Attack on Titan Funimation Premiere by Li Li
The world premiere of Funimation's English dub for Attack on Titan took place on Saturday afternoon of Anime Boston 2014. The event room was packed, and there was still a huge line outside the event room when the event began. In the audience, and in the line, many attendees were in Attack on Titan cosplays or wearing Scouting Legion cloaks or jackets. At the start of the event, a cute edited version of the Anime Boston logo was flashed onto the projection screen -- complete with the Colossal Titan peeking over the logo. Shingeki no Anime Boston 2014? Yes! At this event, Eren Jaeger's voice actor was revealed: Bryce Papenbrook. After this great reveal, Funimation showed the attendees the first official Attack on Titan English dub trailer, met with cheers from the audience. The trailer premiere was followed with an announcement about Kodansha's Colossal Edition of the Attack on Titan manga. This edition combines the first five volumes of Attack on Titan and includes unique never-before-seen color pages. The first three episodes of the Attack on Titan English dub were streamed here... for the first time in the world. It was thrilling to be in a room full of enthusiastic fans, interacting with the episodes as they played out. When the Attack on Titan opening theme song, Guren no Yumiya by Linked Horizon, finished playing in the first episode, the audience went wild with cheers, whistles, and applause. Watching these first three episodes was definitely a magical experience.

Masquerade Behind the Scenes by Scarlet
I've been doing anime con masquerades for a few years now. I have to say that Anime Boston takes good care of their contestants. Not only they feed and hydrate you - we were given snacks and water to keep us going, but they were also there to motivate you and spread positive vibes around. The staff was very energetic and very motivating. One of the staff members started to quote Kamina - "Believe in me who believes in you." Participating in masquerade does take a lot of time and energy from you. We had craftsmanship judging right before call time where we presented all the details that went into Cure Marine and Coffret to a panel of judges.

What Heroes of Cosplay does not show is the amount of love that these contestants bring to the show. For example, there's this one group that always does Metal Gear Solid skits for Anime Boston - you can see a lot of love went into the planning and execution of the skit. Also, one of the best parts of being backstage is meeting new friends and talking about how you made your costumes. For anyone who has ever wondered how to network with other cosplayers, backstage at masquerade is the best way to do it.

AMV Contest Winners by Jared
When masquerade ends judging begins.  However, to keep the audience and performers entertained during this time the AMV winners are announced and the videos are shown for everyone.  Many people in the audience enjoyed the videos, but unlike some contests the creators were not called up to accept any award.  The show went by faster than expected and the awards for masquerade were handed out shortly thereafter.

Masquerade by Li Li
The masquerade this year was full of excitement and fun! When I first sat down in the audience, I could feel the excitement in the air. People chattered amongst themselves while cute color-coded Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story lines were projected onto the Main Stage screens. Choose your own beach adventure? Yes, indeed! Story Time with A-Chan and B-Kun: Journey to the Kingdom of Anime was a very entertaining video as well, featuring the beloved Anime Boston mascots (in their cute "Magic and Mischief" attire). The informational video about emergency exits, walking in an orderly fashion, and other safety concerns caught my eye: it was created in the likeness of Minecraft. To be honest, I've never seen an informational video like this before! It was definitely amusing and unique.

When Roadie, our host for the Masquerade, walked onto the stage, the crowd cheered: the host was back, and then something new was revealed... the return of a previous Anime Boston masquerade host, Mario! Overall, the Masquerade was full of inside jokes like "I pick things up and put things down" (remember that box?) and "BACON." I heard that some people felt left out and did not understand the jokes, especially if they did not attend the previous Anime Boston masquerades or if they were first-timers at Anime Boston. The newcomers did enjoy some of the hosts' comedy though, such as the social media jokes (let's all take selfies!). The selfie game was definitely strong this year at Anime Boston.

The Masquerade started off with amazing cosplayers for the walk-ons. There were so many cosplayers with amazing costumes! The Pokemon exhibition skit was fun and got the audience pumped up. I was impressed with the variety of fantoms represented during this Masquerade show: we saw the new big fandoms, such as Attack on Titan (that opening dance skit was amazing, and I loved the cosplayer-made music video that played in the background) and Free!, but we also saw the old big fandoms like Dragonball Z and Sailor Moon. There were also performance skits like a beautiful dance skit for Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy, a fun skit about the journey to become an anime fan, and an impressive dance skit for Angelic Layer. There were definitely many dance and music skits this year. Some other fandoms represented in this year's Masquerade were Black Butler, Princess Tutu, CLAMP, and Naruto.

Saturday night was still getting hyped. JAM Project had a solo concert at 11PM in the main auditorium. Because of the train schedules, we had to leave the area before then. However, we joined the many cosplayers at the Prudential Center food court for dinner. Of course, Panda Express and Sarku had the longest lines. We went simple and had a slice of Pizzeria Regina to keep us filled after masquerade.

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