Shirobako at Comiket 88
For anime fans the world over, Comiket is a semi-annual mecca, the fan event that marks the highest point of a six-month period for both official goods and doujinshi. For the Shirobako audience in particular, Comiket is completely unparalleled and serves as the destination for the best of fan culture and licensed materials.
For the 88th Comiket, over 600,000 attendees are expected to rush the tens of thousands of booths that peddle what’s estimated to be over 10,000 books and other items. In this post I hope to highlight the most compelling such items relating to Musashino Animation and the fictional world it inhabits. Please enjoy!
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Official Shirobako Goods
The first official good announced for Comiket this year was a 6,000 yen set to be sold at the Kadokawa booth. This set includes a collection of A4-size clear files with the various girls of Shirobako in beach wear as drawn by a collection of artists, as well as a wall scroll of Zuka and Ema in swim suits, a compilation book, and a Shirobako bag to house the rest of the items.
The new artwork of the Shirobako girls in swimsuits and yukatas from the clear files will also be included in the compilation book “White Summer”, alongside commentary from Kohei Kawase, who worked as a producer on Shirobako. It’s interesting to note the differences in attire of Ema and Zuka between the wall scroll and the cover of “White Summer”; perhaps this will make visitors less anxious when the visual book is used as an apartment’s sole coffee table book. Personally, I’m thrilled to explore new artwork and insights in this official capacity, and, as a California native, can never have too many reusable bags for trips to Trader Joe’s.
During its 24-episode run, Shirobako never displayed fan service of the degree displayed in these images, so while they may not resonate with fans of the series who appreciated the P.A. Works hit more for its gripping storyline, strong characterization, or compelling premise, they certainly will be welcome to those who wished that Mizushima threw in a hot springs episode.
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Interestingly, the Broccoli official store is bringing the first slate of Musashino Animation-branded items ever produced to Comiket 88. In addition to a black t-shirt with the MusAni logo in white, Broccoli will be selling a similarly-styled folding chair with matching tote bag, as well as a baseball hat.
In addition to their MusAni goods, Broccoli will also be selling two different wall scrolls, each derived from magazine artwork from some of the earliest Shirobako promotions. If a the MusAni logo is too plain, they also will have an exasperated Director Kinoshita t-shirt. As with every other Shirobako tee we’ve seen, it’s just a single color screen, but the design is fun, and looks as though it could be a manga panel. Though two sets of Shirobako key chains have recently come out, Broccoli will also have a new set of key chains featuring the main five characters from the show.
Broccoli will also be selling a B2-sized clear file for one of the few pieces of magazine artwork that did not make it into one of the two clear file lotteries. In line with the summer theme of the Comiket, Midori, Aoi, and Ema are all wearing their bathing suits and holding doughnuts.
All of the Broccoli Official Store items are available in very limited quantities from their online shop for mid-October delivery, but as with most Japanese e-commerce vehicles, will only ship to Japanese addresses. If you are interested in guaranteeing one of these items and live outside of the Land of the Rising Sun, you’d be best served to pursue a forwarding service, though anticipate the cost of your items to be as much as doubled between handling fees and additional shipping charges. Thank goodness the Yen is weak to the US Dollar right now!
My favorite item of theirs is absolutely the fanny pack. Though it’s not the fanny pack that Aoi wears in the series, a fanny pack fits into the world of Shirobako seamlessly, and serves as an essential piece of convention gear for those who travel the country to chat cartoons with fellow fans regularly. In fact, between the MusAni t-shirt, baseball hat, fanny pack, and chair, you can be done with packing for any event you’re interested attending in comfort and style.
These MusAni-branded items are fairly simplistic and likely cheap to produce – considering the dearth of Shirobako merchandise that was produced as the series was airing on TV, this line appears to be a smart way to push out products to an excitable fan base. I, for one, look forward to representing the studio that produced such classics as Andes Chucky and Third Aerial Girls’ Squad when I’m out on the town.
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The Warner booth (No. 316) will be selling a limited edition CD, with solo covers of the various openings and endings of Shirobako by the various voice actresses of the series. Each of the five main ‘Bakos have at least one song, with Juri Kimura (Aoi), Haruka Yoshimura (Emma), and Haruka Chisuga (Shizuka) claiming a second song each, for a total of 8 songs. The cost of the CD is 4,000 yen, putting it just past the price of the third Radio Box and more than double that of the original singles, but with 8 tracks, this CD is reasonably full for a Japanese release.
Additionally, those who purchase this CD will receive a Shirobako t-shirt. Though it’s a white t-shirt with just a single color of printing, this is just the second official t-shirt for the series to be released, following the similarly minimalistic shirt from the Warner booth at Comiket 87. When compared to other official anime t-shirts that will be distributed at the event, such as SCHOOL-LIVE!, it’s hard to understand why Shirobako is not getting a full-color t-shirt or double-sided print. Even compared to other anime aimed at the otaku market, Shirobako is a hot seller with a passionate fanbase.
The website for these Warner goods makes sure to remark that if anything is sold out one day, they will have more the next time they open the booth, as they have a specific amount allotted each day.
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Though not a wholly Shirobako experience, the Warner Japan booth will also be selling an Anime-Theme Song Super Mix by DJ Wildparty, with various Shirobako songs as the headliners of a group of 25 songs in the mix. The CD will contain remixes of all four Shirobako openings and endings alongside other anime tunes such as the selector spread WIXOSS opening, World’s End, Girl’s Rondo and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure’s most recent opening, the multi-artist Stand Proud. You can listen to DJ Wildparty’s previous work on his SoundCloud.
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Doujinshi
While any Shirobako die-hard will make sure to visit one of the previously mentioned booths for licensed goods, the main draw of Comiket is the fan-made content, specifically, doujinshi. Comiket is remarkable in that an unknown doujinshi circle has equal standing to that of a multinational company such as Warner. This flat power structure means that attendees are going to seek out the most compelling content, unbothered by whether it has a Soto stamp of authenticity or not.
Dozens of Pixiv users have already begun to post previews of their doujinshi books, ranging from fan books to 4-panel comics to hentai works. Doujinshi can range dramatically in terms of content, where some are full-fledged manga vignettes while others are simple collections of writing and artwork. A common misconception in the West is that most or all doujinshi is pornographic in nature – this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Different regions and hours of Comiket are dedicated to different sorts of doujinshi, and hentai is but a single one of these pre-designated categories. In fact, from a sampling of all doujin previews tagged both “Shirobako” and “C88” on Pixiv and Melonbooks, only around half of the books I’ve found are lewd, and that doesn’t take into consideration non-bound doujinshi such as garage kits, buttons, etc.
As with many of the official goods, it’s possible to purchase many of these books via mail order in the days leading up to Comiket. However, don’t expect these circles to be willing to ship across the sea in most situations – my recommended forwarding service is BigInJapan for shops such as Melonbooks, though auction services like Buyee for Yahoo! Auctions Japan are preferable for ease of use. However, relying on auction sites can be more complicated, as you may not find the specific doujin you’re interested in, or you may get out-bid if you do find it.
Above are some of the more interesting fan books that I’ve been able to uncover – click the picture for links to where to pre-order them or their Pixiv accounts.
My most anticipated doujin is a vignette about the Third Aerial Girls’ Squad by the circle Firstspear, written by Takeshi Nogami. One of the more incredible things about Shirobako is the world-building, not only of a pseudo-fictionalized anime industry, but of the worlds of Exodus, Third Aerial Girls’ Squad, and Andes Chucky, all of which had to go through the necessary planning elements of a full anime series. Because it’s so closely inspired by the 1970s Mushi-Pro Production Rocky Chuck, Andes Chucky is more interesting to explore as an homage, rather than as an could-be anime in its own right. That said, the other two MusAni titles provide compelling foundations but little in the way of execution, providing ideal opportunities for fans to step in. For this reason, I’m thrilled to see any continuation on the Third Aerial Girls’ Squad, and this circle appears to have a good sense of what the title was trying to do in the first episode. I’d much more happily read about MC’s adventures in the sky from Firstspear than have Mizushima or anyone else who would be making it at the expense of a second season of Shirobako proper.
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Of course, there will be many more circles with Shirobako goods than those who preview their wares online, but I hope this served as a good primer for what to expect! You’ll doubtless be able to find many of the Shirobako goods previously released as well, so stay vigilant!
If you’re headed to Ariake this August or are prepared to face me down on Japanese auction sites, share your shopping list in the comments!
This is my first blog post in quite a few years, so I’m seeking feedback. Please let me know what you think in the comments or email me at shiroblogo AT gmail DOT com with any thoughts you may have!
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