Reflections After Comic Market 108

Summary

In our previous article, we reported that no copies were distributed at Comic Market 108. In this article, we examine the reasons not from the standpoint of feeling but as a matter of structure. A result of zero means that the work had not yet reached the stage of being seen and considered by visitors. The main factors were five: a mismatch between the medium and the setting, insufficient communication of information, the lack of a reason for visitors to stop, a mismatch of purpose, and the choice of participation day and genre.

Background

A result of zero tells us more than simply that nothing was taken. Even a single copy would have shown that a path to readers existed; zero shows that not one such path was open. The aisles of Comic Market are a place where visitors judge in an instant, while walking, from a single cover, and the self-published booklet (dōjinshi) is a medium suited to that environment. By contrast, the music CDs and the manga license-key CDs we brought appeared to passers-by as boxes whose contents could not be seen. The first factor was that the nature of the CD, which cannot be understood without being opened, was fundamentally ill-suited to a setting where judgments are made in a moment.

The second factor was that the information never left the box. We had planned to add music and moving visual elements, but amid the energy and noise of the venue the sound did not carry, and the visual elements could not play unless someone first stopped. The third factor was that we had not designed a reason for visitors to stop. There were illustrated posters, handmade accessories and business cards, but these were things to show to those who had already stopped, not things that would cause them to stop. A work's value becomes value only when it reaches its recipient, and what was missing was a design that would first invite people to pause.

The fourth factor was that the purpose itself was not selling. At heart, we did not wish to sell things; we hoped this work would make its way not through money but through love. There was also an apprehension about placing it within a commercial flow. Because we took part in a fair whose purpose is sale and distribution while holding these feelings, the center of our intentions and what was required in that setting were misaligned from the start. Beneath the technical factors lay the fact that a sales fair was not the best setting for our purpose: to bring this world to those who need it, in the form they need.

The fifth factor was the choice of participation day and genre at the time of application. At Comic Market, the genres gathered on each day vary greatly, and we had not chosen a day when many visitors with a strong affinity for the work would attend. In addition, we entered the work under the category of manga and music, but the strength of this work lies in its world itself, and it should have been entered in the game genre. As a visual novel or another interactive form, the music, the world and the moving visual elements could be experienced together on the spot. Our next plan had been to participate with a game.

Additional notes

We have not yet decided whether to exhibit at Comic Market again. We will not exhibit at C109. This is not a withdrawal but a decision to move to a place suited to our purpose. The serialization on xmasfantasy.org will continue, and the center of our activities will shift to non-profit work as IHS Bethlehem Church (IBC). The journey of the Hope Princess continues.

We are also considering either incorporating the work as a company or positioning it as a work wholly owned by an American corporation, and we expect to proceed in the latter direction. Once the work becomes the property of a corporation, it can no longer take part in self-publishing events as an individual circle. Comic Market is fundamentally a personal, non-commercial venue, and works held by a corporation do not fit within that framework. For this reason, this record of zero copies may well be the last record of our taking part in a sales fair as an individual circle. We receive with a positive spirit the prospect of the work moving on to its next stage as a protected work.

One of the reasons for attending that day was also the hope of meeting ZUN and other creators whom we have long respected through their works. Faced with a result of zero, however, we did not feel able to do so, and we left the venue in the morning. Even more than the work not reaching anyone, we regret not having gone to see those whom we had hoped to meet. The next time we stand in that place, whether at a sales fair or in some other form, we hope to be able to visit those we wish to meet with confidence.

We could have closed the matter by calling the result of zero a failure, but on examination it held a great deal of information pointing to where we should go next. Unlike a CD case, the web is open from the very start: the music, the world and the moving visual elements play directly on the screen of each visitor. Perhaps this is the setting best suited to this work. Thank you for reading to the end.