I've been collecting doujinshi for years and they are kind of addicting. If you do not know, doujinshi is Japanese self published books. They are mainly known to be fan comics by fans for fans, and the majority are typically pornographic in nature. In Japan there are many events for doujinshi the biggest one being Comiket which happens twice a year. Many smaller ones are series, character, or couple specific. They can even be run by fans. Usually they are held during weekends, and are like anime conventions but just the artist alley. Hundreds of artists usually attend them, and either have half or a whole table to sell their books. More popular artists would have a wall table since it will give them space for the lines of people waiting to purchase their books (doujinshi).
Before each event artists will usually post their book's sample pages. Pixiv is the main site where this happens. It has an english version though it is a little funny in some areas, and it doesn't translate any of the Japanese users words into English. Finding things in pixiv is mainly done with tags. Pixiv also has a section listing all the events that are coming up. Each event page will have information on the event and artists' cut cards which are for the event's catalog for the attendees. When you see doujinshi's sample pages they usually have a event specific tag. This tag is the easiest way to look at all the available samples for that event. After the event is over, artists will sometimes put their doujinshi up for mail order. This means they have a mail order service to sell their books to those who couldn't go to the event in person. This is where we overseas fans will get these doujinshi from, but there's one big problem - no International shipping.
Where are doujinshis listed? eBay will usually have doujinshi listed so check there if you haven't. They are usually preowned and might be overpriced which is understandable since ebay fees are a tad high ($3 in fees for a $10 sale YIKES). I wouldn't buy a 20 page doujinshi for over $20. If they are listed to be shipped from Japan and still list their price as much as $15 then they are making quite a profit since doujins normally priced around $1-7 in Japan. There is one mail order shop that does overseas shipping and that is Mandarake but they don't always have everything or up to date stuff. A top mail order service Japanese artists use is Toranoana. Navigation on the site a bit poorly designed so its easier to just use the link the artist use to buy their doujinshi from their Pixiv. Melonbook (hentai), and C-Queen (yaoi/boys love) are also other mail order services artists use. If the doujinshi is sold out, they will often not be restocked and you will have to find if elsewhere like in Yahoo!Auctions Japan. Popular or rare doujinshi can get very pricey. Obviously, if you don't know Japanese it will be very difficult to find what you need. Sometimes artists would put out a collection book with all their past doujinshi works in it, but I don't see many that do this. These books tend to be obviously thicker, but the book size will tend be smaller than the usual 7"x10".
You can actually find doujinshi in digital format on DLsite though the selection can be quite limited. Pixiv has their own web shop service for Pixiv users called BOOTH PM. Artists may have their goods listed there as well.
How do I buy doujinshi? So how do we overseas people order doujinshi? Well we have to use proxy services. These are companies in Japan that will be our middle man. Meaning they buy the stuff for us, and then ship it to us. Along with paying the doujinshi, the proxy service fees, shipping to the proxy service, and shipping to you, the total costs is going to add up greatly. A 700 yen (about $7) doujinshi can easily cost you $30 in total to get. It is very important to read the proxy service rules and guidelines. It will save you from disappointed, surprises, and frustration. Some specialize in auctions while others in online shops. Fees can vary a lot for both shopping and auctions in each service company. If you plan on buying adult rated doujinshi, be sure to look up laws of your country to see if it will get through customs. Some proxy service may not allow adult rated doujinshi, and some even require your ID to verify your age. There's also forwarding service which is your mailbox in Japan so you have to order the doujinshi straight from the mail order store with your credit or debit card, and just use the address you get from the forwarding service. Please note that it is very possible the store may reject the forwarding service address. Toranoana is partnered with Tenso, a forwarding service for overseas customers. I haven't used Tenso before, but people say it can be pricey and they force EMS shipping so you can't choose a cheaper shipping option. There are also individual people that live in Japan that can buy stuff for you, and even go to the event or store and buy the doujinshi aka pick-up service. They typically charge $10 an order on one store or $10 per artist. They are usually on Tumblr or Livejournal. Of course if you have a friend in Japan who is nice enough or has the same interest as you to buy it for you, lucky you!
One proxy service I've used is Goody Japan. They have a 700 yen fee per order in one store. They are a little slow to my liking, but they have good customer service. Here are some other services:
Celga
Shopping Mall Japan
Noppin
Rinkya
Japan Shopping Service (cheapest commission thus far. Also accepts adult rated goods.)
There are others but I'm not familiar with them enough to list for doujinshi. Again, not all proxy service are the same so please read their rules and guidelines carefully and judge which will work best for you. In my experience, dealing with proxy customer service has been pretty frustrating. Not sure if its the language barrier or not. Even with simple things like forgetting to combine an item for shipping or checking a package, they would just say they can't do it or charge you for it. I really don't understand it.
Buying Doujinshi If you're like me, I'd be refreshing toranoana everyday after an event to see if the doujinshi I want is listed yet. Sometimes some are listed to be reserved before the event as well. For popular artists their books can get sold out as fast as a few hours. I wouldn't put hope in them getting restocked unless it is something the artist usually does. The frustrating part for me is that sometimes some doujinshi don't get listed right after the event ends. Sometimes the doujinshi will appear days or weeks later. Its very convenient to buy everything you want in one order, but some doujinshis can get sold out before one you want is listed. Its hard to save on proxy fees, bank wire fees, and shipping like this. Toranoana has the highest domestic shipping cost of 420 yen while C-Queen has 100-300 yen domestic shipping cost. Shipping from Yahoo auctions can be just as cheap as well but since its individual doujins the per auction proxy fees adds up overall.
Be responsible with your money though. Doujinshi collecting is not cheap despite the cost of the book itself.
To illustrate how much this could cost I will provide a sample:
Toranoana: doujinA ¥740 + doujinB ¥1000 + domestic shipping&tax ¥600 = ¥2340
+
Proxy service: Commission fee ¥700 + Bank fee ¥300 + 5% of total order service fee (¥2340+¥1000=¥3340)
¥167 = ¥3507
+
International shipping: EMS ¥2400 (1kg) + Handling fee ¥600 = ¥6507 total for 2 doujinshi
YES,
that is a lot for 2 books. Buying doujins is not cheap at all! Proxy
and forwarding services just don't have one fee to use them either.
There are usually at least 2 or 3 fees. Now its up to you whether
spending that much is a good idea or not.
If you're willing and can afford to spend the money, then go for it! It would take a proxy about a day or two before they confirm with you that they've purchased it. You may/will have to provide the payment first before they make the order. If you feel this is too slow, try forwarding. You will have to sign up an account on the store's site, and buy the items yourself with your own credit card. The only thing the forwarder does is give you an address for the store to ship it to. I like using forwarding service as it tends to be cheaper. Though there are a few online stores like Square Enix japan that don't allow foreign credit cards.
Doujinshi Etiquette Artists do this for fun and for fans, and typically lose money when they make doujinshi. They don't even make $1 per book sold since they don't think its right to make money off characters that don't belong to them. Yet doujinshi mail order service and auction sellers make money off the doujinshi. And then there are people who scan and translate doujinshi aka scanlate. Most artists do not like this at all for many reasons. Please do not scanlate their work or at least ask them for permission. Some may understand how hard it is to get doujinshi and may allow it. It is a bit hypocritical how people who scan them ask for their scans to not be shared and not take their credit off. Doujinshi are mainly made with the intention of having limited readers to avoid the possibility of getting in trouble with companies and copyright holders of the series the doujinshi is a parody of. Therefore, if a doujinshi gets scanned and get popular it would risk the artist themselves of getting noticed by the guys upstairs. This is also true for artists in the western world. If you're selling Star Wars or Harry Potter goods and it gets popular, the artists' might be charged if the guys upstairs don't like it. No matter if the artist has limited the quantities or was provided online for free, they would get the blame and not the ones who are twisted enough to misuse the fanwork. DO NOT BE THAT PERSON. To learn more, here's an article about the doujinshi world and here's one about Fan Art laws.
Commercial Merchandise If you want commercial merch like rubber straps, trading mascots, DVDs, etc they are much easier to get than doujinshi. AmiAmi is the main place to order merch. The prices are usually the same as domestic price since they are located in Japan and is one of the main anime merchandise stores there. Preorder is the same as well. They even have discounts on the items too. Another place is Big in Japan which is good for figures and scales. The one big problem is that these stores can only sell each item in a certain amount internationally. Which means they won't restock sold out items for us international customers even if the item continues to be on sale in Japan. CDJapan is a site that sells cds, dvd, bd, magazines, etc. Some items like special items are listed twice as much there so please look the item up and see if the price difference from the original price and CDJapan's price is worth it for you. There's Yesasia which have a big selection of video games, and is a good place to get international gift cards. I go there to buy Japanese iTunes cards since Japanese iTunes doesn't take foreign cards. These companies have better customer service than the proxy ones. If there's something that none of the above sites have then you will need a proxy like From Japan and Zenmarket. They are good for anything else like regular anime merchandise or other Japanese goods. Sometimes some merchandise have store specific special extra items that you can't get from Big in Japan, Amiami, etc so using a proxy or a forwarding service can help you with that. From personal experience, I use Japan Shopping Service and Zenmarket to buy doujinshi and other anime/video game goods.
Hope this guide helps. If you have any questions please feel free to ask me by commenting below. Or if anything is incorrect let me know that as well. Thank you for reading!
