myogging (myon blogging?)
My first comic event in Japan! BokuRabu50 (僕ラブ50)
I'm home from my fourth trip to Japan - this time a two-week trip! I had two big goals on my mind - one being the Osaka leg of Nijigasaki's 8th live (which was crazy good!!! those girlies got me with the mind control really bad) and the other being a participating circle at 僕ラブ50!
And I'm happy to say it was really successful! In fact, I should've been more bold with my print runs like my JP friend recommended... 😅
This event was only 3 hours, but we sold out of our JP copies within 30 minutes and the English copies soon after! (Only printed 80 copies total!) I guess this country is just really different to back home where I'd be lucky to move 10 books in a day 😅😅
To be honest, I was super stressed out about this event! If you've been paying attention to my socials you'd know I was just in Singapore for Doujima26 with a full table just before heading to Japan! AND MAN!! For the record, Doujima went great and I'm really glad to have talked to so many attendees and other artists but MAN it was tough preparing both!!! I considered dropping Doujima a few times just so I could have more time to prepare for 僕ラブ... In the end it worked out for both events but it really wasn't a comfortable timeline at all. It took a lot of grind and late nights to make it a success. If I could avoid it, I would because it's not great for my health. Of course it's my fault for applying for 僕ラブ in the first place (Doujima was booked a year in advance!) but... the opportunity doesn't come often, y'know?
For context - 僕ラブ is a LoveLive!-only comic market that runs pretty frequently (every 3-4 months?) I first attended in 2024. I was in Japan for Nijigasaki 6th and noticed that a lot of JP artists were tweeting about an event and decided to tweak my plans and go. And yeah, it was really cool! I bought tons of doujinshi and got to say hi (with my very limited Japanese) to artists I admire.
As a personal aside, I became inspired to draw the way that I do because of doujinshi. Specifically from LoveLive! and Touhou stuff from way back then. I guess it just means a lot to me - to be next to artists similar to me in the kind of space that inspired me? So I decided to participate at the next opportunity I reasonably could. (It also added to the stress, I felt like I needed to prove my worth - like "I deserve to be here too!!" Of course no one is thinking that I don't but it's really just a personal thing...)
But yeah, it turned out that the next opportunity really sucked with the proximity to my Singapore event + 僕ラブ also coincided with Nijigasaki 8th's Tokyo leg... so most Nijigaku fans would've been at the event venue itself 💀💀💀.
It's hard travelling to Japan often so I usually return every 2 years and try to attend a live while I'm at it. Sure I could've waited for a more convenient event to participate in but, if not now, when? Nijigasaki has maybe 3 years left in them and my friend who graciously volunteered to translate my comic - would she even still be in the fandom in 2 years? Waiting didn't sound appealing.
So yeah, unlucky timing but I still had a really good time! You could even say I crossed off one of the dreams I had when I was 14! It's still a bit surreal. (but feels a little pathetic given it's not a particularly hard dream to achieve hahaha)
Anyways, I want to give an extra shout-out to my friend, Mikage-san who translated my comic for me!!! Without her I'd be super dead!!! Mega cooked!!! Actually, she was one of the artists I greeted when I visited in 2024 and I ended up messaging her for some advice for applying (I'll go into more detail later, but imagine applying to a site from the 2000s coded in raw HTML) and she volunteered to help translate my comic. I seriously owe her my life!!! To be honest I really was going to apply with an English doujinshi just for the experience (fully knowing it'd have really limited success). Having Mikage-san really eased my worries!!!!!!! To the extent I could probably apply by myself and be alright.
I think I'll ramble about the printing process now!
Like I mentioned, my timeline was really tight for this event. The script for my doujin originally projected to be 60-80 pages but it was kind of physically impossible for me to achieve that. Like sure you can say "just draw faster" but that's pretty stupid when it comes to time management. And if I just didn't sleep then I'd end up with lower-quality works so that sucks too. So I decided to split the story and rewrite the comic so it could be divided more cleanly. It ended up being 38P and even that was a hard timeline. Initially the timeline was a lot worse but Mikage-san recommended a Japanese print shop (graphic.jp). Not only were the prices were better (yay AUD/JPY conversion) but the turnaround and delivery times were lightning fast! In Australia it'd take like 2 weeks to see my books, but Graphic.jp could do it within 4 days for the same price. This allowed me to print within Japan which saves tons of time because I could draw comfortably at home up until my flight.
To facilitate translation, I shared my ClipStudio project file with Mikage-san and we tried out the collaboration feature. It's kind of like Google docs? where you can see when people are making changes to other pages and then said changes get synced. I let her start going through the comic with about 3-4 weeks until the event. So she was able to start translating simultaneously with me drawing. I also provided her with a doc file that had a transcript and explained all the little quirks in the writing. Like idioms, expressions or intentional wordplay/patterns that were notably important. It was interesting to discuss writing decisions in Japanese! Also, I'm sorry, Mikage-san for not telling you that you could remove pronouns when needed until 3 days before I flew to Japan 🤣🤣!! Because in English, people tend to never refer each other by name directly but in Japanese it's like inverse right? But in my writing I maintain some of that JP flavour by occasionally sprinkle in names during conversation. So I had to be like "yes!!! please remove second-person pronouns so it's a more natural read!!!!!" around the end 🤣🤣
Nijigasaki 8th Osaka was on 6th-7th June and 僕ラブ was on the 13th. I think it was the 4th or 5th where I submitted all of my printing files to Graphic.jp? I had it sent to my Tokyo accommodation. It took me like hours to finalise both Japanese and English editions of the book. I told my friends to go out without me and holed up in the hotel for most of the day... I was really happy when I arrived in Tokyo on the 11th! I really liked the quality of the print so maybe I'll use graphic.jp again and proxy it to Australia! (That being said, there's an error in the English edition of the book that I didn't notice until too late hahahahaha kms)
Then the day of the event came around. This one was hosted in Ota City (close to Haneda airport). It was easy to find the venue, and also easy to find where to go (just follow the people with suitcases!) The venue hall was super spacious. There was somewhere around 150+ artists I think? Huge walk ways and plenty of space behind the tables. A pretty incredible turnout for a single fandom IMO. (Unimaginable in Australia!!!!!) Half of it was for Hasunosora with the rest being a mixture of other groups.
Like I mentioned earlier, there's only 3 hours dedicated to vending doujinshi. It turns out that attendees tend to line up very early to get into the hall ASAP. So there's a HUUUGEEE rush within the first hour! A big big thanks to Mikage-san again because I wasn't expecting it at all!!! And she was really good at vending quickly and smoothly! There was also some point where we had somehow swapped positions and I was vending for her side of the table instead which was funny in a cartoonish way. Vending in Japanese is also surprisingly easy. I think it's because the people are less likely to talk to you? (In general, to keep the line moving quickly I think?).
Thank you for everyone who came to talk to me at the event!!! I met a number of Japanese pomusetsu fans who did their best to talk to me as well as other artists! It made me feel really welcome! And there were a lot of other overseas fans who came to visit me as well. Being able to talk to you guys really made me feel less nervous!!! (Also a shout out to Mikage's friends as well for being kind to me and looking after me 🫶 because I didn't know what was happening half the time)
I ended up receiving a lot of cakes and little gifts from people and I'm really grateful!!!!!
(look how cute these cakes are!!!)
It was hard to get myself away from the booth to do my own shopping so I had my friends do it for me. Here's my haul! I'll do my best to read everything with a dictionary and a dream...!
I'm really happy I participated in this event! I feel like I've received a little taste doujinshi culture in Japan and damn! It's really as cool as I thought it was!!! It probably goes without saying, but the con scene really is different in Australia. To be honest I can see myself pulling back from the Australian convention scene. It's just a bit tiring and I'm just not that interested in making the normal kind of merchandise that you would mass-product for those kinds of events. It's also more profit driven and it was kind of liberating selling for print cost in Japan (500 yen). There was just a more intense feeling of "love for the game", y'know?
I think it'd be nice if I could participate again...
To be honest I felt a bit guilty receiving so much help from Mikage-san. Even though this doujin's story isn't finished, I don't have it in me to continue to get her to translate it or anything like that if she doesn't want to. (that's like getting someone to work for free!!!!)
So if I participate again, I'd like to be more independent! My language proficiency isn't anywhere as near as sufficient enough to translate my doujin on my own, but maybe next time I'll show the JP LL community the full power of my shikishi 💪💪💪 (and that doesn't require any translation at all!!) I did bring a few shikishi but I barely had any time to work on them...
I've thought about applying to Comiket as well, but it doesn't sound that appealing to me. Not only is the process more complicated but it has more requirements like JP address, phone number and even a note to have someone proficient in Japanese at the table so an idiot chungus like myself would have a harder time without help. Also the population density in Tokyo is a little much for me already so I don't know how I'd feel about the density at Comiket! A quaint little fandom market might be good enough for me 😅
As a side note... I really should work on improving my Japanese. My current level is really pathetic I talk like I'm a Chikawa character.
Anyways! Thanks for reading my thought-dump whoever got this far!
Your reward: how to apply to 僕ラブ
note: this event is probably first-come-first serve but I don't think it's that competitive with how often it runs. So as long as you apply before the deadline it's probably fine
Check the website https://www.puniket.com/lovelive/ for the dates for the next event. Sometimes they even list the next few events.
Once you've chosen an event, prepare to apply for the event before the deadline. You will need 3 things:
- A LivePocket payment receipt number.
- A circle cut image
- The actual application which will require the above things to be valid.
First find the application page, it's usually in the banner of the website.
Honestly you should read all of the tabs on this banner since it has useful info about the event. The application page is the last one though.
4. First, let's make the LivePocket payment. LivePocket is a Japanese ticketing service that lets you buy tickets for events and gives you a little QR code that the people at the door will ask you for. It's used for both participants and attendees. There should be a link to LivePocket from the application page. You buy 1 spot for half a table and 2 for a full table. I was fine using a foreign credit card and phone number. Once you have made the payment, keep that number handy.
5. A "circle cut" image is required to apply. It's basically a little rectangle you can draw in to represent your booth which gets printed and included in the event pamphlet. There's a template for it on the website. You can insert a blank image temporarily and make one later as you have up until the deadline to include it.
6. Once you have both things you can apply to the real application which there is a link for on the website as well. This will ask for things like your name, circle name and what doujinshi you will be bringing. Foreign addresses are fine since they don't send you anything physical! They will ask for the LivePocket number when submitting.
7. After the above is completed you should receive an automated email with your information. You can also return to the application portal to update your circle cut.
8. Puniket is kind of silent when it comes to communications so you basically won't hear anything in email until like the week before the event. Your best way of confirmation is to keep an eye on the website where they will update it with a list of all accepted artists!
And then you basically just show up and show them your QR and you're good !! In all it's an easy application process but weirdly convoluted (it's a bit unheard of to ask payment first before knowing if you even applied successfuly lmfao)
germansingergirl
gummygunk
jacobvanloon
yousharknotpass
tangentwithtanner
theartofmadeline
origamiaround
snowghoul