Otaku from across the nation pack the halls of Tokyo Big Sight for Japan’s biggest independent manga/anime art festival.
It’s been an incredibly hot summer this year in Japan, with record-setting temperatures making staying at home under your living room air conditioner seem like a pretty good plan a lot of the time. However, anime and manga fans had a very compelling reason to head out last weekend, as Comiket, Japan’s largest dojinshi (self-published manga) convention, returned to the Tokyo Big Sight convention center.
This year’s Summer Comiket took place over two days, August 16 and 17. Though The convention started with a humbly sized beginning in 1975, 50 years later it’s become one of the biggest pop culture events in the country, commanding a huge amount of floorspace, as you can see in one of this year’s pre-setup photos.
先ほど、最後まで撤収作業をしていました南34ホールを返却しました。息つく間もなく準備会は冬の50周年記念のコミケット107の準備に入ります。重ね重ねサークルの皆さんは、お申込忘れのないようにお願いします（オンライン申込は新規受付締切(決済締切)が8月24日(日)18時）。皆さんお疲れ様でした！ pic.twitter.com/XhY1xRrLbM
— コミックマーケット準備会 (@comiketofficial) August 17, 2025
But even with that much space to work with, once the exhibitor’s booths were in place and the guests were let in, things got incredibly crowded.
コミックマーケット106の2日目来場者数は13万人でした。
— コミックマーケット準備会 (@comiketofficial) August 17, 2025
計25万人のご来場ありがとうございました！ #C106 pic.twitter.com/2F7gRaX6mE
Seeing the masses in motion has an almost hypnotic effect.
コミックマーケット106
— コミックマーケット準備会 (@comiketofficial) August 17, 2025
2日目も大盛況！#C106 pic.twitter.com/5TvRpRFsjN
Instead of trying to count all the otaku heads in the videos, we’ll refer to Comiket’s official attendance statement, which says that on Day 1, approximately 120,000 people showed up for the event. Sunday’s attendance was even bigger, with 130,000 guests, for a total two-day tally of roughly a quarter-million.
⑰ 1975年に虎ノ門に集った700人は50周年を見据えていたわけでも、目指していたわけでもないのでしょう。ただ毎回の参加者が見たことのない表現や新しい出会いに夢中になり、少しの寂しさと共に次回を待ち望む－－それを106回繰り返してきた結果なのだと思います。 #CMK50th pic.twitter.com/XDYe77V2Co
— コミックマーケット準備会 (@comiketofficial) August 17, 2025
コミックマーケット106
— コミックマーケット準備会 (@comiketofficial) August 16, 2025
1日目大盛況！#C106神椿 pic.twitter.com/bw4O0IC3ck
Tokyo Big Sight is located in the Odaiba district, on an island in Tokyo Bay that’s generally less crowded than the city center, especially on weekends. That makes the size of the Comoiket Crowds all the more surreal, such as the near-solid river of people flowing from the nearby rail station to the venue entrance.
コミックマーケット106の1日目
— コミックマーケット準備会 (@comiketofficial) August 16, 2025
午前入場列と午後入場リストバンド販売エリア設営しています。#C106 pic.twitter.com/wE1ibrMohK
As a testament to how well-planned and organized the event is, as well as its “Hey, we’re all here to have fun, right?” vibe, the crowds look to have been polite and orderly, even when being directed to follow a winding path that snaked through one of the parking lots to prevent excessive bottlenecking at the entrance.
コミックマーケット106の1日目
— コミックマーケット準備会 (@comiketofficial) August 16, 2025
東駐車場からの入場！
参加者のみなさま
ハレの日会場にいらっしゃい！#C106 pic.twitter.com/SSvp6II5Wr
Still, there’s got to be just a little tension mixed into the excitement if you’re a staff member manning the gates and see sights like this.
コミックマーケット106の2日目
— コミックマーケット準備会 (@comiketofficial) August 17, 2025
Vlog:開会and入場#C106 pic.twitter.com/F5HBdf41tc
Since the very first Comiket was held in December of 1975, technically the event’s 50th birthday won’t be until a dew months from now. Still, with it now being 50 calendar years later, the organizers were understandably in a reflective mood, with the official Comiket Twitter account musing:
Even though the 700 people who took part in [the original Comiket in the] Toranomon [neighborhood] would have dreamed of a 50th anniversary event, it wasn’t a concrete goal. This is just the natural result of 106 iterations of being so enthralled with unprecedented artwork and meeting new people that even though we feel a little wistful each time a Comiket ends, we’re always looking forward to the next.
Amazingly, even with as huge as this year’s crowds were, there were actually down about 10,000 attendees over the two-day period compared to last year’s Summer Comiket. Part of this might be due to renovation work at Tokyo Big Sight leaving less space for exhibitors this year, and also, with the brutally hot weather, even Tokyo Disneyland is seeing a dip in attendance this summer. Still, 250,000 guests is something for Comiket to be very proud of, especially when you consider that it’s a 35,614-percent increase over Comiket 1’s attendance.
Source: Twitter/@comiketofficial via Hachima Kiko
Photo ©SoraNews24
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