As a huge manga/anime fan, the mecca for all things manga and Japanese geek culture has been and always will be Comiket – AKA Comic Market. Usually held two to three times a year, this mass gathering of manga fans has seen crowds as large as 550,000 attendees over the course of the three-day event. The last Comiket, Comiket 93, took place from December 29 through December 31, of 2017 and is likely to have drawn another 500,000 attendees (official numbers have yet to be released) and was held at the Tokyo Big Sight convention hall, which has been a regular host of the event since 1996. And the beautiful thing about Comiket is, that despite its huge size and popularity, the bulk of Comiket is made up of grassroots independent dōjinshi creators who hope to sell their self-made manga to the thousands of fans in attendance, hoping to become the next big discovery in the industry. And it has long since been my dream to go to Tokyo once again and attend the event in person. The last time I was in Tokyo I was there in the in between period of two Comiket shows and I was not able to attend. But I am hoping to return to Japan and attend the show something in the next year or two.
Though, I’ll be honest with you here, I don’t just want to attend Comiket because of the dōjinshi that will be on sale there; you see, over the years, because of the popularity of the event, it has also become the mecca for cosplayers to attend and show off their beautiful creations. Cosplay is another important art form in the Japanese geek culture community and one that I count myself as being a huge fan of. I have been a fan of the art of cosplay, as well as a former cosplayer myself, since the first time I attended San Diego Comic-Con and saw all these fans in costume, dressed as their favorite fantasy, superheroes, and sci-fi characters. I thought those people were the coolest people I had ever seen and swore I would one day cosplay myself. And I finally did, the first time I attended Anime Expo when it came to Southern California, way back in 1994. Of course, I eventually stopped cosplaying, but I have remained a huge fan of the medium ever since.
And that is why I want to go to Comiket – the sheer number of cosplayers that attend the event each and every time it is held is simply astonishing. As a fan of the art, this is what I want to see when I go to Comiket. And if the latest pictures that came out of Comiket are any indication, the quality and variety of cosplay and cosplayers that are seen at the event is only getting bigger and better each time. So, if you don’t mind, I would like to share with you some of my favorite cosplay images that came out of Comiket 93 this past December; so you can see for yourselves just how amazing these people and their cosplay creations really are.
*Warning! This will be an asset heavy post with many images loading.
