After fighting off a few waves of post-convention depression (Also known as PCD), I have finally summoned the strength in me to put this together. If you were not among those who attended (Or have no idea what I’m even talking about), Sunday, March 27th marked the end of 2016’s Anime Boston. And, to summarize in just a few words, it was pretty radical. So, obviously, I am only one human being and thus was incapable of attending every single panel and event the convention had to offer — so if I don’t cover something you were looking forward to reading about (Cough, cough, the masquerade), I apologize. Maybe.
So, a little backstory before I get into the meat and potatoes of this year’s AB — I originally wasn’t going to come this time around. Anime Boston is quite a hefty drive and consumes a large chunk of change, especially when you have less than $1000 to your name. But…then those jerks in charge of booking the musical guests locked in nano.Ripe and literally forced me to drop my prior arrangements in order to attend the band I have wanted to see more than literally anyone else ever (And that’s coming from someone whose been to well over 100 concerts of all varieties). And what’s even more suspicious about that is that year PRIOR, Anime Boston booked LiSA (Who was second place in my ranking of “Performances I must see before I die”). In fact, I remember directly saying last year, “Wow! The only thing that would be better than LiSA is nano.Ripe!” So, hat’s off to you, Anime Boston. If you guys book Amazarashi or Supercell next year I will have ascertained that you are literally stalking my Twitter page in an effort to take all the money I have left.
Okay, let’s start talking about actual convention stuff and not just my feelings on the greatest J-Indie band of all time (nano.Ripe).
Friday (March 25th):
First thing’s first — thank god I picked up my badge of Thursday. I walked into the Sheraton around 10:00PM or so and the line for those who pre-registered online and needed to pick up their badges was essentially long enough to fill the entire dealers’ room. BUT, according to a friend of mine who actually had to wait in that line, it really wasn’t all that bad. The formation seemed fine and, apparently, it moved pretty quickly. Also, I was totally digging the light-up registration booths that emanated different colors depending on what exactly yo were supposed to do at each one. That was cool. If I had another hat, I’d take it off again (See paragraph 2).
Sentai Filmworks Industry Panel and the Defiant Powerpoint Presentation:
Industry panels are pretty self-explanatory at this point in time. People show up, marketing/PR department shows you what’s going down in their respective company, Q&A happens, etc. And while the Sentai reps were as bubbly and entertaining as always, the announcements were a bit underwhelming. However, the crowd definitely lit up with the announced acquisition of “Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto,” a recent fan-favorite. Apart from that, more titles like Ushio & Tora, Azumanga Daioh, and several others were teased. But the most interesting part of the panel would actually be the defiant powerpoint presentation that never wanted to listen to Sentai Filmworks. Though it was funny at first, the whole scenario just turned out being a little awkward when things weren’t progressing the way they should. With that in mind, the Sentai reps weren’t at fault for this and did all they could to push things along briskly. Sometimes computers are just jerks.
Aniplex of America Industry Panel and the Kaori Miyazono Pin:
This panel marks the first time I ever won anything at a convention. And if you couldn’t tell from the bolded text above me, the item in question was a button featuring Your Lie In April’s boisterous violinist, Kaori Miyazono. So, after knocking some cosplayer’s basket of Easter eggs over, I made my way up to Aniplex’s marketing specialist, Alex Crum, and gladly claimed the button. Then, I would knock the same exact basket of Easter eggs over on the way back to my seat. I am and awkward and terrible person. Apart from the button and the spilled eggs, Aniplex once again boasted a surprising list of beautiful box sets coming in the near future, with titles like: Durarara xWhatever season it’s on now, Anthem of the Heart, and (My personal favorite) Plastic Memories. What I’ve learned from that last title is that Aniplex has really been enjoying making people cry lately. After another Q&A and some more giveaways and announcements, the panel ended and I set off on a typical cliche writer’s venture to find an oversized cup of coffee.
Your Lie In April Live-Drawing and Me Being Way Too Lucky in One Day:
After the oversized cup of coffee was claimed in the name of me, I made my way over to what would soon be one of the greatest panels I have attended to this day — the Your Lie In April live-drawing and Q&A with the original Japanese director and character designers, Kyohei Ishiguro and Yukiko Aikei, respectively. The bulk of this panel revolved around Ishiguro-san and Aikei-san answering both premade and impromptu questions. After the translator (Who I just want to say was pretty damn great) relayed the questions back to the Japanese staff, they would reply with incredibly informed and enlightened responses that kept myself, as well as the rest of the crowd, entertained through the entire panel. Eventually, the tides would turn and Ishiguro-san would be the one asking the questions. One particular question of his, however, wound up being perhaps the most pivotal moment of the entire panel. That was, “Which character from the series do you most relate to?” Fighting the urge to raise my hand and declare why I believe Tsubaki is the most relatable character of the series, each response from each fan called upon spiraled into an emotional support-group type moment in which people poured their hearts out to Ishiguro and Aikei, ultimately thanking them for everything they’ve done. And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for…the giveaways. In addition to the four live-drawings from Aikei-san, signed copies of the scripts for episode #21 and #22 were both added to the list of items that would be taken home by lucky crowd members. And, WHAT DO YOU KNOW, I won the signed copy of episode #21’s script! Everything after this moment was consumed by the mass amount of happiness my body had taken on that I can’t even remember how the panel ended. SORRY GUYS.
