Haichi

Synonyms:	circle haichi
See also:	shima, space, block, nisekabe, otanjoubi-seki
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Haichi (配置, haichi) literally means "arrangement". In the context of a doujinshi convention, haichi refers to the way the spaces of participating doujinshi circles are ordered in the convention hall, or the work of planning that order that is done by convention organizers. Particularly for the organizers of large conventions that have hundreds or even thousands of participating circles, proper haichi can be a complicated task. Depending on the convention, organizers usually try to group circles according to the source work and/or the characters and pairings in their doujinshi.

Besides source works, characters, and pairings, the number of doujinshi that a circle is planning to sell also needs to be taken into account. Because large crowds in front of a space can clog up aisles and hinder circles at neighboring spaces in selling their fanworks, popular circles may need a space at the corner of a rectangle formed by spaces (an island); this corner space is often called the birthday seat. Very popular circles need a space close to the walls where there is more room. During the application process for circles, organizers may ask circles to indicate how many doujinshi they sold during previous editions of the convention so that they can make an educated guess which circles are likely to attract a crowd. Still, sometimes a circle turns out to be unexpectedly popular, leading to "traffic disturbances" because there is too little room in front of the circle's space. If a circle turns out to be too popular unexpectedly, or a popular circle with a corner or wall space still has too little room to accommodate its fans, staff at the convention may take measures to clear the aisles and make sure the neighboring circles' spaces stay accessible to their fans. At Comiket, for instance, staff frequently instruct fans to queue up at the side or even the outside of a hall and then periodically lead the queues through the crowd towards the circle's space.

Proper haichi is important for a circle's "business": if an assigned space is separate from the cluster of spaces where similar doujinshi are sold, it can easily be missed by fans who have come especially to look for that circle's kind of doujinshi.