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2003 Yaoi Con Report by LS

Friday, October 17, 2003

In a move that could get me fired from my job, I decided to throw caution to the wind and caught a 7 am flight to sunny California. Registration didn’t start until 4 p.m. and I was feeling exhausted given that my only sleep had been on the plane. As soon as I hit the registration wait room and started seeing fellow con-goers in costume, however, I began to feel the excitement. I knew that this would be a different sort of con when one of the announcers, in discussing a mistake that had been made called it “a little cock up” and a con-goer shouted, “awww, we want big cocks up!” Yup, I think I’m going to enjoy myself here. On a side note, I received several nice reactions to my shirt for the day, which featured a very nice picture of a half-naked Yohji. But I digress. Registration actually was efficient, organized, and fast. Now all I had to do was wait for LLL & Co. to appear and to see her reaction.

LLL had no clue I was in San Francisco and, in fact, believed that I would never come within 100 miles of Y-Con. I never bothered to disabuse her of that notion because it was far too amusing to listen to her beg and whine and pout about what I would be missing. I had actually had my convention and hotel registrations for months. And I never lied to her, not exactly. I simply said that I didn’t feel like dealing with the hordes of GW Yaoi fans that would inundate Y-Con and that was true since I don’t like GW yaoi. I kept calling her on her cell, asking what she was doing, inquiring about the con and questioning her about when exactly she would be getting back to the hotel. Sweet, naïve, trusting little thing thought I was calling to share in her fun vicariously, never realizing that I was simply digging for information. So when LLL smugly told me that she was going down to the con to have fun and ha, ha, ha, I was missing it all, I went downstairs and waited by the elevator. Her expression really was priceless. I walked up to her and she kept looking at me as though she recognized who I was but refused to accept it because I was not supposed to be there. She finally just had to shake her head.

There was some down time after that so we grabbed some food and I took a quick nap. Everyone else went to the GW panel and I caught the end of the Yaoi Comedy sketch and then went to Yaoi Bingo. This was the first time for Yaoi Bingo and I think it’s safe to assume that it will become a well-loved and time-honored Y-con tradition. The anticipation began as we lined up to get in and managed to sneak a glimpse into the room. I saw a good-looking man in a military uniform. I knew that this would be good. Earlier that day, I had gotten a glimpse of the definition of bishounen – a boy who was break-your-neck-to-get-a-second-look beautiful. Well, I got to see him up close and personal while waiting to get into Bingo and learned that it was Shiki, the con mascot. OMG, he is BEAUTIFUL. I just had to stare and stare and stare.

Anyway, I grabbed seats front and center at the bingo tables. The Master of Ceremonies was the Mistress of Shounen-ai (read: dominatrix) and certainly played the part. She taught us some proper con terminology. When one participant yelled out that his bingo card sucked (cause he wasn’t winning) she informed him that at Y-Con, sucking was a good thing, as was blowing and biting. Therefore, to indicate something bad, one must refer to it as “corn,” the only REALLY bad thing in the yaoi world. The bish of the hour was Harley. Imagine a younger Hugh Jackman – the boy was ripped. Suddenly, I wasn’t tired anymore. The rules were simple. Whoever got bingo could choose a gift wrapped goodie box as a prize or could remove an article of clothing from Harley. The first few winners actually chose the boxes. Yes, there were some nice gifts in the boxes but come one people!!! Where are your priorities! Things started to get rolling eventually and, since my current cards were corn, I found myself buying more and more bingo sheets, not just for the chance to win but because Shiki was passing the cards out. Well, there were others but my table mate [her name] and I made sure it was Shiki – in tight black leather low rider pants and an unbuttoned sheer black shirt – who sold us our bingo tickets. I’ve never had so much fun playing bingo! LLL eventually joined us as off came the clothes: jacket-midriff bearing t-shirt-belt-boots & socks-pants-boxers. He kept his hat on. Unfortunately, the girl who won the honor of removing the bikini briefs had a private showing, lucky wench. Still, it was lots of fun. Afterwards, draped in a bathrobe, Harley posed for pictures. The room was a lot warmer by the end of the night than it was when we started out. With a much lighter wallet but lots of great pictures, I retired to my room, which was just mine, and only I was there and I had the whole room to myself, and went to sleep.


Saturday, October 18, 2003

LLL and I, dressed as Ayame and Hatori, made it downstairs to stand in line to wait to get into the dealers’ room by 8 a.m. and costume watched. Artists’ Alley was right in front of the dealer’s room. The Alley was very small but the quality of the few people who were there was excellent (Sihaya was there after all). The only reason I didn’t buy more was because most of works were GW based. Much damage was done in the dealers’ room, however. The room was small but the diversity and selection was wonderful. There were several tables featuring original artwork and doujinshis and lots of well known fan artists (I was able to meet P. L. Nunn). The DJ collection was fantastic; the hot bisshi pin dealer was there; there were tons of manga. So I loaded up on DJs, pins, official Y-Con merchandise, pillows, and a bunch of other stuff I probably didn’t need but who’s keeping count.

We had to leave the dealers’ room to make it to the panel “Male-Male Eroticism in Edo Japan: Nanshoku.” It was a good panel and basically discussed the history of man-boy relationships and homosexuality during the Shogunate and how such relationships were depicted in and influenced the art and literature. It was very similar to how the ancient Greeks viewed same-sex relationships. The only problem with the panel was that the topic is so dense that it was impossible to do more than scratch the surface.

There was tons of interesting sounding panels, so many in fact, that, after a quick trip to the art room (very small without much there), we just decided to go back to the dealers’ room. Again, I spent too much money but got some nice doujinshis. There were so many good artists that I was torn and tempted. And in need of a trip to the ATM. And food. And then I was finally able to sit down in my room and lovingly review everything that I had bought.

After that, while LLL was participating in the “Writing Lemony” panel, I went down to the “Yaoi in Academia” panel. It was a good panel that gave a general overview of how anime in general and yaoi and boys’ love in particular have been treated in academia, what scholarly works there are about the subject and the academic potential for yaoi both here and in Japan. It was fascinating to hear about the academic study of yaoi/anime/manga and remembering how I really got into the numerous issues surrounding slash/pop-culture/feminism/when I was in college. The “perverse”, sub-cultures, and the deconstruction of societal norms, man how I loved that. It made me wish I were back in school again. Once that panel was done it was on to the Fruits Basket discussion group. It was nice to be in a room with other fans, listening to how they felt about the show, discussing theories and potential plot developments, etc. Sihaya’s fashionably late entrance dressed as Yuki in the dress was particularly noteworthy and appreciated by the other fans. Usually, I am not big on “discussion” groups without any real topic because they generally turn into support groups or gush sessions but at the FURBA panel, all of that was kept to a minimum.

LLL left to go to the second part of the Anime Music Video Panel. The panel was really cool. The participants literally got a hands-on education in making an anime music video by actually making a video to the hysterical song, “They’re Coming to Take Me Away.” Look for LLL’s own video entry using all the skills she learned here at next years’ Y-Con. I, meanwhile, went to the “Girls Want to Know” discussion. Imagine five openly gay and very honest men who are willing and able to answer questions about ANYTHING and that was this panel. While a large number of people (waaaay too many in my opinion) kept asking crappy questions about the socio-political implications of gay culture and the cultural impact as defined by historical reference (they obviously thought they were still in the Academia panel), we finally got to the good stuff, i.e., the essentials of gay sex. I considered listing some of the things I learned here but this is a good, clean, family site after all. ^^ Well, OK, an interesting bit of terminology. “Fag Hag,” a term many of us know, is for a heterosexual woman who is close friends with a gay man, strictly platonically speaking. If you’re the type who’s looking for action that goes beyond the “friend” variety (or just want to watch such action) then you are, technically, a “Girl Fag.” After that I was finally able to go upstairs to the room and escape from the binding that was required for Hatori. After the change it was time to search for food because LLL and I wanted to make sure that we made it back in time for the Bishounen Auction.

Ahhh, the Bishounen Auction. The line was long and started forming early. We were joined by a large group that included Artemis and Susan, who were great Yuki & Suuichi cosplayers. We also saw Sihaya, dressed as Hisoka this time. Talk about seeking perfection in cosplaying; she even had the curse sigils drawn on her body. This year there were about 20 men up for sale, a large increase from last year. And oh the variety – there were kitty boys, soldier boys, ninja boys, whores, virgins, cross-dressers, angels, and even The One. The auction became quite a rowdy event. The theme this year seemed to be bisshie farms and one woman would buy several boys, often having the boys she already owned bid on the new ones. And the boys were certainly enthusiastic, whoring off their fellow bisshoune and often jumping up on stage for impromptu make-out and/or stripping sessions. One bisshi, dressed as Neo from the Matrix, refused to remove any clothing and ended up being stripped down to his undies by the other bishounen. Others who had asked for women-only bidding threw caution and prudishness to the winds and opened themselves to all bidders. (double entendre intended). And then there was Harley – dressed as the kind of angel we all hope to see in heaven. Harley played his role to the max, flexing, posing, pouting, and showing off his delectable, practically naked body to its best advantage. The bidding was intense and it seemed that the Y-Con artist was going to be the lucky girl to own the angel when a new bidder entered the fray – Sakurai Shushushu, the convention guest of honor. She was already the proud owner of one bishounen but wanted the cream of the crop (pun intended) for her man-stable. It was a great battle but the crowd’s sympathies lay with Sakurai-sensei and the audience began to give money to her so she could keep upping her bid. Proud patrons of the arts that we are, LLL and I felt that it was our civic duty to contribute to the cause. So with a wad of contributed American money in her hands, her translator counted her well got gains and Harley went for the unheard of price of one grand. Go Sakurai-sensei! Hope she had fun with her boys at the dance. Can’t wait to see her next manga.

I thought about going to the dance just to see the masters playing with their new pets but decided to go sigh over my own new possessions and get ready for the very early morning we had planned for tomorrow.

Sunday, October 19, 2003

We were up before 7 a.m. because we wanted to go to the video room to see two shows we hadn’t seen before, Patariro and Yousei Ou. We missed the beginning of Patariro but the anime was hilarious (“bishounen killer”). Yousei Ou, a sweet shounen-ai fairy tale, also is one that I would like to see again. We had to leave the video room to get breakfast and prepare for LLL’s public debut as a karaoke singer. While she went over her lines and prepared herself mentally for the fight ahead, I played runner, getting her tea and giving her updates on what was playing in the video room. We both ran out to catch our favorite parts of Kizuna OVA 3 (is there any better yaoi OVA in the world?) and Boku no Sucky Sucky. And then it was time. The contestants ranged from the humorous to sublime – there was even a rap. After a fierce competition with lots of sweat, blood and tears, the champions were chosen – LLL won third place.

After food, more dealers’ room exploration, and a look in on the art auction, I went to “Snape and Draco’s Guide to Reading Yaoi Doujinshis.” The description in the con guide was not exactly accurate and the “panel” really had no point and quickly got very boring if you were not a fanatical HP slash fan. I left and wandered around a bit and then LLL and I caught the very end of the “What’s Your Kink” panel. That panel was surprisingly tame, hell even conservative. Nothing new, scandalous or particularly weird came out, just your run-of-the mill kinks: fetishism, voyeurism, blood play, necrophilia, incest, rape fantasies, rope play and bondage, S&M, orgies, partner swapping, you know, the usual.

By then it was time for the art auction. There were not that many items to auction off and the bidding was very, very tame, which surprised me since everyone at the con had to be an adult and thus, should have had more money. Hell, the bidding was fiercer at every other con I’ve been to. Anyway, several of the bisshies from the auction the night before served as Art Whores, displaying the artwork. Win a piece of art and you also got the chance to spank the bisshie. I bid on two items just because the prices were so low. Not wanting to go against con rules, I resigned myself to having to spank Shiki’s tight little ass as he was the whore displaying one of the pieces I won. Really, the things I’m forced to do.

The “Foods Corrupted by Yaoi” panel had been canceled so LLL and I hung out at Sihaya’s art table until closing ceremonies. I love how she draws the FURBA characters and we also got a first look at the initial sketches of a Weiss commission LLL and I were having her do. I was also impressed, once again, at her cosplay repertoire – today it was Saiyuki. Closing Ceremonies were short and sweet. Awards were handed out, honors were given, yadda, yadda, yadda. LLL and I got very nice pieces of jewelry as awards for the Y-Con photo contest. Guess I better start thinking of new and better ideas for next year’s contest. And then the con was over. I checked out of my room and then just sat around as we attempted the monumental task of gathering a large number of people in one place at one time for an organized dinner together. It took over an hour but we were finally able to make it to dinner at the Italian restaurant across the street. Then it was back to the hotel to catch the shuttle to the airport for the long, overnight trip back the East Coast and the harsh reality that I had to go straight from the airport to work.