Written by Rin Dunois (Azurin) A convention focusing on mature content and restricts attendance to those of 18 years or older. That is Yaoi-Con. Having taken a break for the year of 2013 after having moved to Long Beach in 2012, this event based on the fan favorite genre known as boys' love has returned to the San Francisco Bay Area once more at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in Burlingame, CA on September 12-14 of this year. Having spent a bit of time in Southern California and taken the year-long hiatus, was this con able to provide the entertainment fix that one can find at such a suggestive event? Let us find out!
![]() On top of these grand events comes a pair of special guests that Yaoi-Con managed to bring in from overseas. The first is boys' love mangaka Takaku Shoko and the other is internationally renowned cosplayer Reika. The announcement of the latter making an appearance at this relatively small convention brought people coming from out of state and even out of the country to behold the famous cosplayer in her physical form. Both of these guests held panels that attracted quite the crowd to be able to fill the rooms to full capacity, and these panels along with the various fan panels were ran pretty smoothly albeit starting a bit later than originally scheduled. The amount of panels might seem small for a 3-day convention, but the quality of them was definitely retained. Alongside the panels is a Yaoi-Con exclusive: the Bishonen Auction. I did not attend it myself, but from what I know, it is such a well-received event and has served as a staple of the convention for so many years, attracting cosplayers of bishonen characters to come on stage and strut their stuff to get the attention of fellow attendees with money in their pockets to spend and get to make any demands as long as they were within personal bounds from said "items" should they win (Actually, the convention has begun taking credit and debit cards as a form of payment.). Something that people might have noticed from this year's event is the lack of a gaming room, a long time convention staple. We all know those few friends who like to get their fill of video or tabletop games while at a convention, so surely a room where one can do that is to be expected in this day and age, right? Unfortuntely, Yaoi-Con chose not to have such a room, perhaps due to financial and spatial constraints. I suppose for a convention for adults only, a library containing a vast amount of volumes of manga and similar media containing explicit content was more appropriate, which did garner some notable attention throughout the event as far as I know. Screening rooms were also in the area, showing off homoerotic and bishonen material throughout the duration of the event. If you're looking for a convention that aims to be unique, Yaoi-Con might just be the one you're looking for! With an age restriction and hosting programming featuring homoerotic content, Yaoi-Con sets itself apart from the competition by attracting a niche audience for a niche subgenre of anime and manga. However, this is not a convention that I would recommend to someone who is new or unfamiliar with the convention scene. For veteran con attendees, this would be quite the convention to check out and take a nice break from conventions with a wider range of content.
(More photos can be found in our gallery.)
4 Comments
what
10/8/2014 11:06:03 am
You're coming to the WRONG convention if you want a gaming room, kid. It's never been there and it's not needed.
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Kakashi
10/8/2014 02:15:18 pm
I'm a bit surprised that the write-up lacks any first hand account of the 3 biggest events of the convention...Bishounen Bingo, the Bishounen Auction, and the Closing Ceremonies (AKA: the Spanking Inferno). The end of the write-up is reasonably accurate... Yaoicon isn't for everyone.... It's for people that love yaoi. If that is you....you will probably find this to be the best convention you have ever attended. If homo-erotic themes bother you...you will be uncomfortable and probably hate it.
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MSP-Anthony
10/8/2014 03:26:45 pm
We talked about the big events of Yaoi con in our podcast in the Conover podcast. So don't worry we did cover it, just in podcast form.
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Kakashi
10/9/2014 10:13:58 am
Thanks for posting the podcast. It covers things a little better. Still you guys missed a lot of the events that form the core reasons people go. Bishie Bingo was barely mentioned. The VIP teatime with Reika and the bishounen wasn't mentioned at all. The closing ceremony is one of the major events as well. It is a raffle/bishounen spanking event. You did attend the masquerade and auction and reported positively on them, but you arrived late and left early. You conclude that the con is light on things to do, but you skipped most of what draws people to the convention. I not meaning to criticize, but if you want to fairly evaluate conventions, you need to approach it as it's attendees do....not as an outsider that stumbled into the convention thinking it's a typical anime convention. I understand that you have a broad audience and some of them would show up with that mindset, and that's ok to report that viewpoint....but you should also report from the perspective of the people that really enjoy the con. Find out what they love about it. Find out what events are must-see....and then see them. Observe the events and observe the people watching the events. I don't say this just about Yaoicon. It should be a standard approach for reporting on all conventions that you review.
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