Late May is here again, and that means it's time for another Kansai Comitia! It's also around the start of "Tsuyu", the rainy season. Saturday had crazy rainfall, I had to take my laundry down the coin laundry to dry it (in several layers of plastic bags "turned upside down" and put one inside the other). When I went to get the dry laundry back the rain was at typhoon level! Only without any wind, so it was just coming straight down. The roads looked like rivers and I nearly got hit by a motorbike, as I couldn't hear it coming at all over the noise.

Anyway, Saturday rained itself out, so Sunday, while still cloudy, was mostly dry. It was also unseasonably cold (far colder than a few days in the middle of April, even), but still humid, so everything felt "damp", regardless. This did have the advantage of keeping people indoors, which meant the train to Cosmosquare, now also the train to Expo 2025, wasn't as rammed full of people as I'd been expecting.

I'd wanted to arrive before the convention started (I only managed that at the first Kansai Comitia I went to, also my first Japanese con, which I think was number 66) but, just as I was heading to the shower, I saw a "G" in my kitchen (such as it is). Over the winter I'd planned to hot-glue several gaps between the panels that make up my kitchen (which is more of a cupboard with two hot plates and a sink), but never got round to it. Soo I did a bunch of it this morning! I also hot-glued several gaps in the plastic panels of my shower, as there's a void above it, which is, I suspect, where the cockroaches hide out. This wasted an hour, so I ended up coming out of the shower just as Comitia was starting. More ready-getting followed, and then it was finally time for the train!

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After reaching the Osaka Loop Line, the great connection to every other line in and out of the city, I rode around to meet the Chuo (green) subway line. This is the one that goes to Yumeshima, the site of Expo 2025. Various additons to the stations (to say nothing of several of the ones in central Osaka having been nicely tarted-up) show Expo-related modifications, some more hasty than others!

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Then I got to Comitia, almost exactly 2 hours after it opened. Luckily Comitia is not a shitty Akaboo convention, so the sellers were almost all still there! I started off wandering the aisles, from A to about L. The rest of the space is just illustration books, which I don't usually bother with... unless I'm flush, which I wasn't!

My new job pays merely "okay". I'm saving money by cycling 10 miles to get there every day... if only I'd done that for the better-paying previous job too! On Saturday I was supposed to do a day at my old part-time-turned-full-time... until I got there and found out by "cover May 24th" they had of course meant "cover June 14th". At least I got to see some of the cute tiny kids again. Some have become not-so-tiny in the, er, 2 months I was gone! Oh well, the ¥12,000 I will be getting was earmarked for Comitia budget, less a bit for giggle water, so my budget for the con was ¥9000.

Having done the aisle wander, it was time to buy! I'd seen interesting things in rows C, D, F and... after remembering 3 letters it always gets a bit blurry. I'd seen something that looked to be either a story about a manga artist, or a guide to drawing. I was trying to find it again, but couldn't. I also couldn't re-find the cutie yuri circle from Comitia 68 (I look every time!). I did find issue 2 of Greatman, a mecha-hero comic I got last time, so grabbed that. I also did the usual run of tables with one shy person pedalling their single copy-bon, or two.

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Chefs and magical girls!

There was also soome guys in the "reference doujin" section (this is where you can find copious information about trains!) selling books of Osaka night-time photographs. I wondered if they might have a book about the Misono building, but they didn't. They had some aerial night time pictures of Osaka you can just about see it in the corner of... but that's it!

There IS a photo book about the Misono kicking about in Osaka, I saw a copy in the new Aran. I have to track it down!

I continued up and down my designated rows, finding all the comics I decided to buy on the first pass, then it was time for a more general wander. I found this awesome comic, with fully grey-wash interiors, beautiful artwork, a great cover and for only &200! Comitia is awesome is what I'm getting at.

A few more shy people with a copy-bon later, and I was walking back to row A when I really did a double-take. I thought I saw Sue from Genshiken! Comitia's not for fanbooks, so it wasn't, but the book they did have is great! Really nice interiors and a fun cover. Interesting-looking story too, I'm gonna keep an eye on this 'un!

I ended up right back at row A, and was enticed over to a table right on one end by an androgynous cutie. She had a book with a "mirror" in the cover and some very Judge Dredd-looking world building on the inside (at least at first glance), so I nabbed it, and that became about it for the budget.

I wandered a bit more, wondering if I should stay to the end, just walking about. It still had about 45 minutes left to run (and, as I said, isn't Akaboo-organised shit, so wasn't empty). I decided to check out the "reading area", which I'd never been in before. I then found out not only is it a grab-bag of books from the con, it is, in fact, a sample of books from every table, all organised by rows! And there's stickers on the back saying which one comes from where!

So, if I'd known this before, I could have gone there first, checked out many books all in one place, and then gone buyin'! I saw some great stuff in that area, but it was a bit late by then... I had no more money! Oh well, I'll know for next time, eh?

They began to close up the reading area before the con ended. I guess to tidy up all the books and tables and return them to the makers, so I decided to be off. Hey, look! Some blue in the sky! Wasn't expecting to see that until late July!

Actually the Wednesday after Comitia was lovely and bright...

The inevitable haul bit:

¥9000 went a way. Not a long way, but a way!

BL Something

I think I just got handed this in passing. From table C-32! It's just a tiny catalogue of the books they were selling. I'd already pretty much ran out of budget when I got this.

Senbou Trance Site

OTA Club

A cool-looking woman moves into a colossal building in a city. It looks like a block from Mega-City One! It's near a giant temple that looks like a rising sun. Later in the book it's revealed that the building she is in is shaped like a giant idol or statue, facing the temple. There's also some sort of shape-shifting creature she's chasing.

Riru-no-Bet Town Quest

A girl's dad, eccentric uncle or whatever has made Pokemon-like creatures. Her friends are in on it, but it seems like they're trying to keep it secret. Anyway, one bad-looking one (it has dark energy swirling around it) escapes and they have to find it. It looks like a hand when it's inside it's jar / containment device. When it gets out it flits through the air and later grows and takes on a humanoid shape... Then tricks her into falling down into a cave. She's brought along a flying starfish-like not-Pokemon, which she can use as a light.

Title too ornately written to be bothered interpreting it

Hayahira Yamamoto

This one cost ¥1500, even though it's printed on crap school worksheet paper, apparently by Risograph. It's quite wordy in places, though very silently atmospheric in others. Some page have some great hatched detai. It's small, but has a lot of pages... though they're on very thin paper! At the end there's a "making-of", which is on better-quality paper, for some reason.

Title too long to be bothered interpreting it

KSA

One of the copy-bons sold by a shy person... I seem to recall. It's about magical girls fighting... some evil dark cloud entity that hovers menacingly in the sky. The linework is very thin, no changes to the weight at all!

Issenn

Akihi

The two cooks in a small izakaya get into a flight-of-fantasy battle, where they have been challenged to cook the best meal in a huge arena, under the watchful eye of some ancient cooking grand-master. Til the guy starts imagining the girl also wearing a bunny costume, and growing gimongulagongous tonhongerakoogas. Then their boss gets angry at them.

Buchigire

Kyogoro Miyata

Only cost ¥200(!), it looks awesome! The interiors are all "painted" grey wash. It's About crazy punks in New York doing wierd stuff. There's a log blocking a dirt road, so they dig a tunnel underneath it. They get out in the countryside to party, drop a little litter and cops immediately show up. Later one of them decides to play a round of golf right across the city, with a great deal of property destruction. His journey takes him into a warehouse where gangsters are torturing somebody. He has to beat them up before he can continue.

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UFO Shaaa

Wave Walnut

(I think!) This is by the same guy who did a very Steve Galacci-esque book of concept art, back at Kansai Comitia 68. I think, anyway. When I mentioned that, he might have just assumed I was talking about it, not if he made it. I never can tell with my Japanese ability. Anyway, he's still not done anything with that cat... this is just another book of concept art and ideas... this time for cosmic superheroes.

Good Bye, My Star

Velo

An elf causes a jar with fish swimming in it to get broken. He goes to sleep and wakes up underwater, menaced by giant fish. When he really wakes up the jar has returned with some message in it. Presumably demands from the fish gods on how to repent for his crime.

He had the original of this page displayed, it looked amazing up close

Naninani Excorcist

Natsuomi Yamane

A BL story about ass-whoopin priests who fight demons.

You know, it's surprising how many Christianity-based BL comics there are in Japan. I know of, er, 3. I guess they see Christianity as a "western" thing, and "the west" as a place where open gayness is more accepted. Of course, actually Christianity and gayness are not compatible.

Yeah, I know about the "modernised" translations. I like Christianity and gayness too, but they don't go together

Glad there ain't a comments section, I'd be getting so lectured.