CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

I'm not even sure I spelled it right.

I keep seeing ithe word and would like to know what it is.

Doojinshi, maybe? That's fan art. Not all of it is, shall we say, appropriate for all ages, so be careful as the term can cover anything from innocent amateur art to hentai.

I thought doujinshi was fan comics, not fanart in general... *shrugs* I must echo Shooby's sentiments on the content, though.

It can include original material or stories based on real anime/manga characters. A lot can be found on eBay, but it seems to be all hentai over there, so I don't recommend it.

Interesting fact: Koshi Rikudo (creator of Excel Saga) got his start as a doujinshi author-- but I strongly recommend not getting reprints of the doujinshi due to their explicit nature (I thought I was just getting an "R" rated version of Excel Saga...

Yeah, doujinshi isn't always for all audiences, it seems.

For a good "education" on doujinshi in Japan, however, check out the anime "Comic Party," which goes into the whole fan comic culture in Japan. It's an incredibly clean anime, too.

rogie_san wrote:Yeah, doujinshi isn't always for all audiences, it seems.

For a good "education" on doujinshi in Japan, however, check out the anime "Comic Party," which goes into the whole fan comic culture in Japan. It's an incredibly clean anime, too.

Good call. I forgot that one. As a side bonus, there are 2 versions, the main one from TokyoPop and a bunch of Doujinshi shorts in volumes published by CPM...

Doujinshi is literally "amateur manga." A typical doujinshi is about 40 pages long. It's not necessarily only fanart.

And, from what I've observed in my travels in Tokyo, the majority of it -- perhaps the vast majority of it -- is hentai. Much more so than manga (although there is no lack of adult manga, to be sure).

Ohhh... so that's what Doujinishi is. I also hadn't really known what the term meant. Thanks for asking the question, SnowLeopard.

Thank's for the answers everybody.

Oh, and you're welcome.

I think CLAMP got their start doing doujinshi in high school too...

I thought the emphasis was on independent publishing. For instance I have three Art Books done by the character designer of Last Exile, and they are considered Doujinshi. Even his art books that are not related to any series are considered Doujins.

Ah well, it usually is fan art ^^;

You are correct as well, to some extent.

I've always thought of doujinshi as manga about established characters not written by the character's rights holder. In other words, they qualify as copyright infringement.

However, independent publishers, manga-ka who publish their own works, are often lumped in with doujinshi as well, it seems.

As I understand it, doujinshi are mostly self published with limited circulation. Many are done by fans and revolve around favorite series and characters. But, they can also be original works. Koshi Rikudo (Excel Saga) started out as a hentai doujinshi creator and became mainstream.