Anime Boston 2003
The New England Anime Society held its first ever convention in April 2003. The place was MOBBED and they had to start turning away people when the hotel was chock-full!
We had just attended the Boston Sci-Fi convention and had no trouble registering on site. So when we planned on going to the Anime festival, we figured we'd do the same thing.
WRRROOOOOONNNGGGG!
We showed up around 10am at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, a rather nice hotel plunk in the center of Boston. The place was completely full of Anime fans in a wide variety of costume. One woman had a huge set of black feathered wings on her back. Another was dressed up as Auron from FFX. There were a wide collection of Final Fantasy and other outfits. We finally figured out what line was for registration - and it wrapped all the way around the central lobby! It took us nearly an hour to get ourselves a badge and paid for. By then they were out of badge holders so we had to carry them in our pockets.
We first went to the art area. This was a very large area at the SciFi convention, with a ton of artwork. We were rather disappointed to see that there were hardly any works up here.
Next we headed down to the 'game room'. This was quite popular, with several different systems set up, some quite old. There were two dance/fighting games set up with footpads which were fun to watch. This was a pretty popular area, although for me, I'd rather do anime stuff at an anime show and play computer games at home!
We headed into the dealer room, which had another huge line. The place itself was mobbed and it was often hard to get up to a counter to see what was being offered. We did find a few cool pins and books to add to our collection.
To get up to the movie rooms involved a long wait at the elevators or a bizarre trek through the back hallways and stairways of the hotel. We tracked down a movie we were interested in and took our seats. Unfortunately the screen was pretty low so the subtitles were mostly blocked. As more people came in the problem got worse, but we shuffled around so we could see most of the subtitles between peoples' heads. And then the clincher. A costumed person with a GIANT hat and staff entered the room and sat down RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of one side near the front - completely blocking the view of everyone behind him! Perhaps because he was on the large and intimidating side, everyone either shuffled to the other side or left.
The place was so full that by Saturday afternoon the Fire Marshall told the convention to stop admitting people. The place was already stretched to the groaning point by then. Judging by the way the registration line worked, probably 90% of the people there were signing up on-site, so the convention runners could have not known what they were in for. It's hard to fault them for the long lines and crowded situations that resulted. Still, even if the place hadn't been so people-full, I still would have wanted a bigger art show and better laid out movie watching venues.
A great effort for a first year, and as they were the 7th largest anime convention of the year, it pretty much proves that Boston has the support to keep this going. Hopefully next year they can get a bigger hotel, set up the movie rooms so it's easier to see them, and work on promoting the art show. We'll definitely be there!
Anime Boston Website
Anime Reviews Main Page
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