunk bitch.
And now you’re sorry for venting out anonymously.. What’s to like about that? Geez..!
>>>/a/
LOL thanks for the story
It would be useful to know how the numbers and types of *exhibitors* have changed.
Unscensor it and they will come.
I am certain there are cornfield in Fukushima where it is possible.
Uncensored with faux lesbians. Need to see Lenfried and Ushijima together, and uncensored.
Why?
Because if I can’t have either of them, I want pictures of them having each other, together, and doing more than just a little camera teasing.
@ 22:05
Iseewhatyoudidthere :3
Sell it and they will fap.
need to kill that shitty old man first
Who of our kin shall be the one to step forward and drive off this dreadful plague known as Ishihara? At ease men, one shall rise as our liberator. Freeing us of our shackles, ending this perpetual cycle of suffering, banishing the agitation of this senile tyrant and claiming the glory as our savior. I ask of thee to step forth and reveal thy name.
Was hoping for one of them suicidal hikkikomoris to at least make good use of their deaths and kamikaze.
Guns are hard to obtain in this day and age without some connections…
Need to practice Hokuto Shinken first…
And the first thing come to mind when I here comiket is finished is
– Ishihara: we must ban the Comiket as well.
why don’t you step forth then? don’t just sit and wait for the result!
Yes, the Legion of Anon will make sure he falls in order to bring about an era of peace for our kin.
Or it could be how the circles no longer have something for those people to enjoy?
Cc is getting more nichè, as previous articles have pointed out.
Well it could be safed if they finally would open to us barbarians a little bit…
I believe it already is.
Yeah…I don’t think so.
Japan’s xenophobia of anyone not Japanese has been on the increase for a long period now. The irony is that they were very xenophobic, then became more welcoming to foreigners and now back to being xenophobic in the span of 30-40 years. Either they like playing tsundere or what?
they mad over all the halfs gi joe created in their whorehouses.
It’s slowly showing the effect. Give it another 10-20 years and see if the declining birth rate can indirectly forced comiket to go out of business
For me the strong yen surely has cut my imports to half, tough im not sure if it’s also has an effect on comiket visitors.
Governements sure makes everything wrong these days.
I have almost no orders from Japan either, in fact I only ordered two things in 2011 against the over 25 orders I used to.
Those filthy Americans will never be “finished” with their love for obesity and heart disease though.
>”Who needs doujin manga? Dlsite is far superior when it comes to doujin eroge and so on.”
>“In this day and age, paper is just too finished.”
This is me.
That plus even for paper you can just mail order stuff.
Going to Comiket is a lot of trouble if all you want to do is buy stuff.
“Comiket is Finished” and nothing of value was lost.
“Anonymous is Finished” and nothing of value was lost.
and what sensible Barbarian would like to attend an event full of racist?
after all the racist claims from Japanese people I wouldn’t waste my barbarian money on such an event.
japanese ? racist ?
I wish you could give some exemple.
Went the 3 days of this winter comiket, bought tons of books (never somebody refused to sell me anything), got warm welcome and free goods, met Ume-sensei for real… that was the most epic week-end of my life.
Now how about you stop taking random comments from 2ch “carefully” selected and translated here into absolute truth and just give PERSONAL experience of xenophobia from japanese people ?
Hush now. Don’t go ruining unfounded internet rage with your facts and proof.
you met ume-sensei?
i’m jelly as fuck
white pig go home
dear passive aggressive racists.
Ever notice how everyone shut the fuck up, in how many places are unnaturally quiet. They won’t say to your face most time but they’ll definitely think it.
But I’m thinking of Japan as a whole, the comiket doujin people are going to turn away a sale, it’s only when you have a choice will people really start turning away anything.
so they’re racist because they don’t want to talk to you? ever tried starting up a conversation or are you too socially retarded to go through with it?