A Beginner’s Guide to Japanese Doujinshi Events

It’s the end of the year again, and for the hardcore otaku here in Japan, that means another Winter Comiket.

For the uninitiated, Comiket (short for Comic Market, コミックマーケット Komikku Maaketto in Japanese) is known as the largest fan convention worldwide, held twice a year (in the summer and winter) at Tokyo Big Sight. It’s famous for its gargantuan marketplace of doujinshi, or self-published comics — often created as fanart — catering to fans of nearly every side of manga and anime fandom imaginable. But the fun isn’t limited to indie works — you can find established pros and industry giants setting up shop here as well, often putting out exclusive merch just for Comiket attendees. Plus, it’s a major event in the cosplay sphere as well, so you can enjoy seeing your “favorite characters” walking around in real life all day! To learn more, and to get an inside look at the overall vibe of the event, you can check out this official English presentation prepared by the event organizers!

Perhaps you’re planning to attend this upcoming Comiket, or you dream of one day experiencing it for yourself and want to gear up with the essential knowledge beforehand. And so, as one geek lightly seasoned in attending fan events here in Japan, I’ve attempted to put together a little guide to help you out!

By the way, the tips here don’t apply only to Comiket, but smaller doujin events as well. I hope it’ll come in handy if you ever want to dip your toes in this unique part of otaku culture!

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Christmas Gift Recs: BL Style

Perhaps it’s a bit late in the month for gift recommendations, but at least with Renta! you don’t have to worry about shipping! (Let’s give those overworked postal workers a break…) Since it’s that giving time of year, I figured why not make a nice list of recs for that BL fan in your life? Or, for yourself? Christmas is still a good time for self-care in the form of BL, surely.

So I decided to take our top ten categories and list my top three for each, and why I think they’re a great option for anyone who’s into those tropes.

1. Older Bottom
2. Delinquents
3. Omegaverse
4. Beast
5. Childhood Friends
6. Younger Top
7. Hosts
8. Businessmen
9. Sadistic Boyfriend
10. Fantasy

Without further ado, read on for thirty of my personal pics that should satisfy and heal any BL fan during this hectic holiday season!

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The Butt-Smacking Rhythm Game That Has Me Clapping

Lovely readers of RentaBLog, have I got a treat for you today.

If you’ve been following the blog for a while (in which case, thank you!目がハート ), you may have come to expect BL manga reviews, informative culture articles, and overall insightful thoughts about BL as a genre — all hosted in one cozy spot.

Well, let me assure you, here at RentaBLog, we aim to post plenty of that, but we also strive to make this blog a safe space for…

DEGENERACY.

That’s right. It’s time to take off my “lover of all things fluffy and vanilla bean” hat for a minute so that I can talk to you all about a game that’s consumed my mind ever since I first learned of its existence… one that involves juicy ass, sexy music, and one very pretty mean boy.

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The Benefits and Drawbacks of Digital-Only Publishing

Good morning from Tokyo! I was originally planning on writing a review for this week, but the end of September has been a bit more hectic than expected, so instead I have a casual post about what it’s like to be a digital-only publisher, and the benefits and drawbacks therein.

When I was younger (like, late teens to early 20s) I must admit: I did not like digital publishing. I wanted a hard copy of all my books—and I mean all of them. When I still lived in the United States, I actually used to have the largest IKEA Kallax shelf—the one that’s five squares across and five high—situated in the middle of my room so I could use both sides, and I had the whole thing literally filled with books (mostly BL). Thousands and thousands of books. I hated the idea of digital manga because it felt like a ripoff. I wanted the physical book, in my hands, so I could do whatever I wished with it.

However, one thing you learn when you grow up and move—particularly overseas—is that you don’t want a lot of stuff. You can’t have a lot of stuff. It’s unfortunately just not possible to have so much stuff. Not only that, but apartments in Tokyo are incredibly small unless you’re unbelievably wealthy (or live inconveniently far from a station), so even if I could have afforded to bring all thousands of those BL back to Japan with me, I wouldn’t have the space for them.

Sadly, when I returned to the U.S. to clean out my childhood bedroom and decide what could and couldn’t come back to Japan with me, all but around 30 of those books had to be recycled. Soul-crushing, honestly.

So, needless to say, I had to make peace with the fact that I would be deciding between just not getting to read a lot of BL, having to read it and then sell it back (which is also a hassle, especially when you don’t have a car), or just… buying digitally, at which point I could have as many books as I wanted but also enough space left over in my apartment to eat meals, exercise, and play with my cat. And then I got a job at a digital publisher, and came to really understand that digital publishing for manga localization actually has a lot of benefits—though also, some clear drawbacks.

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What kind of job is localization?

A lot of people who’re interested in anime and manga often think they’d like to work with it someday, but since localization is kind of a closed industry (understandably, since there’s a lot of IP that needs to stay hidden behind NDAs) there seems to be a lack of understanding for what goes into localizing, just how many different types of jobs there are, and what goes into taking a manga (or manhua or manhwa) from its original language and adapting it for an English-speaking audience. So I figured I’d take my personal experience in the manga localization industry and talk about that today!

What is Localization?

First off, what is localization? Simply put, localization is the process of adapting a translation to fit readers or viewers of a different culture. Literal translations can sometimes leave very large cultural concepts intact without explaining them or making them understandable to a foreign audience, and localization looks to solve that issue by making minor tweaks to the source material—editing a sentence to describe a food that was otherwise just named, changing the currency, changing a youth culture phrase in the source material to a similar style of speech, etc.—to make it easier to understand for readers who aren’t so acquainted with the source culture. I’ve lived in Japan four years and there are still cultural things that pop up in the manga that make me do a double-take, so localization is used to kind of explain or slightly alter certain cultural things that wouldn’t make sense otherwise.

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What BL means to us…

For those who don’t know, 801 can be read as ya-o-i in Japanese so, among the otaku masses, August 1st is known as Yaoi no Hi or Yaoi Day. While the phrase yaoi has mostly outstayed its welcome, slowly shifting over to “BL” even in western fandom as yaoi begins to feel more and more antiquated, it’s still a word with a lasting impact so it still feels fitting that this day be referred to as Yaoi Day.

In honor of this joyous occasion, the four members of Renta!’s BLog team have decided to write small personal snippets about our history with BL, and what BL means to each of us!

Like “the real meaning of Christmas,” but make it BL!

Continue reading “What BL means to us…”

Intro to rentaBLog.

Welcome to the official BLog of Renta!’s in-house localization team! It’ will be run by four’s run by two members:

Ames. Likes cats, cafes, and mobile games. Tends to like pretty fictional boys, and fluffy cute stories or stupid ero ones. Current favorite BL mangaka are Shikke, Jimi Fumikawa, Coco Aino, and Hakase. Spends free time co-oping in Genshin, and wandering Tokyo.

Sou. Loves memeing and discovering new series to gush about. Enjoys karaoke, anime, doujinshi, cute animals, and cheese. Prefers BL that warms the heart, tickles the funny bone, and/or assaults the tear ducts. A sucker for sweet semes and spicy ukes.

What is EbookRenta!?
EbookRenta!, or Renta! for short, is the digital manga publishing branch of PAPYLESS GLOBAL. PAPYLESS was one of the first companies in Japan to publish and popularize ebooks. While the Japanese site is oriented toward general audiences, EbookRenta! is specifically marketed to English-speaking manga fans interested in BL, shojo, and mature romance (commonly known as “TL” in Japan)—though there are also other genres available on the site. If you want to know more about Renta!, please check out our about page on our official site.

Why BL?
While we carry a variety of genres on the site, we wanted a space where we can—as fans rather than just employees—recommend and talk about the BL we work on. We also see this is a space to bridge the gap between Japanese and Western BL cultures, introduce people to the process of localization, etc. with BL as the jumping-off point.

What kind of content can we look forward to?
This blog will have a a wide variety of content, from collab cafes, con reports, manga reviews, artist showcases, interviews, explainers on Japanese fujoshi culture, and more. If there’s ever any type of post you’d like to see more of, or something you’d like more info on, feel free to let us know.