Comic Convention Report コミケの報告

Last month I attended a Comic Convention in Mito (Ibaraki's capitol city). It was a "special version" of the bi-annual Comiket, Japan's biggest comic convention.
Anyway, I'm using the word "comic" here, but to be more exact I should be saying, "dojinshi." Dojinshi are self-published manga or comics. I've heard that many professional manga artists got their start making these, and, since I'm already making comics for myself here on the web, I thought it would be cool to go and meet other Japanese people who were doing the same thing. ...and who knows, maybe I could even get some information and actually try to sell my work at one of these conventions the next time around...
先月、水戸のコミッケットに行った。僕のように同人誌を作っている人々と会いたかったからだった。あとは、うまくいったら、次回僕も出ようと思ったんだけど…

But it was all a big mistake...
そんなにうまくいっかなかった。

My girlfriend and I arrived in Mito around noon (apparently the convention started at 11) The first surprise was a huge line progressing down main street. We joined in but after progressing a few blocks we were told that we had cut and needed to get in the back of the line… Was it really this popular?
We started to make our way to the back but then decided this was ridiculous and approached the building from the next block over. This technique was more successful, but once outside the building there was no avoiding the crowd of people waiting to get in. We had to wait for about an hour, just standing there. ...no fun.
僕と彼女は午後に会場着いた（開始は11時からのようだった）。そして、驚いたことに、まだ大行列が町の中にあった。僕たちも入ろうとしたんだけど、途中で、「途中入ったら、だめよ｣と言われて、後ろに行こうとした。本当にこんなに込んでいるかな～と信じられなくて、ほかの道を使って直接会場へ向かった。それは成功した。目的地に着いたら、人込みを避ける方法がなくって、一時間以上待たされた。このなかで、彼女の機嫌がだんだん悪くなってきて、大変だった。



At about 1:30 we finally got to the entrance of the building but then we realized we didn’t have the catalogue which was necessary for admission. Fortunately, they were selling these at the door but this was the last straw for my girl. She told me she would meet me back out here in an hour and a half, but there was no way she was going in. I knew if we went in together I would just have to listen to her complain the whole time, so I agreed.
一時間半後にやっと入り口にたどり着いたけど、カタログを持っていなかったので、入場拒否された。近くに売っていたんだけど、彼女はもう我慢できなくて、「絶対入らないよ。後一時間半後ここで会おうね。」って言いながら、逃げてしまった。一緒に入ったら、文句ばかり聞かせるかなと思って、賛成した。（しょうがなかった）

…and it was a good thing I did.
それは、よかった。

Inside were 6 floors of tightly packed sweaty Otaku (a Japanese word that could loosely be translated as "geek") looking at and buying amateur porn. It was just like I had feared… only worse. It was gross.
Fortunately, there was at least one ‘non-porn’ floor. A place where you could find stuff like train schedules and military otaku. It was here that I found the only manga that I bought. A short story about a girl who leaves her younger brother at a shrine and the adventure he has in her absence. It was a simple story and well drawn, just like most of the stuff I aspire to do on this site. But it was the only one...
なかは６階建ての狭いビルでオタクが缶詰の魚のようにぎゅうぎゅうに詰まっていた。そのうえ、何か、不思議のにおいがして、気持ち悪いエロポスターがいっぱい張ってあった。僕の悪夢が実現されたんだ。さいわいなことに、一階にはエロなしのところがあって、（電車の目標とか、軍隊のオタクとか）ここで僕が買った唯一の同人誌があった。お姉さんが、塾に行っている間に弟を神社においていて、単純な話だった。



Feeling discouraged and despair (and slightly dirty) I quickly left.
There were still about 45min before I had to meet Tomo so I just wandered around outside in a daze. Unfortunately, being a tall gaijin I can't help but stick out wherever I go, and it wasn’t long before I found myself cornered by a television crew and being asked for an interview...
I was reluctant of course. I mean, just being here was embarrassing enough. But to be honest, I was also half excited. I wanted to vent some of my frustration. ...and what better place to do that than on television?
絶望と失望そして、心がけがされたって感じだったので、すぐに去った。彼女と会うまで４５分あって呆然として歩いてった。でも、背が高い外人だから、目立つしかない。気がつくとＮＨＫのテレビカメラが僕の前に現れて、インタビューを頼まれた。遠慮すると思っていたんだけど…。でも、ちょっとわくわくして、僕の文句を言うチャンスだと思った。そして、テレビだった！

It went something like this:
このようなことになった。
After a few questions about where I was from they got down to business...
僕の出身に対して少し質問があって、そして、
So, what brings you here?
「なぜにここに来たんでしょうか？」
Well, as you can imagine I like comics and anime.
「やっぱり、僕は漫画とか、アニメとか好きですね。」
So what did you think?
「ご感想は？｣
(All this was in Japanese and I was extremely nervous. I had so much I wanted to say here but all I could manage was...) Err,… It was different than my expectations.
（もちろん日本語でしゃべったので、緊張して、もっと言いたいことがあったけど。
なんか、緊張し過ぎて、)「え～と。僕の期待と違いましたね。｣
In what way?
「どいうふうに？」
It was poorly organized. There were too many people in too small a space. Also there seemed to be a lot of child porn. It sort of made me feel uncomfortable.
「準備が足りない気がして、人ごみが多すぎて、場所が狭かったし。
そして、子供のようなエロもあって、気持ち悪かったです。
What were you expecting?
「どういうことを期待していましたか。」
I don’t know. I guess more Science Fiction and Fantasy (meaning Swords and Sorcery) type stuff.
「そうですね。もっと、SF的かな…、うまく言えません。」
Ok, thank you. 分かりました。時間をありがとうございました。」
What? that’s it? Ok, thank you. Sorry I didn’t have a good impression.
「えっ、それだけですか?ありがとう。ちょっと良くない印象でしたから、申しわけありません。」

It felt good to get all that off my chest.
but it didn’t end there... They actually aired the interview on the local news. And of course, they didn't air the whole thing. They just showed the part where I said I liked anime and comics. It was cut in with a bunch of clips of Japanese nerds and anime girls with huge breasts. "Look, gaijin like this stuff too," seemed to be the message. And so the next day I found myself explaining to my adult students that I wasn't a pervert.
僕の意見をちゃんと伝えることができてよかった。でも、後日そのインタビューがテレビで流れていて、そしてやはり、僕の意見のところじゃなくて、日本のオタクとおっぱい人形の映像の中に僕が、｢漫画とか、アニメとか好きですね。｣というところだった。「ほら、皆、外人もこのもの好きですよ。」という感じだった。その上、僕の大人の生徒の一人の奥さんがそれを見て、次の日、僕は変体じゃないとちゃんと、説明しないといけなかった。

*sigh*
は～あ。



I just want to draw manga for a living. Why is it so hard?
生活のために漫画を描きたいだけだよ。何でこんなに難しいの？