This weekend's Yaoi-Con in San Mateo, Calif., drew more than 1,500 fans and showed that the "boys’ love" genre is still in growth mode, as publishers announced a shower of new books.
It's a big change from the first Yaoi-Con in 2001, which was held in San Francisco’s Japantown, an event that drew around 450 people and was part artist alley, part swap meet and part tribal gathering for what was then a small community of fans. Since then, the event has outgrown several venues as the show has expanded programming and exhibitor space to meet the increasing popularity of this niche genre. This year's event provided sense of community and freedom of expression unrivaled at larger North American manga/anime conventions
In 2001, the American yaoi market didn't exist, but since then, mirroring the Japanese market, most American manga publishers have embraced boys’ love (BL). The category didn't take off until 2005, when Tokyopop and DramaQueen entered the game alongside Digital Manga and CPM Press. While finding shelf space for these titles may be complicated, the demand for more content is still rising. And as any Yaoi-Con guest could attest, these fans know what is available, they know what looks hot and they know they want more BL now.
This year’s event featured two exhibitor/dealer rooms. Guests included the artist and writer duo of Oki Mamiya and Kawahara Tsubasa, Takanaka Hinako (Little Butterfly from Juné and Challengers from DramaQueen) and Italian manga studio Dany & Dany. Entertainment included 24-hour anime screenings and a video gaming room. On Saturday night con-goers enjoyed an anime music video contest, cosplay contest, yaoi fan-fiction writing contest and a midnight dance. A staffed manga library featured manga from every American BL publisher, including some mainstream titles for good measure. A weekend long charity auction benefited the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and featured items from the guest artists.
Nor was the show short on announcements. Aurora Publishing’s BL imprint, Deux, released its complete 2008 catalogue, with prospects of releasing a volume or two a month. est em’s manga Seduce Me After the Show is set in the world of dance and ballet. Yakuza in Love,a tale of secret love within a yakuza clan, is one of three titles set to be released from manga-ka Kano Shiuko (the others being Tough Love Baby and Kiss All the Boys).
If size did matter at Yaoi-Con, Juné must have impressed as it announced a staggering 24 new manga licenses and nine new novels. Digital Manga Publishing’s BL line has seen good growth since its start in 2004 and is now releasing an average of eight books a month for the rest of 2007 and the start of 2008. Tateno Matoko returns to BL with her two-volume series, Steal Moon, a sci-fi romance that features angels, street fighting and some voyeurism. High schoolers find love and maybe make great music in Abe Akane’s Hard Rock. And a title that got a good response at Juné’s panel was Katagiri Barbara’s novel, Sleeping with Money. The cover, featuring two men embracing on a pile of 10,000-yen notes, drew shrieks of appreciation from panel patrons Saturday morning.
Texas-based DramaQueen did not have any new titles, but it did share its Fall 2007 lineup. The publisher is currently distributing its books through Consortium and is working to get books to more mainstream stores. Direct sales through DramaQueen’s site have been steady, and the publisher recently had a promotion with anime distributor Right Stuf International that increased awareness of the company. DQ is currently the exclusive distributor of Kye Yoon Chon’s Audition Art Book. The book is only available at DQ’s online shop. Future releases include Sawauchi Sachiyo’s fantasy comedy Devil x Devil; thesci-fi military mangaMissing Roadfrom Sakurai Shushushu; and the long awaited release of Sakurai's Mandayuu and Me.
Yaoi Press announced it will be hosting a BL event in Phoenix next June called the Yaoi Jamboree. The event will feature guests from Japan and abroad, and was founded to meet the growing demands of this market. Now available in Borders and B&N, Yaoi Press currently has 31 graphic novels, two art books and two comic books available. Plans for 2008 include two new art books. Your Lips Say No, scheduled for May, will be an 18 and over title. In August, Yaoi Press plans to release its 16+-volume collection Shounen-Ai. Submissions for these books can be sent to the Yaoi Press Web site. The publisher is also looking to release a new manga anthology based on comedy-related short stories in August.
Tokyopop’s BLU line will be seeing a price increase in 2008, to $12.95 (up from $9.99). The additional charge will help pay for improved quality in the form of color plates and possibly translator notes. BLU announced two new titles from Yaoi-Con guest Takanaga Hinako: Dekiru Otoko ga Suki Nanda and Kimi ga Koi ni Ochiru. The popular Gakuen Heaven, by SPRAY and You Higuri, based on a PC game of the same name, will be continued with Gakuen Heaven—the Nakajima Arc. Emulating the game, Keita, the main character, is paired up with a different classmate in each volume. Mamahara Ellie’s Baseball Heaven is, strangely, one of the first baseball manga to be translated.
Broccoli Books’ Boysenberry imprint, which generally features characters in the late teens to early 20s, announced a new title called Cigarette Kisses, a “riman” title. Riman manga feature salarymen, white-collar office employees, working hard in and out of the office. The Boysenberry Web site will launch in about two weeks. And while Broccoli does not plan to launch the site with an online shop, managing editor Shizuki Yamashita noted that direct sales are very important for BL titles as distribution can make selling niche titles difficult.
Besides all the news, the most significant part of Yaoi-Con was the unique experience it offered compared to any other manga or anime-related event. Because of the often mature nature of BL, Yaoi-Con is a rare example of an 18-plus-only anime event. In a growing manga market where most sales tend to come from readers in their early teens, Yaoi-Con turned its focus to a well-informed and well-read following that is mature enough to appreciate the steamy themes these books are known for. Some publishers, like DramaQueen and Yaoi Press, have 16+ books for younger readers; however, the consensus seems to be that more mature stories and visual content tend to draw readers like moths to a flame.
