This was my second year at Another Anime Convention, which has some importance to me as it represents the first New England convention I had ever attended. This year I had the opportunity to run a couple panels and enter masquerade. The first year I came to New Hampshire I had no real expectations, but this year I was excited about attending with a set of expectations that were met by this small and enjoyable event.

This year AAC was held in the same location with rooms in the same locations as last year making it very easy to navigate once again. Even if you are new to the event it is very easy to get your bearings and make your way around the event. This year gave us the chance to check out more of the town and try out some of the restaurants. There is some great food that can be found in the area and it makes me want to come back just for more food. In addition to that, I had the chance to try the special mixed drinks at the hotel pub which were also really enjoyable.

This year I ran three panels Moon Prism Poptarts, Classic Anime for New Fans, and History of Lupin III. It was easy to hook up my laptop at each panel and there was always a staff member there for questions or technical problems. Each panel went smoothly and had a good sized audience including History of Lupin III which was one of the last panels of the day. It is great to see such an enthusiastic crowd for panels at a small convention. I would love to come back next year and run more panels as it is fun to do and I love having an energetic audience.

As for the panel I attended I must say that they were great. There is a good variety of panels looking at several different aspects of fandom and Japanese culture. It is great to see a variety of panels that make me have to choose between two panels I want to attend. More than that, it is great to see writer panels where I can have some professional development. Whoever is in charge of scheduling is doing a great job as is the technical staff since there were no preventable technical issues.

This year I was lucky enough to compete in masquerade. We came in with a ‘for fun’ approach and had a good time. The masquerade staff had their act together and made sure everything went smoothly for everyone. Judging went quickly and awards were given out after a reasonable amount of time. While the event went longer than planned, I think it went well. While I did have a good time at masquerade, I wasn’t able to go to the other cosplay events, unlike last year where I enjoyed dating game and chess. This was mostly due to being so busy during the convention that I didn’t have time to hit the other events, but I did hear positive things about those events.

Once again the dealer hall and artist alley were modest, but nice. The dealer area even included a nice photo booth like last year, which I had the chance to try. The photographers were good and very friendly. There was a good variety of booths with everything from tea to weapons to clothes. It isn’t the largest selection, but there are a few good deals at are worth looking at. On the other hand there is the swap meet, which had a great selection of older anime titles, manga, plushies, and several other nerd related types of merchandise. There were some great deals, but we hesitated and missed out. If you find something you like at the swap meet I suggest you jump at it as quickly as you can otherwise you will regret not grabbing that rare copy of Digi Charat.

It is rare for me to be excited when going out to a convention, but I really wanted to return to the first convention I hit in the New England area. While there were some real life problems prior to the convention they did not prevent me from having a good time at AAC. I was glad that I was able to explore a bit more this year and try out one of the local pubs. In addition to that, running panels was very fun and I look forward to trying out some new ideas next year. I generally find it difficult to think of problems I had during the weekend that were the fault of the convention. If you are looking for a nice break in the fall and you want a convention with cool people and a good vibe then you can’t go wrong with AAC.

As this was a fun event there are plenty of people who need to be thanked for helping me have such a good time. Thanks go to: the AAC staff, Scarlet, Evan, the Republic pub, Sarah, Ice Queen, C.C. Hunter, the Plum, the masquerade staff, street pass peeps, and Glenn of Nerdfit. As always if you need to contact me by all means don’t e-mail me (Jared –at- Scarlet-Rhapsody.com) and until next time I ask you to give my love to the granite state.

The List:
1. New Hamster?
2. Spring break… in autumn
3. Cupcake!
4. The wind
5. Nothing good on TV
6. Sleep is for the weak
7. RE 6: I’m so tired…
8. Street Passing
9. Hesitation = mistake
10. Stay healthy Ice Queen
11. Busy, busy, busy
12. Winning at Slash
13. Missed Hentai night
14. RE 13: My sanity is happy with that
15. I could use some more tea
16. Granite state? Realy?
17. No time, no time at all
18. Need some more creepy pasta
19. Next cosplay: something from the Tales series
20. Not lost this time
21. Missed the Deathmatch
22. Met a great writer
23. Get to the choppa!
24. WiFi worked well
25. No more buses
26. Pop Tarts
27. Get me a time machine I want to go again

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