Submission guidelines for our 2007 Yuricon Fanfic Contest are up!

Our theme this year is fairs and festivals of all kinds – Yuriko and Midori want to celebrate, and we want you to tell us all about it! “>Read the rules and get those stories in!

Don’t forget the AMV and the Cosplay and the exclusive “Simoun” Cosplay contests, either – all the rules are up on the 2007 “Yurisai” Event Page.

Join us at Otakon for the largest Yuri panel of the year. We’ll be in Panel Room 3 at 1-2PM on Sunday, July 22. And don’t forget to drop by our table in the Dealer’s Room for massive discounts on 100% Yuri!

Check back soon for more Contests, more Yuriko fanart and more excitement as the 2007 “Yurisai” event draws near! Join us for the only 100% Yuri day of 2007! Register at http://yc07.eventbrite.com

Yuricon – “For real women who like their women…animated.”

Looking for a Yuri Panel at a con near you? Check out the Yuri Events Page on Yuricon first! If you know of a Yuri panel or event happening, email it to us so we can add it to the list!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure, once again, of participating at AnimeNEXT, my local general con. I’ve been involved with them since their first year and I consider it a privilege and a pleasure to have been there as staff, as a board member and like yesterday, as a panelist. So, many, many thanks to the folks at ANEXT for their kindness and for the table in “con row.” :-) I go as much for the hugs as anything else. lol

Because of something I can’t yet tell you about, I wasn’t able to do the whole con, but we had a great day yesterday. :-) Books went well, the Yuri Panel looked to have about 40 people and the Fanfic Writing Workshop I always do there had about 20 people, most of whom were really into it. So, overall, a good day.

But that wasn’t what I wanted to tell you about. The thing that made my day, above all things, were three girls who walked by dressed like Yumi, Shimako and Yoshino. I almost died they looked so cute. I am not a fan of cosplay, and I am not a fan of cute, but oh, my GOD were these kids adorable. The girl who was Yoshino, Leeann, (and I hope she reads this and corrects me if I spelled her name wrong!) was a spitfire. She was funny and smart and cute as a button. She was also obviously the ringleader, which was perfect. LOL She assured me that her hair, when she had the wig off, looked like Sei’s and when she came by later, it did indeed! I took a picture of the three of the together as first-years (Shimako was wearing her rosary on the correct wrist! swoon) and then Leeann as Sei, hugging Yumi. Sadly, my pictures were with my phone and the lighting was bad, so they didn’t come out well, so I can’t share. But oh, my goodness, were they CUTE!

I changed the Yuri Panel age rating, so that anyone could come in, and my friend Leeann showed up, with good questions. There was a Shizuma in the front row and Sei there in the middle. How happy was I as a Yuri panelist. LOL

Anyway – Leeann and your two friends, thank you. You win as the best cosplay *ever* in my experience. Even better than the Japanese girls who cosplay them because you looked JUST like the characters. So that pretty much made my day. LOL

(A belated note to the woman who asked for some good not-schoolgirl Yuri manga. I’m sorry my brain was so friend when you asked. Here are a few top contenders: Iono-sama Fanatics, Shoujo Sect 2 which, although it starts off as a schoolgirl story wraps up as an adult story. Kotonoha no Miko to Kotodama no Majyo to and Moonlight Flowers. All have been reviewed here – you can find them on the right-hand Categories.

Next up, I and a large chunk of the Yuricon senior staff will be at Otakon. Yuri Panel is Sunday 1-2PM, all ages. Don’t miss it!

Today was a good day, Hamtaro.

Yes, I was marginally grumpier than yesterday, but I sincerely doubted anyone would notice. And Bruce said that, considering how miserable a bastard I felt, I was remarkably nice all morning.

I had some terrific conversations with folks in the AM, and by the time the Yuri Panel rolled around in the PM, we were down to the last few books. So, that put me in a goodish mood.

So the high point of the day was when I devloped a new game for the vendors – cosplay bingo. I’m going to create game cards and we mark off when we see old standards and wildcards. It’ll help pass the time. :-) We saw all the usual standards we look for (I got bingo at about 2 PM) and our wildcard was awesome – Hamburglar.

The Yuri Panel was pleasant. The room was mostly full, but people dribbled in and out, as they do when we end up talking about good yuri and not the stuff they like. lol

I spoke to Media Blasters during the day, and they gave me permission to formally announce their licensing of Simoun. :-) So, really, it’s official. No joke. I am going to do my damndest to see that Yuri fandumb is served well when it is released. Some of the MB ladies suggested a Simoun cosplay contest at Yuricon’s 2007 “Yurisai” event…I think that would be spectacular, don’t you? THIS is how awesome MB is – when people came up to them today to ask about Simoun, they said – “Go to the Yuri Panel.” Is that not utterly awesome?

(As an aside, I also had a chat with Geneon about Marimite. I know that they have nothing to confirm or deny about it, but that wasn’t the point of my chat. Let me just say that, *should* they ever license it, I feel slightly more comfortable that Yuri fandom will not be ignored. And incidentally, Sean, I met your friend Drew. I’m not sure he was as happy about that as I was. LOL)

After the panel we stuck around long enough to get rid of the last few books and say good bye to all our pals in the Hall, because tomorrow, we become tourists. We’re off to the art museum and other site-seeing things.

We ended the day with an overpriced, mediocre meal, but surrounded by good company, and after I watched a kung-fu vampire flick (starring Peter Cushing!), I’ve retired to my room to write this post. Now I am going to talk to my wife, because I’ve barely seen her for two days. :-)

Thanks once again to the folks at ACen for their hospitality! They will be getting a thank you note, for sure. :-) Thanks also to the folks who came to the table and to the Yuri Panel – it was great talking with you, seriously. Thanks to Donna, Serge and Bruce for everything and special thanks to Pern, Nic and Pat for drinks, snacks and bad movies. And, of course, super special hugs to my wife, who protected our table from Hamburglars while we were out talking about Yuri.

If I’m not wiped flat tomorrow, I’ll try to review something. :-) Oh, and total at-con purchases for me? Two sandwiches. How sad is that? lol

Lots of good at ACen, lots of wtf. :-)

The people were a real surprise. In general, the level of social function is realy high. I say, “Hi how are you?” and in return, I get, “Fine, thanks, how are you?” from a large portion of the congoing population. Haven’t once had to explain how that works to anyone. lol And the staff, while exhaustingly intense and often useless, have been, to a person, very polite and glad to help. :-)

Friday morning, the Exhibitor’s Hall opened at an ungodly hour. I did not arrive until a more godly one. In the first few hours, we were visted by many fans of this blog and of Yuricon and folks on the Yuricon Mailing List, and I want to say that meeting you all really made me happy. So hi to everyone who dropped by! (I’d list names, but if I forget anyone I’d feel bad, so you’ll just have to imagine me naming you, specifically.)

The day passed pretty quickly for being in a cave. We sat around chatting, ID’ing costumes, the usual. Met Shinz from #otenba, and have to say, he’s a fine young man – if you’re on the chan and looking for a cute guy, talk to him!

For dinner, my group joined Nic, Pat and Pern for pizza and bad movies. Then we all went to the shoujoai.com fan panel, where itanshi did a nice job of enacting a real-life version of the forums there. He asked what series people liked, people chatted about them and generally had some fun.

We went back to bad movies pretty much the rest of the night, since the line for Anime Hell was aptly named. I recommend Switchblade Sisters if you like pulp novels. Because it was definitely a live-action pulp novel.

The goal today is to sell out of books after (or before) the Yuri Panel (4PM in LAX room in the Hyatt) and take tomorrow off completely and all go to the Art Institute, which the wife said was absolutely fabulous.

So all that was good.

After they all started watching Jem and the Holograms I went back to my room and waited for 3 hours or so for everyone to shut the hell up, and stop running around, so I could get some sleep. Today the Exhibitor’s Hall opens even *earlier*. I’ll be late again. And grumpier than yesterday.

The Bad. Never, ever, in all my many years of bad travel karma have I stayed in a hotel where the people were that that persistently loud for that long. Every door in the hotel slams, and no one thinks to not slam them – even at 4AM. The walls and even the ceilings are paper thin and every sound is like you’re in the the other room. We both got little sleep, and what there was of it was not good.

BTW, this hotel bites. The Hyatt Regency O’Hare. DON’T stay here. They charge for internet access – you can’t use the refrigerator. It’s wired, so if you even pick something up from it, you get charged. Isn’t that absurd? Go across the street to the Doubletree, or down the road further – the Holiday Inn Select sounds *amazing*. Large screen HDTV. Free intertubes. Microwave, fridge. That sounds much more inviting.

So anyway, today Yuri Panel and hopefully tomorrow, touristy stuff. See you at 4PM. :-)