Are you a lover of Japanese fan fiction? Do you love reading mangas? If your answer is yes, you’ll fall in love with doujinshi. Let’s start by satisfying your curiosity about these terms.
In the manga industry, it is easy to focus on professional manga because it is the only form licensed by Western publishers; this ignores one of the fascinating but unique aspects of the manga culture in Japan – the world of “Doujinshi.”
What Is Doujinshi?
If you hang around manga lovers often, you’ll probably hear one word – “Doujinshi.” People often mistake Doujinshi as a manga genre, but it translates as fanwork.
Doujinshi are self-published works by amateur artists to the publishing scene. Nevertheless, many professional and published artists dabble mostly to release novels, audio, etc., unsuitable for general publication.
Doujinshi are Japanese fanfics. They are independent Japanese publications related to novels, magazines, and mangas as they fall into the fanfic & fanzine category.
Professionals and amateurs create many doujinshi’s original materials. Many of them have sexual themes, although some of them are suitable for underage readers, and most of them are derivatives of established materials or characters.
For example, let’s say you’re reading a manga or watching an exciting anime, hoping to see two characters end up together, but the series refuses to bend to suit your desires and wants. But there’s an amateur doujinshi that pairs all your favorite characters together for a happy ending.
Types Of Doujinshi
1. Boys Love/Shounen Ai.
This type of doujinshi depicts a romantic relationship between two boys; it focuses mainly on the emotional aspect of relationships with brief suggestions of sex.
The most common are ‘coming of age stories’ where the protagonists are pretty boys.
2. What If.
This doujinshi explores alternate storylines and universe situations from the original material.
It allows fans to change any story arcs or situations they feel are unsuitable; fans can re-imagine original works by altering the backgrounds or events of various characters.
3. Yaoi.
Yaoi is an abbreviation of ” Yama nashi, Ochi nashi, and Imi nashi.” It translates as no build-up, no meaning, and no conclusion.
This genre also depicts boy’s love but is considered more pornographic, with little or no focus on the emotional relationships of the male characters.
4. Gag/Parody.
This genre of doujinshi is comedic and primarily written to poke fun at characters and original stories through humor.
5. Hentai.
This genre mostly shows hardcore pornography between male & female characters. Hentai doujinshi are always more graphic than the initial work. Fictitious and absurd elements are typical in this genre.
5. Military/Mecha.
This genre of doujinshi just recently gained popularity because it involves various characters from various materials placed in military tanks and uniforms.
It also comes with the constant placement of mecha or humanoid-like machines.
Best Doujinshi Sites
As doujinshi keeps becoming popular, there are now uprising sites and places where you can buy & read series legally online.
Up until recently, having doujinshi in your possession could only happen if you, by chance, stumble upon it at a convention or if you know someone who has one.
Even then, the odds of having a doujinshi material in English were slim. Now, times are changing, and many people and companies realize there’s a market for these exciting materials.
While there are physical stores to purchase doujinshi materials, there are also websites where you can read them online. Below are the best doujinshi’s sites to visit;
1. DL Site.
It is one of the best and largest download stores for all 2D content in Japan, with an intense focus on Doujin audio, Mangas, and games. DL site has over 1,200,000 products – from individually made to indie doujin works.
You can also access products from famous publishers, artists, creators, and game studios. DL site offers a 30% off coupon when creating a new account.
They have materials for all ages and stock various genres. DL site adult doujinshi entails Manga/CG, Games, webtoons, voiced ASMR, and comics.
DL site Adult Comics includes webtoon, books, voice comics, Anthologies/ magazines, and short stories. Their boy’s love genre includes numerous doujinshi like TL comics, voiced drama, doujin, games, webtoons, and BL comics.
The DL site has various payment methods, including credit card, pay later, phone provider payment, bank transfer, convenience store payment, and electronic money (Bitcash, LINE pay, etc.).
Registration on their website is super easy; you can use your SNS account or email to sign up. DL site has numerous convenient functions that let you check on popular products and creators.
They offer an affiliate program that rewards you for promoting popular materials and a feature that allows you to save all your search results.
New products are uploaded daily on th site, and you can view them on your PC and mobile devices. DL site hopes to support and encourage creators in their endeavors.
All their products are digital and are available for download; you only spend your money when you support a creator or when you purchase a material.
DL site have a pay-per-click system with free membership and zero fees. Many doujinshi websites come with pop-ups and ads, but their website is ad-free; they offer a risk-free reading experience with zero pop-ups or commercials.
With no ad links on their website, hackers cannot maneuver into your device; it helps avoid risks of identity theft, data loss, and a corrupted network.
Users are not obliged to provide vital information like credit card details. Remember, with no information shared, there will be no leaked information, meaning your identity is kept safe.
DL site is the best and safest site every doujinshi and manga lover should check out.
2. Alice Books.
This website sells physical doujinshi books and also works closely with creators. They provide international shipping on numerous purchases and are available in English, Japanese, and Chinese.
Alice Books has a great feature called the circle list; if you’re familiar with the doujinshi circle, you’ll find it easily on the list. Most of the works for sale on Alice books come with preview pages.
3. PIXIV.
This website is a popular online art community that allows creators to upload their creative writing and art. Membership on this website is free and easy for you to set up; once you become a member, you can freely browse the internet and read thousands of online doujinshi.
The homepage of PIXIV offers various categories to help you narrow your search, including Hentai, Smile Precure, and Squid sisters. PIXIV has an encyclopedia that enables you to learn something new every time.
4. MelonBooks.
This website only sells new doujinshi materials and is received mainly from the comic markets. The website is in Japanese, but you can translate it with your browser easily.
Melonbooks has quite a lot of physical stores located in Japan, and most of its materials are available for international shipping.
5. Star Fruit Books.
It is a small indie bookseller based in the USA; this website sells digital and print copies of doujinshi and manga. Star fruit books have editions that include English language imprints.
6. Kissmanga.
It is one of the best websites to read and access doujinshi and mangas for free. One impressive feature of this website is that it offers the latest doujin series for free.
The design and layout of this website is user-friendly. All the doujinshi series are categorized & organized in alphabetical order. You are sure to find all sorts of doujinshi on this website.
It also features an online community forum where users can share their reviews about their favorite doujinshi series. Besides the regular doujinshis and mangas, this website also offers Korean comics (Manhwa).
7. MangaReader.
It is an ad-free website that allows users to read and download thousands of doujins and manga for free. This website has one of the largest databases of manga & doujinshi that covers all genres and sub-genres with various themes and topics.
This website has an extensive library that gives users premium quality features that are pricey elsewhere. Reading doujinshi on this website is as easy as searching for anything on Google.
All you have to do is use the search button to find any doujin of your choice, click the start reading button, and proceed with reading your favorite doujinshis and mangas.
The features provided on this website include;
- Quality scans
- Free-of-charge-reading
- Numerous genres & sub-genres
- Unlimited reading
- No account or registration is needed.
Is Doujinshi Legal?
Copyright laws in many Western countries differ from those in Japan, making doujinshi thrive.
If you create an amateur comic with famous characters and then try to sell it for profit in the USA, in no time, lawyers will show up at your doorstep and serve you a cease warning.
But in Japan, you can create numerous comics with famous characters and sell them without fear of repercussions. It is illegal if the primary copyright holder complains, which they rarely do.
On A Final Note;
Doujinshi earns its respect through quality productions and dedicated creators. As it continuously gains more international popularity, more websites will continue to sell doujinshi while protecting creators’ rights.
All the websites listed in this article are the best doujinshi websites. Go on and have a wonderful reading experience.
