I’ve attended a handful of conventions since things started to slowly open up again. This began with Otakon in August 2021. And while Otakon is one of my favorite conventions, Anime Boston was my homecoming convention. Anime Boston also had the advantage of being on Memorial Day weekend in May opposed to Easter weekend. More people were there on Sunday. Attendees expressed the preference to having Anime Boston in May over the colder April.
Anime Boston always delivers a good show. I will fly out to this convention because not only it is my hometown convention, the quality of fan panels are some you can’t find where I live. I enjoy the featured panelists Anime Boston brings in every year. You also don’t quite think of Anime Boston as an announcement convention, but people were revving up to be up in the morning for the Discotek panel. Discotek has built quite a community with their pandemic livestream announcements. It was nice to meet people from their Twitch community in the flesh!
Theming felt minimal compared to previous years. I did like the inclusion of food panels and seeing that some of these resources for food related manga were available online. However, decoration was really lacking. I liked the food puns in the main hall. I liked the ramen bar and the cafe on the third floor. Yet, I also understood that Anime Boston probably had budget constraints to go their full 110% on delivering on the theme.
Cosplay events are always a joy at this con. I appreciated how organized everything was. I also appreciated the rose gold dice set that I got for just being in the show. I also liked how we had cosplay repair that had a plethora of resources in the event that you need a hot fix on your cosplay – they had wig styling tools, sewing machines, scrap fabric, safety pins, etc. Cosplayers could also get free photos taken at the photo studio (so as long as you were masked).
I felt both the Anime Boston staff and convention center staff did a good job enforcing masking up. Anime Boston staff had fans and signs reminding folks to mask up. There were animated PSA’s of A-chan and B-kun showing attendees how to properly masked. Vaccination check went smoothly; we had no problem with staff looking at our California vaccination proof. Overall, I felt safe at Anime Boston and I appreciated the extra steps to keep folks safe.
Overall, Anime Boston is back, baby! My favorite anime convention still delivers the same quality programming and care for their community even after a time skip. Anime Boston did their best to keep us safe. Security and checking in was far more efficient compared to previous years. Anime Boston is located by many food places including two grocery stores. You never find yourself in a food desert here. I always recommend Anime Boston to friends who are curious about out of state conventions. Anime Boston has a by fans for fans vibe, and it certainly shows! Hope to see you all next year!
Written by Dame Aznable
IG: @damescarletaznable
Twitter: @dameaznable
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