Anime Boston was reaching their final stretch. Sunday was Easter. The crowds usually lighten up, but people still want to get their last minute deals in the dealers hall and artist alley. The turnout was still decent, yet the lines were very much reduced. People were checking out of their respective hotels and catching the last hours of the con. Additionally, the convention center actually opened their doors at 5AM to accomodate fans ready for the Kiznaiv premiere.

Dealers Hall by Eri Kagami
The dealers hall dominated the first floor of the convention center. As soon as you walked in from the Prudential entrance, it was already to the left of you. The dealers hall consists of your typical anime vendor booths selling plushes, collectables, figures, and DVDs. Also, you had dealers selling cosplay accesories such as wigs, jewelry, and weapons. One of the most unique things about the Anime Boston dealers hall is that it has the largest selection of manga. New England Comics and Comicopia brought walls and walls of manga. I've been into these two storefronts in Boston and their collection brought at Anime Boston exceeds their storefront space. I also liked how they also had staff picks and reccomendations based on genres and target audiences. One of the biggest things to come to Anime Boston was Bushiroad / KLab's Love Live School Idol Festival Tour. This was mentioned on the Love Live mobile game that they would be coming to Boston for an American competition. There were competitions for the rhythmn game throughout the weekend. However, the most popular thing in the Anime Boston dealers hall was the Love Live merchandise. Track suit jackets of the girls from Love Live sold out in 15 minutes after the dealers hall opened!

Get Off My Lawn by Jared The Greek
A panel for the older fans that remember the good old days of the 70s, 80s, and the days when you couldn’t just flip on Netflix and watch your favorite anime.  This was a discussion about various shows on television at strange hours and how people got into anime in the age of tape trading.  This is a very free form panel that works more like a seminar class where the moderator brings up topics, talks a little on the subject, then leaves it open to the whole room to have everyone bring their two cents into the discussion.  This is a great way to begin the last day of the con because in many ways it can restore your faith in anime when you realize that you are not alone in feeling like the ‘old guy’ at a con when you aren’t old at all.

Cosplay Chess by Jared the Greek
One of the biggest cosplay events of the convention is Cosplay Chess.  This year it was a good students versus delinquents theme featuring one side made up of Anime Boston High students and the other featuring This is Totally A School students.  The good team was led my Tamaki from Host Club and featured characters from various sports anime and shounen series including a surprise appetence from Kenichi from History’s Strongest Disciple.  The delinquent side was led by Pegasus from Yu-Gi-Oh and had mostly non-student characters from various video games, actions shows, and even CC from Code Geas.  The goods students won and the audience cheered for their favorite characters as the battle raged throughout the morning.  It was a great show with some surprising fights that led to the destruction of many props.  This is the biggest highlight of Sunday and well worth checking out.

Hatoful Boyfriend: The Pigeon Dating Sim by Jared the Greek
One of the weirdest visual novel games I’ve wanted to play is Hatoful Boyfriend, a game where everyone is a breed of pigeon.  This panel looked at the various characters (both dating options and side characters) and the audience voted for their favorites.  Then the panelists played a small segment from near the beginning of the game and showed off their favorite ending.  This was a great way to learn more about the game and it has put that game on my ‘must have’ list because despite how silly the premise is it actually sounds like a wild ride that will be well worth the price.

Closing Ceremonies by Eri Kagami
Closing ceremonies is always bittersweet. There is not an empty seat in the house. To close off the sports festival, we were shown a cosplay video set to "Shake it Off" as sung by A-chan and B-kun. Guests said their final farewells to Anime Boston 2016 before next year's theme was revealed. A-chan and B-kun were on stage wearing their usual sports attire. A-chan in her kendo outfit and B-kun in his track suit. Suddenly, A-chan appears from the future of 2017 in a scientist outfit. No time paradoxes happened. "Goku may never reach 9,000...Team Rocket may never prepare for trouble...Shinji may never get in that robot," said 2017 A-chan. Suddenly, Alan Silvestri's familiar theme played. 2017 was going to have a Retro theme. Let's hope that our mascots makes sure that the attendees don't become (m)assholes or something. Roll credits.

Convention Feedback by Jared the Greek
The last panel of the convention is the feedback panel.  This time around there was far more negative comments than positive as many people had issues with security and the lines.  On the bright side of things I came up to the staff to pitch a Lupin 50th Anniversary panel for next year.  With the theme being ‘retro’ it really seemed to fit.  It was sad to hear about some of the disabled people who had problems, but the majority of complaints did not match the experience our team had.  The best part about feedback is that the staff does listen to the concerns of the attendees and does what they can to make next year better.

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