Sousaku
| Synonyms: | original, orijinaru, ori, oriji, orisousaku, ichijisousaku, sosaku |
| See also: | doujinshi, Comiket, COMITIA, original slash, original fiction, profic |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Sousaku (創作) literally means "creation" in Japanese. In the context of doujinshi, sousaku is used to indicate works that have wholly "original" content rather than fannish content based on an existing work. Sousaku doujinshi are also referred to as "orijinaru" (オリジナル), from the English "original". Sousaku is sometimes contrasted with works that are "nijisousaku" (二次創作), literally "secondary creation", meaning derivative/fannish works.[1]
Subgenres of sousaku include JUNE (m/m fiction, comparable to original slash), shoujo, shounen, bungei, and others. Most sousaku doujinshi are manga, but like with doujinshi in general, there are also works in other formats such as shousetsu (written fanfiction).
Like some non-Japanese fan communities,[2] Japanese-language doujin fandoms generally treat sousaku as one out of many genres of doujinshi and do not make a strict separation between sousaku and fannish content. Creators of sousaku works take part in many conventions that also feature fannish doujin works, for example Comiket. During the first years of Comiket's history, most doujinshi sold at the convention were reportedly sousaku, with fannish doujinshi overtaking them only in the 1980s.[3] Today there are also conventions dedicated to sousaku works, such as the large COMITIA.
The lines between fannish and sousaku doujinshi and circles are sometimes difficult to draw. Many fans who make sousaku also make fannish works, professional mangaka sometimes publish doujinshi of their own original characters,[4] and so on.[5]
References
- ^ U! (うっ！). 2000. “Orijinaru/sousaku (オリジナル/ 創作).” Doujinyougo No Kisochishiki (同人用語の基礎知識). http://www.paradisearmy.com/doujin/pasok_haichi.htm.
- ^ See the page on original fiction.
- ^ Yoshihiro Yoshihiro (米沢嘉博), ed. 2001. Manga to Chosakuken: Parodi to Inyo to Dojinshi to (漫画と著作権：パロディと引用と同人誌と). Tokyo: Comiket (コミケット). p7.
- ^ A famous example is mangaka Minami Ozaki, creator of Zetsuai 1989 and BRONZE, who made many doujinshi about her manga's characters - often so she could write the kind of explicit scenes that weren't permitted in the manga magazine where her original work was serialized. However, she had first based those characters on two characters from the manga Captain Tsubasa, which she drew doujinshi for before she started working on Zetsuai 1989 and BRONZE.
- ^ U! (うっ！). 2000. “Orijinaru/sousaku (オリジナル/ 創作).” Doujinyougo No Kisochishiki (同人用語の基礎知識). http://www.paradisearmy.com/doujin/pasok_haichi.htm.