This area of the BLACK MOON presents an exhibition of publications known as doujinshi. The works shown here are not for sale but are for displayed for educational purposes only. Doujinshi are manga that have been independently created by Japanese fans of a particular anime or manga. The word doujinshi means something like; "same stuff, different people" and there are literally thousands of doujinshi titles printed each year by small publishing houses. Doujinshi are not officially sanctioned releases yet they flourish in the immense manga market of Japan. Sometimes doujinshi present explicit adult material, but many doujin are simply parodies that are of a non-sexual nature.

Doujinshi play an important role in the world of anime and manga. Doujin artists will often explore areas that were not fully developed in the original works. Some doujinshi are barely more than crude pamphlets, while others are elaborate books. Some doujinshi are X-rated while others are completely innocent and meant to be read by people of all ages. The artistic quality of many these publications runs from poor to outstanding, but I'm usually always impressed by the beautiful covers created for doujinshi. Most often a great deal of attention is given to artistic excellence... and some covers are printed on special paper, embossed, and graced with fantastic artworks.

Large publishing companies tolerate the smaller doujinshi publishing houses not merely for the fact that doujin have small print runs, but because the next "up and coming" manga artist may be found working in doujin circles. Quite a few famous artists had their first works published in doujin anthologies, for instance, the famous CLAMP began as doujinshi artists!