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Doujinshi Convention Comitia Announces Crowdfunding Campaign After Canceling September Event
posted on by Kim Morrissy
The doujinshi convention Comitia announced on Tuesday that it has canceled its upcoming COMITIA133 event, which was scheduled for September 21, due to COVID-19. The official website stated that although Japan was originally supposed to loosen restrictions on large gatherings of up to 5,000 people on August 1, the government decided on July 22 to maintain restrictions until at least the end of August. Due to the uncertainty about when the restrictions will be lifted, Comitia has decided to cancel the upcoming event.
In the statement, Comitia also announced that it will launch a crowdfunding campaign later this month. The financial effects of COVID-19 are so severe that even if events were resumed next year, the scene will become much smaller and will take time to recover to its previous size. The crowdfunding campaign will be hosted on the Motion Gallery website. The platform has previously hosted a campaign to support independent mini-theaters that have been financially affected by COVID-19.
Comitia conventions are held several times per year, and are intended to host original works only. The previous COMITIA132extra event in May was also canceled due to the spread of the virus, as have other doujinshi events such as Comiket 98.
Some smaller doujinshi events are still taking place. The Sunshine Creation 2020 Summer event in Ikebukuro's Sunshine City occurred as scheduled on August 2.
