Vicarious Tales:
Hangry (Hitomi "Yossy" Yoshizawa) at Anime Expo 2009
at Los Angeles Convention Center (Los Angeles, CA)
on Jul. 3, '09
by P. Kristen Enos
(Originally posted July 6, '09. All rights
reserved.)
[Update Sep 3: I decided to tag this as an honorary
Active Voice column since it was what really
inspired to start writing it again. This story is
about my latest/last encounter with Japanese pop
idol Hitomi "Yossy" Yoshizawa, formerly of the
singing group Morning Musume and currently of the
duo Hangry & Angry (with Rika Ishikawa). I would
recommend that you Google her before reading this
installment, or read my own summary starting at H&A
at Sakura Con '09, Part 1: This really begins over
20 years ago. At the least, it's enough to know
that's she's VERY popular with women of all
nationalities.]
Since this story
overlaps with what would have been my final Sakura
Con installment, I realized I needed to write this
first and see what would be leftover for me to write
to close out that first con experience.
This really began a
few days before Sakura Con, when I had been visiting
my lesbian friends in Eugene, Oregon. I came armed
with videos of IshiYoshi and other H!P material to
show what I was up to, and to balance out hours of
Takarazuka musicals they were going to show me.
In the course of my
five day stay, the ‘Zuka fan Rachel also became a Y
wota. To the point that during the Elder Club’s
“Thank You For Your Love” concert, she griped about
how feathers didn’t belong in Y’s hair.
And when I finally
arrived home from the trip, I left her a message
that if she wanted a verbal play-by-play of my
Sakura Con experience (instead of waiting for me to
write it up), she needed to call me. She called the
next day and I gave her the tantalizing details.
In the time between
the two conventions, I had other H!P things to
occupy my time. One of them was sorting through my
almost 2,000 official Y photos that I had either
bought directly from Hello! Shop or via Japan
auctions. Of course, this included a lot of
duplicates.
Since I’m not one to
easily throw things away if I know someone would
value them, I decided to compile a few for Rachel as
part of a gift package. I sent Rachel an email
stating what I had in mind and that I assumed she
wanted pics of butch Yossy. Rachel responded
emphatically “Yes! The butchier the better!”
So with that rule in
mind, I started to compile a dozen or so photos that
I determined would be good: Mr. Moonlight, Gatas,
Kanashimi Twilight, etc. Finally, as almost a joke,
I included this photo with the thought “Well, she
did state she wanted BUTCH!”
When Rachel got her
package, she sent me an enthusiastic email stating
how much she loved the pictures. But her favorite
one was the plaid shirt shot because Y was just so
cute and adorable.
When I read that
email, I thought incredulously “You’re kidding!”
(Mind you, this would
have been the same reaction I’d have had if I had
witness some person gush over R in her more bizarre
V-U-Den costumes.)
So I laughed about it
as just another quirkiness of the people I call my
friends. Yet I admit I could see where Rachel was
coming from, though I would not have rated that
picture higher than the others I had sent.
Fast forward to AX
and the announcement that Hangry & Angry would
appear.
Like everyone else, I
was thrilled, even though I already felt like I had
the ultimate fan experience at Sakura Con. But when
it was clarified that it would only be H, I relaxed
a little. As I’ve stated before, Y without I (and
vice versa) is not as interesting to me, but I
wanted to be the supportive fan nevertheless.
Unsurprisingly, it
was announced that H would do an autograph session
that Friday, and that’s when the idea struck me to
get the plaid shirt photo signed as a gift for
Rachel. Doing that would give me a real goal to try
to achieve at AX, especially since I wasn’t as
passionate of an MM fan, though I really wanted to
see them perform.
As AX drew nearer, I
started to have some personal doubts with my plan.
First of all, that picture would not be in the top
99% of Y pictures that I would want signed. But I
had to remind myself that the picture is for Rachel
and not me.
Second of all, I was
honestly concerned that I might offend or embarrass
Y in some fashion. After all, it’s not exactly a
representative photo of her attractiveness, even
during that time period. And I could see a more
cynical person responding in a defensive manner.
However, my gut instinct told me that Y was a
classier person than that.
Third, this could
possibly be the last time that I would EVER have the
opportunity for her to sign something and I would be
wasting it on something like this. I had to remind
myself that up until that point, Sakura Con was the
best autograph experience possible and I wasn’t
expecting to ever top it.
Still, I can be
stubborn when my mind is on a mission. But I did
seriously think that I should learn how to say in
Japanese “It’s for a friend.” Just in case.
So for my first real
task of opening day at AX I had bought my FOURTH H&A
CD just to secure an autograph ticket, (though I now
only own three since I gave one to Rachel). I also
read in the rules that “The artist Hangry will only
sign ‘Hangry’” which was cool for me since I already
had my ‘Hangry’ autograph from Sakura Con. And once
I read that the autograph was guaranteed, I was able
to participate in the rest of AX with low
expectations and be grateful for whatever other good
might come out of it.
After some infamous
AX autograph line drama, I was finally in queue to
get this photo signed. I had brought other Y
pictures just in case I changed my mind at the last
second (like I had done at Sakura Con.)
So imagine things
from Y’s possible perspective: You’re charismatic
and hot. Women and men are crazy about you. And
you’re signing item after item of H&A material with
an occasional H!P item slipped in. You haven’t even
looked up from finishing the last person when
someone puts down a picture of you at age 18 when
you’re in your chubby period and dressed in dyke
casual wear of a t-shirt and a flannel over shirt…
Y just stared at the
picture for a moment and declared a surprised
“Wao!!!” (I think that was the sound.) She then
looked at me, and I gave her a sheepish smile, which
showed my very real embarrassment. And I decided to
take responsibility by NOT mentioning that it was
for a friend.
Then she just smiled
and signed “Hangry”…
and I reached for the
picture in thinking that she was done…
and then she also
signed “Yossy” and handed it to me.
I was floored and
managed to blurt “Thank you!”
(Now, some jaded fans
told me that if you had just asked Y to sign “Y”,
she would have done it. But the point is that I
didn’t ask her to sign anything. She did it on her
own!)
And so I left the
autograph area thinking “I’m keeping this photo.
What Rachel doesn’t know won’t hurt her!”
Every fan I talked to
agreed with me. (And, Rachel, if you ever read this,
I’ll find a way to make it up to you!)
But the real icing on
the cake came when I checked the message boards and
looked at scans of other people’s items that Y had
signed as “Y”. And I thought something looked…
different.
I really hadn’t
studied her autograph since I had quickly put it
away for safe keeping. It wasn’t until Sunday night
that I finally pulled the photo out again and
noticed what that difference was: she had put a
heart in her Y sig.
Sorry, Rachel, you
are NEVER getting this picture…
* * *
Though, on an IY
note: I did point out to fellow AX attendee and Y
fan DifferentStory12 that it was cute that Y signed
the H&A poster not only with “H”, but also “A” with
the heart as well.
Maybe that was a
theme for her this weekend. ;)
(And congrats to the
JPHiPsters for winning the poster in the charity
auction!)
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