Last weekend my girlfriend Amy (@phoenix_red) and I went to Sakura-Con, where we did a yuri panel on Saturday night from 9:00 to 10:15 pm. In previous years (like here, here, here, here, here, and here), I have written about panels (or panel-esque events) that I have hosted. Rather than just tell you about this one, I uploaded my recording of it onto SoundCloud (link here) and have uploaded the transcription I made of it onto Google Docs (link here.) You can also see the slideshow slides here.
I was initially very annoyed at Sakura-Con because they charged Amy and I admission, since the standard practice at cons is not to charge panelists admission and Sakura-Con didn't make it clear that their policy differed beforehand, but I still really enjoyed the weekend and had a lot of fun doing that panel. Other things I attended: the MINT and Angelic Pretty fashion shows, the latter of which was especially fun even though I'm not interested in wearing Lolita fashion myself; the Attack on Titan Q&A, with Mikasa's voice actress Ishikawa Yui and AoT's producer Kinoshita Tetsuya; the Noitamina panel where Amy and I won a Noitamina commemorative book in a raffle; and the Attack on Titan autograph signing where I had my copy of volume 10 of the manga signed.
The panel was a lot of fun, and it got way more people than I expected. It was a "Whoah!" moment in the best way to see this line on arriving to our panel's room.
And here you can see the audience below.
The panel started later than expected because of technical issues, but Amy was a badass and got shit resolved, together with Edward Elric. Before the panel started, one of our moderators, an Ariel from The Little Mermaid cosplayer (I was surprised by how much Disney cosplay there was, even not counting all the Elsas from Frozen) warned us that some people in the audience might ask inappropriate questions because of our panel topic and that we didn't need to answer anything that made us uncomfortable, but that didn't happen. The audience was pretty great.
Amy's and my friend Ben, who designs games including a yuri one mentioned in the presentation (he recently did a BL game also), our other friend Ben, who is the creator of the Licensed Heroes webcomic, and our friend Jake, who creates the Modest Medusa webcomic, were in town for the con weekend and were able to attend our panel. Adding to the coolness, Kelly (azumarrill.tumblr.com) and Audrey (achievement-hunter.tumblr.com), the awesome Ymir and Christa cosplayers I geekily photographed earlier that day
attended the panel also, resulting in this photo after the slideshow ended.
Anywho, it was a lot fun! Panels are basically a way to geek out with other people who are interested in something you like enough to create a presentation about. For this panel, I redid most of the slides to put more emphasis on trends in yuri. When I put together my first panel, back as a senior in high school, I emailed Okazu's Erica asking for panel advice and she was really nice and gave some good tips, so if you want to do a yuri panel and have any questions about it, feel free to ask me.
The fact that an Edward Elric helped you guys resolve the technical issues had me giggling, how appropriate!
ReplyDeleteThank you for uploading this wonderful content. I'm not much into animes, being more of a manga fan (Yamaji Ebine above all), but some titles you mentioned tickle my curiosity. I've never thought of Girl Friends as a good yuri manga, I'll check it out next time I come across it.
ReplyDelete@Helen- I did enjoy being able to type that. =D
ReplyDelete@undecoratedwall- I love Yamaji Ebine also! And I'm glad you got some recommendations out of the panel! Girl Friends is pretty great, so I hope you enjoy it. =)
I just got through your presentation and it really looks awesome! I wish I was at Sakura con to see you doing the speech >.< I'm also a bit jealous that you've attended an angelic pretty fashion show.
ReplyDeleteI hope both of you had a great time ♥
@N☆WAKI- We did, thank you! =) And I'm glad you liked the presentation!
ReplyDeleteActually the one that interests me most is Collectors and I started to look for the American publisher when it struck me that it hasn't been licenced in the US yet. Apart from Girl Friends and Blue Flowers, which are published here in France, is there a yuri series in English that you'd recommend?
ReplyDelete@undecoratedwall- There's a new series that just came out today, actually! Ikeda Takashi's Sasameki Koto is being released by One Peace Books under the title Whispered Words. Its first omnibus just came out today. It's a bit slow at points, but it's still a sweet series about high school best friends who fall in love. Its first omnibus is what just came out, and I plan on reviewing it soon. There is also Morinaga Milk's Kisses, Sighs, and Cherry Blossom Pink collection, which I didn't really talk about but was on one of the slides. Seven Seas, the publisher of Girl Friends and Kisses, is also releasing the first volume of Morinaga Milk's Gakuen Polizi this June. It isn't very yuri yet, but Morinaga has made it clear that its leads will become a couple, and it's a good series with some pleasantly surprising social commentary. Sadly Collectors is indeed unlicensed in the US, but Yen Press licensed 14-sai no Koi, translated as Love at Fourteen, which is a sweet series that ran in Rakuen Le Paradis magazine. Collectors ran in Rakuen Le Paradis also, so I am hopeful that if Love at Fourteen does well, Collectors will stand a better shot at being licensed. (Its author, Mizutani Fuuka, has done a couple good yuri collections- Lonely Wolf, Lonely Sheep especially- for the yuri magazine Tsubomi so good sales of it might help them get licensed also.) Last and kind of least, Seven Seas is releasing volume 1 of a Yuri Hime series called Citrus this December. I don't like it, but I will probably buy it anyway to encourage Seven Seas to license more Yuri Hime manga, in the perhaps foolish hope of their licensing one of the numerous YH titles I like later. Totally understand anyone not getting it, though.
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking time to counsel me, I'm saving your comment into my computer! I thought I passed the age to really enjoy all-girls/all-boys school but still, I'll grab a copy of Whispered Words, it looks sweet.
ReplyDelete@undecoratedwall- Glad to help with recommendations! (Also, kind of refreshingly, the characters in Whispered Words attend a coed school that isn't fancy. I hope you like it!)
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