Archive for the Events Category


Yuri Meguri, Part 2 – Yuriten 2018!

April 28th, 2018

So, wow, Yuriten 2018 in Tokyo was fantastic! 

Backing up, my day began too early, when I realized I had forgotten something important and jolted myself awake at 5AM. Whee!  By 10, I was ready to go when Uchida-san from the host company for Yuriten, Village Vanguard, came to get me. First off, I cannot thank Uchida-san enough, she was a superhero! Interpreting isn’t easy and a lot of our discussion was complicated and otaku-ish. She was brilliant.

We headed over to Aoyama, then wandered through the byways until we came to Lightbox Studio.  As we stood there, the line got longer and actually wrapped around itself. The place was pretty full the entire time we were there. There were slightly more men than women, but Uchida-san and I both noted that it was a young crowd, and fairly mixed crowd. We were both pleased by the turnout. (In the windows, just peeking over the boards for the art, you could see lilies. It was really sweet. The camera couldn’t get it, though.)

I loved the venue! It was so much more pleasant than a department store space might have been. We walked through the exhibit, speaking of the various series. Uchida-san was not originally a Yuri fan, but she started to read Yuri when she was put on this project, so it was fun to talk about the  some of the series presented to us. She and I then wandered the exhibition. (All my unlabeled, unsorted, unedited pictures can be found on my Yuriten 2018 photoset on FB.)

The event poster had been signed by some of the artists.

This drawing by Canno is the same couple in the Yuriten main visual photo, as adults – you can tell because of the bracelets. I thought that a nice touch.

Uchida-san and I laughed a lot. She was so cute and funny, especially when she didn’t so much like a series, she was very circumspect, but (of course) I would rant. ^_^ I had a funny rant when we got to Citrus because I started talking about Yuzu’s life after Mei, how her next three girlfriends would be like “Stop talking about your sister, I get you loved her, move on, get some therapy!” ^_^

Here is a very small selection of pictures. I took more than I uploaded to FB, but it’ll have to wait until I get home for full upload.

 

 

 

This was a piece of original art, not a reproduction, by Shimura Takako-sensei.

 

 

Of course they had a poster for the just-announced Yagate Kimi ni Naru anime! 

 

 

They had the standee from the Kase-san movie, of course and the movie poster…and fliers…and the video of the trailer…because a theatrical release is a big deal for Yuri anime!

When we got to Miman’s Watashi no Yuri ha Oshigoto desu! section, we talked about the official comic on the B-side of the Yuriten flier (which you can read on the Yuriten home page, scroll down past the main visual) and how we were sorry that they didn’t actually have a Yuri cafe…this time. Next year, I hope. ^_^

At the end, there was a table with original drawings by a few artists. Itou Hachi-sensei cut out the negative space on hers for a really beautiful 3-d effect, that I think my camera just caught it.

 

The shop was as large as the exhibit space. This is only a shot or two, but almost every artist that had been exhibited was represented by stuff. I bought a bunch of stuff for lucky boxes and presents and got myself an After Hours t-shirt. I’m still waffling on getting that Aoi Hana print shirt. The shop had 3 or 4 registers, all of them were had lines.

After buying a bag full of Yuristuff, we headed backwards through the exhibit, so I could look at everything without taking pictures.

Then I was invited out to lunch with Kawamoto-san from Kadokawa, Uchida-san and Morishima Akiko-sensei.

I have an important announcement to make, Kawamoto-san is the true Yuri master. His knowledge surpasses mine. He showed me his prize possession of the earliest Yuri doujinshi ever. I was blown away. After lunch, we talked about publishing, and Yuri and…stuff….

One of the things we discussed  was that goods and information are how some fans engage with the media. I mean, people who can create their own stuff do, but not everyone can.  You know I talk about how there’s a level of fan who just likes to watch or read or whatever, but then there is a level where uppercase ‘F’ Fans want to be part of or engage with the story, which is where you have derivative creative work, cosplay and fanart and fanfic and AMVs, etc. Some people don’t have that kind of creative drive, but they still want to have a deeper connection to the work, so they collect goods and/or information as an expression of that connection. Some fans hoard that information, to use as status. “I know more than you about….” which can become toxic. (And sort of feeds back to the conversation I had with Kat Callahan, because the more passionate one is about that information, while the passion is admirable, the opinion is perceived by those who do not share it as, well…ridiculous. And if the fan is obsessive and inflexible, they come across as an asshole. That’s where toxic fandom festers. I’m right, you’re wrong, I’m so right that I have to attack you to prove how wrong you are… etc, etc.)

Yuri fans have not had the opportunity to be goods and info hoarders so much, which is why Yuriten is still fun. Sure, it’s a blatant commercialization of Yuri. So? ^_^ 

We went for coffee and talked about publishing and Yuri and stuff for a few more hours! Morishima-sensei drew a little comic about this, and put it up on Twitter. 

We talked about the history of Yuri, about Yuricon 2005, and the day we all said, “this is Yuri.” And here were were 13 years later surrounded by all this Yuri! 

I learned a new word, tottoii, which means “precious” but like to an obsessive amount.  I failed at sharing common new slang from America, because I have no teens in my life right now. :-(

Oh, I was asked again about the reason I picked “Okazu” for this blog name. It’s because it means little dishes, you know, like in a bentou box, but also because it’s not a full meal, it was slang for lesbian sex which isn’t the “main course” in straight porn. You understand? So, it turns out that Galette magazine has that name because a galette is a full meal! Wow, really?! Food and sex and Yuri. I approve.

When we broke up for the day, Morishima-sensei and I head back to Ikebukuro, she wanted to buy a Kase-san movie ticket for the postcards. (She drew one of the postcards, and they didn’t send her a set?!?) So we went to Yurimate together. The Ikebukuro station was a madhouse (first Saturday of Golden Week at dinner time, so many people!) and it was hard to see the signs, but I know it pretty well, and lead her through to Sunshine-dori and down to Animate. (I do not object to this dashing idealized version of me!)

We browsed Yurimate and she drew a little comic for their message board. I really wanted to tell the girl behind the counter she had Morishima-sensei right there, make her sign things! but I didn’t. Such restraint. 

 

 

After making our way back to the station, Morishima-sensei and I parted. It was so great to spend time with her! And Sensei, I cannot wait until get to read your new work in Galette!

Thank you to Uchida-san, Kawamoto-san, Morishima-sensei and everyone at the Yuriten 2018! It was an absolutely lovely event. I’ll go back again before I leave for more pictures and goods.





Events: Yuri Lectures and Public Appearance Schedule

April 13th, 2018

I’m headed out shortly to do a lecture at Hunter College, in NYC, and thought I’d share my upcoming appearance and Yuri Lecture Schedule:

April 13 – Hunter College, NYC, NY, USA – Doing a lecture on Queer comics this evening!
April 28 – Yuriten in Tokyo  Aoyama, tokyo, Japan- I am just attending, not participating, so if you’ll be there let me know, we should be able to chat.
May 8-10 Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Toronto ON, Canada – I’ll be moderating and doing some interviews and generally bumming around.
June 8-10 – AnimeNEXT, Atlantic City, NJ, USA – I’m a guest, so you’ll see me on way too many panels. ^_^ I’ll be giving loads of stuff away for good questions, cool Yuri cosplay and to get stuff out of my house. ^_^

Hope to see you at one of these!  If you are attending please do come up and introduce yourself. I love meet my readers.





Yuri Event: Yuriten Osaka Report, Guest Review by Zoey B

April 8th, 2018

Today we have a Yuri Event Guest Review by a brand new Guest Reviewer, Zoey B! Zoey commented that she was in Osaka in time to catch the first round of the Yuriten Exhibition, which was open from March 30-April 8 (so it closed a few hours ago in Japan) and offered to tell us all about it. So let’s let her get on with it. Take it away, Zoey!

The event took place in the event space of the Namba Parks shopping mall – given the size of the shopping mall, the actual event area was smaller than expected. We got there soon after it started at 11, and were surprised to find that there were only a few people lined up outside to get in. 

Photo copyright Zoey B. 2018

The staff were controlling how many people were in the space, so you were able to enjoy looking at the exhibits at your own pace without feeling crowded. When you enter, you can see to the left the shop and check-out area, but you first head to the right through the exhibits.

Photo copyright Zoey B. 2018

The exhibits were laid out on the walls, with each author’s work grouped together by series, or photographers work grouped together. There were a few illustrations and signed author messages that were made specifically for the event, which was nice to see – and you were able to freely take pictures (as we did). It reminded my wife of going through an art museum; with little plaques about each authors’ work, it was a good way to introduce people to new series they may not have tried yet.  

 

Photo copyright Zoey B. 2018

Once you had gone through the exhibit – which had a good amount of different artists and series, covering major series over the last decade from what we could tell – you were naturally led into the shop area. The merchandise was all separated by series – each would have copies of the books, as well as clear files, posters, or other specific merch made for the event. The merch seemed to be designed to fit the content of the series – eg 2DK, G-Pen was focused on office supplies, whereas Kase-san had a make-up mirror and tote bag that you could see the characters using. Galette and other magazines were also there, and there were some Yuriten-themed items as well – we got a double-sided clear file, with the illustration on one side and the photograph version on the other!From the shop area, you could either get into line for the check-out or go out directly – though it did feel like you were strongly encouraged to buy something. The whole time we were there, I don’t think that the line to check-out was less than 15-20 people at any point, so we hope it was doing well! Most of the items did seem to be marked-up for the event, however – clear files for Y500 – and not great quality for the specific items. The choice of merch per series was quite limited – only two or three items – but there was a lot of stock of the books and magazines actually being shown. 

 

Photo copyright Zoey B. 2018

The ratio of people attending was interesting (assuming genders for the purpose of this). There were a lot of male attendees, but there seemed to be more female attendees – including ourselves – which was nice. A lot of people were buying books rather than the other goods, and some people had entire baskets full of seemingly all the books you could get there! Impressive.

The feel of the event itself was not quite what we had been expecting – my wife said that she had expected it to be more of a celebration of Yuri, whereas it came across more as a pop-up shop with an art exhibit. It was definitely good! – how it was set up allowed you to really take your time, appreciate the displayed artwork and series, and leave you wanting to read each work. It definitely seemed to succeed as a way of generating interest in Yuri as a genre – just not as we’d imagined it. With the chance to take our time, it made the event more enjoyable.

As we were there for the opening day and time, we were expecting some presence of the actual authors or publishers, but there were only the Village Vanguard staff (the hosts for the Osaka Event). It does make sense, though, as the last two days of the scheduled event are planned to be the signing portion – for Osaka, the 7th and 8th April. You were allowed one book per person – having to have purchased vouchers from Village Vanguard for your chosen series in advance – each author scheduled for some time in the two days. We did not get to see this, but maybe next year! 

Photo copyright Zoey B. 2018

Overall, it was a very organized event, which my wife and I enjoyed going to very much. The displays were very nicely done, and we’re hoping that it grows bigger and better next year. Thank you for bringing it to our attention! 

Erica here: Thank you Zoey for the report and the photos. I’m even more excited about it now, because it seems so…pleasant. ^_^ I’m especially interested in seeing it displayed at Studio Lightbox in Aoyama. 





Boy’s Love, Yaoi and Yuri and Queer (But Not Necessarily LGBT) Media in Japan, Lecture by Dr. James Welker

March 30th, 2018

It was my very great pleasure to visit Temple University on Monday, March 26, 2018 to attend a lecture entitled Boy’s Love, Yaoi and Yuri and Queer (But Not Necessarily LGBT) Media in Japan, by Dr. James Welker. 

It was great. James blazed through the early history of same-sex relationships as represented in art and literature in order to set the scene for the Year 24 Group and their work in “shounenai” (the term early BL creators used) and carefully made his way from same-sex relationships in manga from the mid-20th century to the present day.

I wasn’t familiar with all of his material, which was wonderful! I love when I get to find new tidbits of early Yuri to enjoy. And to this end, James made  a couple of really key points I wanted to share with you. He strongly hesitated to call anything the “first” because, when working with ephemeral media, someone will always find something older. ^_^

I took very general notes for the lecture, which you can follow on my Twitter thread. It wasn’t meant to be comprehensive, just some off-the-cuff tweeting as prompts, so don’t look for cohesion.

A main point of his was that shounenai was originally explicitly created to circumvent restrictive gender norms. James also focused on the tenuous relationship between LGBT representation and BL and Yuri. A  key takeaway was that these queer-but-not-LGBT media allow straight people to identify with either partner, since in a same-sex relationship, the gender roles might be similar, but aren’t the same. A straight reader can read BL or Yuri and find themselves identifying with either partner in a way that heterosexual gender norms won’t allow in straight media.

He noted that Sailor Moon was the first series that was parodied in doujinshi both by men and women, which I found fascinating. (By the early 2000s when I visited Comiket, most of the popular series had both male and female circles selling, but of course it makes sense that the shounen stuff has a lot of BL parodies. In the same way, I took it for granted that Sailor Moon had both straight and gay doujinshi.)

The audience was very receptive and number of the students were familiar with comic markets and BL fandom, which was nice.  I asked if he felt that there was something he’d like to see in BL, for instance, as I’d like to see the further overlapping of Yuri and lesbian, James replied that he’d like to see BL stay separated, in a sense, from gay comics, to allow it to remain a space for transgression in sexuality and gender, as it was originally in the 1970s. It’s a valid perspective and I had a long think about it (on my very long ride home.) 

Ultimately I came to the decision that I disagreed with him, not because I don’t think transgressive spaces are important, but because I believe sexual/gender “transgression” and “identification” without a sense of reality creates a fandom with less empathy, in a sense. Eroticization and fetishization of same-sex relationships doesn’t automatically include thinking of this in the context of real people and their lives.  When Yuri and BL were just getting their start in the USA, BL fandom was notoriously anti-gay. Their fantasy was pure, real gays people were gross. This is not a generalization, this is a thing I heard articulated by real people. This is also true for straight men who consume lesbian porn.  The enjoyment of lesbian or gay porn does not translate directly to support for either lesbians or gays. ^_^; 

But, as the LGBTQ community has made some inroads in BL and Yuri fandoms, I’ve seen a shift to more empathy for LGBTQ rights from those fandoms. It’s not that simple a correlation, of course, but I think it encourages me to always work towards seeing more lesbian representation in Yuri. I don’t think it takes away any space for gender or sexuality transgression for readers…more representation opens the possibilities for identification for readers on other spectrums, not just gay/straight and for the recognition of real humans with real-world representation needs. And, realistically, I see “Yuri” as an umbrella term that can accommodate both lesbian narrative and fantasy girls love.

We’ve had some further discussion on the point. James was not drawing a hard, clear line, and neither am I. This is more about the needs of fandom and further evolution of the genres the varying needs of their creators and audiences shifting over time.  In the bigger picture, I believe manga has plenty of space for both of these perspectives – and many others, as well!   ^_^ This was a great beginning to an ongoing conversation.

If you ever have a chance to hear James Welker lecture, I recommend it. It was a blast, and I’m glad I dragged my butt down to Philly to be there. I learned a lot. ^_^ 





Yuri Event: Yuriten 2018 Exhibition Rescheduled With New Tokyo Location

March 19th, 2018

It is my very great pleasure today to confirm that the Yuriten 2018 Yuri Art Exhibition has a new Tokyo location and has been rescheduled!

Yuriten 2018 will take place in Osaka, March 31-April 8, and now, in Tokyo April 28-May 4 at Lightbox Aoyama. Fukuoka dates and locations are still being finalized. 30 artists are still confirmed for the show and Village Vanguard now has a webpage up for creator goods.  A reliable informant tells me that they can be purchased via buying service. Ole reliable uses Buyee.

I took a look at Lightbox Studio and I have to say, it’s a pleasant venue and location. And, so I have rebooked my Japan trip and will definitely be there for the opening of Yuriten in Tokyo!

I’m going to do a Yuribu tour while I’m there, as well. There’s one I haven’t been to, yet. ^_^ If there’s anything else I can get to between now and then, I’ll do my best!