True to form, many Americans don't realize that the world's biggest comics convention is NOT Comic-Con International. CCI is currently capped at somewhere between 125,000 and 150,000 attendees, which is no number to sneeze at...but Japan's Comic Market happens twice a year, and in 2007 had 550,000 attendees for its summer event.
The amazing thing about this isn't that it's larger, but that it's larger and its focus is smaller: Comiket has always been devoted almost exclusively to fan-created works, whether original or parody. It's a doujinshi market. As such, it is also primarily a place to purchase pornography.
As such, there IS an industry section, where fans can buy some officially-licensed (and occasionally exclusive) items. And this year, into this den of iniquity, cometh Hello Kitty. It's been announced that Sanrio will have a booth offering up a special Comiket set featuring a cellphone cleaner, a mini towel, clear files, and a hand towel-- all with art by well-known illustrators like Kouhaku Kuroboshi (illustrator of the Kino no Tabi novels), OKAMA, and POP.
Okay, we've always had the jokes about there being a Hello Kitty everything, including a vibrator, but...Hello Kitty has an official presence at a pornfest? That's pretty...wow.
