Queer and Trans Comics by Dylan Edwards
Autobiographical comics focusing on queer, asexual, and transgender experience
I guess you could say this is an AUTO-bio comic, har har. But yes, this is more or less the sequence of events that occurred, though the real life version had less anthropomorphism.
This comic originally appeared in Parsley Sage Rosemary and Quarantine, a digital zine of recipe comics.
You can check out the soundtrack playlist for this comic here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYvv_X5qp4EyrOtVkosEwxlxh1e4cVnhZ
The actual translation of “encore” in Japanese is アンコール (ankouru), where the final “ru” would only be partially voiced. But the crowd was definitely saying a fully-voiced “re” at the end of the word, giving each syllable equal weight as basically a three-beat chant.
To answer my own question from the first panel, this is not a thing specific to Mejibray shows. I’ve since gone back and watched music videos by other Japanese rock bands, and have noticed the crowds acting in unison there as well. I suppose to the extent I noticed it before I’d just assumed it was a staged coordination for the sake of the video. And, well, it IS a staged coordination, but being filmed has little to do with it.
Because I’m a nerd for making playlists, I put together a soundtrack for this comic. It’s on YouTube because a lot of these bands never had their music licensed for U.S. release, so many of them (Mejibray included) are not to be found on Spotify or iTunes here. (Several of the bands on my playlist make cameos in this comic as t-shirts – this page features Dog in the PWO, a.k.a. Dog in the Parallel World Orchestra.)
The trans guy magazine referenced in the first panel was published by Grammy Tokyo, a queer/trans dance party for whom Masaki is a DJ.