Wow, I didn't notice I rested for half the week last week before to prepare for this? No no this won't work I'm still tired lol I have waited long enough I'll deal with it using caffeine but how did I even do this 2 years ago-

It is finally time!! And boy am I tired just waiting for this to arrive which *ugh* will elaborate in a bit lol, where every year (actually twice a year minimum) I talk about what I have seen in the doujin industry in Japan and hand-picked some of them to talk about- I just realized I'm doing the same thing as the Comiket organizers deciding on the slots for artists and then making a catalogue out of them?? *OMG*

Ticket not included though LMAO but let's!!

It's this dumb thing which I do twice a year which itself is sort of a big thing- Why do I sound like an old man with dementia? *laughs* Comiket or Comic Market, is Japan'a largest doujin event held in the magnificent Tokyo Big Sight which I hear is quite a sight and can accommodate hundreds and thousands of people, is pretty huge and looks great from the outside for a convention centre which the organizers have been there since- 1976??? Yeah, this is the last stretch of their 50th anniversary, by the way, and I'm glad to even know and even participate in it... somehow. *giggles*

Since I started paying attention to this very event (series) 3 years ago, I have learned a lot of things about the event. Applications for artists are done months ago in advance, Specifically this time around (and I'm skipping the application process), they announced the application results on 5th June 2026 at 6pm JST so like, about when I was off work that day lol. That iconic segment of a black-white grid with the artist's submitted avatar or artwork is the symbol of their confirmation of appearance as they got a slot on the premises, which also reveals some upcoming works which most likely *wink* will include a new illustration book. I assume they had to showcase their profile AND detail what they are planning to release, and also knew NOT to bookmark every single announcement of the results because damn, I know a lot of people now, and confirming on ALL of them as I tried with the previous Comiket... turned out to be more of a mess for my notes, so I skipped doing that. *laughs*

And that is why our friend Melonbooks which is basically the Steam of doujinshi as they call it, which made things easier because (1) did I mention they are the largest online store for such things so much so they sign exclusivity deals with all of them artists (not all of them, refer to my BOOTH post) which (2) makes their listings relatively easy to find as I did on a daily basis near mid July, a month before the event and where many of them started posting their books to release... on the day itself, so pre-orders. Alternative links also will cover more bases as some artists tend to tag their books in the wrong category *ugh* haha and then I learned that you can just follow the pre-order listings by date since they comply with the above conditions. *silence* Yeah, I feel like an idiot noticing that halfway through. *giggles*

And ALL of this would have not been possible for you losers because *dabs* you will need a VPN connection to see it. Yup, it's region-locked as of last year and I keep asking myself why since they don't sell these internationally too, quite literally cutting us out of the action. *shrugs* Oh well, with proxy shipping I can bypass the Japanese phone number requirement and not need to register for an account anyways lol.

All of this was also how I assumed that more artists can be found (and even exclusively) on BOOTH where they manage their inventory and takes weeks to ship (see previous review post) which is annoying if I want to get my hands on some of them like Nii Manabu-sensei, Yoruhoshi Owl-sensei and Nekojira-sensei just to name a few but this is not really their fault, because of the reasons Melonbooks is dominating above. I'll see if I want to do ANOTHER run this year just for those, if they aren't sold out already.  *shrugs*

More things I have learned as I get desperate over the orders (as you will see later) is that they livestream coverage of the event too thanks to Niconico, and even though it's mostly cosplayers (and that's how I assumed Futon-chan got showcased last year), I did imagine myself going to the event actually for the first time since I started doing this, and just SWEEP the floor on as many stuff as I can get into my luggage. *giggles*

Maybe so, maybe this is the most consistent reason to go visit Japan (yes I've never) because not like idol birthday events and music lives over the year got me to do so. Maybe a combination of them will? *laughs*

Things are hardly this rosy though, so here's the reality check. Not for me, because them artists are only under existential threat. *cringe*

This year I decided to open up more in general on social media specifically forcing myself to reply to artwork (human-made, of course) posted on Twitter/X instead of just liking them but I also don't because I use my account for Anime and mostly music as I will compile the latter if you read the Entertainment News posts here. These actions are met with varying reactions (because not like it's "kawaii" with all of them) (though most of them lol) from of course no action (which is how girls deal with me IRL anyways) to Nagashiro Mito-sensei liking my replies so yeah that's why they are in the list *giggles* to artists saying their thanks (full name included haha why) to uh, artists actually replying to my comments which is based but not after that though *shrugs* so sorry to Kagachisaku-sensei and Yukimaru Nen-sensei, you still won't be here because of the number on the cover. *laughs* See, when you aren't that popular (LMAO) you will reply to people on social media, and that's why I see myself over the year doing these as I see them, whether it is in front of the subway gantry to when I was paying the restaurant bill- Is this what it feels like to be an otaku? *giggles*

I mean, to be fair to me, I was already spending so much effort every time doing all this up, specifically (illegally lol) sharing images of what I saw in the unboxing but most importantly, adding links to those images available on social media... which I hope you have clicked on any number of them just to check them up instead to look at f**king AI slop which is going to consume all of us soon. *ugh*

This year also represented a more consistent review of books (and I'm worried about storage in my small room lol) which has increased in the previous Comiket and THEN I went on to BOOTH to do another significant batch compared to the previous run. I also was tempted to give art books to artists who will likely not have chance to appear her BUT I can give them recognition on, as you may have seen with the art books I have reviewed last month (IT WAS ALREADY A MONTH AGO??!!) with gozmi-sensei, Harakenshi-sensei and Mashiro Kta-sensei because they are also in this list *dabs* along with giving thin books as I have done so almost 3 years ago, and I'll likely talk abotu Miwano Ragu-sensei's new artbook next month.

What have you been doing with your Internet money? *dabs*

Well, I hope you have been paying instead to their Patreon/FANBOX accounts which kind of creates credibility of knowing them now but not everyone is lucky to pull them off (and not like AI won't be able to do this in the future) but also, the algorithm will likely NOT care of such cases (unless you're Pixiv and even then that's "less" AI not "none") and if that trends up or whatever dumb layout or overlay thing pops up that catches the attention- Which again, AGAIN, reminded me of this thing called "curation" where other HUMANS will re-post artwork from others and that's how I knew of many of them from my own feed over the years (maybe I should just share them here), because trust me, the algorithmic feed only works like, maybe once a year during the event period otherwise who cares; I got better recommends from scrolling the full Melonbooks listings. *laughs*

Remember, only like-minded people will find what you truly like, algorithms can only do that much unless you think they can break you out of your circle. *wink*

On a side note and as such, I start to have to profile artists by race or nationality (which I HATE to do tbh) lol just because they are also an influx of artist through the algorithms showing me more from other nationalities (this will affect if they can Japanese) and I honestly ONLY want to *ugh* give more Japanese ones (who are more likely to get a seat in Comiket) compared to others even though I know they can. You know, from the FEVERCELL artists from South Korea, to Rosuuri-sensei from the West, and that one Chinese one because they pen names have to be LITERALLY READ IN CHINESE- What the f**k, dude? Can't you just blend in? *laughs*

And do I need to mention the stuff that is still ongoing which is the fight of AI appearing on social media and NOT protecting artists and their works? Man, when artists have to come out and say this out loud in plain English is already obvious to show there are people out there that don't get that these are not sharing, and are now abused by everyone who has access to an image-generation AI model. *cringe* Which was also why I don't put some of these as wallpapers no more (for personal use, by the way) as they now carry watermarks which vary in size and colour *ugh* and they don't show sketches no more because people will LITERALLY COLOUR THEM IN using AI and *pukes* you now wonder why some of them tried to use single frame GIF loops or generate those warped images to protect themselves from being abused by AI bot scraping and people who just don't care. *shrugs*

Okay rant over for now, let's talk about what initial notes I wrote for this event:

And also...

Which uh... is not that accurate no more because I did not consider summer Comitia this time around, honestly. But the one a week later from summer Comiket though... *giggles*

With the new transition to Buy&Ship earlier this year for... reasons lol mostly money *laughs* but this was the final time I will use Tenso's proxy service Buyee to do this just for the speed and reliability because I wanted to do this ASAP to keep up the hype of I'm already getting this shipped end August almost 2 weeks after the actual event and a month later to reach my hands... was the plan. *giggles*

I'll still slap the rules here I don't think I changed anything here since last year when I bumped up the page size to 32 pages to cater for blank pages (which is a thing apparently lol), and as you will see below, is quite a strict standard just to ensure what I get are "thin" books or not what's the next trend in Anime or whatever. *laughs*

As usual (lol), this is the part that gets me on my nerves... So let's talk about it!! *giggles*

I did mention earlier that I did start monitoring for Comiket listings in Melonbooks but it wasn't much there until the 3rd week of July (week of 13th) did more of them appear, and of course continued all the way to August. Akipeko-sensei's book went out of pre-order early which is concerning to me as I fear to not be able to get my hands on their book, still left them alone just to justify a full pre-order on Buyee (which is not a requirement now, where they previously split between orders and pre-orders and thus can't be ordered together) where it was confirmed on 7th August just shy of a week from the event itself. In retrospect, I thought I should skip Shiohari Kanna-sensei and instead give Akipeko-sensei first and wait a bit to confirm the addition of the former... That wasn't too bad both got in anyways. *giggles*

For the 2nd non pre-order batch though, this was a totally different story. I did initially intend to give Unasaka-sensei a chance but they did NOT appear on this Comiket but on the Comitia a week later, but that also means it's easier to align the orders from even after the Comikiet weekend as their pre-orders surfaced around that time... and sold out in days. *laughs* It was 12th August (4 days before Comiket) that I had to pivot away from the hopes of getting it as I did not anticipate this listing to appear so early as it would be possible to put them in pre-order batch... You get the idea, this is all a mess. *sob* At this stage after the event and distraught with the above (which was actually fine lol) because I still had to pick from the remainder who are slowly running out of stock. Which was still hard to choose by the way I got them choice paralysis here haha, and between new guys and regulars, I ended up bringing back Nozomi-sensei who was cut out of the pre-order batch, and adding in Youzuki-sensei along with TWO other regulars *wink* and the catalogue...s (hehe) including a special one which actually is for Comitia, and was finally confirmed on the 25th, more than a week after the event. 

I then proceeded to take days off and do these up in 3 days planned and over the weekend of course- AND YOU THOUGHT WE WERE DONE!!! *laughs* So in case you want to look at the publish date again lol, I didn't make it work unfortunately as someone down the chain delayed it for me *ugh* so I ended up doing what I did 2 years ago, and spread the reviews over the nights of this week, polishing this post over the week.

I think the only thing I learned is to NEVER do pre-order runs anymore lol since those are likely to have stock AFTER the event but not for all of them, and it's just so I can time my orders with certain limited time stock. *silence* Then again, I'm moving into Buy&Ship next time already even for this summer Comiket so it doesn't matter no more, I'll take the delays. *shrugs*

Here is the showcase the artists who I have approved this time around... And they are fabulous regardless of my opinion of them shown here- Oh, I would only refer to them as "they", I technically do not know of their race or gender or marital status or anything. *giggles* AY YO Terushi Ren-sensei is kinda hot though?? *laughs* (It's just going to be a man in cosplay LMAO)

And I feel like if I'm going to review more books I may need to summarize them so for those who are in a rush here it is!!

Okay, put that disclaimer up already. *giggles*

Sometimes I wonder why I didn't bother to put disclaimer on the outro because it still features me talking about ALL THE DAMN PEOPLE I have to apologize to every time I do this- Which may or may not be dangerous in content. *giggles* Hey, maybe putting those Melonbooks links might be a good idea after all. *laughs* Also I'm tired from doing all this... *sob*

So here we go, similar to how I've done it previously, listed are ALL the artists which I have seen for the event, and why I didn't give them money. *dabs* If you aren't going to read these, then I'll see you again next year hopefully, where I'll prepare myself earlier than before so I don't have torture myself to do this and use my work leave to do this instead. *laughs* BRING IT UP!!!

(*Regulars will be selected based on variety of new originals, which does not include numbered original sequels, mainstream adaptations, and licensed artwork)