I wrote up a formal report for ANN, so look for that in the near future, but today I want to talk about my personal experience at the Yen Press Yuri Cafe.

The Yen Press Yuri Cafe is open through February 13 at Enoch’s, an art cafe at 480 10th Ave., in NYC. In weather that is more tolerable, it’s about a 15 minute walk from Penn Station. A fantastic location and a really lovely little cafe. I will definitely be back to it, the staff was outstanding.

One of the staff came up with her own Yuri stickers. I’m gutted that I didn’t get her name, but thank you!

My wife and I started off at a very early hour because years of experience has taught me that NJ Transit will always fail me. I was not wrong. We were delayed. And our cab driver tried to rip me off….something that has never happened before in my entire life. So we showed up just as our 12 o’clock slot opened. The folks at the door were welcoming and warm, which was much needed. 

If you’re headed there today, please dress warmly in layers. We shouldn’t lose fingers or toes just for our love of Yuri. ^_^

As the Yen promotional material said, there was a themed menu for the event, and each menu item purchase came with a coaster. We – of course – just ordered all four items. My wife scored us a seat on the sofa near some Yen and Ize Press folks, and we chatted for a bit about the cafe. There was a little Yuri library, which I did not even see until I saw my wife’s pictures(!), as that was behind me and the entrance table. Apparently, that was the original plan, have folks drop in to sit, read, chat and have something to drink, but the response was so huge that they had to reboot. Kinokuniya was selling books and merch and there were some giveaways from Yen and Ize as well.

I spent some time talking to folks. We talked Yuri manga and anime and the state of the Yuri industry and how amazing it was to just…be in a space that is all about Yuri. Despite the cold, everyone dressed up and people looked absolutely fantastic. A few folks recognized my name. Thank you to everyone who stroked my ego by telling me they had read my book. Extra super props to Stella for having a copy with her, which I signed (aaahh! squee! I was so happy) and Macey who hadn’t been able to make my book signing, but got a pic with me. Macey, if you’re reading, please correct my spelling of your name and send me a copy of that picture, please.)

I am also mortified that I cannot remember the name of the lovely person with the awesome Love Bullet Itabag. Thank you for letting me get a picture. Please feel free to remind of your name, and I’ll add the credit. 

I got to interview one of the folks at Yen, which will be in my ANN report, but my informal chats also brought up that they will be announcing a GL title in the near future that is gonna be huge. No joke, 2026 is going to be a year of BIG Yuri/GL licenses! I cannot get over how much we have passed that tipping point, where publishers  don’t have to be convinced to get Yuri, it’s just another genre. Also, how utterly weird it is that no anime companies are on board with that yet. 

The cafe was lovely, but as it was small, it was very full, so when our hour was up, we were ready for a break. My wife and I walked over to Midtown Kinokuniya, where we hung out for a few hours with folks who had been at the cafe. Azalea, Jordan, Emily and Abby, thank you so much for spending time with us and making it a delightful day. We had some more food and drinks and shopped for Yuri. 

Probably the most exciting things I saw in Kino were really nice Girls Band Cry Figurines of which I could not get a great picture, sorry. 

and a copy of

MemeSHE Yatsura Kashikokute Oroka na Watashitachi o Hokan Suru Kanojiyotachi no Monogatari, a book of essays by Suzuki Suzumi that were originally published in DaVinci magazine, with illustrations by Sumiko Arai, creator of The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All.  The essays explore how women are depicted in media. It’s on my to-read list, but I did not get this copy, so grab it while you can!

Love Bullet and The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t A Guy At All were everywhere. My wife overheard a conversation between a Kino employee on the phone with the Cafe event, commenting that things were sold out and what they could put on the table to replace what was selling out at the cafe.  ^_^

I picked up three Japanese-language books, which I will read for future reviews. 

My friend Abby @abbysayswords who joined us, is a Revolutionary Girl Utena evangelist and outstanding cosplayer. Check out her IG for amazing photos. She has a brilliant Utena Itabag that never fails to delight. 

And that was a wrap for our day. Thank you Yen Press, Enoch’s, Kinokuniya and all the amazing Yurijin who braved the seriously bitter cold to spend a day celebrating Yuri. The only complaint anyone had – and by anyone, I mean we all kind of had it – was that it was a lot of people in a small space and we all were feeling overwhelmed and peopled out when we were done. I have a headspace for that for events, but I am also recovering today. ^_^;

Check out my ANN report and if you can, definitely drop by the Yen Press Yuri Cafe, running through February 13. And of course, visit Kinokuniya, who understands Yuri and is promoting the heck out of it. This was in the front window!

In last week’s YNN Report, I mentioned that the one-day Yen Press cafe had sold out almost immediately, eve with extended hours. Well, in response, Yen has extended the days for the cafe!

The Yen Press Yuri Cafe now will be open through February 13, 2026. Saturday, February 7 is sold out, and they still want you to register with them for upcoming slots.

This is patterned on Japanese pop culture themed cafes, so the basic premise is that when you buy an item, you get a themed coaster. It’s pretty straightforward. There don’t seem to be multiple designs per purchase. Of course we plan on getting one of each. ^_^

Once again, for folks who are in the city tomorrow, we’ll be heading over to Kinokuniya at Bryant Park afterwards, just to hang and have a place to meet. They have a cafe too, and tons of Yuri merch and books. I have a Kinokuniya membership card, so let me know if you’re buying something you can borrow it for a discount. ^_^ I’ll be there roughly from 1:30-4.

Let’s all bundle up for a cold day in New York and warm ourselves with some friends and Yuri. Drop by the Okazu Discord and share your pictures!

After a truly fantastic time at Y/CON, my wife and I spent the next few days touristing around Paris. We visited the Musée D’Orsay primarily because they had an exhibit of work by John Singer Sargent, who I very much like. My wife was blown away by his Smoke of Ambergris.

We also had the pleasure of learning about Brigid Riley, who took her inspiration from Georges Surat, but whose work in color and minimalist shapes and lines really spoke to me.

I found a Monet I liked. This is a first. I am not a fan of Impressionism. But, as usual, I found that looking at the paintings themselves, rather than images of the paintings, changed my impression. I have a complicated history with Van Gogh, but actually seeing The Starry Night Over The Rhone was very moving.

The next day we did the Louvre, where we went to a Jacque-Louis David exhibit. Sitting in a room surrounded by 3 Death of Marat was something, let me tell you. Also, if you are interested in David, go watch this Great Art Explained video about him, because he was 100% the radical leftist edgelord who ends up working as the propaganda machine for an autocrat. So that is, exhaustingly, eternal. Human nature does not change. 

I took 15 million pictures of Nike of Samothrace, because she is my absolute favorite piece in The Louvre.

Wednesday night, we had dinner with a new friend from Y/CON, Shane. On Thursday we decided to go to an exhibit that my wife had seen advertised in the Metro for Manga. Tout un Art! at Le musée national des Arts asiatiques – Guimet and wow, we were impressed! The exhibit began with a history of comics in Japan, beginning with strips in Punch magazine and other media, including a kamishibai theater on a bicycle.

The main focus of the exhibit was Shounen manga and relating famous titles to Japanese folklore and artifacts from the Guimet’s collection. Naruto was connected to the nine-tailed foxes art pieces in their collection, Dragonball to art depicting Journey to the West, Demon Hunter to yokai art and One Piece to.. a massive art board given to PM Macron by Oda himself.

Of course Tezuka rated a room and we were pleased to see an old friend in original pages of Ribon No Kishi.

The lighting was very bright, so everything is a little wonky, so it wasn’t all glare and shadow.

There was a room of Shoujo manga among all the Shounen, and that presented me with yet another old friend, one that you might expect to see in France of all places…The Rose of Versailles.

And, relevant to my recent review of Witches Of the Orient, a few pages of Attack. No. 1 in Margaret Magazine. 

This made us incredibly happy, as you can imagine! Interestingly, Marie Antoinette owned several piece of her toilette that were in Japanese style. This was one of those “oh, right, cowboys and samurai were contemporaneous” moments. ^_^ This portion of the exhibit ended with manga-inspired fashion.

I’ve uploaded all the (unedited) pictures I took to this Gallery.

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The exhibit continued on another floor with more of the museum’s permanent collection, of literary scrolls that depicted popular stories, then early commercial books in Japan.  

We ended up in the museum cafe overlooked by art depicting the Koream tiger and magpie motif we now call Derpy and Sussy, thanks to K-Pop Demon Hunters. ^_^ You have watched that, haven’t you? You should. It was very good. Not Yuri, but worth a review one day. 

And that was the end of our trip to Paris! It ended as it began, with manga and anime that we love.

Thank you again to everyone at Y/CON, and Paris for being a lovely place to visit once again – I look forward to vising again soon.

Wow, Y/CON was so much fun! I highly recommend it to anyone who can get to Paris for the event. First of all, everyone was so charming and enthusiastic, from Y/CON staff to every one who listened to our panels or came to get a book and chatted with me.

I did a presentation on the history of Yuri fandom, and had roundtables with author Rutile and Louis-Baptiste Huchez of Taifu Comics, in which we talked about Yuri internationally and with Dr Pralinus, about BL and Yuri and queer joy.  We of course did not have not have time, but our conversations were really interesting. I have so many people to thank I know I won’t remember everyone, so if I miss you, please remind me!

 Thanks to Alex, who was a wonderful driver, Shaby, Shane and Paul in the green room who helped us find the bathroom down the dark corridor of nothing and made us feel so welcome. Olivia, Elisa, Valentine for arranging everything, Lou for being a fantastic moderator and Julie for doing an outstanding job a translating my insistence on being aggressively, joyfully, queer as a form of political resistance. 

This last kept coming up over and over as we are seeing a resurgence of fascism globally. Dr Pralinus and I agreed on many things, but as they spoke of how queer people have always been here and we will always be here, even if we have to hide, I suddenly was hit with an epiphany that hiding is not the way. We have never been safer for hiding. As we see with protestors dancing and singing in costume, joyful resistance makes the oppressors look even MORE ridiculous. My message was that they are the weirdo minority, not us. So enjoy your BL, Yuri, trans manga and be loud about it. 

It was exciting to see Akata Editions, Hana and Taifu at the event, I’m jealous of French Yuri fans that they have schwinn’s Hana Monogatari available to them.

Before I wrap up I want to wave hi to Mang’Albine and Resuri, it was so amazing to meet you both in person and I will see you online!

I hope to return to Y/CON one day soon.

Things have been kind of chaotic over here at Yuri Central, but last week I took some time out to come to NYC for Flamecon 2025. 

Flamecon is “an annual two-day multi-genre entertainment and comic convention, focused on fans and creators of pop culture who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer. Launched in 2015, it is the first LGBTQ comic convention in New York City, and the largest LGBTQ comic convention in the world.”

There is something incredibly lovely about knowing that almost everyone at the event is queer. No one is holding anything back. As you might expect the cosplay is vibrant..luminous, even.  Queer characters from mainstream comics, webcomics, manga and anime, games and indie works mingle on the floors in  kind of way that one doesn’t see at an other con. And still, I found a lovely Noa and her Ingram, Alphonse, from Patlabor walking around. I absolutely squeed. ^_^

I commented that I was going to be there and Michele Abounader said I should say hi, so of course I headed right over to chat with  Michele and boothmate Heather Antos. Did I pick up books? Of course I picked up books! Michele is the editor of the Sapphic Pulp anthology, but this time I picked up Sharp Wit & the Company of Women, which filled my sword lesbian quota. 

and I had to nab a copy of Star Trek Celebrations from Heather. I have many, complicated thoughts about queerness in Star Trek, (I *hated* The Outcast when it aired, but have really come to appreciate Jadzia Dax being taken up (and Terry Farrell’s adoption as) a pansexual trans icon and Seven of Nine as bisexual, when we all know that was never an original intent, but fans made that happen. ST: Celebrations takes a look at the folks we have now as honest representation, and Star Trek queer joy that Paramount cannot erase, no matter how much they want to right now (and always.)

Another amazing works I picked up include Cowboy Lesbian story Big Cats, by Fawnduu.

That pretty much hit me in all the right spots  – sword lesbians, lesbian cowboy, Star Trek queers…everything except sports anime (;_;).

I was looking at a book that kind of reminded me of Last and First Idol,  by Gengen Kusano, an idol scifi, called Hybrid Heart. I immediately was drawn to it because the author’s name was Iori Kusano… (what a coincidence?) and was sold when I saw the quote on the cover, by Isabel J. Kim, that said “This story fucks entirely.” Well…okay then! And so far it has indeed fucked entirely. Review to come.  ^_^

Version 1.0.0

My only negative comment is not at all about the con itself. This is the first location Flamecon has been in that did not offer gender neutral bathrooms. I’m sure it was the venue’s issue and not the con’s, but with this audience, the lack was noticeable and, to be honest, uncomfortable. 

As I checked out the schedule, I noticed that tucked in among the panels was a Kodansha panel! I had no idea they would be there! So of course I settled myself in the front row and heckled. ^_^ (Only a little.) TJ, Ferrentini, Tomoko Nagano, Pei Ann Yeap, Shirley Fang were terrific and the audience was super enthusiastic for all the titles. Omegaverse was popular,  and the reception for the sequel news of Boys Run The Riot – IN TRANSITION (which premiered this week in Young Magazine, check the link for the entire first issue free on Azuki) was huge. Ryo heads of to college and move into the next phase of his life. Lots of enthusiasm for that. 

They presented a lot of BL, a little Yuri, trans, asexual and other GSM books, and the audience *ate it up*. Most of the questions were about Yuri!  

And, in a nutshell, this is what I love about Flamecon – at a panel on BL, Yuri, Trans, Asexual, Queer manga, it is ALL treated with anticipation and positive excitement. This is so far from the days of Yaoi fangirls pointing at my table and sneering “Ewww, Yuri”as to render that experience almost a cautionary fairytale (no pun intended, no, really) rather than an actual experience.

Outside the walls of Flamecon queer media and queer identity and lives are once again under attack Flamecon proves that no matter what they try to say or do, queer people exist and are not going back to the days when we his. Our stories are out there and so are we in all our colorful, luminous glory. To quote Star Trek, as I am a long-time fan, Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. ^_^

See you next year at Flamecon!