…and on the proceedings of certain societies in Tokyo relative to that event in a letter of thanks intended to have been sent to a lady in New Jersey. A Big Thank You to Erica Friedman for her hard work and gracious invite to Yuricon in Tokyo - a splendid celebration of yuri anime and manga as well as for her Okazu blog and building the online yuri fandom community. It was a pity that I couldn’t attend the whole Yuri Revolution event due to my friends’ wedding being on the same day but am glad to have had to opportunity to mingle with so many talented and passionate people - and I got a Staff pass! Mwahahaha!!! (Thanks, Pattie!) Also a real pleasure to hang out with Pattie, Bruce, Serge, Kelli, Donna, Wing, Erin and Laura during the trips to Ikebukuro and Nakano. Many many thanks especially to Serge to letting me have KOTOKO’s Re-Sublimity single (with the Kannazuki no Miko OP and ED) although he had gotten hold of it in Toranoana Ikebukuro first. Arigatou!
More details and photos on the Yuri Revolution (2005-04-16) on Erica’s and Serge’s blogs. I was pretty wowed by the turnout - not just by fans from all over Tokyo and the rest of the world but also manga-ka, industry and academia. Mizoguchi Akiko and Matt Thorn are scholars who attended the event. The latter (above photo, seated back right) who is a “a cultural anthropologist who studies, teaches and writes about comics and other forms of popular culture” and is based at Kyoto Seika University as an Associate Professor. Prof Thorn’s articles and academic papers made very interesting reading for me - I admired the way he tried to tackle popular media misconceptions about anime/manga as well as the way he puts academic rigour into a subject (anime/manga) and discipline (cultural studies esp of popular culture) that many people dismiss without much thought or appreciation.
On a lighter note, I think a certain someone, with more time and hard work, could also achieve something similar though probably in the areas of moe/loli/harem/maid anime. The Andou Mahoro Chair of Anime Studies with a full Professorship and funding to be based in Japan (full allowances) and watch anime all academic year long! (笑
(Both images taken from okazu.)