Arisia 2004 Anime Review
Arisia is the first New England sci fi festival of each year, and takes place in Boston, Massachusetts. They have a fun anime room that includes giveaways!
The 2004 festival was Jan 16-18 and a full weekend rate was $50, on par with other festivals and quite a deal for the money. The art show in this was HUGE an included some incredible moving sculptures. There was a wide variety of drawings, paintings, ceramics and more.
The dealer's room was equally impressive. There were anime videos, collectibles, plus clothing, jewelry and much more.
They had a number of panel discussions plus demonstrations of fighting styles and more.
We found the anime room here to be extremely well done. The room's door was kept closed to keep out noise and it was in a quiet part of the hotel layout. I have to note here that the Arisia festival is on many different floors and you have to either wait for the elevator (which is ALWAYS full) or go hiking up and down back stairs to get to where you want to be. But still, quiet is good for anime.
The room has a large screen and two separate aisles of seats, so people can come and go easily without disturbing long rows of people. The schedule ran from noon on Friday to 3:30pm on Sunday with only an hour downtime each morning from 7-8 to cool off the projector. You could pretty much do anime 24 hours a day!
Also brilliant was the programming style. There were a few movies such as Millennium Actress and Metropolis that even fans who had seen them would enjoy again. But they also ran episodes 1-2 of MANY series, from Yuki Kaze to Pretear to Someday's Dreamers and much more. That way you could get a glimpse of a variety of series without feeling "lost" and know which ones you then would want to go watch more of. It was the perfect taster's selections of anime!
Even better, in between blocks of movies the moderator would do giveaways of anime titles, asking trivia questions and awarding the DVDs to whoever answered properly. It made for some fun, friendly competition that we all enjoyed.
On the downside for this hotel (besides the multi-floor separated layout) there aren't many restaurants nearby. It's a multi block hike to the nearest fast food which in the dead of winter can be REALLY nasty. So I highly recommend taking in food supplies with you if you get a room, or packing a lunchbox if you go in for the day. No need to waste hours trekking around for food.
Highly recommended for any anime fan!
Arisia 2004 Official Webpage
Anime Festival Reviews
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