Dōjin Work (ドージンワーク, Dōjin Wāku) is a Japanese four-panel comic strip written and illustrated by Japanese manga author Hiroyuki. The story revolves around a young girl named Najimi Osana who is about to make her debut into the dōjin creation world with the help of her experienced friends. Aspects of what it is like to be a dōjin artist are common themes throughout the story. The manga was first serialized in the Japanese seinen manga magazine Manga Time Kirara Carat on November 28, 2004, published by Houbunsha. Since then, the manga has also been serialized in two other magazines published by the same company named Manga Time Kirara and Manga Time Kirara Forward. The manga ended serialization in Manga Time Kirara on February 9, 2008. An anime adaptation aired on the Chiba TV television network in Japan between July 4, 2007, and September 19, 2007.
Dōjin Work follows the life of a young girl named Najimi Osana and her exposure into the dōjin world. She was first tempted into becoming a dōjin artist after seeing how much one of her friends can make at a convention. Najimi loves to draw, though soon learns contrary to what she expected that this new world is anything but easy. As she attends more conventions and meets more people, Najimi eventually manages to find a group of very interesting friends. These friends already have some experience in the field and help her out along the way so that she can someday make a name for herself creating dōjinshi.
Najimi Osana (長菜なじみ, Osana Najimi)
Voiced by: Masumi Asano
Najimi is an innocent young girl in college who, after losing her job, decides to switch professions and starts attempting to create dōjinshi, or fan-made manga. She is inspired after seeing her friend Tsuyuri sell her dōjinshi at a comic festival, and after meeting her childhood friend Justice again, who is also a dōjin artist. Her dōjin circle is called Beauty Love House, and Najimi uses the pseudonym Beauty Love when writing her dōjinshi. She gets easily embarrassed when she encounters people seeing her with inappropriate content. Najimi's name is a pun on the Japanese term
osananajimi (幼馴染), meaning "childhood friend".
Tsuyuri (露理)
Voiced by: Momoko Saitō
Tsuyuri is a dōjin artist, and creates her dōjinshi under the name
Bloomer Girl (ブルマ子, Burumako). She is the only member of her dōjin circle which she named Panty Revolution. Her dōjinshi mainly consists of rape manga.
Justice (ジャスティス, Jasutisu)
Voiced by: Hiroki Yasumoto
Justice is a popular dōjin artist who often sells tens of thousands dōjin at a single event, though does not earn much money due to production costs and the low price he sells his dōjin for. He is a childhood friend of Najimi. He appears to be highly protective to Najimi, to the point of getting
very annoyed when noticing any man getting close to her. Also, Tsuyuri called Justice a "father figure" when he was overprotective of Najimi when Junichirō wanted to ask her out. In the anime, he is seen has having a "kiddy relationship" with Sōra, however, in the manga, he is shown having an almost pedophiliac relationship with her, including becoming very "tense" and wanting to rub her when she fell and her panties were exposed. He also went crazy after seeing her panties (after Sōra's declaration of love, and her kiss; before that, seeing them had no effect on him) that "even the pain...is transforming into a feeling of joy", until only holding the hand that touched Sōra's bloomers could calm him. It is never quite stated what their relationship is, since Justice seems to have feelings for Najimi, but he tells Sōra he loves her very often.
Sōra Kitano (北野ソーラ, Kitano Sōra)
Voiced by: Kimiko Koyama
Sōra is a little girl that is rarely seen without Justice. She is the youngest main character by far, as Justice, Tsuyuri, and Najimi are all in college and Sōra is the only one apparently too young to participate in Justice's dōjinshi browsing. Her relationship with Justice is often portrayed as somewhat inappropriate, and it has been stated that Justice makes all the cute outfits Sōra wears. Sōra also gave Justice her first kiss, which he suddenly realizes is his first kiss as well. Sōra has stated many times that she loves Justice, and is going to get married to him. She wants to set up Najimi with Junichirō so Najimi will not be in the way of Justice and Sōra's relationship.
Junichirō Hoshi (星純一郎, Hoshi Junichirō)
Voiced by: Kazutoshi Hatano
Junichirō is a young man around Najimi's age who she first met in an adult game store while she was buying one such game to help her with drawing her dōjinshi. He later became her first customer the first time she was selling her dōjinshi, though he was the only customer at the time. Later when Najimi gets a job at a cosplay restaurant, he comes every day, which makes Justice believe he is a stalker due to him showing up around Najimi so often. He does in fact have a crush on her, and has to persevere against Justice's antics to get close to her.
Kaneru Nidō (二道かねる, Nidō Kaneru)
Voiced by: Ito Sakata
Kaneru is an office lady in her twenties who enjoys drawing dōjinshi as her hobby, but has poor skills in drawing and creating them. Najimi declares her to be a rival after they both fare poorly in sales at the Comic Market. Tsuyuri artificially encourages this rivalry in the belief that it will make Najimi a better artist and author. Kaneru also misinterprets Justice's and Junichirō's relationship not as antagonistic over Najimi, but a yaoi love affair.
Ryūichirō Hoshi (星龍一郎, Hoshi Ryūichirō)
Voiced by: Daisuke Kishio
Ryūichirō is Junichirō's older brother who works in a publishing company as an editor for a manga magazine. He often gets stressed over his job if he cannot make a deadline.
The Dōjin Work four-panel comic strip manga series, written and illustrated by Hiroyuki, was first serialized in the Japanese seinen manga magazine Manga Time Kirara Carat on November 28, 2004, published by Houbunsha. The manga has made guest appearances in another manga magazine by the same publishing company called Manga Time Kirara. Starting with the April 2006 issue of Manga Time Kirara Forward, the manga has been serialized side-by-side in Forward and in the original serialization magazine, Carat. The manga ended serialization in Manga Time Kirara on February 9, 2008. As of October 2008, six bound volumes of the series have been released in Japan.
The Dōjin Work anime series is produced by the animation studio Remic and aired in Japan between July 4, 2007, and September 19, 2007. The series is directed by Kenichi Yatani. The anime features a live-action segment towards the end of each episode in which voice actors Kimiko Koyama and Momoko Saito try to create their own dōjinshi. Should they fail to do so, the two are to pose in embarrassing costumes as a way of apologizing to the fans. Due to the live-action segment, the anime runs fourteen minutes including the opening and ending animations, which means the live-action segment runs ten minutes. The anime has been licensed by Media Blasters, and they released the first English DVD on January 27, 2009.
The opening and ending theme maxi singles, "I~jan! Yūjō" (い～じゃん!友情, "It's Fine! Friendship") by Maki and "Yumemiru Otome" (夢みる乙女, "Girls Who Dream") by Mai Mizuhashi respectively, were released on July 25, 2007, by Media Factory. The original soundtrack for the anime was released on September 21, 2007, also by Media Factory.
