anime convention
An anime convention is an event or gathering with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Commonly, anime conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activ ...
geared toward fans of
yuri Yuri may refer to:
People and fictional characters
Given name
*Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc.
*Yuri (Japanese name), also Yūri, feminine Jap ...
anime and manga. The first Yuricon event was held in 2003 in
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area. although Yuricon has existed as an online entity since 2000. The event was organized by Yuricon, LLC., which continues to run Yuri-focused events of its own, collaborates with other organizations to hold unique events, and hosts contests.
History
In 2000, Erica Friedman founded Yuricon on
Usenet
Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it wa ...
with the name of "Anilesbocon" but this was changed to Yuricon in 2003 in an effort to better "celebrate Yuri in anime and manga." In 2003, the organization had a "three-day anime and manga convention" in Newark, New Jerey. Two years later, Yuricon hosted an event in Tokyo and co-sponsored Onna!, together with the Shoujo Arts Society, which focused on women's roles in animation and comics. Two years after that, in 2007, Yuricon ran a small one-day event, named Yurisai, to recreate the feel of the Tokyo event from 2005. During this time period, Yuricon hosted several panels, cosplay events,
anime music video
An anime music video (AMV) is a fan-made music video consisting of clips from one or more Japanese animated shows or movies set to an audio track, often songs or promotional trailer audio. The term is generally specific to Japanese anime, howev ...
contests, and other competitions, while Yuricon maintained a library of yuri manga for attendees to read.
Some years later, in 2011, Yuricon moved to a new website. The same year, the
Kyoto International Manga Museum
The Kyoto International Manga Museum (京都国際マンガミュージアム, Kyōto Kokusai Manga Myūjiamu) is located in Nakagyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The museum's collection includes approximately 300,000 items as of 2016, with 50,000 volumes ...
added works published by ALC Publishing, the publishing arm of Yuricon, into its permanent collection. Also that year, Renbooks, an Italian publisher announced that an Italian edition of ''Rica 'tte Kanji!?'' would be published. The following year, ALC Publishing announced a partnership with JManga to publish two stories: ''POOR POOR LIPS!'', ''Kimi no Tamenara Shineru''. and
three other yuri comic titles. The next year, Okazu, then just a blog of Friedman, joined the domain of Yuricon and ALC publishing stopped publishing new material.
In later years, the webpage of the Yuricon website as a whole was improved, while the group's founder, Erica Friedman, asked for donations to ensure that Yuricon and Okazu are "on the cutting edge of Yuri Culture." Later, the new-and-improved Yuricon store would be opened and the page listing yuri essays would be improved. Them, in May 2018, Friedman appeared at a guest panelist at AnimeNEXT in Atlantic City, NJ. The following year, Yuricon joined forces with PacSet to launch a guided trip across Japan "dedicated to the Yuri genre of Japanese animation and manga," which would take place in September of that year. The same year, Eric Friedman appeared at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival to celebrate 100 years of Yuri, while speaking at various other events that year.
In May 2020, Yuricon hosted an online panel about yuri.
Event history
Publishing and outreach
Yuricon has a publishing arm, ALC Publishing, the only all-yuri publisher in the world. Publications include translations from the Japanese—such as '' Rica 'tte Kanji!?'' and ''WORKS''—as well as the original English-language anthology series ''Yuri Monogatari''.
Friedman has run guest lectures about yuri at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univ ...
,
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
International Christian University
is a non-denominational private university located in Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan, commonly known as ICU. With the efforts of Prince Takamatsu, General Douglas MacArthur, and BOJ President Hisato Ichimada, ICU was established in 1949 as the first l ...
, and
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
.
Additionally, Friedman has run a blog titled ''Okazu'' since 2002, which she describes as the "world's oldest and most comprehensive blog" which focuses on lesbian themes in Japanese comics, cartoons, and other media. Yuricon also describes Okazu as their "official" blog.
Publications
*''Yuri Monogatari'' (named for
Nobuko Yoshiya
was a Japanese novelist active in Taishō and Shōwa period Japan. She was one of modern Japan's most commercially successful and prolific writers, specializing in serialized romance novels and adolescent girls' fiction, as well as a pioneer in ...
's ''Hana Monogatari'') is an annual anthology of yuri-themed short comics. In September 2007, ''Yuri Monogatari 3'' was nominated for the Lambda Book Award. Five ''Yuri Monogatari'' anthologies have been published, with volumes 4 and 6 currently listed in the Yuricon store. Caroline Ryder of '' The Advocate'' called ''Yuri Monogatari'' a "must-have manga".
*''Shoujoai ni Bouken''
*'' Rica 'tte Kanji!?''
*''WORKS''
Archive.org
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...