Comic Party

When you talk about otaku or doujinshi in anime, most people will automatically think of Genshiken, Doujin Work, NHK ni Youkoso!, Lucky ☆ Star, or even Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu. It's a sad fact that the show that effectively spawned a whole genre is often overlooked in favour of the "new and shiny" anime that came after.

That anime is Comic Party.

Originally released for the PC in 1999, the game gained a degree of fame because of the adult content and the fact that it was inspired by the Comiket event held in Japan during the Summer and Winter. The real phenomenon however, came when ... the game was re-released (without the adult content), for the Sega Dreamcast.

Most fans nowadays won't realise this, but the Dreamcast was once considered an essential item within the otaku community (one of the reasons why it's referred to in a number of anime, including this one). Because of the popularity of the DC, sales of the Comic Party game (which is kind of a cross between dating sim and doujinshi creation), were off the charts, something which ultimately led to an anime adaptation in 2001. What made the game different from others wasn't simply the doujinshi aspect though, it was also the fact that the game, and the anime, referenced other existing products, games and anime (something which hadn't really been done before to any degree). For otakus the game was a breakthrough as it made their passion more accessible to other people. Unfortunately the anime that followed wasn't as well received by hardcore fans of the game, however the average pundit found the reverse was true, and went on to try the anime, manga and games referred to in the series.

The story, in any version, follows the life of Sendou Kazuki who, after a little persuasion from his "friend", Kuhonbutsu Taishi, has decided to become a doujinshi mangaka and sell his work at Comic Party (the story's equivalent of Comiket). Kazuki's childhood friend Takase Mizuki tries to talk him out of this though, as she considers otaku to be dirty, smelly and disgusting.

What made the story unique wasn't simply the fact that it's based on otaku, doujinshi, or generally being a fan of all things anime and manga, but also because there was a character who hated otaku and all things anime. Granted the story plays very fast and loose with the conflicting idealogies of the characters, however the stage had been set for show like Genshiken and NHK ni Youkoso! to step forward and explore these issues.

On the whole, the plot is decent enough, however this isn't meant to be taken as a serious anime. The roots of this story are pretty obvious when it comes to the development of the plot over the course of the series, and there are some episodes that actually feel like a dating sim. That said, the comedy is generally wacky enough, and the characters oddball enough, to keep you interested in the show.

Art and animation are pretty good on the whole. The characters are all nicely drawn, but since they're all based on the games there's very little thought gone into the design. Because of this, the characters have that generic look about them which the anime can't seem to shake off. That said, the characters do give off a bright and cheery air because of the colour palette used in the series.

The backgrounds are pretty good as well, and are sometimes very detailed, with several anime and manga references appearing behind the characters, especially in their rooms or at Comic Party, on several occasions. In terms of the animation itself, the series is well made, if a little too stiff at times. There are occasions when the animation is a little jerky, or clashes with other frames, however these are fairly minor details.

Musically the show is pretty plain. What music there is, is often average, with little impact on what's going on. The OP and ED are typical J-Pop tracks that aren't really all that inspiring, and you may get bored of them after the first time. The voice actors are okay for the most part, however the acting is fairly one dimensional for several reasons, the main one being the characters themselves.

Because this is an adaptation of a game rather than a manga or novel, the characters are mostly one dimensional. That doesn't mean that they have no value as characters though. It simply means that they only work within a given context, in this case, the confines of the story, in particular that of the game.

The reason I make this distinction is because game developers, unlike mangaka, screen writers, novelists and authors, are mostly unable to write a good story or characters, regardless of where they're from. You can talk about your Final Fantasies, Metal Gear Solids, Shadowhearts, etc till the cows come home, but one should remember that well scripted games, even now, are still an exception, not the rule.

Going back to the characters, the anime version, whilst giving the characters more detail and scope, is also severely limited in what it can do to develop the them. Unlike other forms of adaptation those that come from games, in specific those that adapt the story of a game to anime (like Tales of Symphonia and the rest), all have a pre-existing model for the plot and characters upon which they must work. The upshot of this is that characters in these types of game adaptation are often viewed in an extremely poor light, especially by fans of the game itself. This is both unfortunate and unfair, as to make the characters more "real", the producers would have to deviate, sometimes in major ways, from the original story. On the whole though, the characters are good enough to carry the story.

Just don't expet anything more from them.

This is effectively the "daddy" of modern otkau themed anime, so if you're a fan of any of the shows I mentioned at the start, then this may be the series for you. The bright, cheery style of the series makes it a good canvas for some decent comedy, and the time and effort spent creating doujinshi is nicely portrayed. There's a sense of unreality about the entire anime though, mainly because of it's origins, but don't let that stop you from watching it as it is pretty good overall.

There's also a bunch of references within the series to anime, manga and games that were around at the time, in particular To Heart, so it's not a bad history lesson either.

This anime may not be for everyone, but for those who are willing to give it a try, or who consider themselves to be otaku, may find themselves enjoying the series.

The message, after all, remains the same even now. Otaku aren't always what you expect them to be.

Comic Party. If you've watched Doujin Work before, then this is pretty much the same premise. Basically, it's about a group of friends/acquaintances and their journey through drawing, printing and selling of their very own doujinshi (parodies of others' works or original comics).

The story is simple and fun to watch. It's basically a slice of life with minimal plot twists. Kazuki is introduced into the doujinshi community and the show depicts his growth. It does really well in that aspect, but don't go in expecting anything too complex or outrageous. It does provide some insight on how events work in Japan though.

The art style ... isn't anything too special, but it isn't bad either. It remains constant throughout the series. Since there aren't much action scenes, don't expect the art too be too explosive either.

The soundtrack is pretty standard fare for slice-of-life shows. It helps to improve the mood in different situations, but is not very special or noticable. Opening and ending songs are J-pop, so you might find those enjoyable.

The characters are where this series focus is on. Each of them comes with their own personality whether introverted or quirky. (Especially Taishi, who loves Engrish very, very much, as you will see) The development is well spread although the main characters do receive much more than the supporting ones, though it is to be expected. The relationships are also not blown out of proportion, and are what you'd expect to find between friends in real life.

I feel that this series was pretty enjoyable to watch. It's always fun to watch a work of fiction about creating works of fiction, as there aren't too many of this genre. Don't expect too much going in and you may find yourself liking it more than you thought you would.

my opnion of this anime is it was interesting and good i liked the concept and it was an overall enjoyment to my week i think it was amazing but they could of put an episode with him acutally selling his doujinishi thats what i think so yeah enjoy my reveiw

Well, this is a show for the Otaku, the nerds of anime. When I first watched it, I was a newbie but now that I have watched a couple more animes, I actually get most of the references now. This show is what separates the large fans from the casual watchers. This was created based on a visual novel and video game (much to my surprise) and yet luckily, it isn’t fully following the date style game. I actually noticed that the show was more based on the love of creating anime and manga rather then what girl he would end up with. Unfortunately, almost ... all the characters are girls and may send the wrong idea about anime fans. It is pretty equal parts men and women.

Now before I talk about anything else, I do have a bone to pick with the English dub. I really wish they would have used Japanese words when doing the voice dub. It would have really been nice hearing the word ‘manga’ or ‘Dojinishi’ at least once except for the word ‘comic book.’ I know they are almost the same thing, but it really would be better to say the Japanese term since everyone who was actually watching this would probably know what it meant. They do use words like Cosplay so why can’t they?

Taishi is one of the best characters in the whole show; he’s where most of the slap stick fun comes in and what brings the show into new level of awesomeness. But even with that, you can tell that he actually is smart and not the stereotypical stupid funny characters (AKA Anyone from the Lucky Star anime). I think that’s why most people I have talked to, and myself included, are drawn to him.

The animation is actually really fluid and well done. The colors are bright and fun, bringing in the comical slapstick that is in every episode. The artwork sometimes goes into many different aspects from fan service and the comedic arms in air after being trampled but they are done tastefully and with love.

Some of the characters sound a little odd, one or two of them sound like they were drinking or smoking such as Yu. You can probably pick out some of the voices of old anime characters in the cast like Lina Inverse from The Slavers and Excel from Excel Saga which made me happy in that. Now these are the American voice actors, not the Japanese. The Japanese voices seemed to lack a bit of the comical effect to me and so didn’t seem all that funny. I have to say, the best voice is actually Taishi because he can actually sound so serious when he’s saying something funny.

i feel this needed atleast one negative review from a person who just plain did not enjoy this anime
art
i found the art to be the best part of this anime i can atleast say it is eye catching but the actual animation is average
sound
as for the sound i watched subbed and i found some characters Ooba, Eimi and Inagawa, Yuu were plain annoying but outside of that the other voices were not really notable the i do feel the characters with annoying voices were not bad enough were it ruined the anime just bad enough to make me like the ... characters less

story
ok the structure of the anime is weird the first thing i feel is important to mention this season is really purely a slice of life really the anime only a few times tried to make a joke which to me were not funny but for the most part it just plain do not attempt to be a comedy this honestly effects thing base on seeing the second season it is structure specifically to be partially support by comedy as the comic plot while having good interesting moments are not detailed enough to support things on its own and are way to far apart that huge chunks and even entire episodes ended up being boring and pure waste of time likely do to that space was meant to have comedy but didn't

character
really there only two interesting character the main character Sendou, Kazuki who journey was slightly interesting and if had more detail focus would of been much more interested but sadly only really succeeds at being the only thing to provide entertainment and enjoyment do to being relatable do to his inexperience the other character worth noted is Takase, Mizuki who a bit to often was annoying as to often it showed her angry at the main character specially early on it the show but can be likable and supporting the main character that sometimes help the main character figure something out about himself as for the rest of the character at best there really not one single thing worth noting at worse they are are just plain annoying and honestly feel like they might be plain missing most of there character specially when viewing season 2 were these characters definitely have much more of a personality that resulted in a great difference likely do it actually having comedy in a comedy anime
my rating a 4
overall this anime i feel greatly suffered as a result it basically cutting out the comedy as base on the second season it is strongly structured into the anime as without it the characters the structure of the anime ended up badly falling flat as it did not restructure to be more detailed about creating manga to make up for the fact there was no comedy so it resulted in things being extremely bland and boring because it was missing a key thing about it outside of a few moments that were decent but not enough to support the anime alone this anime just lacked far to much but the second season had comedy and basically showed everything this season was missing and if you like me find this season boring might be best not bothering to finished and give the second season a chance to see if you enjoy it more

I wanted to like Comic Party. The apparent premise of this show - an amateur artist tries to make his own comic book - is interesting on paper. But in practice, we don't really get that.

Despite ostensibly being about the life of a manga author, very little about this series has anything to do with the creative process of making comics. Kazuki's job as an artist is mere background trivia in an otherwise fairly mundane slice-of-life series. Hell, we don't even really SEE his comic aside from a few brief glances at it. We have no real idea who the characters are in it or ... what it's about.

To me, that's the most frustrating aspect of this series: It skims the surface of manga artistry but doesn't look any deeper than that. We get a host of funny enough side characters (Taishi is my favorite, Kazuki's brash, over-the-top friend who pushes him into comics in the first place) - but all of them have fairly weak arcs and don't get a lot of development.

I *do* understand that this anime is based on a visual novel. And perhaps the original game is better about this? But as far as I know, it's never gotten an English translation and I've never played it. So judging only the anime here, I don't think it's entirely a bad time, but it feels like squandered potential.

If you want a better series that actually dives into the creative process (of anime rather than manga, granted), check out Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! That's a series that actually deals in detail with both the artistry and the business side of creation.

As for Comic Party, eh. I can't really recommend it.

Comic Party is good. I came to appreciate Comic Party's simplicity and straightforward story right after I finished the embarrassment that was Star Driver. That anime has absolutely nothing to do with this review, so ignore that. It felt refreshing. This anime sorta reminds me of Otaku no Video. A guy is thrown into Otaku culture, specifically manga creation, by his over-the-top friend. He knows nothing about that culture but slowly falls in love with it. His love for making manga is even destroying the relationship with his girlfriend. They're best friends, but they act like boyfriend and girlfriend. Everything I've said so far is ... pretty much the show. His relationships with people who are more familiar to this kind of stuff and how the main character, Kazuki Sendou grows and changes as a person. And boy does he change.

This show isn't anything special to be honest. It's just that at the time, watching a show like this felt nice. It's nothing complicated. Kazuki's development felt natural. He starts off with a passion for making manga, experiences failure causing a depression, and then through the encouragement of his friends, bounces back more positive than ever. If you're in the mood for a basic but good story watch this. I'll give this show a 7 out of 10.

While based on a harem video game this is NOT a harem anime!
This anime is for anyone who is interested in seeing otaku culture in Japan, specifically centered around the doujinshi scene.
At first it seems like a typical low-budget gag anime from the early 2000s , it's actually a serious take on the journey of a doujinshi (fan comic) artist. The anime acts as a guide of do's and don'ts to making doujin and it's super informative. If you like informational anime that deep-dive into unique topics this is a must-watch.


Plot overview:
The anime starts with the characters in their senior year of high school ... and thinking of life after high school. Our main protagonist, Kazuki, is someone who has never thought much about what to do career wise and also has no specific interests but, has some talent for drawing that he's only utilized sparingly at school.
Kazuki's otaku friend Taishi, convinces him and their mutual friend Mizuki to go with him to a Comiket, a big convention (think comic con if artist alley took 75% of the space). While the experience is exhausting Kazuki is exposed to the world of making and selling doujinshi and with a little push from Taishi he feels inspired to make his own. Mizuki however, is against this as she feels that otaku-culture goes against societal norms and doesn't want Kazuki to become an outcast.
Even though Kazuki meets many women throughout the series they are all friends-only and all seem to respect that Mizuki is basically Kazuki's girlfriend. The main conflicts center around Mizuki accepting Kazuki's new passion and Kazuki's journey as an artist.

Some of the things I really love about this anime is that Kazuki's artist journey is very relatable as an artist myself. And also that making art is hard work and you can't cut corners.
(8/10)