Welcome to Okazu for a very exciting event report! This past July 4th weekend, at Anime Expo, Yuri had a significant presence. Kodansha and Comic Yuri Hime partnered for a really exciting booth that prominently featured Yuri titles. Kinokuniya hosted Aonoshimo-sensei, the artist for the I’m In Love With The Villainess manga, and the I’m In Love With The Villainess anime episodes 1 and 2 made their worldwide premiere!  To tell us all about it, please welcome Alfiq, who was there in the thick of the excitement!

AX 2023: A Yuri Odyssey

(or, “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Con”)

They came from far and wide–from every corner of the US, from across the Pacific, and from other far-flung locations.  They came by plane, by train, by car, and on foot.  Their destination was the Los Angeles Convention Center, set to join the teeming mass of otaku humanity otherwise known as Anime Expo 2023. While not the first, the sheer size and impact of the event had me borrowing the tagline of another Southern California institution: this was the granddaddy of them all, a con that multiple people told me I was crazy to attempt to attend, especially as it would be this older otaku’s first-ever anime con.  But the power of yuri compelled me, as this would be an opportunity I could not allow myself to miss.  Aonoshimo-sensei, the mangaka for I’m in Love with the Villainess, would be there for a signing event on the first day, and then on the final day the ILTV anime would have its worldwide premiere–a first for the yuri genre.

But first, a little introduction is in order.  My friends in the ILTV fandom call me “fwwr” (usually said like “fwer”) or, alternatively, Alfiq.  I can be found on Twitter at @alfiqrailbaron or on Discord at fwwr_alfiq.  I first got into anime two decades ago, as a college student with a Japanophile roommate.  I still remember the day that he called me over into the living room of our shared off-campus apartment, put a DVD into the tray and suggested that I give this particular anime a watch with him.  It will be fun, it’s hilarious, et cetera.  The show was Project A-ko, and I was hooked.  For the remainder of our time at college I was helping with my roommate’s Sailor Stars fan-subs and watching along with other shows, from mainstream names like Cowboy Bebop to less-familiar titles like Mamotte Shugogetten.  As is always the case, however, time and fate kept marching onward, and after graduation we largely went our separate ways in life as my enjoyment of anime and related media receded into dormancy.  It wasn’t until almost twenty years later, while stuck at home thanks to Covid isolation and lockdowns, that I would stumble across a “cute and funny manga” that would touch my heart in ways I didn’t know were possible, change the entire trajectory of my life, and introduce me to an absolute wealth of wonderful people and amazing stories.  I’m in Love with the Villainess was that manga, which led me to the novels (two were out in English at the time), which led me to the webnovel, which led me to feeling personally compelled in ways I had never felt before to seek out the greater community of fans with which to talk about it.  ILTV was something I never knew I needed, but now could never imagine my life without.  When news broke of the goings-on for AX, my wife even pushed me to go for it.  “This is a big deal, a once-in-a-lifetime thing, just go and make it happen.”  I cashed-in untold frequent flyer miles and Hilton points, and negotiated to split costs with another dear friend in the fandom.  The stage was set, and before I knew it I was touching-down at LAX and meeting up with my partner in Yuri and dad-jokes, Kit.  The morning of Day One would be an experience, and we got what sleep we could.

Day One dawned and a local friend from the fandom picked us up bright-and-early at the hotel.  I can’t stress enough the importance of having knowledge from an AX veteran, as witnessed when our friend readily identified “fake lines” and other pitfalls that would very likely have ensnared us without her help and expertise as a previous attendee.  Before I knew it, we were inside, a part of the massive agglomeration of people pushing ever forward into the Exhibitor’s Hall to be among the first to partake in special limited bonuses.  Our eyes were on the prize as we scooted towards the Kinokuniya booth and slowly made our way to the registers, the crush of people behind us pushing our bodies against the front of the booth as people handed what merch they could through and over the crowd.  One person in the throng was overheard to say that he had been offered a $500 bounty if he could obtain Aonoshimo-sensei’s autograph!  I could see the pad of tickets for Aonoshimo-sensei’s signing slowly dwindle, but in making it to the cashier table with my companions close behind, our victory was all but assured.  I spent my required $50 minimum on ILTV products and then carefully made my way out of the booth, waiting patiently for my friends to join me, and thankfully once we all rendezvoused we all held autograph tickets in our hands.  Success!  We then proceeded to the Kodansha booth next door, where we could get Yuri-themed buttons for participating in a couple of activities (one led by an attendant dressed as Hime-chan from Yuri is My Job), and then slowly worked our way over to the King Records booth in the Entertainment Hall, where we obtained ILTV postcards.  After that, we managed to find a relatively quiet room with vending machines and tables where we were able to catch our breath and rehydrate, and talk about the experience so far as we waited-out the clock until 1pm.

We returned to the Kinokuniya booth to find that things had fallen into a much more organized pattern, with shoppers being let into the booth in one line and the autograph queue in another.  We took our spots in line and slowly moved forward, and before long found ourselves at the front of the line before the partition that would let people into the corner where Aonoshimo-sensei was.  All was not running entirely according to plan, however, as apparently Kinokuniya had given out a few more tickets than the advertised fifty, and this realization had become clear just as we reached the front of the line.  Aonoshimo-sensei took a break at this time, which we presumed also involved her gathering materials and preparing additional drawings for the remaining people in line, since she had graciously created drawings for everyone as a special gift in anticipation of there being fifty total participants.  (She’s indeed a superwoman, as series author Inori-sensei herself often tweets!)

Finally, the signing session resumed.  Kit was the first into the signing corner, and then it was my turn.  The butterflies in my stomach felt absolutely tangible–I was about to meet the mangaka behind the manga adaptation of the story which has brought so much joy into my life these past few years.  And then, there I was, face-to-face with Aonoshimo-sensei herself!  I know virtually no Japanese, but there were a couple of Kinokuniya employees there to help.  What followed only took a few minutes at most, but will be seared into my memories for all time. (Twitter link to the drawings from Aonishimo-sensei)

In a word, Aonoshimo-sensei is adorable.  She came across as very happy and eager to meet the fans, and she felt honored that I had traveled from relatively far away to be there.  I was wearing a button with an illustration of my favorite character that she had previously drawn for me in a raffle win (said favorite character may appear in the manga in about five or six years, so please keep supporting it!), and upon recognizing the illustration her face absolutely lit up with joy and excitement.  I also retrieved a makeshift wand from my pocket and mimicked a casting motion, revealing that I had been in a sort of “low budget, washed-up Rodd Bauer” cosplay all along, and she was very excited to make the connection!  She pointed to a chibi of Rodd and I nodded–that was me, for the day!  I had brought a copy of the Japanese edition of Volume 5 of the manga to be signed (those who know, will know about “that scene” that we finally got to see in it!) and she signed it, adding a Relaire that included an identifying feature tied to my favorite character.  (I noticed her using my button as an off-the-cuff character reference!).  Along with my book, I received a beautiful mini-illustration of Lily Lilium in her AX outfit and, as a special surprise, a color card of the ILTV AX chibis hand-signed by Inori-sensei herself!  All too soon, my moment was over, and I shook Aonoshimo-sensei’s hand and wished her safe travels before returning to the rest of the Kinokuniya booth.  With that, I had met Aonoshimo-sensei herself, and had in my possession her autograph personally-obtained along with Inori-sensei’s as well.  Exhausted from the early start and packed-like-sardines conditions, Kit and I returned to the hotel and called it a day.

The next two days we largely did our own thing; on Sunday Kit and our local friend attended several sessions and a vtuber concert and had an absolute blast, while I took advantage of the Metrolink $10 weekend pass to indulge in another of my passions, railroad photography.  We met back up for dinner along with another local friend in Little Tokyo and enjoyed a spirited discussion of Madoka: Rebellion over ramen and drinks.  Monday, Kit and I ventured into Artist’s Alley where many purchases were made, despite my wallet crying out to Jupiter and beyond the infinite.  One artist as I browsed her booth even opened her catalog to reveal a Project A-ko print, as if she somehow sensed that it would have importance to me.  (It most certainly did!)  We finished the day with another trip to Little Tokyo, browsing shops and the Kinokuniya store, before capping things off with another wonderful dinner with more friends from the fandom.

Tuesday, we had precisely one objective: attend the ILTV world premiere.  We stationed ourselves in-line as the prior session was letting folks in, and patiently waited for our turn to enter the large premiere room.  We eventually did, and took our spots front-and-center.  Time slowed to a crawl as people slowly filtered in behind us, until eventually one of the Crunchyroll staff announced the proceedings.  ILTV had top-billing in the listings I had seen, but an unannounced additional series, Reign of the Seven Spellblades, would have its first episode shown first.  It looks interesting, and I may investigate further as I understand that Inori-sensei has tweeted about enjoying the series’ novels in the past, but it received relatively tepid applause–it was clear what series people were there for, and as the room absolutely erupted when Rae Taylor appeared on the screen.

We were not shown OPs or EDs for the series, so we jumped right into the action.  The first two episodes tracked relatively closely to the manga, with just a few details differing or being slightly re-ordered.  We also were not shown credits, so while we heard several new-to-us voices, we don’t know for sure who the VAs are.  Those that we did encounter for the first time were almost universally spot-on to my impression of what they would have been.  I remain just a bit unsure of Rodd’s voice, as it came across as slightly too immature-sounding to me, but yet (as Kit reminded me) Rodd himself starts the series as an immature “bro” type of character.  I suspect his voice will grow on me greatly as the series continues onward.

The visuals were absolutely gorgeous.  Claire’s gazebo, where Pepi and Loretta so often commiserate with her over Rae’s hijinks, looked stunningly beautiful in a painting-like setting with water and forestry adding to the environmental effect.  The instrumentals were perfect, with wonderful piano and string motifs (particularly appropriate, in fact, for those of you who have read the spinoff series SSCC) providing an aural feast to accompany Rae’s taunting and Claire’s screeches.  And, of course, that magnificent ojou-sama laugh of Claire’s could finally be heard in all of its villainously villainess glory!  I won’t spoil specific content here, but suffice it to say that I was smiling from ear-to-ear for the entire time, and cheers and applause from around the room erupted at many key scenes and revelations.  ILTV absolutely had a solid following present, and even fans sitting near us who had said they were there for other series still found plenty to laugh and cheer for in ILTV.  Indeed, upon ILTV’s conclusion, over half of the room emptied-out despite a concluding Spellblades autographed art raffle having been advertised at the beginning.

With that, our time at AX itself was complete.  There were challenges, to be sure, and I don’t think my legs and feet have forgiven me quite yet from all the walking and standing that were required.  Cost and time are finite commodities, and I know that I was lucky to have some external factors (such as frequent flyer miles) come together to help make this happen for me.  But regardless, the memories made and the experiences shared with friends in the fandom are going to stick with me for a long time yet to come.  It was important to me to be there–a sense of obligation and compulsion that I hadn’t felt since when I first finished ILTV, and immediately knew that I just had to reach out and find others to talk about it.  The passion that grew from that experience carried me to AX, and now I feel almost as if I’ve evolved as a fan to a higher level of existence.  As one friend said, “if you can survive AX, all the other cons out there will be a breeze.”  While I’m not in any particular hurry to test that hypothesis, I certainly have more confidence in myself now about it.  It’s ultimately yet another way that ILTV and yuri have helped me to continue to grow as a person.

Now, if only I could find a way to enter cold-sleep until the anime airs in October….

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“Hime-chan” at the Kodansha booth

Yuri is My Job banner hanging above the Kodansha booth

Whisper Me a Love Song banner hanging above the Kodansha booth

A giant Comic Yuri Hime mock-up as part of the Kodansha booth.  Sharp eyes may spot where Aonoshimo-sensei surreptitiously signed the ILTV illustration in-person.

Posters in the Kinokuniya booth for ILTV, Whisper Me a Love Song, and Yuri is My Job

ILTV merch in the Kinokuniya booth

ILTV banner, prominently hanging among many others promoting upcoming Crunchyroll offerings

ILTV banner, prominently hanging among many others promoting upcoming Crunchyroll offerings

VICTORY!

Erica here: Well, what a fabulous time and a fabulous report! I was grinning ear-to-ear myself reading this. I remember the enormous scale of Anime Expo from 20 years ago, I cannot imagine what it is like now. Thank you so much Alfiq for giving us an insider view of the Yuriest Expo ever.

E here: Just as a footnote – there have been three Yuri anime that have had premiers in the US. Yuricon 2007’s Yurisai event held the US premiere of Simoun, Anime NYC had the North American premiere of Kase-san and Morning Glories in 2018, but as far as I know, this was definitely the first Yuri world premiere!

Also, let us talk about the fact that two different Yuri publishers had a presence on the floor, and industry panels and with an anime. I’m only sorry that Seven Seas wasn’t there and that I also was not there. ^_^;

Thanks again Alfiq for the great report.