Doujinshi Main

This section contains subject matter with shoujo-ai/yuri (girl/girl) and mature themes. Please do not enter if this kind of artwork offends you, or if you are under the legal age to view this material in your area. By going any further in this section, you are asserting that you are aware of the contents, and you are taking responsibility for what you see. Don't e-mail and yell at me for putting up things you think are bad - you've been warned. If you can't deal with this, please go back to Cephiro's Mirror. My sole purpose here is to give you a global look over unofficial Rayearth publications and artworks.

This section was last updated on September the 10^th, 2006.

The following piece is just a little explanation about Doujinshi. All credits to to those who wrote it...^^ I felt free to edit the original article, so be warned, k? ^^ (The word doujinshi is here considered an uncountable noun). Index of contents is at the bottom of this page.

What's Doujinshi?

Everyone knows that the Japanese are a bit obsessed with graphic novels, better known as manga. Forty percent of publications produced in Japan are comics, which provide 30 percent of Japanese publishing revenue. But the comics, or manga, market in Japan is divided into two types: one is purely (or as pure as one can get) original work; the other is "amateur" or copycat comics, which develop the work of original artists in different and unauthorized ways. This second kind of comic, called doujinshi [doh-GIN-she], is a huge and growing market in Japan. Doujinshi conventions are among Japan's largest mass gatherings, drawing more than 450,000 fans and 33,000 artists each year. And as comics move online, through the increasing penetration of online games, the doujinshi market is only expected to increase.

Doujinshi is illegal. Under United States law, this massive copycat market would plainly violate the original authors' copyright. Japanese law is not much different. Why is this "theft" of the creative work of original manga artists allowed? There are two very different perspectives on copyright and the content industry: the perspective of lawyers and the perspective of business. For the law "violating" a copyright is an unalloyed evil, but looking at the question from the perspective of business, it seems clear that this copycat market fuels for original manga art demand that otherwise would not exist. The "use" of this copyrighted content therefore benefits the original author.

The doujinshi market captures customers and keeps them focused. Fans obsess; obsessions work to the benefit of the original artist. Thus, were the law to ban doujinshi the market for manga generally would be hurt. Manga publishers in Japan recognize this. They understand how "theft" can benefit the "victim". Some famous mangaka like to draw doujinshi along with their published works; some even create doujinshi with their own characters, giving fans the opportunity to see them doing all the things that could not be put in the manga (Maki Murakami, the author of Gravitation, is an example). Others make doujinshi with other artists' characters, but being famous many fellow fans won't miss the chance to collect yummy doujinshi like these.

Generally speaking, doujinshi and the originals stories they are inspired to can't be put on the same level, because doujinshi comics usually deal with famous characters focusing on their interaction more than on the plot, and the result is a kind of parallel manga usually highly appreciated by fans, who have the opportunity to see their favorite characters in different situations. There is also doujinshi which simply shows what fans would like to see but that it's not going to happen in the original manga. Hentai doujinshi is amongst this. The doujinshi that contains stories based on original manga comes in three categories: kenzen (for children), yaoi (for women: male/male love) or H (for grownups: hetero love). Of these three categories, yaoi doujinshi is the fastest growing. Of course, there is also "original" doujinshi, which features original plots and charas. Long story short, doujinshi can be considered a kind of illustrated fan fiction. Like this latter, one can find doujinshi of very high quality or crappy stuff. Amongst manga lovers, well drawn doujinshi usually is rare items to collect and to treasure, and some people buy that of their favorite artists with the same happiness shown while getting original manga. Nowadays doujinshi is growing more and more into manga lovers' hearts, to the point that some fans would even pay a little fortune to get a beautiful doujinshi with their fava charas.

In depth:

If you've been around manga enough, you've probably heard the word "doujinshi". Often, people tend to think doujinshi means H-manga, or "hentai manga," manga that features active love between familiar anime/manga characters. However, doujinshi is so much more! Doujinshi is amateur comic. In Japanese, "doujin" means a group of people united in a common interest in literature. "Doujinshi," a related word, refers to a group of people united by a common interest in creating manga based on already established manga. In other words, amateur artists, inspired by their love of particular manga, will draw their own stories much like fan fiction writers will write stories about their favorite anime. They publish these self-made manga. You would think only a little doujinshi would appear, and only a few people would read them, but in Japan and Hong Kong, thousands of doujinshi comics are produced every year, sometimes selling up to a thousand copies of each manga. Some will only be distributed to small circles of people, while others will be sold.

Sometimes doujinshi contains "original" stories, meaning that the artist is an amateur with his or her own story, maybe experimenting as an artist. This kind of original doujinshi comes in all categories, for boys, for girls, science-fiction, for older people, and "JUNE" (yaoi). Rayearth's artists (CLAMP) began as doujinshi artists. If it's a popular anime or manga, there are doujinshi comics for it. Some are innocent stories created by an eager artist, and some are not so innocent. Often, doujinshi is used by artists to continue relationships from the original series. We may never see Fuu and Ferio of "Rayearth" finally consuming their love in the original manga, but doujinshi artists won't hesitate to let you peek at the private lives fans often wonder about.

Doujinshi is out there, but hard to find for the average American manga-lover. You can find doujinshi in Japanese and Chinese bookstores, but you have to look hard. Sometimes, you can't tell the difference between the original series and doujinshi based on it. Particularly with series like "Gundam Wing," you will find more doujinshi than the actual manga. If you're Japanese, and live in Japan, this is less of a problem. There are doujinshi conventions. But if you were Japanese, you wouldn't be reading this article.

Contents:

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Section Index (This page)
Rayearth Doujinshi scans (Hentai doujinshi scans. Be warned)
Rayearth Doujinshi covers (Gallery of covers, mild images)
Fan art page (Fan arts. Safe section for everybody)
Hentai fan arts (Be warned)
Homepage (Go back to Cephiro's Mirror)