Artist meets fan who loves his work yet can’t buy it, but not because she can’t afford it.

A huge portion of Japan’s independently produced comics, called dojinshi, make use of copyrighted characters from existing anime and manga series. Nevertheless they’re openly sold at fan events across the country, partly because of a long-standing tradition of being lenient with that aspect of otaku fandom, and also because any particular dojinshi is usually sold in a small quantity and for a limited time only, limiting its potential drain on sales of the related franchise’s official media content.

Another common aspect of dojinshi is the depiction of adult situations, with enough sexual content that even in Japan many of them are supposed to be sold only to readers 18 and up. At the recent Super Comic City event at Tokyo’s Big Sight convention center, the limited-time and adults-only characteristics of dojinshi came together in a surprising way for dojinshi artist Nuka (@nukamochi on Twitter).

While he was manning his booth, Nuka (whose self-portrait is a grain of rice with a chunk missing at the top) a young female fan came up and purchased some of his all-ages comics, resulting in the following conversation (translations below).

Nuka: “Thank you!”

Girl: “Umm, excuse me, are you Nuka himself?”

Nuka: “Yep that’s me.”

Girl: “Umm, are you going to be drawing dojinshi two years from now?”

Nuka: “Oh, sorry. The dojinshi I have here now are parodies of current series, not things for two years from now…”

Girl: “No, I mean, are you yourself still going to be producing dojinshi in two years?”

Nuka: “Two years from now…!? Who knows what I’m going to be doing then. The dojinshi I draw are from a minor series, so I’m not even sure there’s going to be any demand for them then. And in two years, I might be married, have a kid, and need to focus on my day job.

Nuka: “Does that answer your question?”

Girl: “Well, you see…I really like how you draw these two characters.”

Nuka: “Thanks!”

Girl: “But wait! I can’t buy these [18 and up] dojinshi.”

Girl: “I’ll be old enough to buy them in two years. So I really hope you’ll still be drawing dojinshi then.”

Nuka: “In two years..she’s 16!? So she’s still in high school. This is really something.”

Nuka: “Okay, here’s what I’m gonna do. I’ll set these two books aside, and won’t sell them to anyone for the next two years. Let me have your name.”

Girl: “Seriously? OK!”

Girl: “I’ll be coming to buy them in two years!”
Nuka: “Okay. I’ll be waiting!”

Girl: “Thank you!”
Nuka: “Thank you too!”

Nuka wraps up his story with “So anyway, for her, I hope I can still be drawing dojinshi two years from now.” Even if he doesn’t, though, there are still two books with her name on them.

Source: Twitter/@nukamochi via Hachima Kiko
Images: Twitter/@nukamochi