Aside from the fact that I’m allowed to openly display BL goods on my work desk and read BL for large chunks of the day, another great part of working my job is that I get paid to attend BL conferences, conventions, and collab cafés. For this installment, I was allowed to stop by the Lullaby of the Dawn (夜明けの唄, or Yoake no Uta) collab at Manga10, a wonderful event and café space (‘ten’ sounds the same as 展, which means ‘exhibit’) that frequently hosts collabs for BL and other media popular with women.
A short summary for those who aren’t familiar with Lullaby of the Dawn:
To be a ‘kannagi’ is to give oneself up for the world, cutting one’s own lifespan short while protecting the land and its people against the black sea. Elva is one such kannagi, his limbs stained black since youth from battle after battle against the dark waves. When orphan Alto stumbles upon him, it’s the only time since becoming a kannagi that Elva isn’t looked at with scorn and fear, but instead with curiosity. Alto, seeing and understanding the loneliness in Elva, decides to stay with him—and somehow, Alto’s tenderness and touch over the years reverses the stains marring Elva’s body. Is this a sign that the lifespans of the kannagi don’t need to be sacrificed to the sea, or is there something larger at play…? And what role does Alto have in it?
Especially considering the fifth volume is currently on the way, it’s an incredibly plot-heavy BL with tons of intrigue, so if you’re a fan of such stories I can’t recommend it enough! Thankfully, volumes 1-3 have already been released by TOKYOPOP, with volume four hopefully coming soon. (Admittedly, some of the Japanese is rather specialized and difficult to understand, even as someone who usually reads in Japanese… 
So, I also super appreciate the TOKYOPOP version!) But, what I really love is that, even though the central plot is the freedom of the kannagi, Elva and Alto’s relationship doesn’t get sidelined, and there’s still lots and lots of great BL content for those who’re like me and prefer relationship development over driving action. This series is truly a good mix of both!
Also, can we just appreciate how beautiful Ichika Yuno’s art is? You know I’m incredibly hung up on Elva—with his tsundere personality and incredibly ethereal features, how could I not be? He’s stunning. Of course, Alto is also wonderful and is like a huge puppy-dog—incredibly kind to everyone around him, but intensely protective of Elva. The rest of the cast is also just amazing, and it’s so fun seeing everyone play off each other.
Anyway, because I’m a huge fan, and it’d been a while since we did a café report, I requested to go so I could write about it. I booked a reservation for March 10th, which was the last weekday available for the Tokyo café. (It’s now taking place in Osaka!) Thankfully, the weather was stunning, and I didn’t have too much outstanding work to be stressed over, so I went to Ikebukuro to take my lunch before heading over to the café.
I know we’ve mentioned Ikebukuro about a million times on this blog, but as a BL fan living in Tokyo, Ikebukuro is truly key. On the eastern side of the station there’s Otome Road, Animate, Sunshine City, and loads of arcades and second-hand goods stores, and on the south-western side there are alleys in which various cute and interesting cafes are nestled. Unlike Akihabara, which is very nerd- and electronics-centric, Ikebukuro is still plenty trendy, so a lot of female fans prefer it for enjoying a day out with friends wandering between the shops and stopping at a cute café for plushie pics with your cake and tea while you discuss wanting to write fanfiction of Yamato from Idolish7 getting force-feminized and falling to depravity. (A real conversation I overheard at a café while vacation-planning in Ikebukuro with a friend, I shit you not).
Anyway, tl;dr, while there are collab cafés and shops for BL in other parts of Tokyo, Ikebukuro is where most places set up shop since it’s where most of the fans would already be on their day off. As BL slowly makes the move toward being more ippan—read by a general audience—in Japan, trendier shops might still pop up in places like Shibuya and Harajuku (huge youth shopping and nightlife districts usually associated with riajuu/normies), and obviously Akihabara will occasionally host them, but chances are high that BL events, cafés, stores, etc. will be located in Ikebukuro.
As is the case with Manga10! Well, their shop and small exhibit hall, which I visited with Sou this last summer, is actually in Shibuya. But the café is in Ikebukuro, and has been for a very long time. (In fact, when I first moved to Japan 2019, it was one of the first collab cafés I attended when I went to their Dear+ collab—all the way back when it was still called just “Ikebukuro Toriko,” and you didn’t need a reservation!)
It’s quite close to Ikebukuro station, which is convenient—just a quick dash through Ikebukuro Global Ring and behind where Marui used to be (a department store that was an Ikebukuro landmark before Covid put the last nail in its coffin) and there it is!
Perhaps you were expecting something more cutesy than a basement bar down a random side street, but isn’t that what makes it fun? “Gap moe” and all that.
The top line is food items (a “special” tarte and then a bagel sandwich for picnic vibes, since that was the café theme), the second line is drinks (a sweet juice jelly drink that looks like the sky at dawn, a sweet latte that looks like the stains from the black sea, and “Alto’s therapeutic hot apple juice”), and then the final row is the free coasters you get with purchase, and the paid coasters you can buy for a little extra.
You’re asked to come about ten minutes early with your reservation email handy. Even for those whose Japanese skills are non-existent, all the “check-in” process consists of is standing in line (or near the doorway, if you’re the first one there) and they’ll come out with a clip board, ask to see your email with the reservation number, occasionally ask to see ID proof that you’re you (this is more common with highly popular and/or sold out cafés), and then say “please stand at _______ number.”
Which is a reference to these numbers on the stairs:
Usually, they place larger groups at the front, since it’s free seating and they want to make sure people who came together get to sit together. For instance, when we (as in, the blog team plus Takochan) attended the Tulle Café 2023 collab just for fun (Sou is obsessed with Pokerou), they asked us to go stand in the front since there were four of us, even if we got there a tad later than everyone else.
During this check-in is also when they’ll usually give you your tokuten, or freebie, which generally comes in the form of a short paper or booklet. For the Lullaby of the Dawn café, it was a cute one-page comic about Elva and Alto picnicking together. (I don’t have a photo since it’s meant to be a special gift to those who attend—sorry!) For the Tulle Café, it was a booklet of interviews with the authors where they asked questions about their preferences and interests (if you… uhh… catch my drift).
While you wait, the walls usually have artwork for you to enjoy. In the case of Lullaby of the Dawn, there was colored art by Ichika Yuno on one side, and the phases of the moon on the other. Very atmospheric.
The small downstairs area seats about 24 people at max capacity, and then there’s a large exhibition area to the side—all of which you can see really well in this Manga 10 tweet. There’s also a section near the doorway where you can buy copies of the books as well as extra goods. They don’t generally force you to sit across from people you don’t know, so the two-person tables are often counted as ‘singles’ during the reservation process it seems. Each table will generally display different art, and if the mangaka has visited at any point they’ll often sign the tables and any other stands or artwork.
I picked the purple table because I like purple. And I wanted a table with both Alto and Elva on it. As you can see, Ichika Yuno came to the café on the 28th of February and signed the tables.
After you pick your table and everyone is seated, there’s an announcement that goes over the rules of the café. It’s generally simple stuff like “be polite,” “only line up when asked,” “don’t post photos of certain things to social media,” and so on. (I missed what they said, so I’m gauging what I’m allowed to post off a mix of common sense and what other attendees have posted to the #夜明けとピクニック hashtag… 
) After the announcement, you’re allowed to line up to order. During ordering they ask if you want the special coaster (which is acrylic and high quality, but costs extra!), take your money, and then you get a random paper coaster and a number tag they’ll call when your order is complete.
They call the number over loudspeaker, so while you wait you can check out the display area, or buy goods, or just sit at your table chatting with friends or looking at your phone. Both order pick-up and dish drop-off are at the bar by the register. I personally really suck at this process, since when I’m distracted (for instance, by Ichika Yuno’s beautiful artwork…) I’m not a great listener, so I almost always miss when they call my number. But that’s okay; it’ll sit up there and wait for you. (It just won’t look as cute and immaculate as when it was first finished.)
Since I’m an impatient human, rather than sit and wait, I decided to check out the display area. To set the outdoors-y vibe, there was an adorable zone with character stands that was made to look like the perfect little picnic spot. You were allowed to go on the grass, but you had to take your shoes off, so most people abstained. There was a TV area that was showcasing the promo videos that had been put together for the series (you can watch them on Shu Cream’s official YouTube channel), a message book where you could write something to Ichika Yuno, a miniature picnic set-up so you could take pictures of your plushies or your acrylic stands, and then various walls dedicated to showcasing large prints of various pages from each volume. The prints are admittedly always my favorite part—manga is generally meant to be read quickly, so I appreciate these moments where you’re invited to take a long, close look at just how much effort and detail can go into each panel.
For work, I was given an allowance for one drink (since that’s all I asked for), so I got the namesake “Lullaby of the Dawn.” Apologies that my food photography skills could really use some work, especially in low lighting.
I’m doing a disservice to how pretty the drink was in person, but I got Elva’s coaster! Very exciting for me! The drink itself was very grape-y, with soft jelly at the bottom.
The thing is, though, at this point I realized one of the paid coasters was really cute, and I kinda really wanted it, not as an employee of Renta! but as a fan. So I decided to buy a second drink with my own money, plus the coaster.
Thankfully, my photography skills were a lot better this time around. (Let me have this…) For my second drink I got the warm apple juice, and my second coaster was Alto, which made me happy since it gave me the pair. As you can see, the coaster I really wanted is this lovely see-through blue with the two of them engraved in gold. I will treasure it for all eternity.
I didn’t try any of the food this time around, since the bagel sandwich has my arch nemesis (the tomato) but it seemed quite popular with the rest of the customers. (FYI, Manga10 café has a rule that all food and drinks must be finished to prevent the type of people who over-buy and waste the food just to get all the coasters, so it’s a good idea to never get something you can’t eat! You will be scolded by the staff!)
For the last half of my reservation, I just basked in the beauty that is Lullaby of the Dawn while writing up my notes. Sitting there rewatching the advertisements for the first few volumes made me desperately want to go reread them for myself. Very much feeling the love for the series, and for Ichika Yuno for sharing such a wonderful story with the world, I decided to write a little message for the comment book. Usually, I won’t write in them, since my ability to write kanji is incredibly slow, but I wanted to share my appreciation—especially as a foreign fan, for the fact that the book also exists in a variety of languages.
The message slips had little Alto and Elva mini characters on them. Enjoy my blank paper while I tortured myself over what to write.
After that, I tidied up my dishes, took one last look at all the displays, and then headed up, out, and back to the office for an afternoon of meetings. 
When we went to the Tulle Café with Takochan, since Takochan is very outgoing and normie-coded, he didn’t really understand why you would go to a café like this just to sit quietly, surrounded by other fans. He wanted to know why we weren’t mingling or chatting with people.
That kind of put into perspective what I love about these kinds of spaces—even a very shy, reclusive, anxious person like myself still craves community on some level. It’s nice to have spaces like these cafés where you can just sit quietly with fellow fans and enjoy the thing you love without any expectations or pressure on you as an individual. Essentially, I got to spend an hour enjoying some nice (albeit pricey) drinks just quietly thinking about how much I enjoy Lullaby of the Dawn, and how happy I am that other people enjoy it too, and how I hope more and more people can enjoy and appreciate such wonderful BL manga.
And if I can have a hand in that enjoyment, all the better. 
Anyway, make sure to check out the socials for everyone involved in creating wonderful moments like this:
Manga10 Twitter (Cafe)
Ichika Yuno Twitter (Author)
from RED Twitter (Publishing Line)
TOKYOPOP Twitter (English Localization)
rentaBLog 