YaYCon 2018: Let’s Get Physical!

Did you know that the song Physical by Olivia Newton-John has been covered over 20 times in it’s lifetime? The theme for YaYCon 2018 was Let’s Get Physical and is a wink to the song from the 80’s. Especially to the music video that had been created for it.

The connections made with the theme of YaYCon are movement and fitness in particular, but also sexuality. That last part is covered by the LGBTQA convention, but regarding movement and fitness, I did expect a little more in terms of appropriate clothing at the convention. The place where I felt so much love last year didn’t translate into sporty feelings at YaYCon 2018. The program was suitable, think about Burlesque Workshop, Rainbow Twister and a lecture about Shipping Sports Anime Lecture. It fits the theme of the convention perfectly, and Burlesque isn’t something you’ll see at a Japan-related convention normally.

It’s not easy to come up with something original activities for a convention like YaYCon every year that fits the theme of the convention. That’s why I think there should be more of an uproar regarding this convention, to ensure that the next edition will be even better! I hope that all of us together can come up with new ideas which also give yuri more room on stage during YaYCon, because that’s something that wasn’t there enough during this edition.

Something that has to be mentioned is the Retro Yaoi and Yuri Panel, which was a throwback to the roots of yaoi and yuri in the past. For the ones who have missed this panel, it might be a good idea to start with Koibito Tachi no Mori (恋人たちの森) by Mori Mari and Yaneura no Nishojo (屋根裏の二処女) by Yoshiya Nobuko.

During the previous edition, you could clearly see that Yuri on ICE!! was very popular with the attendants, mainly visible at the cosplays. This year this had toned down a little, but the second season is on its way and that will certainly create a new hype. This year the cosplays were very mixed. From BL anime and manga serious to the shounen anime series in which you can ship a lot.

The Guest of Honor this year was Wendigo. Together with Chlove (Go Get A Roomie) they had an interesting Q&A in which they were mainly interviewing each other. Before this Q&A started it was obvious that there was a good connection between the two. They had interesting questions to ask each other and Wendigo fired lots of them in great enthusiasm at Chlove. Despite the turn up at this Q&A wasn’t very high, it was one of the highlights of the convention.