Cosplay Chess by Li Li
The theme of Sunday morning's Cosplay Chess was Students versus Paranormal. Of course, there were some character overlaps I noticed (some of the students also had paranormal powers...). Before the Chess match began, participants met up with staff to hear the rules and meet their opponents. I was one of the participants, part of Team Students, and even though I was only in the Chess match for the beginning portion, I had great fun! Chess staff was very understanding about my situation since I had to leave the con early. During the game itself, the King of each Chess team directed the team members via microphone, and then, epic battles ensued. Snazzy background music was played during the fights, and the characters interacted really well. Lindsay, cosplaying as Allen Walker for Cosplay Chess says, "The Students vs. Paranormal chess match was a lot of fun, everyone coordinated and collaborated well with each other and there were no problems between staff and chess players as far as I could tell. Although we did have a few minutes to meet up with whoever we were fighting beforehand, it would have been nice to have a full rehearsal with who moves where and attacks who before the actual chess match on Sunday." Despite the lack of a full rehearsal, the Chess match ran smoothly from what I could see. I heard that at the end of the game... Team Paranormal won!

Dealers Hall and Artist Alley by Scarlet
“This looks like K-Mart,” said Jared as he walked into the white light of the dealers hall. Like last year, the dealers hall and artist alley were combined into the same room. There were tiny vendors that sold anime trading cards, figures, manga, comics, Japanese snacks, and more. Other vendors sold tea, weapons, wigs, custom shot glasses, and other geeky paraphernalia. Local artists came by to show off their artwork. I managed to buy a print that I’ve been meaning to get for a while – all five sailor senshi dressed up as Justice League heroines (though I think Usagi makes a better Supergirl and Minako makes a better Wonder Woman, but that’s just me). The artists even brought in one of a kind hair accessories for Lolitas, steampunkers, and other alternative types of fashion. For a small con, this had a lot to look at – you could easily spend an hour or two looking around.

Through the Eyes of a Child by Jared
Even on day three there were plenty of interesting panels to keep you going until the very end of the event. This panel was about writing for a teenage or pre-teen audience and was held in more of a seminar style due to the small audience that showed up. The discussion brought up many different issues that come up when writing younger characters including the changing perspective that occurs as one ages. It also covered methods to make characters more three dimensional by adding more traits and expanding their interests. It was just too bad that the audience was so small for this panel because it was a good way to discuss the art of writing with a published author.

Post Con Depression by Scarlet
This was a last minute addition to the Another Anime Convention programming repertoire. It was also appropriately held during the tail end of the convention. The hosts were flew out from Sacramento to be at the tiny New Hampshire con (in contrast, Another Anime Con is a fraction of Sac Anime’s numbers). The host cited the DSM IV’s definition of depression and why we get depressed at the con. For most of the audience, the next con would not be until Anime Boston 2014 in March. This is a culture shock coming from Los Angeles where there is always some con going on every month. People hold onto these upcoming events dearly for another weekend to be with friends they can only see at cons. What the panelist also mentioned was that cons are safe spaces to be who you really are without judgement (most of the time). People in the audience cited not feeling part of the norm in school – a lot of the people attending were young and new to the con scene (as a veteran going to cons since 1999, I felt very old!). More importantly, the panelist talked about strategies in how to cope with feeling down after a con like watching new anime, scheming up new cosplay plans, etc to keep them looking forward to the next event.

Leaving AAC
The con was wrapping up in the afternoon. Things were starting to wind down. Even as people were lining up for the Sunday maid café, dealers were slowly packing up their stock. We joined our colleagues from Anime Jam Session for the hour long drive back into Boston. Passing by a highway lined with trees and falling leaves, we bid “see you next year” to the Granite State.

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