Essays

As those familiar with Japanese media may already be aware, a doujinshi circle (同人誌サークル) is a group of writers and/or artists who create fan comics and/or fan fiction (doujinshi, 同人誌) and publish them as amateurs. Doujinshi are distributed as digital or physical media, both online and at special events such as Comiket. Comiket is held in August and December each year and is the largest fan convention in the world, with an average attendance between 300,000 and 750,000 people! Physical doujinshi are usually produced in small quantities or made-to-order for a certain period of time, and then sold at a low price, often little more than enough to cover production costs.

It is rare for circles to make a significant profit and many actually lose money on the endeavor. Dedicated doujinshi printing publishers exist to facilitate this process at a relatively low cost, since doujinshi are popular enough to support such infrastructure. Most doujinshi circles comprise 2 to 4 members (doujinka, 同人家), though sometimes a single artist or writer will create a doujinshi circle for themselves in order to delineate works from one another. Larger circles also exist, though they are less common. The now-famous CLAMP and TYPE-MOON both started as doujinshi circles! Multiple circles may also collaborate on an anthology, typically surrounding only one character or pairing.

Also, doujinshi circles have some really great names, from the stylish to the funny to the just plain baffling! Sometimes, like ours, they directly relate to the stories the circle makes in some way, sometimes not. Some of the most memorable circle names I've encountered over the years are listed below. Translations and explanations are provided in parantheses where appropriate, though it's surprisingly common to have English names, or a mix of Japanese and English.

To talk about this, we first need to address a major disconnect and point of confusion in American fandom culture.

The term "zine" is used for two extremely different categories in the West, and this can make it difficult to know what's being talked about. The original usage of zine referred to items that had much in common with doujinshi, due to their low cost, low or nonexistent profit expectation, and being shared only at certain events or through specific mailing lists. They were also created by small groups or individuals. In most cases these zines were printed off a home printer or at a Kinko's or similar and assembled by hand with a stapler or other DIY means, because specific low-cost publishers weren't really available.

This type of zine absolutely still exists, but it is much rarer in the modern era, and is hard to find due to the muddying of the term "zine". Much more often now, "zine" refers to something which bears very little resemblance to either Japanese doujinshi culture or the ultra-DIY zines of old.

Modern zines are almost always large anthologies involving large numbers of people, favoring artist contributors very heavily. These zines are more akin to a glossy, professionally published artbook, as they rarely include comics, most often being assorted illustrations and, rarely, short fanfics. There are no dedicated publishers for this type of content in the USA, so producers of these zines must go through general-use self-publishing or print-on-demand companies instead, which generally comes with higher costs and a longer lead time. These releases frequently include a large number of extras apart from the actual book, such as keychains, bookmarks, and even large items such as dakimakuras.

Some are funded via Kickstarter or similar crowdfunding platforms, or the cost is paid by contributions from the participants, which can balloon to considerable amounts to cover the high production costs. These zines are sold at high prices and for considerable profits, which has attracted a large number of scammers and grifters in recent years. Even if the same individual or group of people has produced multiple zines, they do not typically give themselves a name.

I want to add the caveat that I am not an expert in either of these; my knowledge of Japanese doujinshi culture is much greater because it's what I've been more aware of for many years. But this overview should give you a general idea of the state of things.

In a lot of ways, both of us have felt alienated from the broader fandom culture in the West for many years, and not only because of the massive rise in purity culture and general puritanism in fandom spaces.

Both of us are writers, and were tired of seeing writers continually relegated to an afterthought or not acknowledged at all. The sidelining of writers in modern fan culture is an entire topic in itself, but for the purposes of this explanation it's enough to say that social media algorithms and the speed at which people are accustomed to engaging with them have prioritized content which can be consumed as quickly as possible.

It takes time to read something, even if it is short and even if you are a fast reader, whereas it takes only seconds to look at a picture and keep scrolling. In addition, the social media space is so jam-packed with content that it is very competitive and so these glossy, professional zines are a natural evolution from these selective pressures. It's not a surprise that some writers have tried to adapt to this by opting for tweet-length "thread fics" or similar bite-sized content, but we've chosen to reject that (and indeed, social media as a whole).