Tim's Anime Boston 2006 Report

Part 1: Friday

I wasn't originally sure if I was going to attend Friday. But I decided to, for a few reasons. One, to get acclamated to the area and to get comfortable where things are. Second, since I had Friday off from work, I figured I could pay for a weekend pass and it'd be cheaper than buying two days' worth. (Parking nonwithstanding :S) So, I braved the con alone.

I went casual...I knew ahead of time most of the stuff I wanted to do was going to be on Saturday anyway. Upon the ascent from the escalator into the Prudential Center, I caught my first cosplayer...a Yuna (from Final Fantasy X, but you already knew that). Then another one. And another. It was all I could to from busting out laughing. And I knew it was going to be an interesting day, at the very least.

Now, of course, I'm not laughing at these cosplayers. I'm just laughing since I recognize these characters, and some of these costumes are really elaborate. Amongst the hundreds of nerds (and I mean that in the nicest way possible, because let's face it, I was among them myself), I saw: some Yunas, a Rikku or two, a couple Clouds, a couple Tonberries and Moogles, Lulus, quite a few Soras in every appropriate outfit, some Roxas-es, with Hayner and Seifer, quite a few from Organization XIII including a fully-red-bandaged Ansem (and let me say, I was a little surprised by the number of Kingdom Hearts II cosplayers there were). A few Links, a Princess Peach, a couple Marios and Luigis. An elaborate ProtoMan. A couple Kings of All Cosmos. Quite a few Ed Elrics, plenty of State Alchemists - even a Major Armstrong (with disappointing lack of sparklies)...there was even a Chimera Nina crawling on all fours. Envy seemed to be the most popular homonculus, with Lust in second place. In fact, aside from one girl who may have been Sloth, no other homonculi. *shrug* More Naruto ninjas than you could shake a shruiken at. A few Vash the Stampedes (or is that "Vashes the Stampede"?), including one balancing a box of Dunkin' Donuts on his head, which I didn't get until my brother explained it to me afterwards (Vash apparently has a love of doughnuts). A couple Sailor Scouts. Some Inuyashas and fellow characters. A couple Spikes, and one memorable Valentina (or whatever her name is). There were plenty more characters whom I didn't recognize, like some suited guy carrying a giant striped cross, and your assortment of winged characters. And of course, plenty of generic cat- and fox-girls. Pretty simple, really, to put on a headband with ears or hang a tail down your back. I might revise this list if I remember any more.

I lucked out in deciding to buy the weekend pass on-site, because the pre-registered line was pretty long. And a good thing too, since on Saturday the opposite was true. Most of my first day there was exploring the various areas of the convention, traveling back and forth between them two or three times.

There was the video game room. Which I was perfectly happy just standing back and watching others play. It was mostly set up as consoles (locked up, natch) and a bunch of TVs on tables. Some old consoles, surprisingly, such as Saturns, Dreamcasts, an NES, an N64, etc. Though, now that I think about it, I didn't see a Sega Genesis. Hrm :( Of particular note were a couple of rhythm-style games...like DDR (there was In the Groove 2 there) but hand-based. Both looked like Japanese imports: one had a DJ turntable setup, the other was just a large console of 9 buttons. Though that's just the thing...it's hard enough to worry about 4 buttons on DDR...but to keep track of 9 on some of these upbeat J-pop/techno songs is just insane.

Manga reading room? Meh. Karaoke? No. Anime viewing rooms? No thanks. Dealer's room? Yeah, that's a lot of stuff, but a lot of it, too, is just repeating through all the booths. Artist's Alley? Pretty nice...just kinda breezed through it the first day. Did happen to meet Kel McDonald of Sorcery 101 at her table, which was kinda cool. A little awkward, since there wasn't much to say. I'm hoping to remedy that in the future, we'll see.

When I first arrived, and after the first bit of exploring, I made my way up to the 3rd floor where they were setting up for autographs. This session was for Vic Mignogna (aka Edward Elric) and Steve Blum (amongst lots of cool voices, most popularly known as Spike from Cowboy Bebop). However, the line was starting to snake around the corner and down the hall. Even after the 90 minute allotment they were still taking in people and setting up tickets/appointments for the next day. To which I thought, "Yeah, it'd be cool to get an autograph, and I'm a fan, but I'm not that big a fan." Which pretty much describes my feeling about the convention as a whole. Since I'm such a casual anime fan, it's hard for me to get into a majority of the things they offer, and I'm not that willing to wait in long lines for the things I am remotely interested in.

Poked into the Live Gaming room. Nothing interesting (for me) going on, aside from a bit of boffing battles (or whatever it's called - you know, whacking each other with foam bats). But I did happen to get some free stuff...mostly for promotional purposes, of course, but still, "You mean, I can really have this? Right off the table?" is cool.

So yeah, like I said, most of my Friday was going back and forth between these areas and watching all the cosplayers in between. Which, quite honestly, was probably the most fun part for me. A quick bite at California Pizza Kitchen, and to home I returned.
posted by Tim at 10:55 PM