Even as he’s being put in the back of an ambulance, this hard-core otaku doesn’t forget what he came for.

For anime fans, the hottest place to be last weekend was Comiket. That’s not just because Summer Comiket is Japan’s largest gathering of independent dojinshi manga artists and high-level cosplayers, but also because the venue gets incredibly hot.

Whether you’re navigating the packed, steamy halls of Tokyo’s Big Sight convention center or waiting in lines that often stretch out of and around the building, attending Summer Comiket is as much about battling the heat as it is battling other fans for limited-edition merch. However, even though Japanese Twitter user @TMG_wolf50’s friend lost the first of those two battles, he didn’t want to lose the second.

@TMG_wolf50 shared a video of his friend being hoisted into the back of an ambulance, after apparently succumbing to the effects of dehydration and/or heat exhaustion. While he’s apparently in stable enough condition that @TMG_wolf50 feels OK sending him off with a lighthearted “Bye-bye,” the friend is in bad enough shape that the paramedics have decided he needs to be taken to the hospital.

So what are the friend’s last words as he’s loaded into the vehicle? Tell my parents which hospital I’m going to? Thanks for calling for help and possibly saving my life?

Naw. Instead he tells @TMG_wolf50

“Go buy [the KanColle dojinshi] for me.”

Specifically, he asks for a dojinshi called Enkan, saying “Enkan katte kite.”

“Hard-core otaku, asking me to buy him some dojinshi even as he’s getting put in the ambulance,” tweeted @TMG_wolf50 with a mixture of respect and amusement. Good friend that he is, @TMG_wolf50 headed to the Enkan booth, only to find that the dojinshi his friend wanted was sold out.

Even more unfortunately for @TMG_wolf50’s friend, the dojinshi sold at Comiket are generally exclusive to the event, in keeping with the unspoken agreement in which Japanese anime and manga companies turn a blind eye to their copyrighted characters being used without licenses as long as the print runs are kept small. So once the stock for sale at Comiket is gone, there’s no way to get your hands on that particular dojinshi unless it turns up later on the used market, likely at an inflated price.

On the plus side, @TMG_wolf50 did manage to secure a different dojinshi that he and his friend had been planning to buy, and after explaining his friend’s predicament to the artists, was allowed to buy copies not just for himself, but for his fallen otaku comrade too, so at least he’ll have some reading material to enjoy while he recovers.

Source: Twitter/@TMG_wolf50 via Hachima Kiko
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