Comic City Spark 12 #4 - using your brochure and event etiquette
Ok - this is the final post I’m going to write on CCS12, and I want to talk about how to get the most out of your brochure and how to have the most fun possible (i.e. avoid ruining other peoples’ days) at the event. If you missed the rest of this series you can find part #1, part #2 and part #3 here.
First, let’s talk about how to use your brochure to plan your day. Remember in Part #2 when I talked about one of the circles I planned to visit? The info that I wrote down from their Twitter page during my online prep was:
東1ホール シ30b
Ok - let’s cross-reference this information with the brochure. First things first - find the page with the matching hall number:
In the top right you can see it says 東1ホール - so far so good! Next, we need to check the row number. For this circle, it’s the kana character シ. Flick through the 東1ホール section til you find it. Here it is! ^
Next up, find your circle. I wanted to visit NEGRO MANIA who was due to be at table 30b. Here they are. Although it doesn’t specifically say “a” or “b”, you can see there are 2 entries with the number “30″ - as you can guess, since NEGRO MANIA is the second of the two, they will be at side b (right side) of the table.
Next, to find them on the map. The brochure maps are the only ones printed on pink paper, and they’re perforated so you can rip them out. Here’s the シ row.
And that’s where table 30 is! It’s right at the back of the room, and way over on the far side from where we came in between halls 7 & 8 (that’s where the queue was). Draw a circle around it so you can find it easily later. Rinse and repeat for any other circles you’re interested in, and then rip out the map for easy reference on the move.
Now, you may be wondering why we’ve spent all this time checking the circle’s information in the brochure when we’ve already got the details written down from their Pixiv / Twitter as outlined in part #2. Good question. Honestly, it’s not essential for you to go through the rigmarole of looking them up in the circle list each time - you can skip straight to the map to mark them if you’re confident enough in your note-taking and cross-referencing. Me, I personally liked sense-checking my research against the image/name of the circle in the list, just so I know for sure I’m headed for the right place. Plus I had a couple of hours to kill in the queue so...
As I previously mentioned, halls 1-3 are all in the same massive room and there are no physical dividers separating them. Here’s a map of TBS to give you a better idea:
(You can see here how far apart the East and West wings are. It takes maybe 10 mins to walk between them on that zig-zaggy raised walkway in the middle).
On the map, 東3, 東2 and 東1 look like 3 separate rooms next to each other. They aren’t. They are 1 big, big room. Keep an eye out for signs high up on the walls showing you roughly where each “hall” begins and ends.
How to find your circle in the hall (assuming you’ve been good and highlighted them on your map):
Check which part of the hall you’re in. There are massive numbered signs high up on the wall showing which part of the hall you’re in - check this against your map.
Check the row number. The first table in the row (whichever end you approach from) has an A4 sign stuck to the edge of it showing which row it is. You may need to peek through participants to see it. Note that there can be a single table stuck on the end of each row - this table may not have the sign, so if you can’t see it check the next one along. Your map will show the order the rows come in so you know how far you have to go.
Check the table number. This will be on a small sign on the edge of every table, so again you may have to peer through people to find it. Many circles also have a pop-up banner behind the table with their artwork and name on it, which is handy. If there is a massive queue in front of the table you think you want, check and see if they have a queue marker (scroll down for more about these).
Now for the last leg of this post series - event etiquette. There’s a bunch of stuff that I realised as I was going along that I wish I had known before I went, and although no-one was mean about it I felt bad not knowing what I should be doing - so I really do recommend spending a bit of time learning how to work best with your fellow participants to get the most out of your day.
Probably the best thing you can do is to read Akaboo’s site (translate it using Google or something) before you go to learn about what is and isn’t acceptable. If you find yourself in the queue having forgotten to do this, there’s a pretty simple comic in the brochure which explains how you should behave. It’s pretty obvious stuff; in a nutshell, being a nuisance (including distracting the circles/doujinkas, asking them to sign things, getting in the way/blocking access, not having small value notes/coins etc) is not cool. Neither is running or pushing/line-cutting, buying R18 doujins when underage (”young people” - I guess as in children/highschoolers - are not allowed in the event, period), any photography outside of the cosplay room, bringing large / bulky luggage or bags, and bringing pets.
On the topic of cosplay; it can be tempting to want to come along dressed up as your favourite character. Be aware that some events do not allow cosplay because it disrupts the flow of the event - think people with big props blocking the narrow space between rows of tables and you get the idea. Check on Akaboo’s site that cosplay is permitted before dressing up, and that there are no other rules to follow. Also, anything that’s going to make you uncomfortable during the queue or walking around the halls (heels etc), or fill up your hands, just isn’t worth it. There is a cloakroom where you can stash your stuff (and presumably change), but I have no experience of that so I can’t really tell you anymore.
Let me talk a little bit about queuing - I know, I know, sounds boring, right? Bear with me as this is actually pretty cool!
Many of the smaller circles don’t have much of a queue (or at least, they didn’t when I turned up at opening time), so you can immediately buy the books you want. Just check first to make sure you’re not accidentally queue-jumping - making eye contact with the doujinka is usually a good way to tell!
More popular circles though (you can usually tell as they will be on the outsides of the room rather than in the long rows, to make space for queuing customers) will often have a queuing route marked out on the floor. It will be cleverly designed to create spaces for people to get past without going through the queue. Arrows show you which direction the queue should go in; a straight line shows where to stop to create a through-fare gap. A long queue may be divided into several blocks along a designated route. Also, they will have a queue marker - aka a small, handheld sign showing where the back of the queue is. You can see it in the picture below:
See the girl at the back holding the “ あ-18″ sign? That’s the queue marker. It’s held by the last person in the queue, and they have to display it so people can see where to join the line (or where other people in separate blocks of the same queue need to go next). When someone else joins the queue they take it off the original person, and so on - in other words, the marker is always right at the back. As it can be hard to tell which queue is for which table (particularly if two circles are sharing and the lines are long), this is a neat concept. If a queue is particularly long and divided up into different blocks there will be more than one queue marker, so you can tell which queues are part of yours and which aren’t.
If you join a queue in which someone is holding the marker: politely get the attention of the person holding it (”sumimasen?”), hold out your hand for the sign, and then hold it up above your head (making sure it’s facing the right way so people can read it!). Chances are you won’t have it long! Make sure you say thank you (”arigatougozaimasu”) when someone takes it off you - good manners cost nothing, after all.
Finally, in places where there is a long queue you will usually line up in pairs, so make sure you don’t disrupt the structure of the line by creating a single-file line - other participants may be reluctant to appear to be pushing in front of you by filling in the gaps, and it will cause an uncomfortable situation. All I did was follow the lead of everyone around me and it was a breeze.
So, how did I find the event? I loved every second of it. The order, the efficiency of how it all worked…I got in just after the 10am opening time (the huge queue flowed in in a matter of minutes) and left just before 11.30am with every book on my list. Seriously, I couldn’t have been happier. The process of pointing out the books/quantities I wanted, handing over the cash (all the books have a price label clearly visible so you can add it all up as you’re waiting, and most are around 400-500JPY each), sliding them into my trusty tote and then scurrying to the next table…it was all so seamless and speedy. If you’re the kind of person that likes to browse more leisurely at relaxed pace I kind of suspect that you’re going to enjoy yourself quite as much, as those local doujin fans know what they want and there’s no messing around. The beauty of an event like this is that you can plan ahead and get in and out with minimum of stress - window-shopping doesn’t really fit into that concept. That being said, there’s no reason why you can’t do it - just be aware of other participants who might be on a personal mission to buy a stack of doujins and who won’t appreciate your getting in the way for no good reason.
The longest queues I stood in were for LEGO! and Abaraya - even those were no more than 10-15 minutes each. I think I must have been lucky as there were some circles with queues that must have been 20+ minutes long…but even so it wasn’t even a fraction of the pain I thought I would have to endure.
(Incidentally, the latest LEGO! book is absolutely magnificent - the closest a doujin has ever brought me to tears. Buy it. Buy it now.)
And, of course, here’s a pic of what I got:
The beauty of attending the event is that you can meet your doujin heroines - plus you can pick up exclusive free “papers”, freebies like badges and postcards, and non-consigned books. See that white doujin with Present Mic on the right (”Closet”)? That’s not going to be sold at stores. Go me!
Would I do it again? Hell yes. Whether or not I would brave the half-million attendees of an event like Comiket is another question, but I would certainly do CCS again in a heartbeat.
And that’s it! I hope this is helpful, or at least a bit interesting. Let me know if you’re planning to attend any big comic events yourself!
