Yaoi Con Journal

Day Two:

Yaoi-Con began for us when the exhibit hall opened and a surge of people, eagerly anticipating the release of Yellow 2 came to our table to purchase it. Needless to say, it sold out within the first couple of hours and we had to request the President of Digital Manga to drive from LA to San Francisco to personally deliver more boxes of Yellow 2 for the fans on Sunday. Also for sale were several mock copies of our new titles, including Our Kingdom, Our Everlasting, and Jazz, but unfortunately, they were not for sale. (We're getting better at street dates this year, we promise.) The Yaoi-manga.com booth was also one of the only booths that had Higuri's Cantarella and the fans quickly grabbed that title as well.

The first event for DMP was the autograph session with You Higuri. The first autograph session took place in between two event halls. Tables were set up, and fans lined up to get their various Higuri memorabilia signed by the one and only. Everyone in line was able to get their stuff signed, as well as take pictures.

Immediately afterwards was the beautiful luncheon hosted by the Yaoi-con staff, at which the "official Yaoi menu" was presented to us. We ran into Kazuma Kodaka there, and Higuri had a friendly chat with her.

Later that night was to be the most eventful chapter of Yaoi-Con.

Day and night at Yaoi Con were complete opposites. Whereas the day focused on panels, autograph sessions, and of course, the exhibit hall, night at Yaoi Con was where the entertainment and fun begin.

The staff of Y-M began their evening by heading to the Cosplay Contest with Ms. Higuri and Ms. Okamoto. Finding our seats in the front, we eagerly anticipated the very new experiences that Yaoi Con would offer us. The MC walked up to the stage and announced the start of the Cosplay Contest, which would forever be ingrained in our heads as "Sponsored by Capcom!".

Most of the Cosplay Contest became a haze, especially after the event afterwards. Nevertheless, there were a few highlights from the contest worth mentioning, and a stage thief Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing that occasionally snuck up on stage to snatch some clothes items or props. There were several noteworthy costumes, including Naruto and Ash from Pokemon to name a few. However, the skits had to be the most entertaining.

First of all, the Gundam Wing skit featuring a different Duo and Wufei from Gundam Wing was a musical, where Duo confessed his love to the reluctant Wufei. Throughout the skit, Duo was making suggestive gestures and towards the end there was a cameo appearance of Heero.

The most memorable skit was the Final Fantasy game show, featuring Zell, Vincent, Squall, and a couple of other Final Fantasy cast members from VII, VIII, and X. Needless to say, by the end of the skit, the characters were all dry humping each other.

The most memorable costume was a FFVII: AC (that's Final Fantasy VII Advent Children) Cloud costume that was in a skit with crossover characters from Petshop of Horrors and Fruits Basket. The hair, the wardrobe... everything was very well done and it made a lasting impression to the staff of Y-M.

After the Cosplay Contest was the "show" everybody had been waiting for, the Bishounen Auction. The Bishounen Auction is an auction of bishounen (beautiful boys) for a night, specifically for the dance party after the auction. Afterwards, it was the bishounen's choice whether or not they would stay longer with their buyer.

The two MCs walked up on stage wearing similar costumes, a red and black gothic-style dresses with a mask. There were 3 types of bishounen. The first type of bishounen were only for female, the second type, for male, and the third type could be purchased by either a female buyer or a male buyer. Despite all that, the majority were the third type, which meant that either sex could purchase the bishounen.

The Bishounen Auction was crazy to say the least. However, Ms. Higuri and Ms. Okamoto thoroughly enjoyed themselves throughout the entire program. Several things stood out that night, all of them unforgettable (to the chagrin of some of the straight guys).

The "bendy boy" who was barely legal stood out in more ways than one as he came on stage doing lazy backflips and showing his flexibility. Towards the end, they started the bids, where he began to give a little strip show. As the bids grew, he eventually ended up with just a thong. 0_0

Another auction, a fellow bishounen actually won. When he went up on stage to be auctioned off, the MC reminded the audience that he had "property" so that they would be getting 2 bishounens for the price of 1.

Throughout the entire auction, bishounen would give the audience members a striptease, where eventually, random members who couldn't afford bishounen would go up and stuff dollar bills, including 1 hundred dollar bill, in their thongs or other random places for a hug, or even a kiss. More often than not, bishounen would start making out with bishounen, usually with the result of an increase in the bid. Several of the bishounen's ending bid was well over $1000, one of them was Cid from FFVII. Needless to say, the event was quite a shock for Ms. Higuri and Ms. Okamoto, who were both used to more conservative things in Japan. Despite that, they admitted that it was definitely the most memorable and enjoyable part of Yaoi Con.

One particular bishounen, Ms. Higuri was extremely intrigued with, the Vampire Bishounen. He came out wearing Rennaisance clothes, including a top hat and a cape, and slowly took off his clothes for his prey. The Y-M staff noticed Ms. Higuri's eyes locked on to the bishounen and asked if she would like to bid on him, which she declined. Throughout the rest of the auction, we noticed her occasionally glacing at the vampire bishounen.

A last minute entry, included the famous mascot of Yaoi Con, Shiki, who admitted that he initially wasn't going to participate in this year's auction, but he had forgotten his "brother's" birthday. Wearing a school girl uniform, he asked his "brother" to come up on stage, and the "bendy one" came up on stage and sat on a chair as Shiki gave him his birthday present.

One of the last auctions featured the famous, or maybe infamous "Numa Numa Song", where the bishounens all ran up on stage to participate in the dancing, the dry humping, and of course, the making out.

By the end of the auction, the room temperature of the room had gone up drastically from the raging hormones, and the staff needed to open the doors to cool the room down. However, they had one last surprise for the room and the straight guys unfortunately dragged to the auction by their friends or girlfriends. They were auctioning off the MC, who was wearing a corsette-like red top and a short black skirt that had a long lacey flowing skirt over it. The shocker? Towards the end of the auction, she went for over $100,000. Needless to say, the whole room was in shock and disbelief, including Ms. Higuri. In all honesty, words cannot describe the Bishounen Auction.

It was well past midnight when the Bishounen Auction ended, so we decided to head out for a late dinner and then go back to the hotel to get some much-needed rest.

On to Day 3!