A casual day at Comiket 2015

I had my first Comiket experience last december. Touted as the biggest and the first Doujinshi event to ever happen, I had been looking forward to experiencing this sacre (not really lol) event for a long time. I had always wanted to try cosplaying in Comiket once but brushed that thought aside due to the lack of time and energy. I shall fight that battle another time!

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If you’re looking for a Comiket guide book or battle strategy, this is the wrong place. Check out this blog for a comprehensive guide.  In this blog entry, I shall share my nonchalent experience at one of the biggest Comic market in the world and my very honest opinions.


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My friend and I arrived slightly after noon. She went off to the lady’s dressing room since she was cosplaying while I roamed by myself.

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I went up to the open area outside of Tokyo Big Sight which was a designated cosplayer zone and tried my luck shooting them. One thing I quickly found out was that the crowd here, is nothing like I’ve ever experienced. It was so packed!

Unlike the arena in other events, cosplayers and photographers are rounded up like sheeps in a fence and strictly not allowed to venture anywhere outside. That meant a big amount of people are crammed within a small fenced up area. The upside of this arrangement is that normal attendees will be able to walk around easily without bumping into a posing cosplayer or photographer every 2 second. The downside is of course, every single photo you get is filled to the brim with passer-bys. I have always wondered why are there so much people in the background of other photographer’s Comiket photos. And now I know why, because there is absolutely NO ANGLE that doesn’t have someone in the background!

It was particularly frustrating for me because I had been hoping to get nice shots of cosplayers. But alas, it was not as easy as I hoped! If there’s any advice I can give tofellow photo enthusiast, it’s to bring a wide lens. I brought my 50mm (on a CMOS Sensor) and found it nearly useless in this situation because I don’t have any space to step back. Yes, it’s that crammed! It’s bustling with passion and live and there are different groups of cosplayers camping at every corner so it’s a feast for the eyes. However it’s not exactly the best for photographs haha.

Anyway, here are some of my best attempt haha !


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One Punch man!

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Speed of Sonic! Was pretty stoked to find OPM cosplayers hehee.


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Not sure who they are cosplaying as but the costume’s pretty cool isn’t it?


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Touken Ranbu Boys swords! I was honestly expecting to find more Touken Cosplayers but there wasnt a lot!


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And here’s Lunaru and her friends cosplaying as Sophie, Marco and Howl from Howl’s moving castle!


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I think they are cosplaying as Love Live. Correct me if I’m wrong ^^;


I met up with my friend (Who is Lunaru btw) and she brought me to the Doujin halls. The halls were massive and the crowd control was impeccable. Everyone moved according to the usher’s instructions like we’re an Army. Try not to drop anything though because I don’t think you’ll have the chance to stop and pick it up!


Photography is not allowed in the dealer’s hall but I managed to sneak this picture at the end of the day. All the booths are pretty much gone but you can roughly gauge the scale of it ! And this is just one hall!


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We snaked through the doujin booths , walking in a straight line that goes in just one direction. Lunaru was looking for Jun and Neru’s booth and after a somewhat difficult find, she found them!


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Jun and Neru were very nice and cool in real life. I didn’t get to speak much to them because of the language barrier but they were really nice. And they look just as perfect as their pictures ! We then  continued to browse the other booths.


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I forgot the name of this cosplayer but he is apparently pretty famous. And he published a pretty cool One Punch Man cosplay photo book.


While Lunaru marvelled at the bishounen cosplayers , I was marvelling at the gravel artists. From my loose observations, the gravel artists had the longest queue. In fact some times the queues can be so crazy they even have personalised ushers to regulate the crowd! I tried my best not to gawk while walking through the booths but I couldn’t stop my amazement. There were tables after tables of gravure idols , each with a slightly different style to panter to the different otakus and each with a very sexy poster right in front. While snaking through the booths, we went pass a girl who was changing into a kinky underwear.


Don’t worry, no nudity here. She was wearing that underwear under a long pair of pants and was in the midst of taking the long pants off. I looked at Lunaru in amazement , choosing to keep my comments to myself.


We parted ways shortly after as Lunaru hung out with her Cosplay team while I roamed the event. Or so I planned.


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I found myself lost within the Cosplayer arena as I followed the crowds to get out of it, only to find myself back inside it and in a dead end! The amount of people was too much for me to bear! I did however, managed to come away with some more cosplayer photographs , hope you guys will enjoy it!


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I think one of the biggest reason why it took me so long to write this blog entry was the how speechless Comiket made me. While friend’s who have battled Comiket previously all gave me the right perspective of it, I still foun d myself overwhelmed.


A video posted by Kaika (@elpheal) on


This Video summed up my feelings in 3 words: 

“Comiket was scary”.



I knew it wasn’t easy breezy but I hadn’t expected the crowd to be so overwhelming. And I didn’t expect to be shepherded like a goat almost everywhere. I wanted to visit the other halls but couldn’t find my way, I wanted to leisurely stroll the booths but that was impossible here. As soon as I got into the dealers Hall, I wanted to get out. My displeasure was so obvious even Lunaru could tell haha. I don’t do well with crowds and I’m a little bad with directions T^T .


The cosplay variety is very wide in Japan, In fact it’s so wide that I couldn’t recognise most of them! It was fun to witness the legendary photography queue for a popular/pretty cosplayer. I gave up queuing for any of these cosplayers and wondered to myself is this really a more efficient way ?


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Not everyone queue though. This  cosplayer (who’s character & series name escapes my memory!) has one of the biggest photographer wall I saw that day. Anyone spotted Hentai Kamen behind xD ?

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Free hugs anyone? This guy is hilarious and creepy all at the same time ^^;


I was told that the 3rd day of Comiket is the “Hentai Day” and there is an area dedicated to “Hentai Cosplay”. I ventured out to find the place and was shepherded around. However luck was not on my side and my meanders found no rewards hahaa.


After a couple of hours, I met up with Lunaru, Yuu and friends and we had dinner. Before we left the arena however, we saw a lot of Otaku groups gathered around outside. My friends told me they were distributing their stash. Because of the overwhelming crowd and killer queues, getting anyway or buying anything in such a vast event was difficult. Trying to ace more than a few merchandises within a day and before they sold out was a feat too big for one man. So people usually band together to help each other buy the stuffs they want. And they distribute the loot after the event haha.


It was amusing to see the guys distribute and share their wank materials haha.

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That marks my pretty uneventful trip to Comiket, one of the biggest Doujinshi market in the world. Everyone told me if I want to battle Comiket victoriously, I needed to prepare. I failed to do that and ended the day feeling a little defeated. But heck, if you’re just there for the experience instead of the gravure or cosplay photobooks then set aside a good half of the day to roam and get lost like I did. While getting lost and shepherded wasn’t exactly my idea of fun, it was still a memorable first-time experience. Now I appreciate our local events so much more! At least we’re free to roam and take photographs anywhere (until the guards come to shoo us away).


Entrance to Comiket is free but usage of the dressing room is chargable. The next time I visit again, I’ll hopefully have a costume and a team/partner to enjoy the event with ^^.


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