Yay us! This year Jye N braved the amusement park ride made of people that is called Winter Comiket this year. This post began with Jye’s comment:
I’ll report on Comiket later today. Probably just “it was huge, what the hell, I need to lie down now”. So glad all the original Yuri is on day 1 :)
To which I replied:
Haha! Day 1 is always – every time – a day to get reacclimated. I crash early and hard on Day 1. I’m not sure I’d like all the original Yuri on the first day, I’d be sure I missed something, while half collapsing with exhaustion.
I’m looking forward to your report!
Well, Senior YNN Correspondent Jye N soldiered on (you see what I did there, Jye? You got a battlefield commission!) and here is a pretty comprehensive overview of three days of madness, despair and faallen arches. Everyone, tuck yourself in with a snack and a drink and enjoy Jye N’s 2014 Winter Comiket report!
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Day 1
I was indeed wrecked by the experience, and left after finally securing Takemiya-sensei’s autograph, at about 2:00.
Takemiya-sensei had a profoundly successful Comiket so far as I can tell, far and away more popular than the other Yuri mangaka. When I arrived at about 10:30, she had a significant queue, easily the longest in the area. I know the score, so I went to join the line by taking the card from the last person, as you do. That person needed to explain to a confused gaijin that this was merely the front section of the line, and I’d need to join the main line, which was politely off to the side so as not to block the other tables.
A kind person in that line looked after me (and called me senpai, which I found charming). When I finally got to the front I said hello to Takemiya sensei and bought everything she was selling, but I didn’t sare ask her to sign anything with the number of people behind me.
This state of affairs persisted well past 12:00! I was able to simply go up to Nishi-sensei and Amano-sensei, ask for a signature and have a chat, but not a chance for Takemiya-sensei until much, much later. As a fan of all three mangaka it’s hard for me to speculate why one of them was doing so much better on the day, it might just be Takemiya-sensei’s Love Live doujin was a shrewder pick than Nishi-sensei’s KanColle or Amano-sensei’s Aikatsu.
Not to imply Nishi-sensei and Amano-sensei weren’t moving books, because they certainly were. Both were lovely, very patient with the gaijin and his halting Japanese. Nishi-sensei signed my copy of Coleur de Bijoux d’Amour, and I was sure to tell her I loved Collectors too. I left my copy of Philosophia in Australia like a fool, so I had to ask Amano-sensei to sign “Ms Kiwi Fruit and Ms Apple”, which she was kind enough to do. Of course I mentioned how much I loved Philosophia and Watashi no Sekai. Hopefully I wasn’t too much trouble for the poor mangaka :)
And of course I eventually had Takemiya-sensei sign my copy of Omoi no Kakera 3!
Amongst Yuri circles Hatishiro seemed second most popular, I guess people like animal ears.
This time I didn’t go crazy buying as I did at COMITIA, but I still picked up a solid little pile of books and helped support my favourite mangaka, so a successful day.
Comiket in general was completely insane. The scale of it beggars belief even if you’re used to large Japanese doujin events like Reitaisai. I very nearly had my first trip to the Odaiba Gundam courtesy of the line when I finally found the end of it at about 9:00, which of course was only the line to the west hall (and as usual the “line” was ranks twenty or so abreast, and you could see other columns forming in most directions).
It was great to see a fairly even gender balance amongst attendees and creators. Of course for yuri the creators skew female and the buyers skew male, whereas the vast tracts of BL remain very much by and for women, but overall it felt like Japanese geek culture has a place for everyone, and everyone turned out. Some gaijin too, from all over the world as near I could tell.
Not sure I’ll make it back for day 2 and 3, depends on what I can find of interest in the phone book they call a catalogue. He’ll of an experience though, and every manga fan should do it at least once.
Day 2
So I started the day by buying a Yuri Yuri doujin.
That…wasn’t according to plan. I’m not a Yuri Yuri fan, though I do have more time for it than Erica. In particular I think Oomuroke is funnier thanks to older characters showing up more, and I’ve often thought Himawari and Sakurako’s double tsundere routine would be improved by doubling their ages. (Erica here: I agree completely!)
So when I saw a circle had gone with that exact premise my only thought was “Yes, yes, that exactly, let me give you my money.” I haven’t given “Hima Hima Saku Saku ~ 13 years after” a proper read through yet, but from a flick through it looks like the book Namori-sensei should be writing.
Though I must caution that throwing money at circles just because you approve of the premise – and the premise is usually a ship – will quickly leave you with more doujin than you can feasibly get home. I had to resist “voting” for Chie x Yukiko and other favourite video game pairings (other than the Mimi x Totori I did snap up, because I’m weak to Atelier). The simple fact is that while original yuri works and our favourite Yuri mangaka loom largest in our minds, they are vastly outnumbered by doujin focusing on existing properties. You have to be discerning, it’s simply not viable to buy everything you like the look of/validates your shipping opinions.
Particularly if you like series with gentlemen in them. Day two seemed to be dominated by gigantic doujin communities for a smaller number of popular propeties, and despite a spirited showing by Touhou and KanColle, BL had the weight of numbers thanks to Attack on Titan (my word Levi, you have a lot of boyfriends), Yowamushi Pedal and the series with an oni-looking main character whose name I’m struggling to find.
(It’s difficult to understand the sheer scale of BL and how thoroughly a female space it is until you see it. It’s certainly illuminating from a male perspective, particularly if you want to see what men being objectified by women *really* looks like. And you can understand how a male-dominated approach to lesbians in fiction could be alienating to women. But it’s not the other side of the coin to Yuri – it’s the other side of the coin to moe. (Erica again: Yes, absolutely)
Either way for good or ill it’s a working example of an enormous community of geek women coming out strong, creating by and for themselves, moving a ton of books and yen. You can’t see it and treat the idea that women are uninterested in geek media and comics specifically as remotely serious.)
I was also tempted to “vote” for my favourite Persona male pairings but I’m otherwise not into the big BL series so I was fairly safe there. I’m likewise not into KanColle (being trepidatious about it for obvious reasons), so that was a very large section I didn’t need to pay much attention to.
Touhou was a very different story. I came to Yuri fandom and manga in general via Touhou. My first Japanese con was Reitaisai. I had thought to skip today because I’ll probably just go to Reitaisai again anyway (it lines up with COMITIA and Maiden’s Garden!) but predictably I was kidding myself.
The Touhou section was very much like taking Reitaisai and stuffing it into a quarter of its normal space. It was incredibly dense with both circles and people (compounded by the miserable weather making the outdoor cosplay areas a chancy prospect). And I spent more than expected, though with excellent results.
When I first got into Touhou, I didn’t understand how doujin worked, and blithely read a ton of scanlations without the slightest twinge of conscience. As my understanding developed, I likewise developed an instinctual reaction to recognising a circle’s art style from scanlations: wallet comes out, buy absolutely everything they have for sale. A Touhou event can load me down with a lot of paper as a result, but I feel so much better. Everyone I’ve ever met at these events have been lovely, and I’m so happy to become a legitimate customer and support their work.
Comiket was particularly great because I was able to pick up collections of Miko Miko Suika, Suwakoto! (Awesome Yotsubato! tribute/parody) and reprints of some very favourite Personal Colour stories (幼女と少女。。。) that I hadn’t managed to track down at Reitaisai or mangaya.
Also scored some new Iron Attack! Albums and had a bit of a chat with the guy himself, which brings up an important point: these shows are very much worth going to even if you don’t read Japanese if you’re into a property with a strong music culture. Touhou music is amazing, and was my main draw to my first Reitaisai when I could barely speak a word.
If anything there were more people there today, and I’m a bit scared for tomorrow. Also as far as I can tell I’m going to be buying Madoka porn from Morinaga-sensei, which wasn’t how I was expecting my holiday to go.
(The Hentai can be really confronting, but on the plus side it’s always a chunk of the floor you can skip without feeling you’re missing anything. For Morinaga-sensei though…)
Finally I went to Asagaya for the Marimite exhibition but everything was closed up for new year. I…might make it back on the 9th, we’ll see. Oddly enough there was a lady and an older gentleman wanting to talk to gaijin there and take photos, which was fine but odd given the place was basically shut down?
Day 3
I did go to “Hentai Day”, and it somehow conspired to have the most intense press of humanity of the whole show.
And for reasons that are unclear to me, Morinaga-sensei and Hakamada-sensei were right in the thick of it. It’s not that their works were hentai themselves – Hakamada-sensei’s are entirely work safe, and despite a reasonably explicit sex scene Morinaga-sensei’s is certainly not pronography (no more so than Amano-sensei’s…anything, really). But they were right in the crush, surrounded by circles hocking stuff with a much more questionable (but enthusiastic) grasp on anatomy.
I bought my doujin and beat a hasty retreat. As much as I’d liked to have found out which mangaka was which and let them know how much I’d enjoyed their professional works, it was just an intimidating mass of people.
There was even significant jostling, unusual for the exceptionally well behaved Comiket crowds, and staff running traffic control in the aisles!
It wasn’t all Hentai, of course. Vocaloids and original music were huge (I picked up a lot of CROW’SCLAW and Pizuya’s Cell CDs, kind of cool to see them selling on their own fame as opposed to Touhou specifically). Love Live was enormous (work-safe and otherwise). And like the first day some very niche interests were represented – I saw someone selling what appeared to be a moe guide to TypeScript of all things.
There was a reasonably substantial Fate section, dominated by BL pairings. I probably would have gone a Saber x Iri or Saber x any female character or even Gilgamesh x Iskander but I didn’t see anything that caught my fancy artistically.
Likewise I really wanted to grab some doujin from Daioki-sensei and Dowman Sayman, but they had serious lines and I can just order sme of their tankobon from home.
So very hot and tired, despite it being a short stay on a winter’s day, I went home.
No, I’m not that smart, I went to Akihabara to plug some holes in the doujin collection left by the prodigious productivity of Takemiya-san and others between COMITIA 108 and C87. I’m sure Erica is already well aware of this but a word of advice to others: don’t go doujin shopping in Akihabara during or just after a major event unless you’re willing to endure crowding almost worse than the event itself. These ships are not roomy to begin with, fill them with doujin hunters looking to remedy gaps in their event acquisitions and you have serious traffic problems. I did however manage to pick up Amano-sensei’s “Bombshells”, which collects a few years’ worth of her (slightly insane, where are Red Riding Hood’s clothes?) doujin.
Some final thoughts/advice on Comiket for those thinking of going:
– It’s amazing and you should go. The scale of it needs to be seen to be appreciated.
– I suggest lining up early on at least one day, probably the first. This is mostly to experience the line itself, which is a phenomenon in its own right. You may want to hit the bathrooms at Shimbashi on your way through though, you’re going to be in that line for a while.
– Otherwise you can show up at 11:00 and skip the lines, though not the crowds.
– Know what your top picks are and do your best to buy them early. The lines for individual circles can get big fast, and popular circles do sell out. I don’t think that’s a huge risk for most of our favourite mangaka, but Takemiya-sensei definitely seems to be a sell-out risk these days. I’d buy from her as soon as possible, say hello, but come back and have a proper chat/get things signed later. And if you like a popular circle making doujin for a popular property, gods help you.
– Twitter is probably more useful than the catalogue. Mangaka usually put their table number for their next event in their Twitter name, so you should be able to quickly make a shortlist by scrolling down your Twitter feed.
– If you are looking for someone in the catalogue, a rudimentary knowledge of hiragana/katakana goes a long way.
– Likewise, while everybody you meet will be lovely and very patient, and you can certainly get away with very little Japanese, you won’t encounter many fluent English speakers. Every bit of Japanese you can muster counts. Also they will very politely insist that your Japanese is wonderful no matter how bad it is (thanks, Takemiya-sensei ^_^)
– If you’re asking for signatures, you might want to have your name written down already for the mangaka’s convenience, particularly if you have the sort of name nobody gets right in English either!
– Have your own bags. You can buy various bags at the event, or get free ones with some purchases, but you’re much better off coming prepared. Most Circles do not have bags to give you.
– Unless you’re significantly more jaded than I am, prepare to be confronted by the hentai. Just move along, at least this way you can skip a fair chunk of the floor.
– it is so much hotter inside the halls than outside. For Winter Comiket layers come off and on a lot as you move around. Summer must be brutal.
– Most people were actually quite smartly dressed. Don’t let the otaku/fujoshi stereotype fool you, it’s probably worth taking some care on your appearance for the event.
– It’s amazing and everyone should go.
I’m sure I’ve left out a thousand details but I’m done. Time to go look at mountains, shrines and castles for a while!
Erica here once more: Yes, a thousand times yes, especially “you should experience the line for itself”. Line management at Comiket is a thing of wonder in and of itself and really everyone should experience it once.
Thank you Jye for helping me relive some of my most favorite, most exhausted experiences. Should we ever be at an event at the same time, let’s make sure to catch a can of coffee at the magic Lawson of food and drink in the middle of Big Sight and trade war stories. ^_^
Sean Kleefeld’s Fanthropology
The Comics Beat by Heidi Macdonald
Rica Takashima’s Aliens in NY Art Project 
This is not a thing, per se. I’m not talking about the anniversary event, or any specific moment. But I thought it interesting and important enough to note that – despite not being Yuri specifically – this series has, for 15 years, made us all so very happy. And with the final period of the final novel it is officially over, so now is a great time to dig out the DVDs and novels and start all over again! For Sachiko, Yumi, Touko, Shimako, Noriko, Rei, Yoshino, Nana, Youko, Eriko (and, let’s be honest, especially for) Sei, let’s raise a toast to the 15th Anniversary of Maria-sama ga Miteru.
I always like to take a moment to thank the publishers who bring us the Yuri Manga we love and which become the anime we love. There are fewer Yuri anthology magazines than there were a few years ago, but we have more publishers than ever before.
This was something totally new for this year. I loved reading the auto- or semi-biographical comic Yuri essays that popped up in bookstores throughout the year Advice on being gay and confident from Makimura Asako, coming out letters from lesbian and gay people to people they care about, a Japanese TV talent who wants the world to know that she’s lesbian, an essay about the lesbian wedding in Disneyland – these tales tell the stories of real people who just want to be accepted for who they are by their friends and families and fans and government. These essays are everyday people talking to other everyday people. I’m loving them – and the hope they represent for LGBTQ folks in Japan.
Just out of curiosity, I took a look at past Top Ten Lists to see what I was thinking in 2004. It was entertaining, but not surprising, to find that I listed Yuri doujinshi artists on that first list. ^_^ Doujinshi has always been the breeding ground for good Yuri. Unfettered by publisher requirements, censors, limitations of audience or genre, artists are free to tell the stories they want to read.
This lady. I mean it. She’s got a load of work right now, with multiple series in Comic Yuri Hime and you know, everything I’ve read by her…I like. Her art hurts my eyes and her sense of humor hurts my brain, but she draws gag comedy that is incredibly smart, even as it’s incredibly dumb. It’s really time we give her the respect he deserves what with her cranking out all this stuff we’re enjoying and having a successful anime and all. Thanks Kuzushiro-sensei!
HOW COOL IS THIS? Answer: Very cool. Morishima Akiko is an artist I have been following for a ridiculously long time. To see her working with someone whose contributions to Yuri are indescribably weird and timeless and mindblowing is both unexpected and delightful. I have no idea if I’ll enjoy what comes out the other side, but it’s going to be interesting, that’s a given.
We’ve been collecting (and creating) writing about Yuri as a genre for about a decade here on Okazu and on 
This collection from Team Pärvelö had so many qualities that I liked. Variety in art, and story and setting – protagonists of color in a queer manga anthology, how wonderful is that? (Finland seems especially good at diversity in representation.) Refreshing, delightful, fun, smart. Lepakkoluola is the kind of thing that gives me hope for the future of Yuri. I know Hanna-Pirita’s gonna have a heart attack when she reads this, but Team Pärvelö – you did good. Your collection is #10 on this years’ list. ^_^ Please keep drawing and writing!
I wasn’t really sure that this was even a Yuri series after the first volume, but I liked the energy, and the characters and the use of the setting to tell some real, not always all that pleasant, stories about girls’ lives. And then it ended up being Yuri after all. And Morinaga Milk was once again able to draw girl cops. ^_^
Tanaka Minoru’s Rock It, GiRL! was different. The art was intentionally ugly, the characters, too, and the story never went where one might expect. And in the end, it was a loopy, quirky, and kind of charming look at nothing anyone of us would ever see. This isn’t cute idols or meteoric rise to fame – this was a story about blood and guts and singing your heart out and hoping like hell someone might listen, then being told you’re not good enough. I liked it precisely because it wasn’t the same story we’d seen time and time again.
This story was a bit of a dark horse this year. I figured it was a one-shot, lame Maria-sama ga Miteru clone, with no real meaning, but I was dead wrong. Not only was it delightful, it continues!
Amano Shunita’s Philosophia is, as I mentioned in 
I’ve raved about Takemiya Jin’s work a million times. I love, love, love her characterization, and she captures shocked realization in a way that I adore. What really sets this volume of her manga apart, is her unrestricted and unrepentant embrace of not only lesbian culture, but also otaku culture. This book is about us, with our fetishes, and our obsessions, our lusts and loves. Reading game is like looking into a disturbingly accurate funhouse mirror at ourselves, the otaku-rezu who read (and create and write and talk about) Yuri. ^_^;
From volume to volume I had no expectations for this series. I never knew where it might take me. And right to the very end, I had no idea whether it was going to string me along and dump me, or lift me up. As an emotional roller coaster, it was pure brilliance. The art, the story telling and the tension all combined to make this series one of my favorite manga of the year.
Whispered Words marks two major developments in English-language Yuri manga. A new publisher, One Peace Books, is setting up shop on the block and a major Yuri series that I didn’t think we’d ever manage to get over here is here! Sasamekikoto explores every possible Yuri trope all at once and manages to be sad and moving and funny and wonderful. And now we have it. I can guarantee that unless something *amazing* comes out in 2015, Volume 3 will be my top slot next year. ^_^ The ending is just that good.
I’m unabashedly besotted with Nishi UKO’s artistic sensibility. Her people are people – okay, ridiculously beautiful people, but people, nonetheless. They can be petty, snarky, obsessed, in good moods and bad, hungry, lonely, and she communicates these emotions with simple, short stories, exquisite art and a mature aesthetic that is rarely found in manga, much less Yuri.
lete and real and in our hands and on our shelves. At last!
manga. Now for us to have and watch and enjoy whenever we feel like it. The combination of Riyoko Ikeda’s timeless writing and Dezaki Osamu’s sharp eye for dramatic visuals have changed the way we view anime forever.
Squee. You may not remember why you liked it, it was so long ago. You may have made up stories in your mind about how good or bad it was. You probably forgot the dinosaurs and some of the worst Monsters of the Day ever. But when you watch the original anime and re-meet Usagi, Ami, Rei, Makoto, and Minako, you’ll remember all over again why you love them. ^_^
It’s silly, it’s stupid, it’s full of painful gags and a duck that looks like a platypus, dumb service (especially for a shoujo manga) and made-up violence scenes that are pretty bloody (especially for a shoujo manga). But it has Yuri and if you can just take your brain away for 20 minutes at a time, it’s actually enjoyable in it’s own way. Urara and Momoka aren’t a real couple, but that’s pretty much a relief. ^_^
The Puella Magi Madoka Magica movies came out in theaters in the US and on DVD, thanks to Aniplex being so willing to keep up the high-saturation level of the series. They were an interesting alt-story to the Madoka TV anime, and had great visual impact…and, even if the story didn’t play out as positively as the TV anime, that was a good thing, too. This series is showing surprising longevity in Japan, so I’m not entirely sure if we’re saying goodbye to it just yet.
Rewatching this series was a real eye-opener for me. I had forgotten just how Yuri and BL this series was, and wow, does the action and art hold up well. As much as Tomoyo was the Yuri torch-bearer to generations of Yuri fans, she can barely hold a candle to her mother, Sonomi. This is one of the best “magical girl anime made for girls” series ever, really.
Riddle Story of a Devil was was a “Yuri” anime because we were told it was, but there was some interesting sexual tension and random partnering to make up for the lack of affection. The action was good, the plot full of holes, but as a modern version of Seraphim Call-like character scenarios tied up by a ribbon story, it was entertaining. It’s not timeless, but we looked forward to it being on air and enjoyed the heck out of it while we watched it. That’s a good enough reason for me to include it on this list. ^_^
I know you know that I didn’t much care for the anime. But setting that aside, it was a fairly significant series – a Yuri romance anime, nuthin’ else but Yuri. No gimmicks, no pretend drama, just straight up “Story A.” While I did not care for the thigh-staring, and the creepy male gaze of the camera, there is no doubt that Yu loves Haruka, Haruka loves Yu, they love each other. The end.
I toyed with making this my number one choice for the year. Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san was, to me, the most enjoyable advertised-as-Yuri anime of the year. It was silly, and actually funny in places, and light-hearted and goofy. There are any number of potential pairings and a few actual couples, but the anime kept the Yuri mostly in the imagination of the leads…and I enjoyed it. From the insanely adorable opening theme, right to every stupid animal pun, Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san made me smile.
I watched Book One of this series back in winter 2013, and marathoned Books 2-4 over the past few weeks and I have to say…this may well be one of the greatest animated series ever made. It blasts through the Bechdel Test and the Friedman Addendum…and it’s an awesome ride all the while. Legend of Korra has everything I’ve ever wanted in an animated series – amazing characters, great action and lovely animation and a female lead who has a life and family and friends and complexity and morally ambiguous bad guys. The stories are well written, the dialogue sounds human. And in Book 4 we got something else. We got the ‘ship we’d been keeping one eye on the whole time. We got Korra and Asami.
