Hello, this is Miguel Adarlo, also known as an overachieving potato from the Okazu Discord. This time, I’m sharing my visit to the Tower Records Cafe Omotesando during their collaboration with The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All.

During my trip to Japan on July 7th, I had initially planned to visit Yuri Cafe Anchor. Unfortunately, it was closed for renovations. However, I discovered an alternative that was just as exciting.

For those unfamiliar, The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All is a yuri manga series posted on Twitter and serialized in Pixiv Comic by Arai Sumiko. It’s known for its striking aesthetic, the leads’ choice of music, and its general vibes. (Volume 1 and volume 2 of Kininatteru Hito Ga Otoko Janakatta.have been reviewed here on Okazu.)

I had previously purchased some merchandise from the series during a visit to Kinokuniya Los Angeles in June. Imagine my surprise when I found out from the Okazu Discord that there was a concept cafe, named Moonlight Diner, for the series at the Tower Records Cafe Omotesando. I just had to go.

Tower Records is an interesting yet appropriate partner for this collaboration. As implied by its name, Tower Records deals in selling music records of all kinds. Although somewhat anachronistic in today’s music landscape dominated by digital downloads and streaming, it’s fitting for Aya and Mitsuki’s choice of music, which mostly comes from bands that were popular when discs were king. Plus, Mitsuki works at her uncle’s record store.

According to the website, I was supposed to make a reservation, but I wasn’t sure how to, especially since I only found out about the cafe the night before. I decided to take my chances and show up without a reservation. I went to the cafe at 2 pm on July 7, only to be turned away initially because they were full. Thankfully, the staff were kind enough to give me a ticket for a later time slot, 4 pm. The staff were very accommodating, despite my limited Japanese. Given the series’ popularity among international audiences, I think they expected visitors like me.

While waiting, I walked to Shibuya to visit a pop-up store for another anime and Mandarake, then I went back to Omotesando. I arrived back at the cafe at 3:40 pm, just in time for the line to form.

Upon entering, the vibes were immaculate. The cafe was homely, with dad rock playing in the background. The cafe had a wooden floor, some chairs and tables, and an open kitchen where you could see the staff preparing the food. It felt like the record store Mitsuki and her uncle were minding during the series. The only thing missing was an old uncle minding the vinyl collection.

The cafe’s theme was tastefully applied. There was art on posters attached to the walls, drawn for the collaboration by Arai Sumiko, along with an apron signed by her. Two TVs were playing a mix of music videos, ranging from Nirvana to Bon Jovi. They also played a PV of the series, set to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” rotating with the music videos. Aya and Mitsuki were drawn wearing Tower Records threads and diner clothes too.

I ordered a burger, a fizzy drink, and a parfait. The food was fine, but I was really there for the vibes. I was thrilled when Bon Jovi started playing. Along with the food, I received postcards from the collaboration. These postcards came with the food, so I ended up getting three, two of which were of the Moonlight Diner, and one of which was Mitsuki working at the Moonlight Diner, serving Aya her meal.

Finally, I bought some merchandise, namely the Aya and Mitsuki Tower Records acrylics, and paid for my stay. It wasn’t as long as I would have liked, but I’m just glad I got the opportunity to visit a collab cafe for a yuri series I liked. I often miss these sorts of events, so I’m glad I caught this one during the push for the series. They had a Spotify playlist of music Aya and Mitsuki would listen to and a music CD that could have been my parents’ rock mixtape from the ’80s to early ’00s. They even sold a CD of Nirvana’s In Utero at the cafe! Oddly, they weren’t selling copies of the manga, but they had pins, acrylics, posters, tote bags, and even CDs related to the series.

As a fan, seeing the immense support this series has gotten fills me with hope. Yen Press licensed the series for an English release, and this collab cafe isn’t even the first the series has had. Maybe, as Erica stated earlier in a separate Yuri Network News Update, there might be an adaptation in the works. With this series still updating and continuing its publication, all the more we can hope for support.

I’m not used to rating cafes, but here we go:

Art: 9 – Love Arai Sumiko’s work.
Story: 9 – The vibes were very good.
Characters: 8 – Could have added the uncle browsing Tower Records, but I understand focusing on Aya and Mitsuki.
Service: 9 – The staff at Tower Records Cafe were great and communicated well.
Yuri: 2 – Low on sapphic romance, but there was a postcard of them sharing a parfait.

Overall: 7.5 – A pretty good collab cafe. I would have liked more items related to the manga, but I trust the organizers knew what to sell with the limited space they were given.

The collaboration cafe runs from July 4 to July 29 at Tower Records Cafe Omotesando. You can find the website for the collab, along with the menu, here.

(no other pictures of the cafe. photography was not allowed inside.)

It’s our very great pleasure today to introduce a new guest writer to you…a person I met online under what has to be some of the strangest circumstances ever…  and I am so pleased to have here! Please welcome Laetitia Albine Kambou with her report of Y/CON 9, France’s Yaoi and Yuri convention. ^_^ Take it away, Laetitia!

It was promising. Even exciting. After a 2022 edition sold out weeks before the event, Y/CON – the one and only convention dedicated to homo fictions in France – moved to a bigger space near Paris for its 9th weekend. More accessible (relatively speaking, because everyone knows how terrible the Paris metropolitan is when you are disabled), with more people able to attempt. Everything went higher, even the ticket, but hey, that’s the price of glory.

November 4 and 5. Two days in what is described as the safest con to be when you are queer. A wholesome crowd eager to discover talented artists in every genre and fandom possible. Yuri, bara, fanart or original creations, books or comics, fluffy or pervy, you name it, they have it. Diversity is everywhere on each side of the tables, alongside a simple and strong feeling to be back at home after one year navigating in the Big Bad Heteronormative World.

Publishers like Taifu, Hana, Akata or Reines de Cœur were just robbed of their merch. In France, LGBTQIA+ sections are nearly non-existant in general bookstores, so the majority of the sales are made on the internet and during cons. This year saw the great entrance of the webtoon format with Kbooks releasing two anticipated titles, Rose and Champagne and The Dangerous Convenience Store, two 18+ yaoi.

But, as much as I enjoyed my days in this bubble of happiness, acceptance and too much money spent on cute goodies and prints, some clouds appeared above the parade. Being bigger seems to make things more obvious, especially when my personal awareness of all problems queer people must face on a daily basis grows equally bigger.

As the name of the organizing team, Event Yaoi, suggests, Y/CON was originally fully about Japanese boy’s love, acknowledging other genres, medias and demographics as the audience make it clear they want more variety. This year, yuri and other sapphic stories received a well deserved recognition during the panels, and more artists were selected because of this content. Yaoi is always dominant but things are in progress.

What needs to be done better are panels and moderation. Sure, some guests came ready to have fun, but also talk about creation, history and representation of queerness, publishing and more, but other panelists showed a disturbing lack of reflection about those same subjects or their own work. After #MeToo and the rise of topics questioning how queerness is portrayed on medias, hearing people saying they don’t see their work as a window or a way to talk about it is a let down, to say the least.

And on that, the casting of the panels was the real issue. With Ttung Gae, korean illustrator of Rose and Champagne webtoon, canceling their venue, it appeared that the majority of the guests were cis white non (visibly) disabled people, contrasting with the more diverse public mentioned before. Such assembly can only result in failing or dodging  to talk about more specific matters, and stay at the surface.

No one, at least for now, asks Y/CON to become a place of activism and claiming equality in a political way. In a country like France, being The Safe Place for a week-end is already a huge step and commitment. But as the people attempting it are constantly and unwillingly subjects to debate, it demonstrates by its very existence that a certain number of voices wish to be heard, and found an echo chamber there. It would be interesting if these voices, in all their diversity, could now grab a mic and get real visibility and interaction with the public.

See you next time, 9-10 november 2024.

Erica here: Thank you so much Laetitia, for the thoughtful report. The issues you bring up are common to many events and having folks speak up to con organizers and take an active role themselves, are the best ways to fix things.

I hope to be able to attend that this year, so if you are local to Y/CON do tell them you’d love to see me as a guest. ^_^ But I’ll be just as white and not-visibly disabled as the rest, which would not address this issue at all.