Dry, Self-Indulgent Post: Conbust 2010 Panel

My panel at Conbust was this evening. ^___^ (Well, technically yesterday evening.) I'm pretty tired (from the overall day, not just the panel), but it was fun. I arrived at the con at about 7:40, and found that my panel was listed as an 18+ panel (whoops... o_o;; I could have shown a clip from Mnemosyne, then...j/k). But since I told the con staff that it's okay for people under 18, I didn't need to have someone checking people's I.D. when they entered the room where the panel was. (Whenever I do my yuri panel at Yasumicon, I always need to keep it okay for people under 18. I don't have any problems with that, since I want anyone to be able to come- and I'm not exactly dying to show clips of Shoujo Sect, or anything, anyway.) The con staff were really nice and helpful. ^^

The panel was pretty much the same as the other panels that I've done, although I tweaked a few things. I listed Mist (a good opportunity for the audience to learn what "ladies' comics" are), Rakuen Le Paradis, Comic Lily, Yuri Shoujo, and Hirari in the section on yuri magazines. (Rakuen Le Paradis isn't yuri-centric, but I included it to illustrate how rare magazines that aren't aimed at a single gender demographic are- as well as the fact that it features yuri, yaoi, and straight romance.) There was also a slide that listed some of the manga magazines that aren't yuri-centric, but still have (and have had) yuri titles running in them- like Afternoon, Comic High!, Margaret, and Ikki. (The magazines that are currently serializing yuri series were in red font, while the rest were in black.) In the "Yuri Anime" section, I added Noir (I didn't include it before because I didn't think that it had "enough" yuri, but since it's a kick-ass series with some yuri, and it was influential on the "girls-with-guns" subgenre...), Ikki Tousen, Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito, Kashimashi, Nanoha, Mnemosyne, Koihime Musou, Canaan, Kanamemo (with a warning to the audience about a certain character), and To Aru Kagaku no Railgun.  I also mentioned Madlax and El Cazador while talking about Noir. I showed clips for some of the series, and went through the "Yuri Manga" section- where I substituted Morishima Akiko's Ruriiro no Yume for Rakuen no Jouken (even though they're both great collections), and added Zettai Shoujo Seiiki Amnesian- not because it's remotely good, but because it's A) a spin-off from Kannazuki no Miko, B) popular among yuri fans because of A, and C) likely to be animated. Finally, I capped the panel with the usual "Yuri To Show To People Who You Despise" section, featuring Fight! Iczer One and the Project ICE OVA.

There was a group of three women at the panel who were especially interested in Marimite, on a professor's recommendation- for a paper about attitudes surrounding virginity in anime. (Sounds like an interesting paper. lol) Everyone who came was really nice and mature. (But not stuffy or anything.) I really like Yasumicon and I love doing my panel there each year, but my panel there always seems to attract a small cluster of gangly pre-teens/younger teens who are there for "zomg- lesbiansecks!!" (But they're in the minority. Most of the people who I've met at my panels are cool.) After the panel, I came back to my dorm to relax... -___-

But yup, another fun panel. ^^ My favorite part is always seeing how the audience reacts to the clips. Oniisama E, Azumanga Daioh, KnM ("Robots!?" and "Whoah, if he just looked down, the whole love triangle could have been resolved!"), Sasameki Koto ("That looks like Ultraman!!"), and Railgun got the biggest laughs. I also like seeing how people react to realizing how many series take place in elite all-girls' schools. ("I read a manga set at an all-girls' school because it looked like it had pretty art, but all the characters did was have sex with each other." "Gokujou Drops?")

I'm looking forward to my next panel this summer. ^^