COMITIA is for original work. Go if you want to discover manga, illustration and other self-published creations directly from their makers. If your shopping list is fan art of an existing anime, start with a different event.
The next Tokyo edition, COMITIA158, is scheduled for December 13, 2026, 11 AM–4 PM, at Tokyo Big Sight's East 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8 halls. These are the dates and halls on the edition's official page, not the usual month copied from an older introduction.
You enter with the catalogue
For an adult general attendee, Tia's Magazine is the admission item. Buy one copy per person for the correct edition and bring the whole booklet. A detached cover or a disassembled catalogue is not valid under the general participation rules.
For COMITIA158, the catalogue page lists a November 15 release, ¥1,400 including tax in advance at participating bookstores, or ¥1,500 at the venue. Individual branches may not carry it or may sell out. Ordering early enough to receive it is part of buying in advance.
You will also see older issues sold for reading. Those do not give you admission to the upcoming edition. The web catalogue helps with searching and planning; its account-creation code is printed in the purchased catalogue. Keep the physical booklet for entry.
This is different from Comiket's ticket system. Buying a catalogue has a different practical consequence at each event.
What can you find without recognizing a series?
The pleasure here is finding someone whose work you did not know existed. The organizer's beginner guide describes original manga alongside illustration, novels, criticism, music and other creations. A circle can be an individual artist or a group sharing a table.
Use the catalogue's genre sections and small preview images to choose a handful of first stops. Save the circle name and space number, not just the artist's social handle. Those are what help you find the table in the hall.
If you read little Japanese, illustration books and visual samples are an easier starting point than buying a long prose work from its cover. That is a reading choice, not an assumption that every artist can explain the contents in English.
Browsing without making it a performance
At a table, ask 見てもいいですか？ (Mite mo ii desu ka?, “May I take a look?”) before handling a sample. You can browse briefly and say thank you even if you do not buy it.
Bring small-denomination cash for purchases. The beginner guide recommends ¥100 and ¥500 coins and ¥1,000 notes because individual circles may have limited change. Keep books you buy in a bag that protects their corners; you will be carrying them through the rest of the hall.
A sale is also not an automatic commission request. Ask before photographing a table or its work, and give the artist room to serve other readers. The event prohibits cosplay, so this is not the place to arrive dressed for a character-photo day.
Check the entry map again near December
At this check, the general participation page still contains a COMITIA157-specific entry plan. Do not use that older hall map or its late-entry arrangements as a promise for 158. The 158 edition page and the catalogue are the places to confirm your event's instructions when released.
The organizer suggests that first-timers without a must-buy book can consider arriving after the initial opening rush. Balance that against the chance of a particular circle selling out. Choose a few tables you want to see, and leave part of the afternoon for work you could not have searched for by name.