Kasra's Yaoi-Con 2003 Report
Once again, I headed out to Yaoi-Con with high expectations, all of which are realized in the course of one far too short weekend. Yaoi-Con is more than just a convention; it is a gathering of fans from around the world - many of them creators in their own right, be it prose, video, costuming, or art media - to converge for one wonderful weekend of fun and friendship. Yaoi-Con is without a doubt the friendliest convention I've ever been to; it is also the safest convention I've gone to, in my 10+ years of con-attending.
Trying to describe the convention chronologically fails me, so through this short list of highlights, I hope to give those who attended the con and those who would like to go in the future a feel for my own con experience. As always, your milage may vary, but a con can only be as fun as you allow it to be. ^_^
Again this year, I spent a bit of time at the con snapping pictures of as many cosplayers as I could find. This year, however, there was a special twist - since Starherd was unable to attend, I needed to chronicle as many cosplayers as I could, so as to give her as complete a picture of the con as possible. The following links lead to pictures from each day of the con:
In addition, on the behest of Starherd, I was charged with an extra mission - obtain pictures of as many cosplayers wearing the frilly pink apron she made as possible. The frilly pink apron was quite a hit, in fact - by the end of the con, we had cosplayers coming up and requesting to be photographed in it!
The Frilly Pink Apron FilesA great big THANK YOU to everyone who had their picture taken in the apron - Starherd absolutely loved it!
Admittedly, this was a bit of a lazy year for me costuming at the con. With all of the crazy stuff going on in my life around me, I couldn't summon the energy to put together a completely new costume for the con. Rather, I touched up a couple of older costumes, and brought out the Gluhen Aya costume for another round, since very few people actually got to see me in it at either Fanime or San Diego Comic-Con.
For Friday I wore my old Duo Maxwell costume, which, unsurprisingly, was the most popular costume of the three. It's a very simple priest shirt (bought from a Catholic supply store) with white sleeves sewn on, black pants, boots, black baseball hat, and a cross. Very simple, very comfortable, very off the shelf, but very fun - I think it was the first time I'd ever been tackleglomped in costume. I love cosplaying Duo.
Saturday's costume was the most involved of the three. Back in June, Starherd had made me Aya's white coat and cross neck scarf from Weiss Kreuz Gluhen. I'd pulled the rest of it together on my own, raiding thrift stores and sales to get the boots, pants, and shirt. The red crosses on the gauntlets were attached with a glue gun, and stitched in place for the duration of the con. A cheap plastic katana, retouched in black shortly before the con, and a pair of purple contact lenses completed the outfit. I was joined by Jessie, who was dressed in Starherd's Gluhen Ken costume. We made up the roving Gluhen fanservice team.
Sunday cosplayers were sparse, as to be expected - it being the last day of the con, many people were leaving for flights later that evening, so most chose to not dress up. I opted for the simple route, and wore my Watari costume from last year. While in the dealer room, I even managed to get a picture with four of us in the same costume! I was in labcoat heaven.
Once again, I was highly impressed with the amount of work put into many of the costumes at the con. Everyone in costume at the con looked terrific, and the cosplayers were among the friendliest I've ever dealt with at any con.
Tradition dictates that I go to at least one panel for every con I attend. This year, I made it to four panels: Gundam Wing, Central Park Media, Old School Weiss vs. Gluhen, and Alternate Pairings.
Friday night was the Gundam Wing panel, which admittedly was the main motivation for me wearing my Duo costume that day. Once again there was a completely packed panel this year. Discussion topics ranged from the usual introduction (name and pairing preferences), to "How has the fandom changed over time?", and finally, "What draws you back to the fandom?" Caer kept the panel running smoothly, moderating to prevent character and pairing bashing, and keep the flow of discussion moving. Overall I felt it was an improvement over the GW panel the previous year.
On Saturday I managed to make it to two panels - Central Park Media, and Old School Weiss vs. Gluhen. When I'd seen that Central Park Media (CPM) was having a panel at Yaoi-Con, I immediately scheduled out that time for me to attend the panel. I'd attended their panels at other cons in the past, and after the con where they referred to Yami no Matsuei as "that show about gay undead detectives" I knew I had to go to their Yaoi-Con panel. It was filled with their usual dose of humor, and liberal number of goodies as well - exclusive Descendents of Darkness tshirts and magnets, an Utena pin, and a free CPM DVD for everyone that came to the panel. In addition, they announced they would be translating the Kizuna manga, and that they had formed a licensing relationship with the Japanese yaoi magazine BeXBoy. The CPM reps continually solicited suggestions from the audience as to what kind of anime/manga they would like to see, and how they would prefer to see it presented. It was a very informative panel, I think, for both congoers and Central Park Media. I hope they return again next year.
In contrast, I admit a little disappointment with the Weiss panel. It felt like more a recap of Gluhen, rather than a discussion of the differences and merits of the two seemingly disparate (though in fact, connected) series. It seemed as if the panel was primarily anti-Gluhen, which (as I sat in the audience in my Gluhen Aya costume) made me want for a more balanced discussion. But that could just be the fierce Gluhen fangirl in me, I admit. Overall, it still was a fun panel, and I got to see a lot of Weiss cosplayers there (both "old school" and Gluhen), so it was definitely worth attending.
Sunday is usually a slow day for panels, but this year I already had my Sunday panel picked out - I was on the discussion panel for the Alternate Pairings panel being run by Caer. We'd conceived of the idea after attending last year's Gundam Wing panel and feeling drowned out by the mainstream pairing crowd. Many of the writers we interact with on a daily basis write primarily alternate/rare pairings, and we wanted to bring a discussion together about why we write (or draw, or even just read) these alternate pairings, and how we can promote them within our respective fandoms. One of the popular topics of discussion was the slashing of pretty boys together, regardless of chemistry - both as it applied to illogical popular pairings (Aragorn/Legolas, rather than Legolas/Gimli) and how it affected so-called rare pairings (such as Treize/Quatre, who have never met in canon, but have a small, devoted following). It was an excellent discussion, and with any luck, we'll be able to run the panel again next year.
After our very surprising show at Yaoi-Con 2002, it was with admittedly some apprehension that Starherd and I approached making AMVs for the con this year; after last year, how could we ever top "Possession"? As the summer slipped away, and costumes and other cons took away all of our time, we panicked when we realized the deadline was already upon us. We decided we'd make two brand new videos, and send a couple older vids that had been up for download for a while, but hadn't yet been shown to a wide con audience yet.
Some last minute freaking out on my part, an extended deadline for submissions, and an all-night iMovie-to-Premiere session later, and the vids were burned onto cd, the forms were signed, and we were finally committed, perhaps in more ways than one. The only thing left to fret over was whether or not the videos themselves would properly work on the AMV coordinator's machine, and if they'd even be played at all at the con.
Saturday afternoon brought me to the AMV contest, and Anneke from Baka Deshi Productions got me a seat up front, as one of the vidders in attendance. Both she and Jessie were responsible for keeping me from passing out during the contest itself, since I damn near had a nervous breakdown every time one our AMVs started playing, I was shaking so badly. To hear the crowd cheer after each one, however - there's really no feeling that can describe it. I wish I could have taken Starherd's video camera and recorded it, but since she was due to go into labor at any minute then, my verbal recounting the next day had to suffice. So many terrific AMVs - how could we possibly compete with that?
The awards were announced late Sunday afternoon, during Closing Ceremonies. In my mixed-up, exhausted brain, I'd convinced myself it started at 5, rather than 4, and was getting the lowdown on Starherd's baby from my husband over the phone when the AMV awards were announced downstairs. When I got off of the phone and came to my senses, I rushed downstairs and discovered (from a very excited Jessie) that "Descent" - our new Yami no Matsuei AMV - had won both "Audience Award - Best Drama" and "Judge's Award - Matching Theme". After the Closing Ceremonies were over, I went up and fetched the prize and certificates to deliver to Starherd at the hospital.
Currently, only two of the AMVs shows at the contest are available for download via the web, but we will put the others up for download at animemusicvideos.org in the near future. In the meantime, you can request them via AIM from kasra77 or SilverDilandau. Descriptions of the AMVs entered in the Yaoi-Con 2003 AMV contest can be found here:
WTF Productions Yaoi-Con 2003 AMV page
For more of our AMVs, please visit the main WTF Productions website: Wingboys & Two Fangirls Anime Music Videos
Between the requisite multiple trips to the dealer room, random schmoozing with fangirls and friends, and general silliness, I also managed to make it to the Cosplay Contest, about half of the Bishouen Auction, and the dance. The costumes and skits for the Cosplay Contest were very impressive, all of the bishounen in the auction were, of course, amazing, and the dance... well, I was probably most disappointed that they went with djs this year instead of having Secret Secret perform again. But it was still a fun dance, and I managed to get a few fun pictures out of it. Unfortunately, because the Bishounen Auction ran overtime, the dance started late, and was cut short at 2am by hotel security. Maybe next year the con will held in a more reasonable hotel - if there was any one complaint I heard over and over during the weekend, it was concerning the rudeness of hotel security. (Con security, on the other hand, was terrific, and did a great job of crowd control as necessary.)
There was never a dearth of things to do, be it panels to attend, anime in the viewing room, or even just chatting about the intricacies of Transformers yaoi up in someone's hotel room.
And lastly...
Starherd, my costuming and AMV-making fangirl partner-in-crime, was unable to attend Yaoi-Con due to much more urgent personal issues that weekend - namely, a baby that was due to deliver at any time. When I got back to my apartment on Saturday night at 3:30am, I'd received news from my husband that she had been admitted to the hospital and gone into labor. Sunday morning, as I left my apartment for the hour drive north to the con at 8:30am, little did I know that at that same moment, Cade Alexander Gleason had finally made his entrance into this world.
I put together a quick little page with some a few pictures (including quite possibly the most shocking picture of a Ken Hidaka cosplayer in existence):
Yaoi-Con 2003 was an incredible experience, and I have many people to thank for it. First off, huge thank yous to all of the organizers for putting together an awesome con. Thank you also to the volunteers, without which the con would not have run as smoothly, if at all. Thank you to all of the wonderful people I met over the course of the weekend, and to all of the cosplayers who graciously allowed me to photograph them in their costumes. A big hug to my husband, for accommodating me and my crazy plans (and requisite horde of fangirls in our apartment) for the entire weekend, even going so far as to give two girls rides to the train station the morning after, while I dropped the others off at the airport. Another big hug for Starherd (and Todd and Cade, by extension), for helping me get ready for the con despite being unable to attend. And lastly, a great big glomp to my cosplay (and fellow frilly pink apron conspirators) gang - Jessie, Cheri, Karsten, and Caer - we have to do this again next year!
That's everything. See you next year at Yaoi-Con 2004!
~Kasra
Questions? Comments? Email me at kasra_c@yahoo.com.
