FujoCon 2022 Event Report
FujoCon 2022, the BL-focused adult convention, graced fans’ screens once again this year. It was held last June 24-26 on several streaming platforms (Twitch, Zoom, and Discord). Fans of BL got to interact with fellow fujoshis and fudanshis and got to gush over all things BL in a safe, judgment-free zone.
On Big Bang (Zoom 1), the convention starts with a staple and fan favorite, BL that Hurt Me: Greatest Hits Edition. Peachie talks about the various BL that gave her quite a wallop. No theme is too “messed up “ as Peachie talked about controversial BL across all kinds of media. F
rom gore to necrophilia, the panel never shied away from talking about it, covering manga such as Ryo Suzuri’s manga demon manga MADK to MadaLabo’s doujin game The Salvation of Patient S, where the semen of a young man may hold to a rare disease called candle sickness, to manga turned live-action movie adaptation, Dangerous Drugs of Sex (Sei no Gekiyaku) by Mizuta Yuki. where an office worker who wishes to end his life discovers that there are fates much worse than death.
The next panel, Media Do International Presents: Yaoi, BL, and Shikishi Oh My! where Digital Manga publisher Media Do held an industry panel where fans got the chance to win shikishis.
The genre of monster-fucking has grown more popular throughout the years, and thus it is no surprise that there is a plethora of content to consume for those who crave bestial relations in their media. In the next panel, Men Love Monsters: Redux, the panel host Midnight talks about all things monster-fucking. This is indeed a very spicy panel meant to appease monster-fucking connoisseurs.
The panel Renji Live Draw and Q&A had the Monster and the Beast’s mangaka Renji as a guest, and it was in this panel that opened the mangaka’s third eye to the concept of horny jail, which spawned lots of images of penguins who lovingly hold their cup of ice cream inside horny jail.
There was even a fan who made a craft of the image of a penguin holding an ice cream behind bars which made Renji-sensei laugh. One of the panel’s highlights was when Renji-sensei was asked if she watched anime. She mentioned that she loved hero anime with buddy systems, such as Tiger and Bunny, and classic-style Japanese anime, such as Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke. When asked if she could travel to any location in the world, she answered that it was too hard to pick just one and would like to travel all over the world. She was also asked, besides Cabo, what would be her favorite magical creature, and she answered that even though it’s not exactly a monster but she said she would like to touch the creature Niffler from the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and ruffle them in real life.
Meanwhile, in Lagrange Point (Twitch), the panel Healthy Relationships in Live Action BL brought by Wren, delved into the topic of what is a healthy relationship and what are some live-action BL media that show this since BL has had a reputation of showing not-so-healthy relationships from time to time. Wren started with the discussion of what she believed as a healthy relationship, one that is based on respect, boundaries, trust, and consent.
She shows various examples of media from across the world where the key ingredients of what she considers as healthy are apparent such as communication in GMMTV’s Thai drama Bad Buddy, Taiwan’s Love is Science which has a side M/M couple which depicts growth and reassurance, South Korea’s Some More to Canada’s Schitt’s Creek. This is a good watch for those who want to watch various shows where toxicity cannot be found.
Vtubers are all the rage; lately, their popularity boosted during the whole pandemic, when people are stuck at home, looking for something entertaining. The next panel, VTubing and Boy’s Love, talks about the Vtubing scene and how it has made the seemingly impossible into a thriving possibility. Fisky talks about Vtuber popularity on platforms such as Twitch and how Vubing has opened new doors in terms of fanservice and doing what has never been done before.
The next panel, Sublime Industry Manga Panel, celebrates the 10 years of Sublime in the manga industry. In the beginning, they talked about the start of Sublime and where they are right now. One of the panel’s highlights was that they confirmed that they would not be focusing on digital-only prints; rather, moving forward, they will largely focus on both physical and digital copies. They show off some of the titles that are debuting this year, such as Akane Abe’s Moon and Sun, Yuu Minaduki’s Love Nest and Mitsuru Si’s Omegaverse manga Megumi and Tsugumi.
Ever wanted to write a story that leaves your viewers suffering after experiencing such gut-wrenching content? The next panel, How to Tell Interactive Stories that Pack a Punch, hosted by the developers of TerraNova CJ and Matt, tackles the topic of how to make sure that your audience is left breathless after you unleash your story. They start things off by discussing that every grand epic starts with a series of short stories and that to create emotional storytelling, one must start with the creation of a relatable character to make sure that the reader will be invested in the story of said character. Authors must also take care of the pay-offs and promises in the story, creating promises with no pay-offs would tend to frustrate the readers. It was interesting to note that the whole panel felt like a workshop of sorts, where the audience got to work on something creative, with the panelists giving some examples of how each piece of the interactive story works. Of course, as part of storytelling, the story must have some sort of conflict or something the main character struggles with.
While the first day, which was the shortest day of the event, was already quite eventful, the second day also gave us quite a smashing lineup of events.
The second day started with the Rotten Blossoms panel held at Zoom 2. Rotten Blossoms had its very own Vtuber, RB Vtuber. walk us through the whole indie publication process from contract signing to updates and marketing, which may be quite different from the whole idealized process of publishing doujins that they are interested in. They also announced two new artists to add to their slate, Pocchi, and Valero.
In relation to this panel, the next panel was a Q&A panel session with Miyamon, who designed the Rotten Blossoms emojis. During the session, it was discovered that even though pink is her favorite color, she doesn’t wear it that often. When asked if she has plans to write Girl’s Love (GL) in the future and what kind of main character she plans to write for GL, she mentioned that if she were to draw GL, she would want to draw a romance between a cute girl and a cool one. Miyamon then mentioned that she uses DeepL on Twitter when trying to communicate in English and that she tried learning, but unfortunately, she didn’t have an ear for it. As for influential manga, she mentions that Uehasu’s art influenced her even before doing BL.
The panel BL State of the Union was a quick review of the current state of BL by The Yaoi Shelf and Aeri. Reminisce all about the delicious BL that happened during 2021 and see how that influenced the BL of 2022 and the future.
In the panel, The Rose of Sheer Perfection: Exploring Heteronormativity and Possibilities for (Dis)identification in Boys’ Love Manga, Heath Joseph Wooten points out the fact that the uke/seme dynamic found in a lot of BL kind of supports heteronormativity with the way it parallels heterosexual couples. There are BL that show an extreme form of dimorphism where the seme is this broad man while the uke has this waifish figure. Besides handling the theoretical aspects of BL, Heath also relates much of his experience as a gay man and contrasts his experiences with how BLs are depicted.
The next panel, Kei Ichikawa and futekiya, is an online live drawing and Q&A session with Kei Ichikawa, the mangaka of Blue Sky Complex, which can also be read in futekiya. Kei Ichikawa was wearing a cute kappa mask with heart shades which garnered a lot of praise from the audience. She mentioned that a typical day for her involves work until 1 AM and that she manages to squeeze in 8 hours of sleep. She values sleep over meals since sleep affects her performance at work. When asked what she would do if she had unlimited free time, that she’d want to focus on playing the games that she has her eye on, such as The Legend of Zelda. Since the drawing involved ice cream, Ichikawa-sensei mentioned that her favorite ice cream flavor was choco mint. She mentioned that she initially wasn’t expecting Blue Sky Complex to run this long. When asked about the trip in volume 4, she recounts that the plot was initially very different, but her editor convinced her to do something grand, so they went snowboarding, which was perfect for the season. During the session, it appeared that Ichikawa-sensei makes the same expression as her characters when she’s drawing, so she drew a bonus pouty kappa.
The next panel, Irodori Sakura Industry Panel: Is the Japanese Doujinshi Scene Recovering? covered the various effects of the pandemic on the Japanese doujinshi industry. While events are slowly returning, there are many smaller events that might not be able to return post-COVID, while some events are combined to save money. Several branches of stores like Toranoana and Melonbooks have closed and are now accepting fewer physical books. Artists are now embracing digital books, and there is growth in what we call corporate doujinshi circles. Irodori Sakura focuses on working directly with artists and that artists have a say in the localization process. Touting the tagline Doujinshi for everybody, Irodori Sakura will start printing physical copies of BL this year, and fans can cast their votes on which BL title deserves to be printed.
In the panel Getting Started in BL Research, Bishie-Sensei talked about how he goes about his. First, he works on narrowing a topic, then evaluates his research questions for the following: clarity, focus, and complexity. He then proceeds to talk about the difference between quantitative and qualitative research methods, literature review, and other parts of what a research paper should contain.
To B*** or not to B***: Vocabulary Usage in Bara and Geikomi Fandom discusses the context and nuance of each of the names used in relation to the MLM manga created by gay for a gay audience. First, Bara, was discussed, which is the most marketable/popular term; however, it was considered a slur against gay people, so Japanese mangaka don’t use it in their works. GeiKomi is a variant of gay comics, which is definitely a cleaner term, but due to it being little used, it wouldn’t make sense to use it as a term. Others, like gay comics, are vaguer when brought over to the West; while the term gachimuchi is the most specific, however, the usage is still not quite common.
Join Suika and Pennie, the translators for the MXTX novels released by Seven Seas Entertainment. In Q&A Session for MXTX English Release, Suika started the panel by talking about how she got into the MXTX fandom when she only read manga but reading the novel got her hooked and wanting more. They talked about various tidbits about the release during the session.
All in all, FujoCon was a fun 3-day romp as always. We look forward to having more conventions like this one.
About futekiya: BL manga subscription
In 2018, futekiya began as a Boys’ Love manga news and culture website operated by FANTASISTA, INC., a CG/VR production studio based in Tokyo, Japan. futekiya transformed into a budding global distributor of officially licensed BL manga in 2019.
futekiya launched as an online subscription service for officially licensed BL manga on July 8, 2019. Determined to connect fans around the world with English-translated BL legally and conveniently, futekiya empowers readers to support creators and the manga industry.
Readers who subscribe to futekiya and pay a flat monthly fee of $6.99 will have access to our expanding library of English-language manga. To subscribe, please go to read.futekiya.com and create an account.
