This page was created April 25, 2000. Last updated November 23, 2004.
MIND EDUCATION shows only a doujinshi's front and back covers, which are all that you'll usually see when that book turns up for sale (whether in a sealed clear plastic bag in a Japanese used shop, or advertised in a magazine or on eBay or a Web site). The doujinshi's creator again has the sole copyright, but displaying just the covers will not harm the creator's ability to sell those books. The use of the covers here is also educational: to help folks learn about various circles and recognize their books. If along the way this creates more demand for a circle's work, so much the better!
If you've already seen a doujinshi's interior, though, chances are you aren't going to buy the actual paper doujinshi--especially not if you can look at it again and again on-line, or print a copy from on-line, without having to pay for it. But that lessens the tangible demand for that book in particular, and for Gundam Wing doujinshi in general.
As long as there is demand for Gundam Wing doujinshi, some circles will continue to produce them, and Japanese used shops will continue to buy and sell them. The less demand a circle sees for their Gundam Wing doujinshi, though, the more inclined they'll be to abandon it and move on to a different subject.
Meanwhile, Japanese used shops (such as Mandarake and K-Books) are the primary source of stock for doujinshi dealers from outside Japan--but Japanese used shops take in only what they expect to be able to resell, and do not accept doujinshi done for subjects for which there is little demand. The less demand for Gundam Wing doujinshi there is outside Japan, the less foreign dealers will be motivated to buy them for resale. The less demand that Japanese used shops see for Gundam Wing doujinshi, the less Gundam Wing doujinshi those shops will carry.
And since the purpose of MIND EDUCATION is to help Gundam Wing doujinshi, not hurt them, you won't find any scans of interior pages here.
And while on the subject...ever notice how many English-language sites that display scans from doujinshi--whether covers, interior pages or panels, or color pin-ups--don't tell you who even drew those pages they've so blithely stolen? "The name would have to be in English for me to be able to do it," one person actually told me. This despite the existence of English-language dictionaries of Japanese names and kanji, and countless English-language books with charts of hiragana and katakana.
It's far more easy to translate a name than it is to create that wonderful art--yet an appalling number of fans in the western world don't seem to care. How much of it is laziness, and how much of it is that they consider the Japanese person they're stealing from to have no thoughts or feelings? Do they consider a Japanese person to be less of a human being than themselves?
Japanese doujinshi creators are human beings--far more talented and creative human beings than the people ripping them off!--and a soaring number of them have Internet access.
And people wonder why so many doujinshi circles refuse to sell their books outside Japan...
Return to MIND EDUCATION: Kagenami Q's Gundam Wing Doujinshi Reference Digs
This page was created April 25, 2000. Last updated November 23, 2004.