Otaku

According to Heisei Democracy, Hobby Japan will be releasing a collection of short comics titled Happy Fujoshi, which will feature works from 15 BL and shoujo mangaka detailing the daily lives of fujoshi:

"At last, a collection of authentic tales of the fujoshi lifestyle is introduced!", says the ad copy. "We've appointed boys' love and shoujo manga artists to bring you this assortment of happy love-love stories. The unbelievable daily lives of fujoshi will grab hold of your heart!"

Mainichi Daily News reports that a brand of manga-illustrated canned coffee called "Seichi no Kohi" (Sacred-Site Coffee), which went on sale during this summer's Comiket 72, is extremely popular among visitors to the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition venue:

When 600 cans of the coffee went on sale in advance on Aug. 12, they sold out immediately. They were sold in vending machines from Aug. 16, the day before Comiket started, and by the final day on Aug. 19, about 40,000 cans were sold. Now they are sold at weekends, when events are held, both over the counter and from vending machines.

topOn 9/1, the hosts of a Taiwanese variety show called "The Guess Show" (我猜我猜我猜猜猜) introduced the light novel The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya as an adult light novel by saying it's "obviously H" and "so A[dult]," and went on to read out "adult scenes" from the book. The episode caused an uproar from the online community and the fans. The host's response was: "Obviously what I said weren't from the novel, I'm also a Haruhi fan, it's not my fault if they can't take a little joke." In the end, the show did not apologize.

A few days ago, Kadokawa Taiwan issued a statement explaining that the Haruhi novel is in fact not an adult novel, and asks the TV show to better organize its programs in order to avoid further confusion:

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Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japan Economic Times), one of the most respected economics newspaper in Japan, recently published a column from an otaku who claims (without source) that in Japan over 1 million men are obsessed with Neon Genesis Evangelion's Rei Ayanami.

Below is a brief translation of the column:

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Recently, a college student bragged in his diary on Mixi (a JP social networking site) about his cheating the subway fare and then arguing with the authorities, or impregnating a junior-high school girl. As a result, the student was criticized and attacked by many internet users, and was later kicked out of school due to the diary entries.

The story, which caught a lot of attention, was adapted into a short manga by a website called "Paint Manga Hokanko" (Manga Preservation House), which creates manga based on stories from around the internet.

Canned Dogs reports that the November issue of Comic Gum will come with a special Sena★Sena supplementary booklet.

Sena★Sena is a project from the otaku blog Senaka Otaroad, where many popular artists work on medias involving the blog's mascot Senaka-chan. For more info visit here.

topComic Market, or Comiket, is the world's largest comic convention. Currently Comiket is held twice a year, first in mid-August then late December, at the Tokyo Big Sight.

Comiket 72 took place from August 17th - 19th. According to Mantan Web, over 170,000 fans attended Comiket 72 on day 1, 180,000 attended on day 2 and 200,000 on day 3, resulting in a total attendance of 550,000 - the highest attendance in Comiket history.

Below are some English Comiket 72 reports from around the web:

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Mainichi Daily News has published an article on Comiket 72, which is taking place from the 17th through the 19th at the Tokyo Big Sight:

About 36,000 organizations will put cartoons, novels, music and game software programs on sale at Comic Market. [...] The fair proved popular and soon expanded. It began being held at Tokyo Big Sight in the summer of 1996. It is now held every summer and winter and hopes to attract 500,000 visitors.