Anime Boston 2014~ Shingeki no Con Going [Overall Impressions]

This year Oki returns to Anime Boston for con going and epic adventures!

 

This year Anime Boston 2014 was a much needed reprieve from reality for me. If you can’t tell from this picture Frozen was pretty much the cosplay digestion along with ALL OF THE TITAN ATTACKING! Last year my review found a lot of issues with the con experience and I returned this year without a press badge for one reason- To experience the con as a con goer and not as a privileged member of the press. So can Anime Boston redeem itself after a year of cosplot faux pas?

 

The answer roughly is, well yes. This year’s couplet on its own made this con a completely freaking amazing experience. Two words,Death Match. Instantaneously Cosplay Death Match was an event worth paying the 60 dollars for. I CAN’T EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH: EVERY YEAR SETO FREAKING KAIBA HOSTS COSPLAY EVENTS I WILL COME. He can make fun of me all he wants, I will still heckle him. Dance off dammit! Dance off! Protip: We all want to determine the fate of beloved characters by judging subpar dancing abilities. No, really. Don’t make it a dance event. Bad dancing is the entire fun.

 

This year the cosplot was focused on passing magic classes which was cute as crap. I mean a little cutesy for a death match to occur in but let’s be for real, do you all doubt the awesome of watching Grandma Sophie beat up Roy Mustang for no real reason? They didn’t talk about graduating in the death match but I choose to believe Grandma Sophie is Valedictorian of Magic School. Yes, Grandma Sophie from Howl’s Moving Castle beat up people. I have videos. It was probably the moment of awakening in my life.

I cannot emphasize the following point enough. The single reason these events are always enjoyable is one man- Billy the actor guy. (That is not his real title but I dub him as such) aka Seto Kaiba. He is a funny host who always manages to make every member of the audience feel special and wanted. I go through a lot of hard times and feel genuinely unwanted in my day to day life- this one actor manages to consistently make me feel like I am part of a consistent and well thought out event. If you want to be part of an anime experience that makes you part of it- go to an event hosted by this guy. I was depressed during every event and felt uplifted and laughed my ass off. Can I emphasize I hate Grell Sutcliff but he made me LOVE him? That’s an actor. Please bring him back Anime Boston, because he is hands down one of your best talents and features. Uhm he might also reduce me to puddles of fangirl fervor. But well, he’s damn good at what he does.

 

I don’t know why all my photos of him are of him head desking

Rapunzel deserves to slap me but can you ever capture gloriousness on camera? (yes if you don’t suck at it)

This year I wasn’t interested in merch but the Dealer’s Room still pulled me into it and shook my wallet for painful grasps. Definitely had a good variety of merch but I will admit I was too busy being in the completely amazing Artist Alley. Wow did I commission a lot of porn. I mean boobs. I mean – okay no flaming perversion here. Ha. hahaha. Ha. So this year the improvement was clear, definitely had stuff to buy – ALL OF MY MONEY. all of it!!!!

And here’s the fun part – the big deal. This year guys, did the actual stuff to do improve? The short answer is. . .it’s complicated. That’s right. My answer is too long didn’t read. TOO LONG DIDN’T READ.

Have this very attractive Nel cosplayer to soften the blow.

So this year was Attack on Titan’s premiere. You get where I’m going with this right? This was basically the event everyone wanted to go to. I was one of those people. Don’t get me wrong- I’ll say this now. This is an amazing dub with epic potential and I am PSYCHED to see it. I saw one episode before I left the panel and let me tell you I had a reason why. Please let it be known that aside from the following issue this year’s Anime Boston was an amazing and awesome improvement, and this con is a great experience that I would recommend to anyone. Seto Kaiba the host is so good I lose my shit, the selection is superior, the artist alley is packed to the brim with talented artists and basically just being there is a pumped and awesome experience.

But I chose not to apply as Press for one reason- to be able to tell you how this con and it’s major events affected regular people and not a member of the press who can skip right to the front of the line.

And this year the best and biggest event was the Attack on Titan panel. And it was a giant honking mess.

I was lucky to be able to get to the panel, but I can tell you exactly how and it isn’t pretty. I arrived at this panel far earlier than everyone should have as I had set time aside to go to Artist Alley and finished early. So as I sat and waited in the not line just to see how it would go and see if I’d actually be able to go to the Funimation Panel or anything else, or see if others were hovering in line.

The line didn’t exist for long. About two hours before the event they started telling people who were waiting for Attack on Titan a somber and upsetting message  “The line for Project JAM is not as big as we expected, so we won’t clear the room after the event if all of you go in, seem excited, and sit in the back” this was told to me and my friends directly as we were let in the room to seem impressive for a concert. I don’t know the reasons, and I can’t even speculate. All I know is the schedule clearly dictated one thing- there was the JAM project concert and then a room clear. Every single member of the con who was not press or staff was disrespected because of this. The line for the most popular event was crammed and crowded far too early, far too soon, and because of something incredibly inconsiderate on the part of the staff. This should not have happened and the fact that it did? Is awful. I hope honestly it wasn’t the staffs fault because this was such a blegh event that I really don’t want anyone to be at blame, and I hope whoever was responsible will learn from it.

This was what happened and what I experienced and nothing more. I can’t tell you why it happened or why the staff made the choice, for all we know they had their reasons. But what every single con goer experienced was an inexplicable disaster. A friend of ours went to an event with actual time in between that and another event- he didn’t make it in. He cried and a lot of people were in that situation. People weren’t let in even as people like me who respected JAM project and felt bad to even be there left to make space for people. End of the line: Everyone was sorely and incredibly disappointed and I’m sure the staff itself is not pleased either.

But please don’t let this be your deciding factor. The magic of Anime Boston lies in it’s cosplay events, and after this post I’ll be doing some looks at these events in depth. They were more than worth the AoT incident and the dub was extraordinary. Keep this in mind as you look at these epic pictures and amazing cosplays and SUPER AMAZING SUPER FUN TIMES BUTT TUB I CANT EVEN SETO KAIBA AND HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MY FACE MY FACE MY FAAAACE THE COSPLAY EVENTS (bryce papenbrook can I love you) also, they’re trying to pronounce things right in Japanese but Me-Kah-Sah is correct ….but they pronounced it completely off? They said the syllables but it was like putting the words together in a sentence and not giving it rhythm.

Cosplay Chess alone? Was great. Seto switched to Grell Sutcliff and…I just…I couldn’t. And Death Match. Cooking Mama killed people. Urd murdered Suzaku in chess and PRINCESS TUTU COSPLAYERS ON POINT. ON POINT. RIGHT OUT DANCING. I CANT GUYS. The event was so amazing I couldn’t. I can’t help but sob uncontrollably at all my feels that are here hitting my face in the feel things.

sobs

sobs

soooobs

Oki