Beginner's Guide for Doujin Shopping - 1. Overview
About
I am a fan of ENNEAD by Mojito, who grew up in a multi-cultural environment. Seeing the fantastic art posted by the artists in Japan, I wanted them to gain more exposure from outside of Japan somehow.
To do so, I wanted to help fans outside of Japan participate in an unofficial web-only ENNEAD fan event called ながいきのかみさま２on a pictSQUARE platform.
Here is the link to the notice by the administrator of the event.
https://twitter.com/enad117117?s=20
The primary sources of newly published Doujinshi are TORANOANA and MELON BOOKS. Doujin goods are often sold through online shops that sell handmade arts and crafts, such as BOOTH and MINNE. None of these shops ship internationally. Instead, they have affiliated proxy purchasing services or forwarding services. The forwarding service commonly affiliated with these shopping sites above is TENSO.COM. TORANOANA has its proxy purchasing services called Anime Otaku Carry Service (AOCS). You can also choose other proxy purchasing services if your conditions (e.g., payment options) do not meet.
In this guide, I will show you
•where to find info
•a summary of their service
•English translations of their key web pages
for TENSO.COM, TORANOANA, AOCS, MELON BOOKS, BOOTH, MINNE, PICTSQUARE, and PICTSPACE
The English translations of the key webpages of the EC sites will help you shop directly using forwarders since you are more likely to secure the goods when you shop directly on the site vs shopping using a proxy.
Summary of EC Sites
Here is a quick comparison chart of primary EC sites that you may encounter during the event
Forwarder or proxy?
Forwarding services and proxy purchasing services' scope of service.
Here is a quick summary of the agencies covered in this quide.
More details for AOCS and Tenso.com will be provided in the following pages.
This is based on information available to the public as of mid-July 2023.