Stamped: July 13th, 2007 | Related Posts
Tagged: doujinshi, mai hime, shizuru fujino.

Everybody knows what a Manga is, but do you know what a Doujinshi (doujin) is?

A Manga is the Japanese word to name comics and print cartoons.
Manga, 漫画, means “whimsical pictures”. A manga has a particular character design that automatically differenciates it from a Comic.

Naruto Manga:

A Dōjinshi, 同人誌, is an unofficial self-published Japanese work, usually a manga or a novel (or even a fanzine) made by amateurs and often based on existing mainstream published Manga/Novel/Anime work.

I don’t have the “ō” character so I will go on with that topic using the “ou” instead.

The term doujinshi is derived from doujin which literally means “same person,” used to refer to a person or persons with whom one shares a common goal or interest, and shi a contraction of zasshi, meaning “magazine”.

Doujinshis are part of the doujins that are not only paper media but can also be video games (doujin-soft/doujin-game), music (doujin-ongaku)…

Doujinshis can be considered analogous to fanfictions, it allows fans, amateur drawers to unleash their imagination and drawing talent, giving their favorite manga/novel/anime a sequel, a second life or another perspective.

Doujinshis are also a way to give a more direct statement of what can be hinted by the main show, that is why there are a lot of sexually explicit material from mere nudity (ecchi), erotism (ero), display of homosexuality (Yaoi, male homosexuality; Yuri for female homosexuality) to pornography and perverted sexuality (hentai) in doujinshis.

Those type of sexually explicit doujinshis flourish due to the strong demand and because of the lack of restriction from official publishing.

Who isn’t a tad bit curious of its favorite character’s private life?
If you are not, I am…
So I will give you an example from the characters I ‘m very familiar with. Of course I’m talking about Shizuru.

Here below is a Mai Hime doujinshi, putting “innocent” Shizuru in an explicit mutual romantic situation with her precious person Natsuki. (Which unfortunately doesn’t happen in the Mai Hime anime - well they did actually kiss…but it doesn’t count- or manga)

Doujinshis have largely developed this last decade thanks to the new technologies and easiness of self publication.
Lots of doujinshis (manga and novels) are now published on the internet.

I think it’s a very encouraging trend that favorizes the liberty of expression and develops the artistic expression while going through various types of media.
And for us, viewers, it helps us overcome the frustration of a terminated serie, an unachieved relationship or an unwanted story ending.