This is the grim reality for Comiket if you are a cosplayer. Sure, if you’re a popular cosplayer like Enako, no doubt you get your own team of staff to help manage the crowds, but for the amateurs and the small fry out there — of which they are many — you are nothing more than a toy or meat to be haggled over, parsed, and lensed by the snapping cameras of hordes of male visitors. And all at ultra-close proximity.
These two pictures widely shared online have once again revealed this situation, this time at Comiket 97 held at the end of December at 2019.
As is clearly visible, the men are inches from three women’s bodies and are hell-bent on getting upskirt-angle shots known as panchira. The swarm is practically swallowing the trio of young women, were not even that skimpily dressed (by Comiket standards).
We have been able to identify two of the women: Nana Matsuoka (松岡奈々) and Mumuda (無無田). Matsuoka herself shared photos and a shocking video from the incident with the caption “Please look at the darkness of Comiket.”
Last year, we blogged about a Chinese cosplayer at Comiket reduced to tears by the aggression of male photographers. Eventually her photo session had to be cancelled.
The was at the previous edition of Comiket. As the goings-on at the most recent one, such viral sensations evidently do little to affect the behavior of visitors at the event.
