Japan’s biggest doujinshi convention’s cosplay models were looking especially summery this year.

The summer iteration of Comiket, Japan’s largest dojinshi (self-published anime/manga art) was held last weekend at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center. Approximately 130,000 people showed up on Day 1, and we were in that sea of humanity with camera in hand.

The otaku atmosphere started even before we arrived at Big Sight. The Rinkai Line’s Kokusai Tenjijo Station, the closest train stop to Big Sight, is always decked out in anime signage during the event, with the cast of hit mobile game Blue Archive stretching across the gates.

With Japan experiencing record-breaking temperatures this summer, heatstroke precautions were a must. A whole lot of people in the crowd making its way to Big Sight had parasols out, and we saw more than a few fan-equipped vests, of the kind worn by construction workers, too. We also made sure to grab some drinks at this vending machine that was dispensing bottles of water with special Comiket labels, drawn by illustrator/character designer Nanakagura.

The very first Comiket was held in December of 1975, making 2025 the event’s golden/50th anniversary.

Speaking of anniversaries, the Yurikamome, another train line by which Big Sight can be accessed, is also celebrating 30 years since it started service, with a retro-anime-style poster to mark the milestone.

Inside the convention center were historical retrospective panels showing the catalog covers for all 106 Comikets that have been held so far, as well as artwork from their stamp rally activities.

But as is so often the case, what really grabbed everyone’s attention were the cosplayers.

While anime outfits have always been, on average, on the skimpy side, we noticed quite a bit of swimwear at the official booths this Comiket. Aside from it simply being beach season, a lot of the most popular characters these days hail from mobile games, and many of those have seasonal events with associated special character artwork. In other words, there’s been a rise in the amount of official artwork depicting popular characters in bikinis over the last several weeks, so it follows that some of that would trickle down into more bikini cosplay.

Over at the booth for Goddess of Victory: Nikke, for example, there were cosplayers of Dorothy and other characters posing in front of a backdrop of the game’s Admire battleship.

The cosplayers at the Heaven Burns Red booth were so popular that there was a policy that anyone wanted to take photos had to do so while continuing to walk past, in order to keep the line moving.

Over at the both for mobile game RPG Terbis, the fashion sense was more fantasy/bunny girl…

…while Brown Dust II’s booth probably leaned harder into the swimwear aesthetic than anyone else.

▼ The costume for the character Sylvia actually gives the cosplayer a little extra coverage by adding clever flesh-tone backing cups for the seashells, which the in-game costume doesn’t have.

It wasn’t all limited-time, high-exposure outfits, though. When we stopped by the Fate franchise’s booth, we were greeted by Lancer…

…and Saber…

…both of whom were sporting their classic iconic outfits and weaponry, making us crave pizza while reminding us that some looks never go out of style.

Photos © SoraNews24
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