Dōjin Work

Dōjin Work
ドージンワーク (Dōjin Work)
Demographic	Seinen
Genre	Comedy
Manga
Author	Hiroyuki
Publisher	Houbunsha
Serialized in	Manga Time Kirara Manga Time Kirara Carat Manga Time Kirara Forward
Original run	November 28 2004 –
Volumes	4
TV anime
Director	Kenichi Yatani
Studio	Remic
Network	Chiba TV
Original run	July 4 2007 – September 19 2007
Episodes	12

Dōjin Work (ドージンワーク, Dōjin Wāku^?) is a Japanese four-panel comic strip written and illustrated by Japanese manga author Hiroyuki. The story revolves around a young girl named Najimi Osana who is about to make her debut into the dōjin creation world with the help of her experienced friends. Aspects of what it is like to be a dōjin artist are common themes throughout the story. The manga was first serialized in the Japanese seinen manga magazine Manga Time Kirara Carat on November 28 2004, published by Houbunsha. Since then, the manga has also been serialized in two other magazines published by the same company named Manga Time Kirara and Manga Time Kirara Forward. An anime adaptation aired on the Chiba TV television network in Japan between July 4 2007 and September 19 2007.^[1]

Plot

Dōjin Work follows the life of a young girl named Najimi Osana and her exposure into the dōjin world. She was first tempted into becoming a dōjin artist after seeing how much one of her friends can make at a convention. Najimi loves to draw, though soon learns contrary to what she expected that this new world is anything but easy. As she attends more conventions and meets more people, Najimi eventually manages to find a group of very interesting friends. These friends already have some experience in the field and help her out along the way so that she can someday make a name for herself creating dōjinshi.

Characters

Najimi Osana (長菜なじみ, Osana Najimi^?)

Voiced by: Masumi Asano

Najimi is an innocent young girl in college who, after losing her job, decides to switch professions and starts attempting to create dōjinshi, or fan-made manga. She was inspired after seeing her friend Tsuyuri sell her dōjinshi at a comic festival, and after meeting her childhood friend Justice again, who is also a dōjin artist. Her dōjin circle is called Beauty Love House, and Najimi uses the pseudonym Beauty Love when writing her dōjinshi. She gets easily embarassed when she encounters people seeing her with inappropriate content. She has a childhood friend, Justice, who is a popular dōjinshi author that partially motivates her to illustrate dōjinshi. Najimi's name is a pun on the Japanese term osananajimi (幼馴染, osananajimi^?), meaning "childhood friend".

The main characters of Dōjin Work (from left to right): Tsuyuri, Najimi, Justice, and Sora.

Tsuyuri (露理, Tsuyuri^?)

Voiced by: Momoko Saitō

Tsuyuri is a dōjin artist, and creates her dōjinshi under the name Bloomer Girl (ブルマ子, Burumako^?). She is the only member of her dōjin circle which she named Panty Revolution. Her dōjinshi mainly consists of rape manga.

Justice (ジャスティス, Jasutisu^?)

Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto

Justice is a popular dōjin artist who often sells tens of thousands dōjin at a single event, though does not earn much money due to production costs and the low price he sells his dōjin for. He is a childhood friend of Najimi. He appears to be highly protective to Najimi, to the point of getting very annoyed when noticing any man getting close to her.

Sōra Kitano (北野ソーラ, Kitano Sōra^?)

Voiced by: Kimiko Koyama

Sora is a little girl that is rarely seen without Justice. She is the youngest main character by far, as Justice, Tsuyuri, and Najimi are all in college and Sora is the only one apparently too young to participate in Justice's dōjin browsing. Her relationship with Justice is often portrayed as somewhat inappropriate, and it has been stated that Justice makes all the cute outfits Sora wears.

Junichirō Hoshi (星純一郎, Hoshi Junichirō^?)

Voiced by: Kazutoshi Hatano

Junichiro is a young man around Najimi's age who she first met in a adult game store while she was buying one such game to help her with drawing her dōjinshi. He later became her first customer the first time she was selling her dōjinshi, though he was the only customer at the time. Later when Najimi gets a job at a cosplay restaurant, he comes every day, which makes Justice believe he is a stalker due to him showing up around Najimi so often. He does in fact have a crush on her, and has to persevere against Justice's antics to get close to her.

Kaneru Nidō (二道かねる, Nidō Kaneru^?)

Voiced by: Ito Sakata

Kaneru is an office lady in her twenties who enjoys drawing dōjinshi as her hobby, but has poor skills in drawing and creating them. Najimi declares her to be a rival after they both fare poorly in sales at the Comic Market. Tsuyuri artificially encourages this rivalry in the belief that it will make Najimi a better artist and author. Kaneru also misinterprets Justice's and Junichirō's relationship not as antagonistic over Najimi, but a yaoi love affair.

Ryūichirō Hoshi (星龍一郎, Hoshi Ryūichirō^?)

Adaptations

Dōjin Work manga volume 1.

Manga

The Dōjin Work four-panel comic strip manga series, written and illustrated by Hiroyuki, was first serialized in the Japanese seinen manga magazine Manga Time Kirara Carat on November 28 2004, pulished by Houbunsha. The manga has made guest appearances in another manga magazine by the same publishing company called Manga Time Kirara. Starting with the April 2006 issue of Manga Time Kirara Forward, the manga has been serialized side-by-side in Forward and in the original serialization magazine, Carat. As of August 2007, four bound volumes of the series have been released in Japan.

Anime

See also: List of Dōjin Work episodes

The Dōjin Work anime series is produced by the animation studio Remic and aired in Japan between July 4 2007 and September 19 2007. The series is directed by Kenichi Yatani.^[1] The anime features a live-action segment towards the end of each episode in which voice actors Kimiko Koyama and Momoko Saito try to create their own dōjinshi.^[2] Should they fail to do so, the two are to pose in embarrassing costumes as a way of apologizing to the fans. Due to the live-action segment, the anime runs fourteen minutes including the opening and ending animations, which means the live-action segment runs ten minutes.

Music

The opening and ending theme maxi singles, I~jan! Yūjō (い～じゃん！友情, It's Fine! Friendship^?) by Maki and Yumemiru Otome (夢みる乙女, Girls Who Dream^?) by Mai Mizuhashi respectively, were released on July 25 2007 by Media Factory. The original soundtrack for the anime will be released on September 21 2007, also by Media Factory.

References

External links

• Hiroyuki's website on the manga (Japanese)
• Anime official website (Japanese)
• Dōjin Work (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia

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