Anime Boston 2009 Wrap
Keeping this one simple. So I can spend more time cropping and uploading pics, more time sleeping, and less on writing. I also added title pics from, lol, my phone cam, to the old Anime Boston posts:
Wow, I did almost a full coverage of this con, barely even blinked. And I’m not even done yet. What’s in store is at least one full TL;DR article on Aniplex, and probably some re-writing of the stuff so it’s more link friendly. I can even write about Surat’s moe nonsense. But anyways let’s get it going…
Photos: This is a basic selection of hall cosplay pics Jabel took (and a few of mine) and various things. I just want to also highlight a few specifically:
The Garden of Sinners: Spiral Paradox US premiere (with English subtitles) came delivered not in a reel format, but in the body of a PS3. Is this a triumph of technology? Or is this…a Sony? These two pictures say probably a lot to some and very little to others. Given I highlighted them, you can guess what kind of person I am.
A picture of the luckiest man in that room. The story is, Anime Boston runs a charity auction where guests, artists, dealers and others donate; con attendees pay and the money goes to some charitable cause that escapes my fatigue-frayed mind. Kalafina’s group obviously donated some of that stuff. However the people running the auction were a bit lulz, and they said that shirt wasn’t autographed. When it obviously was.
Kransom probably would use the term “abunai” here. I am inclined to agree. But I’m always thinking of you WAH, for every “abunai” situation I run across at a con.
Producer-san is actually a small in-joke. Ever play Idolm@ster? But to some of us this guy is the man of the hour, having to know and green light projects like Kannagi and Rakkyo. And he doesn’t even get listed on AnimeBoston.com!
Probably my favorite hall cosplay that I saw.
- Freebies
- Rakkyo #5 promo poster x2 (I think they are the film ones, not sure). One autographed by Y.Kajiura, Kalafina, and Iwakami.
- Rakkyo fan x1 (wwwww)
- Kamina keychain x1
- Happy Lesson collection x1 (ADV) (wwwwwwwwwww) (thanks Chris!)
- Heroic Age poster x1 (Funi promo material)
- Not freebies
- BRS mug (COSPA) x1
- Kannagi tea cup (COSPA) x1
- Chobits stationary kit (IIRC, volume 1 R1 DVD omake) x1
- Kalafina mirror x2
- Anime Boston tote bag
- Just autographs
- Aquarian Age OST; by Kajiura
- Kalafina - Seventh Heaven; by Kalafina & Kajiura
Random nonsense:
- Aniplex has a lot of printed material at the con. I really like their logo/brand design with simple lines, black background, etc. They have Aniplex branded bags, jackets, shirts…I’d buy one because it looks nice.
- There were random Japanese observers. It’s always kind of hard to ID them. Not sure if they are fans or industry.
- It was cool to see whats-his-face, the new Eva movie ADR guy, come out and say something and answer questions. Also, there was this Rei cosplayer taking photos during the panel. What’s up with that? Speaking of which, there was this pretty good Rider cosplay with a DSLR with some of the people I run into a few times at the con. What’s up with that? And if you see here…another chick cosplayer with a DSLR. Is that the next evolution of cosplayers? Photogs? Or are they just random coincidence/exceptions?
- Bolt Bus is awesome. I am sold out for them if they provide free wifi and power the whole time. I suppose the only thing against them is that they are more expensive than the competition…
- There were a handful of hall cosplayers I liked but didn’t get to take a picture. Jabel is definitely no match to Ming… I particularly recall a nice Ranka and a military-outfit Sheryl… And a pretty awesome space marine commander outfit (WH40k).
- Karaoke room closed at 10pm the latest. That’s just epic fail, sorry. I didn’t go in it though.
- Line management was sort of lacking but also sort of unnecessary. Any kind of prime event had a line (and many non-prime events had lines too). Actually Saturday was almost always like this. Most of the time the line went away. There’s a delicious “peak” time when most people go line up. If you avoid that time by 5 minutes you get ahead the majority of the people.
- Overall I had a positive experience at Anime Boston. In fact nothing went regrettably wrong except missing out on the encore. Even then I’m just not the biggest Kajiura/Kalafina fan to begin with.
- I think I spent more on food on Thursday than all I spent in the dealer’s room all weekend. Man, Should’ve gotten more oysters. But I’m the kind of guy who’s always one purchase from Hen Da Ne away from running out all my cash. Would2x 1.25lb lobsters for $30 worth it? May be.
- # of lines skipped: 1
- If you want to get commission from an artist, go EARLY. Friday is good.
- Televisions in nice hotels are all upgraded to flat panel. In a lot of cases this means no more lock-downed back latches, and also no need for fun tools to pry open stuff just to plug in your PS2 or whatever to game at a con hotel. Somehow this is just how things roll this year. Maybe I’m just a year behind, too? Not too sure.
- It’s always awesome to see someone who reads your blog in real life. And no, it’s a cat. Like him.
- Jabel found this awesome hotel that we stayed for Thursday night. If I ever go to AB again, that’s where I’ll try to book a room. At least if splitting a Marriott or Sheraton double eight ways is not desirable or possible.
- Even if I’m always getting older, I still wake up like clockworks at a con. Nuts.
- I should make a point to go to more Surat’s panels. He does a good job presenting stuff, even if a lot of the stuff is kind of questionable.
- Alex L (& SO) may have a bright future ahead of him as panelist. As long as he doesn’t spend all his time doing it… and lol, love hotels.
Would I do this again? Very likely…at least now it becomes something worth doing, and I will consider it!
Cosplayers with DSLR’s also spotted at Anime North, although having never been before it didn’t seem unusual. Any reasons why it should be?
So which hotel did you stay in? Could have used a better deal myself.
intro: The DSLRs are definitely something I’ve seen before, but there just have been more sightings of it with cosplayers. Maybe because prices have dropped a lot over the past year? It’s gotten to the point that if you are a REAL photog you can probably get a good panel going teaching people how to take/do cosplay pics right.
MJ: it’s this semi-bed and breakfast place on Newbury, which is about a block and a half away from the main convention center entrance. The walk is shorter than the one to the Marriott… The accommodations are pretty good, but the rooms are smaller. I also stayed in the Marriott though.
It’s probably just a matter of time. There’s price, but also the age of the player base (income, parental trust). And a DSLR in itself is a bit of an image statement. Who wouldn’t want to appear to be pro?
Incidentally, there was a panel titled “Photography for the unprofessional” which may very well have been a stab at education, but I didn’t attend, although I probably should have.
Nice coverage of the con! I especially appreciate the info. on the Aniplex events, which I missed out on myself.
The Toradora cosplay group is great. I managed to miss running into them, too :(
Seems you picked the right con to go to this weekend :)
Dr. Matt: thanks for the assist!
Anna: I’m just thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t pick the wrong con this weekend :) From hearing the preliminary reports from tired Fanimecon goers I think I would have had a great time there too. But yes, I guess I did!
I too very much enjoyed reading your coverage. On the topic of DSLR-wielding cosplayers, I’m guessing it’s part of a growing desire to get professional looking pictures of one’s own cosplay and others. I’m sure a lot of time goes into creating the outfits, and I’d want my pictures to turn out nicely as well.
Now, if the DSLR-wielder were cosplaying AS a DSLR camera… I think the con’s supposed to implode or something.
Last year I considered cosplaying as Konata’s dad, just so I could lug around my huge SLR without being out of character. =D