Editorial
How Do You Define a ‘Good’ Doujinshi?
A ‘Good’ Shugo Chara doujin?
As I was looking for some Shugo Chara pics in danbooru a few weeks back, I stumbled upon the cover pic of this Amu x Ikuto H-doujin amidst the pages of of SICK pics *facepalmmm*. I was reminded of Hinano’s RAGE over the sick Shugo Chara doujins she saw months ago, and this got me thinking as to whether this doujin actually falls under the ‘good’ category.
Seeing the Amuto cover in this doujin was enough to make me so fangurl excited that I started searching for it, which eventually lead me to the doujin-ka’s website and sample pages of his/her works (beware of NSFW stuff). Least to say I was not amused with what I discovered. My hope of seeing a sweet raburabu Amu x Ikuto doujin was crushed the moment I saw how the doujin-ka’s works fall under the typical H-mangas/doujins, you know, the kind where there’s this _immense_ focus on the act of lasciviousness, devoid of love — the romantic feelings and emotions which supposedly makes this act so special to begin with.
Which finally brings me to my question: how then do we define what a good (H) doujinshi is? Is being a consensual non-taboo GxB H doujin enough of a criteria for this?
Well, not for me.
While you guys usually see me getting all kinky with Shugo Chara as I exclaim “I WANT MOAR Amu x Ikuto SMUT RAWR”, there’s a certain level of smut-ness (or H-ness) which I could tolerate, and in turn, regard to be good. And even without having seen *that* Shugo Chara H-doujin, I’m 90+% sure that it fails in my standards of a good doujinshi. Smut standards, or whatever you wanna call it, being a [semi] conservative hopeless romantic and all.
The thing with me and all these H-stuff is that I hate how both the act and the females (and males?) involved, are so objectified that you see them as mere fap material [sex], so to speak. In turn, I lose respect for both the men and women in these H-mangas, because they don’t even seem to have respect for themselves! Guys are portrayed as sexual beasts, and they indulge themselves in it. Girls are portrayed to be nymphos (more often than not), and they don’t have any qualms about it. Doujins like these just desecrate the characters of the [sweet] animes and mangas we’ve grown to love 
In the end, I just want my sweet non-H or shoujo smut-level Amuto doujin, like this La Corda d’ Oro doujin I found:
slightly NSFW pic, click at your own risk?
The good doujinshis are a rare breed indeed… sigh. =__=
P.S. I know gender-bias comes into play with this, as girls like me are sensitive to this kind of stuff, guys have different preferences, etc… but I don’t really want to delve deep into that anymore and just voice out what I feel about this ^^;
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40 comments for “How Do You Define a ‘Good’ Doujinshi?”
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I like doujinshi that are 1) look reasonably pretty, 2) light on smut and 3) focus on character interaction (be it humor or drama). It’s not that I mind smut, but I’m picky about my pr0n, and I’m also a romantic at heart.
Anyway, I’ve seen many quite many very good doujinshi out there. I have a few that are extremely good, both in terms of story and art, and I’m rooting for the authors to go on and be professionals because they’re just that good. I suppose the key is the same as with other fanworks – learning to avoid stuff that you KNOW you won’t like. For me, it’s usually doujinshi made by guys (in case of het pairings, that is). I usually pass those, unless I’m feeling adventurous, because I’ve seen enough to know what to expect.
Btw, I never felt that doujinshi (or fanfic/fanart) desecrates the characters in any way. I mean, they’re just fanworks, fantasies that have no effect on the actual characters. People have different tastes and different fantasies, that’s all.
So much word. It’s hard to find a half-decent doujinshi, especially for someone like me who only likes canon pairings (one of the few I’ve found is Candy Pop in Love, for Tokyo Mew Mew – if you like Masaichi, it’s one of the few half-decent things out there for the pairing, or even the fandom). Some people don’t seem to get it.
Apparently no one likes GOOD doujins because I still can’t sell the last copy of Love Mates as it has no hentai and only romantic hugging and shit >_> Meh. I didn’t go to the site but yea disappointing that most doujin artists just wanna draw a bunch of boobs and wangs. Sometimes I wish doujins went beyond “lets just see these characters fuck” and tried to create some sort of cute alternative story.
But I find images depicting consensual love making in the missionary position between two people of the opposite gender offensive and disgusting.
????(??`)????
*shoves a corn cob up Shin’s butt
Needs moar Tako. :3
@Hinano
?????(???)????!!
Have you ever heard of Mitona?
http://members15.tsukaeru.net/mitona/
She’s an AMAZING doujin artist. She writes both kids to teen material and her drawings are impeccable and just absolutely gorgeous. She also writes and draws NC-17 doujins; I would definitely categorize them as “good” doujinshis. She won’t draw actual genitalia, but the smut she draws is extremely beautiful. It’s real, passionate and erotic. I’m not trying to sound like a pervert or something, but if you find/buy some of her stuff, you’ll be satisfied. I guarantee it! It’s BEAUTIFUL. (And the characters look of age.)
Only from what I’ve seen, she draws Sasuke x Sakura doujinshis.
Story, art, usability, conformance to one’s fetishes/pet characters: there’s a number of criteria by which to assess the quality of a doujinshi. Why have one of those criteria take precedence? A book of your favorite character with stellar art and adequate pruriency may be worth picking up even if the writing is subpar (it’s difficult to build a compelling derivative story in 20-odd pages anyway). Well, if the writing is bad to the point of being insulting to your beloved character, it’s another matter of course. While well-written doujinshi may indeed be few and far between, though, it’s not like all the rest is god-awful.
These things are posted so often on 2ch D:. What happened to the cute romance ones? ;___;
I support Amuto and their lovey doveyness and all, but it goes overboard.. =3=
OMG there`s `good` non-fap material doujinshi???
I suppose the `masses` are too busy demanding their fap material that any of the `pure rabu rabu` stuff gets drowned out anyways.
Being picky with doujinshis is good, and I think most of you guys have certain standards of what is that ‘good’ doujinshi as well. I’m just glad there’s no immature person who trolled this post (not that I want to see any trolls around here [anymore]). And we all agree that the good and sweet ones are indeed hard to find, to think that they’re the ones really worth the bucks.
@kuromitsu: the desecration thing is just me taking the characters seriously, like “they’re not just characters you can use for your sick doujins!” or something
A bit close-minded, I guess.
and yeah, stereotypical as it might be, most (like 95%?) of the doujins made by guys are the pure H pr0n ones. I might just keep an eye on the rare few great doujin-kas out there, because you’re most or less assured that his/her works will be of quality.
@Hinano and ShiningNinja: there are a few cute and sweet ones out there, but as we all know, they’re reallyy rare. I find it sad that the majority of demand for doujinshis are that of the f*cked-up pr0n kind… geez =__=
rofl @ Shin…
and I wonder if Drm actually wants to star in his very own Tako-doujin .__.
@Alyssa: thanks for the recommendation! will definitely check that doujin-ka out. I hope she has works that extends beyond Sasuka x Sakura though!
@mt-i: the explicit pr0n-ness of most doujins make it reallyy difficult (close to impossible) to see its overall beauty, but I’m willing to let my pr0n-sensitivity to go down a few levels if a certain doujin was indeed thought to have a good story. I believe there are good ones out there, they’re just not in the radar of a majority of people…
@issa-sa: true, the sad and bitter fact about good doujinshis~
Well, if graphic depictions of sexual intercourse are actually an obstacle to your enjoyment of a doujinshi, I can understand where you’re coming from. If that’s the case, though, one has to wonder why you would look at the ero ones when there are plenty of all-ages books to check out instead.
Generally speaking, you seem to take a judgemental stance on pornography that I can’t agree with. I’m not accusing you of being one of those anti-porn loonies who speak of the Bible but haven’t read the Song of Songs–not by any stretch. I simply take exception to the sentiment that porn is by and large degrading, exploitive or ugly. I probably dislike such material as much as you do, and yet I have subscriptions to a couple of ero manga magazines, where most of the stories are cute and not at all devoid of love. A number of them are good fapping material, too, and I see nothing wrong with that.
@mt-i: Well I do enjoy reading smut mangas, and I can tolerate even the most graphic shoujo smut out there. If the ero mangas you’re referring to are the shoujo smut kind which usually have both the explicit pr0n-ness and the love stuff, then I’m making it clear that I like reading those. I have problem with the typical shounen hentai ones, because they’re extremely graphic, and I haven’t read one which actually has a good story. It’s not the explicitness that turns me off, it’s how it’s portrayed overall. Not to mention that the context with which I’m talking about in particular consist of doujins which portray the original characters as sluts, sex beasts, etc. Again, shoujo smut version doujin is ok for me.
I’ve been a lurker on your blog but I’m finally posting a comment here because this is something that’s bothered me for a while. Personally, I’ve never read H-doujins and stuff since I’m still underage. Anything I’ve run into has been by accident. But even when I turn 18 this summer I strongly doubt I’ll go near it…at least for a while. Since good doujins seem to be hard to find anyway. I like good fan-written romance sometimes to tide me over, but since that doesn’t seem to exist in doujins…
I don’t really have a problem with H stuff in general, just doujins that use characters from a series I like because it’s basically the same problem I have with bad fanfiction. They make the characters all OOC just to fulfill their own strange fantasies. They’re not giving the proper respect to the original work and they aren’t doing justice to the characters. They aren’t fans of the series. And that’s what I really find wrong. Maybe I shouldn’t take things that seriously, but that just bothers me. Though I will admit, the content in most doujins makes me squirmy as well.
I gave up on doujins a long time ago, I generally just look for cute art (which can turn up on covers of even the adult nasty ones) and ignore the contents entirely. This is largely why I don’t buy doujins, not worth it just to get the cover art.
There is this circle called Lovely Panic who has lots of sweet Full Metal Panic romance doujinshi (Kaname x Sousuke mainly) which are really hard to find! (I think you might like FMP since you also like LW)
I got 3 of them in Japan – one is ecchi though. But it’s not the typical ecchi, it has a strong story and actually it’s pretty good.
Bahaha, I’ve never seen one before
It has to have what the anime/manga/game doesn’t but wished it did. =w=
When it comes to fanworks dealing with an actual franchise and especially with doujins, I suggest a policy of caveat emptor, or let the buyer beware.
Shugo Chara is fine without those dirty sops making their little rape fantasies and lemons. Ikuto getting ever so close to Amu in the anime and manga are fine enough for me my imagination is active enough to fill in the blanks. Besides why waste money on pr0n more over who the heck still pays for it? Me I have wasted so much money on other hobbies that I cannot afford such garbage.
There are gems in the smelly shit pile of the H-doujin market, but I’ll let some other poor fellow do the sifting. Besides if it is good you’ll hear about it some where down the line…
Shugo Chara H-Doujin = NO.
@Kaze: good FMP Kaname x Sousuke doujins?! DOO WANT!
@FuyuMaiden: well better avoid them and be safe than be sorry. You can just read good doujins recommended by people you trust, like the one who commented here. Saves you the time, energy and stress to know the good ones out there ^^
@Maestro: yeah, those covers can be pretty deceiving~ It’s ok to buy the ones made by doujin circles you know are good, other than that, meh.
@Crusader: hehe, same advice I gave FuyuMaiden, let other people do the hard work of looking for them good doujins, and wait for them to recommend it to us
@Randor: absolutely.
So, Evangelion RE-TAKE. DO WANT?
Uh…what’s a doujinshi? I’m not exactly updated
@kaedemirumo: doujinshi are fanworks / fan comics, fan-made manga of certain series. The more technical definition of it is that it’s a self-published comic. For more info, there’s the good old Wikipedia
O.o;;;;
This is why I never look at doujinshi with that art style.
You can usually TELL what kind of doujinshi it is from he art style.
those guys who make h-doujins r sickos arnt they?
they change the characters so they look completly different.
whAT’s a Doujinshi???:?:
eww.. that was gross i just checked the website *uhrgh* vomited*
While I was reading up all your good ol’e blog entries through the FABULOUS slideshow tool…I noticed this one had a link to Hinano’s blog, which I have in my bookmarks, and it just reminded me that…it’s somehow dead…did Hinano stop or was the blog simply relocated? I’ve been wondering for quite some time now
For me, a Bad Doujinshi is when you don’t feel like you’re looking at the same characters you know and love. The more I think about it, there really is no other attraction to doujinshi that I have, And I believe I am the only one who feels that way.
what is the shugo chara doujin called? just to check.
Yep, good fluffy doujin is a rarebreed indeed. I agree with Crusader, you have to be brave to swim in the sea of trash and shit to find the gems. And I don’t mind doing that, but maybe its because I’m a male. Example of my definition of good doujin? try search “Bliss”, a SHnY by Hapoi Docoro. If you still find that its not approvable, then perhaps you’re just suited for smut and ecchi fanart. Stay away from doujin world.
Yeah, i know exactly what you mean. Im in complete Agreement about the “MORE IKUTOXAMU SMUT RAWR! XD” too. Im all for romantic ones with a lot of smut between the couples *I mean c’mon we’re all human right~?* But the males and females are all portrayed really stupid in those books. It’s a hentai Doujinshi that you looked at, where visualization is the main concern and plot as well as dialogue is shot to hell. And has no real storyline, to me the provocative actions are way to imbecilic that i just can’t get that into it. I had the same sad experience when it came to Naruto doujinshi. T_T I feel your pain, the covers are so cute and misleading. But the chibi emotions drawn in them are always cute and priceless you must say, ne?
As for the rest blegh..
i like how the doujinshi looks i just wish to find it and read it
but did you find it or no? 
I personally don’t have a problem with smutty doujins but yeah. I’m a sucker for fluffy romance doujins too.
The first Amuto doujin I read had some kinks I wasn’t particularly into, but. . .it was interesting nonetheless. I’ve seen much worse believe me. In my experience, I’ve found more softcore/fluffy romance doujins amongst shounen-ai doujins than straight couple doujins. Especially in the Naruto fandom. The more mainstream a series is, the more variety you see in fan works and doujins. I hope Shugo Chara gets even more popular so we can see a wider variety of doujins and fan works. In contrast, I see more Amuto fluff in fanfiction than I see smut. 
I like reading smut more than I like looking at it personally when it comes to shoujo couples for some reason xD. 
@mewtamara: no luck, then again I didn’t really search hard for it
@Amuria: I’d like to think Shugo Chara is already popular, but most likely with a younger female audience, hence the lack of fan works?
you prefer imagining the smut scenes yourself instead of seeing images that feed you of the said scenes, I see
@usagijen – Yes when it comes to shoujo couples.
And actually when I said more popular, I was thinking of appealing to a much broader audience :lol:. Like yeah, the art style and the plot do seem to appeal much more to a female audience, but I bet if more people watched/read something completely different from what they usually did, they’d find it just as enjoyable or at least okay? 
I mean I know some guys who mainly read shounen series, but I’ve managed to get a couple of them into Shugo Chara. 
A good doujinshi should have good art, features characters that interest me and have a story interesting enough to make me excited.