Leaving for Another Anime Convention from Boston was easy-peasy. We left South Station in the mid-afternoon to catch the Boston Express. There was heavy traffic on I-95 up to Manchester. Thankfully, the free wi-fi and having our Nintendo 3DS in tow allowed us to kill some time. Typically, it takes about an hour to get from point A to point B, but with the traffic, it took 2 hours. However, it is a scenic drive up to Manchester - seeing the autumn foilage once you cross the state line makes it somewhat worth it. By the time we got to the con, we placed our things in our hotel room and quickly made our way to registration to pick up our press badges.

History is the Playground! Assassin’s Creed and Historical Data by Jared
Anyone who has played an Assassin’s Creed game knows that references to actual historical events is a major part of the series. This panel was run by a group of AC cosplayers discussing different historical events and people and how they connect to the series and reality. They remained in character for the most part, which made this panel a little more lively. The panel concluded with questions on who was a Templar and who was an Assassin. I got the Niccolo Machiavelli question right and earned myself some candy. It was nice to see an education themed panel that showed people that they were learning without knowing they were learning.

AMV Room: Bronies the Anthology III by Jared
The AMV room is set up to show different types of videos from contest overflow to some compilations that are very odd. One of those odd offerings is the Brony themed video series done in an AMV Hell style presentation. Most of the jokes were tame and done for laughs rather than gross out or shock. It isn’t common to see My Little Pony videos and this big set showed off just how fun those videos can be. The large variety of content makes the AMV room a nice place to stop by when you need a break from the rush of the convention.

Let’s Talk Sex and Romance by Jared
An unexpected panel was run by C.C. Hunter, writer of several young adult and romance books. She discussed the difference between romance and love stories, more than that she went over the difference between a sex scene and erotica. She brought up important questions like how do people view sex, dating, and relationships and using those views in your characters. Not everyone is the same and that can make for interesting relationships and arugments. While not a panel that everyone will find helpful the writers among the attendees will find this panel to be useful when working with characters in relationships.

Moon Prism Poptarts by Scarlet
In our last bout of presenting Moon Prism Poptarts, we had a decent sized audience. We were in one of the smaller panel rooms, but it made for an intimate get together of the last time we will be presenting Moon Prism Poptarts. Of course, we covered the history of Sailor Moon coming to the US to be localized for American audience and how it evolved with an underground fandom. We showed awesomely bad clips from the the DiC and Cloverway dub and singing along to some of the music added to the American version. It's sad to give a fond farewell to this panel we made to honor 90s Sailor Moon fandom, but all good things must come to an end. Please support the new release of Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon!

When Otaku Attack: the Darkside of Fandom by Scarlet
We stubmbled upon the next panel room. Sarah, a veteran staff member of Anime Boston, talked about how there's a dark side to the cosplay community. She alluded to the article that coined the "fake geek girl" coin of phrase - "Booth Babes Need Not Apply" She broke down the article quote by quote to point out toxic behaviors and hints of elitism in the cosplay community. We briefly went over sexism, racism, and touched upon the latest contreversy involving an European utilizing makeup to look like a African American character in Walking Dead. This was more of a discussion panel to talk about current issues in cosplay.

Swap Meet by Jared
The first day offered the annual swap meet where people set up tables and try to sell off some of their old collections of toys, videos, manga, and even video games. It got pretty crowded, but everyone at the tables remained friendly. Most of the prices were pretty good and the selection featured some very hard to find older releases and a few special editions still in good condition. If you want a deal on some obscure and often hard to find merch this is a good stop.

Lounge: Spring Break 2014 by Scarlet
If Another Anime Convention was a winter wonderland, the adults-only lounge was the swimsuit episode hideaway. The 21 plus lounge never fails to impress older audiences of the con. This shows that this con has a ton of nightlife. Hostesses dressed up as anime characters in their swimsuit variations. Drinks were served at a price. Mostly top 40 music was spinning. If I had to describe the atmosphere, it was mostly otaku playing volleyball with balloons. There was even a ball pit to commemorate a certain MidWest Con. Through the evening, there were events such as sandcastle building and a wet t-shirt contest in which men stuffed balloons under their shirts and participated in the long time frat party tradition.

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