by Bea Baker, Guest Reviewer

I journeyed to Tokyo last week to experience the biggest Yuri-themed doujin festival in Japan–GirlsLoveFestival47, also known as LoveFes. As an avid fan of all things Yuri, I’d been wanting to visit for ages, but arranging a whole weekend trip for it was always infeasible. However, this time, the stars aligned!

I came to Tokyo not only for LoveFes, but also for a special “finale” showing of Cosmic Princess Kaguya in Tachikawa, where the director and voice actors came on stage for a post-screening greeting. Of course… I didn’t actually get tickets for the event, since the site crashed upon tens of thousands of people vying for the same seats… But I still went to Tachikawa with some friends to enjoy the atmosphere and the pancakes.

It’s a really nice area, and probably one of the least-tourist-heavy parts of Tokyo. I’d like to go back

Anyway, with my hopes of seeing the finale screening dashed, all my hopes of a yuriful weekend rested with LoveFes.

On Sunday morning, I headed south to Ota City, the southernmost ward of Tokyo, and met up with my yuri-loving friend. The main convention center near the station, the Ota City Industrial Plaza PiO, is home to a bunch of smaller doujin events; it’s well-placed, unlike the way-out-of-the-way Tokyo Big Sight, and as long as you do good crowd control, it can host a couple hundred vendors.

It was a cloudy day with a high chance of rain, but that wasn’t going to stop us from enjoying the event.

I was under the impression that tickets were essentially randomized–they sold out well in advance online, and so I assumed it’d be a like many pop-up stores where you go that morning, get a randomized entry time, and then chill out around the station until your time. For the earliest entries, there was a more expensive “Fast Pass” ticket already. It wouldn’t be just a straight-up first-come-first serve situation, right?

…Oh, that’s what it was.

So we got in line at 10:30 AM, got our tickets around 11 AM, and… Yep, ended up standing in line for nearly an hour until the general admission opening.

And yep, it did start to sprinkle partway through.

But this massive crowd of hundreds of otaku didn’t give up. No, we braved on, umbrellas against the raindrops, bearing ahead ceaselessly into the future.

And then the gates opened and the frenzy began.

See, the big difference with this LoveFes is that it’s the first one since Cosmic Princess Kaguya released back in January. The first one since that movie released in theaters to a historic 17-week limited run and made over 2.7 billion yen. The fandom is enthusiastic, wild, and ravenous for new content, and fresh off the buzz of that Tachikawa screening on Friday, they descended upon the doujin festival like packs of wolves with cases of 500-yen coins.

Almost instantly, huge lines formed around every single popular Kaguya doujin booth. Some stretched around almost the entire southern half of the venue. Some stretched outside, where it continued to sprinkle, and went on further than I could see. The staff at this event were extremely professional, highly organized, and kept things from descending into chaos.

My friend gladly stood in those thirty-minute lines, but I decided, nah, I’ll just wait and explore the other fandoms. Because while literally over a third of the whole LoveFes was dedicated to just Kaguya, there were still so many other fandoms represented. Everything from classics like Touhou Project and Love Live to newer entries like Girls Band Cry and WataNare all had doujinshi ready to sell.

All these series deserve just as much love! And, importantly, they were way less crowded and stressful to just browse in.

I ended up buying several doujinshi from my old favorite Yuri Yuri, partially to buy presents for an overseas friend, and partially because I was just so glad the series still had a whole row’s worth of creators after over fifteen years. A few of them were, indeed, selling Kaguya doujinshi as back-ups, but they stayed firmly in the Yuri Yuri section out of fandom loyalty.

A few omissions surprised me, though. Hardly any Madoka Magica, despite the next movie releasing on August 28th. I guess people are biding their time until then? I also saw a lot of Lyocris Recoil merchandise on fans’ bags, but not many comics for sale. And I didn’t see any Bloom Into You at all. Was it just the overwhelming force of one franchise crowding everything else out, or is this a sign of the generational shift, with old Yuri fading out as the new Yuri storms in? We’ll have to observe over the next few LoveFes events.

As the crowd leveled out some more, I finally did make my way over to the Cosmic Princess Kaguya section and picked up a few… okay a few dozen… doujinshi. The really popular stuff all sold out immediately, but I did manage to snag some really great stuff!

…And then I went way over budget and forced myself to stop.

While waiting for my friend, still stuck in long line purgatory, I doodled on the poster board…

Got a ticket for the after-event raffle…

Talked to some Revue Starlight cosplayers who do fan performances…

And ran into a really cool Thai Yuri fan who I had talked to at a previous event. Actually, I met quite a few people who recognized me–that’s the power of being a foreigner at Yuri events–and it was nice to feel like part of a community, not just a consumer buying things.

At the end of LoveFes, a couple groups came on stage and performed songs and dances, including that Revue Starlight fan group! I didn’t expect a full-on live performance out of all this.

Then, of course, the raffle and rock-paper-scissors tournaments where I proceeded to win absolutely nothing. Many doujin artists contribute sketchboards, leftover posters, uneaten snacks, and I sat there a good thirty minutes honing the worst luck imaginable.

But I already got an incredible collection of cool books, so I’m definitely not bitter at all that I couldn’t win anything. Definitely not bitter.

After the event, I took the night bus home. It’s not exactly a good sleep, but it’s half the price of the Shinkansen, so I put up with it.

And then I got home and poured over my hoard of books.

Here’s a few of the cool books on sale at LoveFes47:

A classic Yuri Yuri Kyoyui comic. So many of those.

A whole Kyoyui novel! 

A rare Kill Me Baby doujinshi.

A Cosmic Princess Kaguya gag book… in full color!

Gag books are really popular for this series, of course.

But so are more serious ones!

And adorable fluff.

My prized possession is probably this immaculately printed anthology book, with several full-color stories inside, and just look at that gorgeous cover art. With holographic lighting! Geez!

All in all, I had a wonderful time at LoveFes, and I hope to visit again someday. Well, actually, just this morning I signed up to sell my own Yuri doujinshi at LoveFes48 on September 23rd! So I’ll be back in Ota City before I know it.