Comic Party Revolution
Anime DVD Review
Do you know what doshinji is? Okay, get your mind out of the gutter, not *all* doshinji is hentai. Doshinji is fan-made/fan-published manga, what we here in the states used to call "fanzines", although doshinji, much like fan-fic, expands upon the characters and the universes of a particular manga or anime franchise/series; they create "unlicensed" works, which, because Japan isn't as litigious as the USA, they are able to sell to other fans without the studios coming down on their heads with an army of lawyers. (To be fair also, some doshinji is completely original, it just isn't published by a manga publisher, it's self-published by the author.)
Okay, with that explained, Comic Party is an anime series about a group of doshinji authors. Originally based on a dating-sim game, it has a main male protagonist, and then a bevy of bodacious babes who are all major characters (and who are all doshinji publishers of their own). Comic Party revolves around a convention of the same name that is held with stunning regularity where the characters get together to sell their works, cosplay, and get into misadventures. It's like having the NY Anime Festival once a month.
 Considering I was expecting the title to be fanservice with little else, I have to admit I was surprised that the characters are well-defined, and although there is fan-service, it's not overdone. For example, the 2nd episode "I want to go to the beach!" -- you're expecting the entire cast in bikinis, right? Well, that's not what happens. I was shocked. There are of course, two otaku who are annoying and keep attempting upskirt photos, but they are treated as the perverts they are -- there actually is a lot of "girl-power" camaraderie going on within the series and the characters stay true to form (particularly funny is that Subaru talks about herself in the third person).
With a wild and wacky cast, there's plenty to keep them all busy, it's a wonder they find time to write, draw, ink and copy their material. It's also interesting that everyone uses all hand-methods of creating their works -- not a computer in sight. As a former artist, I found some of what they were doing to be fascinating.
Of course, it's all light-hearted comedy-romance, and nothing too serious ever happens. If you like "School Rumble", "Negima", "Love Hina" or anything like that, you'll probably get a kick out of Comic Party Revolution.
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, January 2010
Below: Promotional illustrations for Comic Party Revolution.
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