Japan’s number-one cosplayer reveals her staggering earnings at this year’s Comiket

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Enako’s popularity, and profits, continue to grow as fans form their longest line ever to buy her photo albums.

A lot of otaku experience a major dip in their bank accounts every August. That’s because it’s one of two times a year that Comiket, the world’s largest gathering of independent manga (dojinshi) and anime-style artists takes place at Tokyo’s Big Sight convention center.

Of course, regardless of what haters or disapproving parents may say, dropping a wad of cash at Comiket isn’t actually throwing it away. All those fans are opening their wallets to buy otaku oriented merchandise, which means every yen fans leave behind is ending up in someone else’s pocket, and following this summer’s Comiket, Enako’s pockets are especially heavy.

While there’s no official leaderboard, Enako is regularly referred to in Japanese media as the country’s “number-one cosplayer” in recognition of both her star power and earning power. One of the few cosplayers to make waves in the mainstream mass media, Enako periodically appears on non-anime focused talk shows to talk about her unique occupation, and even was part of Japan’s annual 24-Hour Television charity event in 2018.

But Enako’s star undoubtedly shines brightest during Comiket. At the most recent event, she drew massive crowds to her public photo shoots, and in addition to promoting other companies’ projects also had a booth selling her own line of merchandise, with her photo collections being hot sellers.

▼ Samples from Enako’s most recent photo collections

During an interview on broadcaster TBS’s Ariyoshi Japon variety show, Enako says that at its longest, the line of fans waiting to buy her photo album was more than 500 people long.

“It’s the longest line I’ve ever had,” Enako said, which prompted the interviewer to ask the cosplayer how much she’d earned from her merchandise sales for the day, to which she replied:

“I’d say somewhere around 10 million yen (US$90,100).”

Again, that’s just from merchandise sales, and so the figure doesn’t include what Enako earned cosplaying as a spokesmodel at other booths during Comiket. Her single-day take is also a substantial increase over just two years ago, when she said she made 10 million over the course of two days at Comiket.

It bears repeating that Comiket is the biggest gathering of otaku in Japan, with the summer iteration drawing larger crowds than the winter one, which means that it’s an abnormally large spike in Enako’s single-day earnings. However, unlike some Comiket exhibitors, who only sell their wares during the event, Enako maintains an online shop where many of her items can still be easily ordered, including her popular photo collections, which are priced at about 3,000 yen. So if you couldn’t make it out to Comiket this summer, or just want to make sure Enako has all the financial stability and motivation she needs to continue cosplaying at the professional level, her online store can be found here.

Source: Livedoor News/RBB Today via Jin
Featured image: Twitter/@enako_cos



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