Anime Boston took place April 20th – 22nd at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA. A total of 11,500 people attended the convention this year setting a new record. Anime Bliss had two members there this year, unfortunately Galaxy was unable to attend and was missed. Xellos and I (Gollum) were the two to attend. I want to use this section of my report to give a general run down of the convention and talk about some of the things that I don’t think need their own write ups. In general I thought the convention was well executed. This was Anime Boston’s 5th year and they have managed to adapt well to the attendance explosion that has occurred since year 1. The message boards showed a fair amount of disorganization in the days leading up to the convention so I was a bit concerned, but everything came together in the end.
The first event that Xellos and I attended was the opening ceremony. This was a fairly standard welcome to the con and here are the guests with a couple of nice things added in. First, they threw out shirts which they have never done in the past. This made the crowd quite happy because let’s face it, who doesn’t like free stuff. Next Greg Ayres and Brina Palencia sang a duet from Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad which was being majorly pushed throughout the convention. It was a nice chance to preview the music that would be present in the series, but more on that in a later section.
After that Xellos and I walked around the convention itself and visited the dealers room. There really wasn’t much new in regards to the dealers room, it really was just a big room with stuff you could buy. If you are looking for anime merchandise though there was a fair selection. The rest of the con was nicely decorated though with decorations and informational signs discussing different holidays and festivals in Japan. This was because the theme of Anime Boston this year was festivals because it was the 5th year.
I ended up going to a couple of the autograph sessions because I wanted to get my Nerima Daikon Brothers Art Box signed by Greg Ayres and Luci Christian as well as one of my Negima DVD’s signed by Brina Palencia. All of them were very nice, and I got a chance to talk to them all a little bit which I always enjoy. The autograph line was also handled very well. They implemented a ticket system this year which worked excellently because you knew for sure that you would get an autograph as long as you had a ticket. They also enforced when people were allowed to start lining up, only 30 minutes before the session started, so I didn’t feel the need to skip panels that ran 1 or 2 hours before so that I could get in line.
All in all Xellos and I had a really good time and would recommend Anime Boston as a good convention for anyone who can attend to attend. They are a big con but they have managed to get to the point where they can handle it pretty well.
