Of all the guests Otakon hosted in 2024, Japanese comedian Yuriyan Retriever stood out in how much of a singular presence she was. In celebrating its 30th anniversary, Otakon hosted an eclectic group of guests encompassing different popular Japanese and Korean media, namely anime, manga, manwha, Jpop, Kpop, Vtubing, and video games. Most guests belonged to these different niches, and there were multiple guests who represented them. But Yuriyan Retriever didn’t fit into any of these programming tracks. Instead, Yuriyan Retriever was the sole guest who was performing and represented Japanese comedy at Otakon. That intrigued me; I’d never seen a Japanese comedian invited or hosted by a U.S. convention to perform their act. It stood out that Yuriyan Retriever was the only Japanese comedian Otakon was hosting; I initially wondered if they wanted to represent Japanese comedy as part of their programming as part of a larger focusing on exploring different aspects of Japanese culture and entertainment outside anime, but instead I suspect it was Yuriyan Retriever who wanted to perform at Otakon.
Yuriyan Retriever has performed her comedy in the U.S. on and off these past few years, including a period where she performed at comedy clubs in New York, and she has made stunt performances on shows like America’s Got Talent. Recently, however, she has moved to LA and is trying to work as an entertainer in Hollywood. Her appearance at Otakon came just a few weeks before the debut of her new Netflix show, The Queen of Villains, a drama series where Yuriyan stars as the famous Japanese heel wrestler Dump Matsumoto. Performing at Otakon was not only an opportunity for Yuriyan to introduce her style of Japanese comedy to an interested audience, but promote her upcoming show and announce her intentions to become a recognizable entertainer in the U.S., stating, seriously or not, that she’s gunning for the Academy Awards. Whether or not she’ll be able to take her brand of comedy to the Oscars is uncertain – maybe the Golden Globes, she’d probably get a better reception than Jo Koy did hosting earlier this year. Regardless, based on her performance at her panel in Otakon, I think that she has definitely won over at least a few new fans who’re now in her corner rooting, and laughing, for her.
As a Japanese comedian, Yuriyan was such a unique guest for Otakon, and one that I was curious to see perform and interview about their work and transition to working in the U.S. Luckily, I was able to attend her panel on Friday before my interview with her on Saturday evening. Yuriyan had a very low-key set up for her Otakon presentation – just a posterboard display with her name decorated with flowers and a whiteboard that she would use to draw on. She performed using a Sony brand Sanpachi mic, and also employed a soundboard frequently during the presentation, loving the music. She had a running bit where she would play fart noises on the sound board whenever she erased the whiteboard. Yuriyan was giving her presentation in English, and played into the fact that she pronounced certain words incorrectly. She also frequently interacted with the audience and made them a part of her bits. I was one of her first victims, when she asked me what the pronounciation of “genre” was when I was distracted, so I didn’t understand her question at first.
After introducing herself, her presentation began with her going through what she defined as the four genres of Japanese comedy; rakugo, manzai (duo comedy), Conto (sketch comedy), and a Pin (solo comedian).. She jokingly referred to late arrivals walking into the panel as “pinganes,” basically calling them people taking “a cut” of her presentation. Yuriyan says being a Pingane is the best if you have no spirit to work with a corporation, and your financial guarantee is separate. Conversely, a pingaine is the “Imecka;” the one who gets the most money.
Explaining rakugo, Yuriyan described it as audience repetition comedy. There is a stricter barrier to entry to performing rakugo professionally than other forms of Japanese comedy, as to be a rakugoka, you need to find a master and specialize in performing stories from hundreds of years ago.
Yuriyan then explained her agency, Yoshimoto, which is the biggest talent agency in Japan. They represent 6000 comedians, and she is one of them. Getting into Yoshimoto is also challenging, as you need to go to a specialized comedy school to be represented by them. Before explaining further, Yuriyan attempted to put on the air of being booksmart by wearing dorky bookish glasses, but gets tired from wearing them immediately and took them off. Continuing, Yuriyan explained that Yoshimoto founded their comedy school in 1982, and created the “New Style Creation” program to cultivate comedian talent. At this point, Yuriyan’s mic died and she had to ask one of her helpers to fix it, while another ran off to find another one.
Yuriyan didn’t put the panel on pause though, and continued explaining that all people can attend the NSC program if you pay the equivalent of $4000 USD a year, though because of inflation it’s more like $5000 dollar these days. She jokes that you pay tuition and they judge your comedy and tell you it’s no good. Hearing her describe it reminded me of how the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB Live) is portrayed in The People’s Joker. Though she notes that NSC also teaches you skills like kung fu, singing, and how to wear a kimono. She draws a diagram of NSC as an upside down pyramid, basically making it out to be a pyramid scheme.
Finishing her presentation on the Japanese comedy scene, Yuriyan then asks the crowd if she will watch her perform her own material, which the crowd was enthusiastically curious to see. Yuriyan is great at physical comedy, particularly in how she gestures with her eyebrows, joking that her eyebrow always tries to take things up “to 11” in how high they rise. At one point, she tried to make everyone try to raise their eyebrows “to 11” with her, and got one of the crowd members in on it.
Yuriyan did a lot of sketches playing to the fact the crowd was comprised of anime fans, starting by making an observation that the heroines of Studio Ghibli films usually come in two types; very powerful or too quiet. She does her impression of a quiet Ghibli girl, shrinking and speaking in a soft, mumbly voice, and then does a parody of Nausicaa. Later, she mentioned her dream as a child was to be like Sailor Moon, and pretended to do the physical transformation, basically acting it out physically but not doing anything with her clothes in any way. She also recites the ending trailer narration for the series as a joke. Yuriyan continued with the physical comedy by pretending to bulk up by pumping up her shoulders and pushing her chest up, demonstrating how amazingly the physicality of a person can transform simply by how they project themself. Bragging that she’d grown in height, she did a stand off contest with a tall guy, and standed on a chair for height. She then pretended to be self conscious, yelling hysterically “Why are you looking at me?!!”
Yuriyan then promised to show a more sensitive and beautiful side to her comedy. She did a chair dance set to the theme of Beauty and the Beast, and then danced with a person from the crowd standing up, which ended when she accidentally knocked the chair into her board. Her next bit was to ask her assistant to pull her in two directions to show off her flexibility, though that bit ended with her immediately giving up with it being too painful. She went back to the chair-prop comedy, getting a young female attendee to sit in the chair while she spinned them around romantically, and then doing the same with another attendee who was an older bearded man. Finally, she got one of the attendees to dance an awkward ballad with her. This was the last bit of her presentation, which she committed to calling very sensitive and beautiful, and thanked the audience for understanding.
Yuriyan then opened up Q&As to the audience, bringing out her last props, a giant inflatable whale that she road on while carrying a baseball bat, which she used to point at questions askers. These questions helped give the audience more insight into Yuriyan’s background and tastes as a performer. She revealed she had once participated in Sasuke, also known as The Real Ninja Warrior show, which is a four-stage obstacle course that 100 contestants compete on at the same time. Yuriyan lost in the first stage. Even so, participating in Sasuke is a rite of passage for every famous Japanese comedian, so her having the opportunity to be on it at all was auspicious. Yuriyan’s favorite bit to do is bringing out a plastic sheet and putting it on her face to make horrifying faces at people. Her favorite American comedian is Dave Chapelle, which is kind of a yikes choice, but considering her favorability to the queer community and pride groups in Japan, probably reflects a lack of awareness on her part about his transphobia.
Closing out the panel, she joked about how much of a sweat she worked up and how she wanted to drain the whale to take a shower and wash it off, proceeding to walk around the room pretending to douse the crowd with its sweat water. Despite the gross gesture, Yuriyan ended her Otakon panel warmly received, with much applause and enthusiasm. I would say Yuriyan’s presentation was a hit, being both funny and genuinely informative about the nature and nuances of the Japanese comedy scene.
Someone I noticed laughing the hardest at her performance was Toni Sun of Anime Feminist. At one point, Yuriyan called out Toni for taking notes on her presentation during one of the fart noise bits. Toni laughed it off, saying it was because they were interviewing them tomorrow, and generally seemed to enjoy and laugh a lot at her presentation. Unfortunately, Toni had a poor experience trying to interview Yuriyan the following day, as it wasn’t communicated properly to press that she wouldn’t take certain questions, particularly on social issues and her advocacy for LGBTQ pride groups in Japan, and primarily wanted to be asked about her career and specifically include a question about The Queen of Villains. Toni was only told walking into the room that most of their questions for Yuriyan had been rejected and they could not talk to her about LGBTQ topics, and having not known about and prepared questions about The Queen of Villains, had to make up questions on the fly. Toni walked back into the press room dejected and frustrated that they were not able to get a more substantive interview with Yuriyan, and it is unlikely that Anime Feminist will publish their interview.
I went in to interview Yuriyan after Anime Feminst and Black Belt Media, so I had a good idea of what I could and couldn’t ask her, and luckily, most of my questions were career-focused and approved. I enjoyed talking with Yuriyan, and it seemed she herself enjoyed talking with me and was amused by my reactions to some her responses. Though interestingly, despite performing her panel in English, it seemed like she was more comfortable having my questions interpreted into Japanese before responding. During our interview, Yuriyan described how she approached performing for Otakon, the differences in performing for American and Japanese audiences, moving to LA, and what attracted her to the role of Dump Matsumoto in Queen of Villains. Learn about this and my full interview below with Yuriyan Retriever below!
Interview with Yuriyan Retriever at Otakon 2024
Manga Mavericks: We are here at Otakon with Yuriyan Retriever, comedian and actor who’s starring in the new Netflix drama series, Queen of Villains.
Yuriyan Retriever: Yeah, thank you!
MM: Thank you for coming to Otakon! I really enjoyed your show yesterday-
YR: Oh!
MM: -How you worked the crowd, and your physical comedy. I was wondering, in preparing for your Otakon performance, what kind of research did you do on Otakon and the community to tailor your set to the audience?
YR: Thank you! I’m just pretending I understand english.
MM: (laughs) That’s alright.
YR: I’m sorry, let me see.
Interpreter asks her the question again in Japanese.
YR: Ah. For yesterday and today, I researched for three years. I prepared for three years for Otakon.
MM: (chuckles) Wow! And what inspired you?…
(everyone laughs)
YR: Actually not, I’m sorry! Anyways, I brought my items from Japan, and I don’t know, I didn’t know who’d come to my place in there. No one comes, maybe, or I don’t know. But anyways, I wanted to and brought you to (know) about my ability in anything and in Japanese comedy, and my comedy, I guess, that’s like this.
MM: Oh, that’s awesome. I mean, that’s interesting, because I was wondering whether you perform for Japanese audiences differently than you do for international audiences?
YR: Ah! Let me see.
Interpreter: Um, is the American audience an International or is the Japanese? Or, I guess what is the international?
MM: Like, how differently does she perform for Japanese audiences her set with American audiences or other international (outside of Japan) audiences?
YR: Yes! Yes, yesterday actually I didn’t. No, I mean I didn’t do any, anything (differently). (It) felt (the) same as in Japan. I’m doing less, certainly. But, since a few years ago I tried and I’m trying to go to stand-up comedy, theatre, and to open-mic. And then, you know, stand-up comedy is, I feel, very different from Japanese comedy. Mine, that I do in Japan. So it’s difficult, I think.
MM: Yeah, I was wondering about the differences between the Japanese comedy scene – which as you explained yesterday there are many different types of Japanese comedy – versus the American stand-up scene, and your experiences navigating both?
YR: Yes! Let me just see…
Interpreter restates question in Japanese.
YR: Yes! In Japan, I do all or almost all my comedy as kind of sketch comedy like that you watched last night, with music and with some items, you know? But stand-up comedy is only microphone, right? So, I need to speak more english and I need to tell them in english. It’s difficult for me. But, I think in Japan at the beginning to start, that start of my career in Japan, no one knew about me. But, over ten years later, now, people know about me. So I can do what I want to do, because people know “oh, Yuriyan Retriever always do that,” or “oh, Yuriyan Retriever is like that,” you know. Like if I, after (I perform in) America and then if people like me or people know me, I hope I can do my comedy in America. So maybe I’ve now am feeling the difference, kind of, now that I (know) how I’m going to do. I’m going to effort to do the same thing. So same thing happen, you know? Does it makes sense?
MM: It does, and I think your comedy really played well for the crowd yesterday, so it shows there’s a lot of comedic sensibilities that are universal.
YR: Ah!
MM: But I was wondering what got you interested in performing your sets in english and for the American comedy scene, and now you’re making a transition to LA in December?
YR: Let me see!…
Interpreter: Can you repeat the question part again? Sorry.
MM: Oh, like what inspired her to start performing in English, and then interested in performing overseas, and now making the transition to moving to LA?
Interpreter relays question in Japanese.
YR: Okay! When I was ten years old… well actually, two years ago.
(everyone laughs)
YR: So, when I was a child I watched Back to the Future, and thought “oh my god! Michael J. Fox is so cool, and I love, I love, I love him!” and “oh, Michael J. Fox is in movies. Movies is America. America is Hollywood.” and my dream is, for a long time since I was a child, to go to America and to go to work in Hollywood. Anything, something like this and then… But I felt, at the same time, I wanted to be a comedian in Japan. But “which way, which way, which way?” That, after all, I chose being a comedian in Japan, but while I had my career in Japan keeping up, I realized “oh, oh my god! To go to America, to go to America and working in Hollywood is not just a dream.” A comedian is everything. We can do everything. Like, “I like this, I like this, I’m interested in it.” So, everything we can do. So, I remembered my dream to go to America, and to go be a Hollywood star. And then… now.
MM: Well, that’s wonderful. I think that leads into asking about how now you’re taking on acting roles. You know, you’re starring in Queen of Villains. I was wondering what attracted you to the role and how your experience in comedy helped you in performing the character of Dump Matsumoto?
YR: Oh yeah? Let me see…
Interpreter relays question in Japanese.
YR: Yes. Dump Matsumoto-san is an existing wrestler, and the story is real, based on a real story. And in the story is, in 1980, people in Japan know the name “Dump Matsumoto, Dump Matsumoto, Dump Matsumoto, Dump Matsumoto.” And you know, do you know Dump Matsumoto?
MM: I did research…
YR: Yeah? Thank you!
MM: …And I am a fan, I’m interested in wrestling. So it sounds like she has a really great story of like wanting to enter the industry as a face but then, you know, kind of getting rejected and turning heel. So, it sounds really compelling.
YR: Yes! Dump Matsumoto is… usually, a popular wrestler is “Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!” But Dump Matsumoto is opposite, like “Get away! Get away! Get! I hate you! I hate you!” Like, she was hated by all Japanese people. But, why she is being like this in the story? And then, my bias is the same. Like basically, you know, Dump Matsumoto is, when she was a child, “Oh my god, I want… I want to be wrestling. A wrestler.” And me, I wanted to be a comedian when I was a child. And then she, we, came up and came true our dreams, and then (our experiences thinking about) “how to survive? How to feel?” were very similar and then very natural. Similar, and then melting our vibes. And then I respect her, you know?
MM: Yeah, no, I see that you could really relate to her experiences in your portrayal of her character. I was also wondering… you know, one thing I really enjoyed about your set is your physical comedy, your gestures you’re able to do. I’m also wondering how that translated into your performance of [Dump Matsumoto’s] character, and also any kind of additional training you had to do to perform the wrestling moves in the show?
YR: Yeah! Yes.
Interpreter relays question in Japanese.
YR: Ah yeah! To make my body… first, you make a body to be like Dump Matsumoto-san in training, at fitness, and then practice. Practice wrestling, and then everything we do with all the cast together, we did for two years, or a long time. And then, physically… I did physical comedy, but in the series, the shooting, it’s more important, the important thing was not physical, more emotional, and then more… My emotion all is, always before the shooting, in the capsule in my heart. And I don’t know how to explode. How to explode my capsule. But in the shoot, while shooting, thanks to people, thanks to everyone, thanks to director and all the people, my capsule was exploding, and then my emotion all is exploring, and then so I could play her, you know? Does it make sense?
MM: It does, and it sounds like you really were able to kind of connect wih her character, and get into character in a really interesting way. I’m really looking forward to seeing the show.
YR: Oh, thank you.
MM: Well, thank you so much for your time, Yuriyan. Is there any final comments you want to give out, for folks looking forward to Queen of Villains or your future comedy performances?
YR: Thank you. Uh… this is a more important thing. The one. The last one thing. The most important thing is… *BUZZ* (Yuriyan takes out and press her buzzer.)
(everyone laughs)
YR: I think that’s basically it.
MM: (laughs). Wonderful.
YR: (laughs)
MM: Thank you so much. Subarashii. (laughs)
YR: Wonderful, thank you! Thank you so much.
MM: Oh, thank you. It was a lot of fun!
YR: Wow, thank you!
Thanks again to Yuriyan Retriever, Sakura Wang, Yoshimoto, and the Otakon press relations team for making this interview possible!
