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After the ceremony Animetion attended the yaoi panel. For those not familiar with yaoi, it is a sub-genre of manga which focuses on romantic relationships between gay men. Yaoi is aimed at women, the characters are often bishonen in appearance and this has led to a stereotyping of its fans. Girls carrying yaoi paddles and 'squeeing' at bishonen cosplayers in commonplace at many anime events, sometimes proving as annoying as the free huggers! They can't all be like that surely? Sadly the panel didn't really dispel the stereotype, as it pretty much just consisted of lots of explicit fan art and girls laughing every time a knob appeared on the screen. There was no description of yaoi, no history of it nor |
no description of the clips shown from various series. There
was no real discussion at all, just a lot of knob gags. If you
went in wanting or/and expecting that, then you would have had a
great laugh, its just that you had to 'get' yaoi to have that laugh.
Although the presenters had the expertise, Animetion was just
a little disappointed the panel did nothing to dispel the stereotype
but heightened it instead. In comparison the yuri panel the
following day was more informative for newcomers, but this will be
discussed on the next page. |
Later that evening was a concert by special
Haruko Momoi,
which was the highlight for many. Momoi is a singer and voice
actress, best known for her roles in
Nurse Witch Komugi and Final Fantasy Unlimited. |
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