Boksone 43 - Boston Massachusetts
We go to Boskone each year primarily for the anime, art show and dealer's room. Here are our thoughts from the 2006 event, Boskone 43.
First, it's important to note that we are going to this event for anime reasons, obviously given the topic of this site. The convention has a TON of science fiction events, discussions, singing and more. If you're more into the sci-fi angle, then this review won't really apply for you.
We have a group that goes, so instead of staying overnight for 3 days we just go in on Saturday to see the bulk of the anime schedule. This year the schedule didn't have a lot on it that appealed to us. The entire middle of the day was taken up by three movies we didn't have much interest in seeing in their little room. There was Steamboy, which we owned and also had seen in the theater. The Hidden Fortress, a live action Japanese samurai flick is one we own and have seen many times. It was an inspiration for George Lucas to write Star Wars. Finally, InuYasha TheMovie 3 was one we had no interest at all in seeing.
So that left us with wanting to go in for 2 of the early afternoon shows - The Cat Returns and Voices of a Distant Star. We deliberately timed our travel to get in for these.
We got up to the room about 5 minutes before the scheduled start of The Cat Returns. There was a cat anime on the screen - but it was NOT The Cat Returns. It was, in fact, Catnapped! which was just not a great anime film. There wasn't any sign change or anything to indicate this had happened. We found out later that because of a kid in the room they decided to put on this 3+ age rated movie instead. That was frustrating since it replaced one of the two movies we'd came in to see, and the entrance fee to the con wasn't exactly cheap. Next came Voices of a Distant Star which was good, but only 1/2 hr long. And that was it.
I realize it's hard to design a schedule that everybody loves, but at least they should stick with the schedule they have, and not randomly change items midway through.
Another big issue is the room itself. They have it right next to the kids room, and the walls are very thin. You hear a ton of yelling and screaming coming through those walls. It's bad enough to only have a few anime to watch, but to have to try to appreciate the tender romantic moments of Distant Star with screaming around you is a bit difficult. You really start to question why you didn't just rent the DVD for $5 and watch it at home, in comfortable chairs with silence around you. You could easily have saved $100 for 4 people; more if you include parking fees ($30 for the 4-5 hours we were there).
I realize that Boskone is not an anime festival. Anime is just one offering out of many. However, for anime fans, at least the anime should be presented in a reasonable manner. Surely they can find a room further from screaming children. Most people watching in the room were NOT kids. The schedule shouldn't randomly change, especially when substitutions are of the 3-and-up variety. I would have put a lot of single episodes of new series during the day, so you had nice 30 minute blocks. I would have avoided "commercial" anime like InuYasha that was easy enough to get elsewhere. A great feature of festivals is that you get to see movies that aren't at Blockbuster or other easy-to-get locations.
I hate to say this, but I think this is our last Boskone. It's just not worth the money any more to try to watch anime in that noisy environment. We'll stick with Blockbuster, Netflix and throw our own "convention" every February. We'll get popcorn, soda, and be able to enjoy our movies in comfy quiet.
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