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October has been a busy month, aside from Saturdays being taken up by my "temporary summer job for July and August", there was also the Shitennoji Old Book Market, several Danjiri Matsuri (especially in Sakai) and the Yodogawa Fireworks Festival (usually in August, and which I usually forget to go to, this year, because I remembered, it did of course absolutely piss it the fuck down. The rain on the Juso shotengai roof was louder then the fireworks). And we're still not finished because there's also Kansai Comitia 74!
Last time I said they should "hold the next one in Kyoto, because Intex Osaka is on the same line as Yumeshima, where the Expo is". Only, back then, I thought the expo ran until March 2026... actually it ended the week before Comitia! Oh well, having taken three hours to get back from Yodogawa the previous night (at least the hike was a nice test-out of my new Bluetti Handsfree 2), there was no way I was getting up in time for my planned 7:07 train to Kyoto. In fact, I left Osaka, on the Keihan RakuRaku, at the exact moment Comitia opened!
The Bluetti stayed at home this time, I took the old, but broken, but smaller (well. more squash-uppable), backpack. Much fighting with my new phone followed (boycott Oppo). On my old one, when I plugged in my hardware mini-keyboard it let me change language by pressing shift and space. So of course on the new one (on the one-thirds of the time that it even detects the fucking thing is connected) that does NOTHING and I have to go into the settings and set the on-screen keyboard to English manually. There's also an option saying "Hardware Keyboard - English (US)". This has absolutely no effect on the language of the hardware keyboard. Boycott Oppo. Anyway after doing that it's "helpfully" changing HTML phrases like "cellspacing" to "cell spacing" automatically. I search through the settings for "autocorrect", "spelling", "correct" and even just "auto" and there appears to be ABSOLUTELY ZERO way to turn this off. Boycott Oppo.
I got to Kyoto at 11:40-something, and then had to do battle with the curiously-empty (by a weekend in a tourist city standards) subway. You'd think something with two lines would be easy to navigate and have ample maps and information. Does it fuck, eh? If you aren't going to one of the big tourist sites, you're on your own. Is this the platform or isn't it? Good luck with that, you can only see a complete map of the network once you're actually on the train, let's hope it's the right one, eh?
Best I could do... Anyway, the convention's already been open an hour and 12 minutes and I'm under Kyoto station, finally going the right way on the right subway. I got to Takeda and looked for buses. Then decided to just walk, so little service on Sundays! You'd think they'd at least have one belonging to Pulse Plaza running between there and Takeda. (I later found out there is one... it goes from a stop saying "For Kyoto Station", but only goes to Takeda.) Interruption! I also have to warn people about the app called CX File Explorer. I've been using this to make websites on the go for a while now, but it has it's quirks, namely if you type something in it's text editor, then rotate your phone to change screen orientation, everything you typed JUST FUCKING VANISHES. That was bad enough, but tolerable with frequent saves. However, now it's combined with my new Oppo phone (boycott Oppo), it appears to also just randomly "forget" text, if you scroll down. I wrote the following section about arriving at, and browsing the con. I fucking wrote it! On the train on the way back! Then I dared to make the mistake of, oh, I dunno, scrolling further down the document to work on some comic reviews. When I got near my station I saved it! I fucking saved it! I pummeled Ctrl+S multiple times, knowing the app of old. Then, once I got on my transfer train, I open it up and a whole huge section has JUST FUCKING VANISHED. I saved it, though. I fucking saved it. I remember doing it. The stuff I wrote later, and further down, was still there, but stuff I wrote earlier, which should DEFINITELY have been saved, had JUST FUCKING VANISHED.
Boycott this useless shit.
I was finally at the con at 12:40-ish, and grabbed my copy of Kansai Tia's (whatever happened to it being sold in Melonbooks and Toranoana in the weeks leading up?). As the budget is once again a tad tight, I had a good wander up and down all the aisles before deciding on what to get. Usually Comitia is sharply divided into half comics and half illustration books, with a couple of bits in the middle for the porn (a rarity at Comitia) and the doujinshi about trains, travel, old road signs etc. This time around it seemed more mixed-up, though the division still existed at either end, the middle of the hall seemed a lot more "blurred". Also some tables had "doujin stuff", like keyrings, stickers, mini-standees and so on, but no books! I remind you Comitia is all originals... you can understand doujin stuff at events for fan works, but who is going to buy merch of a characters they haven't got the chance to know? I had a wander up and down a bit, stopping for tea, and to see some gaijin wandering right past the room to get Tia's Magazine in, then asking the bewildered security guard in normal-speed English where to get tickets. They don't try, do they? I Saw stuff I fancied on ailes A, B, C, G, H and K... but when I went back I forgot what I'd seen! I was, as usual, on the lookout for the "shy young girl with a bowed head, and one book", always the indicator of a first-time con-er. Mafia Sitter - Motojima
The first comic I bought is Mafia Sitter, by Motojima. It's very "western-inspired". By that I mean it's like that brief, embarrasing period when American comics (and sometimes The Beano) tried to "do manga", assuming that cynically (and badly) copying the art style, whilst writing the same old shit, would magically lead to One Piece-level sales. Weirdly enough, that didn't work! Anyway more recently, Japanese creators like Kayfabe favourite Peach Momoko have been working in American comics, suppressing their ingrained manga sensibilities, but not entirely... er, so yeah, that's what this looks like. It's full-colour throughout, and I thought it was a bargain at ¥400, but actually it was ¥2000! Bought it anyway... It seems to be about little girl mixed up in the mob, she has to transport a gun for them, because nobody will suspect her, but fear-induced clumsiness makes her drop it out in front of some bad guy. There's also some double crossing action.
Ikai e Yokoso (revised) - NanNan & Motoko
This was made by one of the shy girls who only has one book. 48 pages of, er... a little girl on a school trip who is trying to start up a chainsaw she found. Her teachers won't allow that, for some stupid reason, so she wanders off on her own, gets eaten by a giant bird, and ends up hanging out in a magical realm of talking animals. Like ya do. The name means "Welcome to the Stomach World".
Also, there's a spoon
Azutera - Tanaka
This is a large format book with rather pixellated cover, it's about a guy called Apricot and his roommate Tera. Their "room" being a sunken ship on the seabed, because Tera is a mermaid(-ish creature, but with legs)! The guy uses diving gear when he goes outside, it seems like Tera breathes water and air equally well. They are decluttering their "apartment" of things that drifted there on currents. They find a message in a bottle from a bored "Princess" hoping her message will find a "Romantic Prince", so write replies and get a school of sardines to take it away.
MuraMura Men's Massage - Ichi
In the small "adult" section, I saw a hot BL, checked out the sample and decided I fancied it, but would come back later with change. Some nearby girls were tittering amongst themselves, thinking I'd mistaken the long-haired guy in it for a girl... until I went back and bought it anyway. It's good shit. The same guys do a lot of bara, which is often described in western sources as "the BL aimed at actual gay men", with "a more realistic reflection of gay life" rather than the "proxy heterosexuality of traditional BL". Those western sources are pigshit-thick morons. Anyway, as this one has a nicely-toned prettyboy and not bearded fat dudes, I picked it up.
AA Daro / Mikeneko Collection 90 -
This looks like a Sentai / Kamen Rider thing. It also looks like it's from the 80's or 90's; textured matte cover stock, and absolutely everything on the inside is handwritten. The creator's even given a postal address, so you can write to her! But no, this is from October 2025! Also it looks like a bunch of character profiles. I looked at another one, and it was also blocks of text about the same characters. It seems like it's telling a story through the medium of ever-updating character profiles! I don't know if it's accompanying an actual comic or book (I didn't look at everything on her table), or if there's really 90 of them! The nostalgic style suggests it's been going quite a while, anyway...
Dead End Dreams - Rem
I bought a copy-bon of this last year, this is a better-printed version, with extra pages to the main story, and also some bonus yonkoma gag strips. Two little kids murder thier abusive mother, and then become badass avengers taking out gangsters... or something. I beleive they get seperated until they're adults, then reunite. Also there's a small ashcan thing previewing volume 3.
Reborn Thorough The Egg - Zantei Taiyo
This seems to be about a couple who meet while starting at a new university. They both like the same band and I guess start dating. But the woman has a secret... which is she likes to masturbate by shoving an egg up her, then getting her boyfriend to eat it raw. Erm, like ya do. Anyway, he does it, so I guess is a keeper. The art is cute, anyway.
I believe this is the book that came with a strange sheet of "stickers". I say "stickers" but it's really all one big one. You have to cut out the individual characters yourself. Oh well, I'll do it and slap 'em around places.
Connect to Your Odo Device 0 - Mitchel / Mangasus Comics
Seems to be a slice-of-life about some characters on a trip, or just living near the seaside. It has lots of tiny panels on each page - lots of story crammed into a pretty small A5-ish book!
Sugar's Sweet Love - Koshiuagi Shiyu
A well-drawn high school romance story with good use of screentone, and lots of shojou sparkle! It looks great. Seems to be about a shuffling-around of students putting a girl in the same class as her old crush, who has grown up to be hot.
Holy Snow Unholy Me - 300407
A comic with slenderman-like characters and short poems or sentences on each page. Very arty-farty. Dunno what it's about, but I did get a sticker with it. Something extra for the background for World Comics Review, whenever I get on with kicking that channel up the arris.
Somebody had books of "Showa pictures", from Kobe and Osaka. I hoped there would be a book about the Misono, but it was just pictures of old, faded signs on walls and shops. I now realise he may have had a book of pictures of (the real, not the clean, modern and shitty) Motoko in one of the Kobe books :( Hanashine - Tuburayama Mituhi
This one came from one of the shy girls sitting with her head bowed, she had a couple, this one seems to be about a boyfriend and girlfriend arguing on the top of their school (contrary to anime and manga expectations, not one of the 10+ Japanese schools I have been into allows the kids to just go on the roof any time they like!). The girl strangles the guy, then has an attack of remorse and (more implied than shown) jumps off the roof. doubtless leading to suicide-or-murder allegations in a later volume. If there is a later volume.
Deep Inside the Eyes - Godani
This is a horror story set in old Japan. A guy who works at a rest-stop for travellers along some road (possibly the famous Tokai-Do, which ran from Edo/Tokyo through Kyoto to Osaka). Anyway a woman who is staying there turns out to be succubus-type creature who steals people's souls or whatever. I'm not up on me Japanese folkloric creatures. Anyway she has multiple pupils in her eyes, I guess the remains of souls she's taken. I'm sure I've seen Junji Ito doing the same thing.
Goodbye my Star - Velo
Remember this elf? Turns out that book I bought before was part of an ongoing series! Here is parts one and two in one book... "bound" with some bits of sellotape at the corners. Pay a pro printer, dude, they're everywhere in Japan. Anyway, much like the infamous "Today iz fine day, in Cawwifornia! SHOOT!" video, the previous book (which is actually later in the story, maybe part 3) doesn't make much more sense even with this added context. Except for in that the elf is swimming with loads of fish suddenly... turns out, he's in a submarine!
Okuta Blue 50 - Various
The woman selling this was asleep XD. I tried to wake her up, but was too shy. While I was buying something from the next table, somebody else woke her up instead. Anyway, this is an anthology with four different stories. They all have good artwork. It also came with a sticker. One of the stories reminds me a bit of Revolutionaire, a book I bought at a previous Comitia. Revolutionaire was actually there again, this time. Should have bought volume 2!
Ant and The Garden - Yuri/Riri
One bought from a table which had cute art displayed. It appears to be a light, "flirty" BL about two guys eating cakes. Nice cakes, though.
Uro - Tamaki-Tei
A girl had a thick book with an interesting name (which I've now forgot), but when I asked to see a sample she kept steering me to this one, called Uro. It was cheaper, so I got it. It's about a woman who gets some kind of gastroinestinal problem, so goes to see a doctor. The doctor is wierd and sings some kind of chant about the best way to wipe her arse. Nice art, though... and dogs!
Hello Field - Yukino Hotel
This is a cute collection of yonkoma strips about mermaids. It was a cheap copy-bon I bought towards the end of the budget, but the style is nice.
Internet Garden - Ran
Yet another one comic by a shy girl. It appears to be her responding to online comments she got on her music. Dunno if the actual artist is also a real musician, or if this is just a fictional story about social media bullying.
That Evening With You - Akatsuki P
This is a little three-page text story, It has colour illustrations that were made partly by AI, though one seems to have had characters the author actually created added. I think maybe he generated some pictures then wrote a story to match them!
There was plenty of time left, but the budget was getting a tad tight, so that was me done for the day. Also I was hungry. I went out to the bus stop labelled "For Kyoto Station". Several other gaijin who had been in attendance were also there. I immediately went into Japanese public transport mode to avoid engagement or acknowledgement. Duly dumped at Takeda station by the bus for Kyoto station, I took the subway to Karasuma-Oike. The Kyoto Manga Museum was open, but closing soon, so I didn't go and see an exhibition I want to see, called War Manga 2 (for the anniversary of the end of World War 2, the previous one was 10 years ago). Oh well, it's on for a fair while yet. I went to the Sukiya opposite the museum and had their new "bit of everything" vegetable-cheese-filled-hamburger-with-sauce-curry. It's pretty good, yeah.
Then I checked out the museum shop for if there's a coffee table book of the War Manga exhibition, but there ain't. They were just selling some of the manga at the exhibition... which all appear to be postwar works. Where's Norakuro, or Tobitaro-kun?
Now there's a deep cut for ya. I suppose, right at the end, there's a token picture of Sergeant Rock, and that Frog WW1 comic, under the banner "hey, foreigners made war comics too". No chance of Charley's War, is there? To say nothing of Darkie's Mob, Johnny Red or Commando. But I'll see when I get there, and let you know!
Ok, I went the week after, the whole exhibiton was pretty small and naff. Story descriptions and art were "artistically" displayed on the fronts and backs of squares of curtains hanging from the ceiling. |
