Yuri to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito

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Saki only doujinshi event review – Kiyosumi Oasis, Kawasaki-shi

Posted on | February 1, 2010 | 1 Comment |

I was really looking forward to this weekend as I had picked up a flyer a while back that said there was going to be a Saki only doujinshi event in Kawasaki-shi (10 minutes south of Tokyo) which promised to be a lot smaller and less crowded than Comiket. The poster said that there were only 20 spaces for vendors and that there would be events and an “after event”…

So happily, we trotted down t Kawasaki-shi on a lovely sunny Sunday – found the venue without much problem (The Kawasaki-shi Centre for Industrial Promotion) and took the lift up to the 4th floor to be greeted with what seemed like a wall of people. The first difference to Comiket became evident in that you had to pay a 500yen entry fee per person for the courtesy of buying things from the event, though you did get a nice catalogue and presumably you could get entrance tickets for less before the event.

The event itself was a single room, and I found out later from reading the catalogue that at the last minute they’d increased the number of vendors from 20 to 50 on demand (that being why it was so crowded). By the time we’d fought our way through the crowds for the first time in a flurry of doujinshi and 1000yen notes we’d seen all the booths and it was barely 10:45 (It started at 10:00am). The only booth to sell out before we got there was Hakka-ya, though since their doujins always get scanned I wasn’t too bothered about that. Vista was also there and had a new copy-bon out (They work hard! They had a new doujin out for FuyuKomi). We also ended up buying a rather nice wallscroll of Nodoka who had (surprisingly) normal sized breasts – though I believe the artist is female, so that might be why…

And so now for the other highlights and lowlights of the convention.

  1. The cosplayers – being mainly men in drag, served mainly to disturb rather than admire. Particularly the Touka/Hajime combo could run for ugliest cosplayers any day…There were two female cosplayers, a Yumi with her own hair dyed highlights of purple which was nice, though she didn’t look anything like Yumi; and a Kanbara with great hair…though the girl was short and would probably have been better off doing Hajime or Koromo…


    2. I pressed reload table when there were still tiles on the table and it jammed…Lawl.

  2. The Mahjong tournament! They had an automatic table! While I was in the UK, a friend and I constantly debated whether these existed (I thought they must do) and there was one in the flesh. Unfortunately, since the buttons weren’t labelled, I pushed a couple and secretly broke the machine. I didn’t find this out until they started playing the tourney and pressed the exchange buttons and the tiles jammed ^^;; Needless to say it was fixed and I was not in the least bit suspected…
  3. Tacos! They had a taco vendor outside, but unfortunately I found out too late that you had to apply for tacos in the convention and get a taco ticket, which seemed to be so that all the people walking by wouldn’t buy up all the tacos. Just for the record, they weren’t real tacos, since they were made using soft tortillas which are WRAPS. Typical Japanese nomenclature mistake though…
  4. Hand holding up queues! I still don’t understand these – According to the signs they were holding, they were queueing for the more busy booths, but at the same time they were queueing, I (and a lot of other people) were just pushing our way to the booths and buying the stuff – you know, au-naturelle. I really don’t understand what they were queueing for…a new item? Limited edition goods? Maybe someone can enlighten me on this…

    5. Anyway, we escaped the mahjong tournament before someone realised that the gaijin had sabotaged the only automatic mahjong table to find that on the ground floor some Japanese schoolchildren were having a piano recital so we sat in and watched that for some free entertainment (very cute dresses). For our patience we were treated to a (slightly mangled) rendition of “Brave new World” from Disney’s Aladdin. I was sad to see that there was no Nobuo Uematsu on the schedule though…

    So that was my first small convention – packed, small and like mini Comiket, though you pay to get in and the prices of the doujins themselves are generally cheaper. Oh and here’s my haul…


    Left – Nodoppai wallscroll. Right, clockwise from top left: Kaju/Momo – Cute doujin where they’re sleeping on the roof and reminiscing about their dreams. Hisa/Mihoko – Cute but nothing much else type doujin. Kaju/Momo by Vista – Yumi and Momoko share a moment in the clubroom invloving Yumi’s oppai. Kaju/Momo light novel by Amaranth – yet to pluck up the courage to start translating. Kaju/Momo mini doujin mainly with cute art and mini strips. Hisa/Mihoko and Kaju/Momo doujin mainly centering on Hisa/Mihoko and what Hisa is doing after graduation – Significant “MIHOKO IS MAI WAIFU” ending.

    Category: Comment

    Comments

    One Response to “Saki only doujinshi event review – Kiyosumi Oasis, Kawasaki-shi”

    1. shijima
      February 1st, 2010 @ 9:23 am

      Wai! Yuri Saki doujin!
      Once again, I’m definitely envious of your ability to attend so many cons, both big and small. =)

      Thanks for the picture of the automated mahjong table. So cool!
      Dang, Hakka-ya is popular as always, huh?
      Oh, I now see why Vista had a new doujin available on Toranoana.

      Haha, there were Saki cosplayers in drag?
      I must say that at least some of the Touhou ones were really good and made me do a double-take.

      Anyways, thank you for the report.
      I doubt many not living in Japan would have been able to attend something like this. :)

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