Anime Boston is New England's prime anime event! Just one month after PAX East and plenty of time to prepare for the summer's Otakon, Anime Boston falls right as spring is starting up. This year, Anime Boston took place during Easter weekend. Additionally, Anime Boston also started selling weekend-only badges with an attendance cap. Some one day badges would be available on Sunday, but people were encouraged to buy the weekend package. As commuters to Anime Boston, we took advantage of taking the MBTA and Lyft codes to and from our apartment to the Hynes. No matter how you get there, Anime Boston always had something for any fan for any age.

What is Kantai? by Jared
This panel took a look at the popular Kantai Collection, a franchise in a light hearted way. The series is built around girls who represent World War Ii ships that battle monsters. The panel looked at the connections between the yokai and the abyssal fleet, some history of the different ships, and even a little on how to play. This was a great introduction to the series for those interested and it was a fun way of expanding the knowledge of those who have jumped into the adventures of the fleet girls.

Opening Ceremonies by Eri Kagami
Anime Boston's opening ceremonies is a must-attend. The main auditorium always fills to maximum capacity as attendees anticipate what is to come. Fans get hyped as each of the guests introduce themselves. A video reel of the guest's most notable work is showcased first upon appearance. Guests introduced themselves and expressed how happy they were to be in Boston. For some Japanese guests such as Yoko Shimomura mentioned it was her first time in town. However, the guests that recieved the most rouse were the Godzilla actors. Akira Takarada who played the human report in the first Godzilla movies was eloquent and expressed that he was glad to return to Anime Boston. Haruo Nakajima, the suit actor, who has played kaiju in various Japanese cinema, seemed confused as to where he was. However, the audience still cheered him on.

2015: Kaiju vs. Mecha by Eri Kagami
Every year, Anime Boston has a different theme associated with the con. This keeps programming fresh and allows the convention to create new programming. This year's theme was Kaiju vs. Mecha. Anime Boston goes all out on their annual themes. Posters of Team Mecha and Team Kaiju draped on the main convention hall. Miniature buildings lined the convention hall; guests can take photos of themselves pretending to crush buidlings. My favorite decoration piece was the NERV logo set to Anime Boston - "Sox in the Fenway, All is Right With Boston." Additionally, attendees can "vote" if they are Team Kaiju or Mecha. Each panel room has a QR code and attendess can "vote" on their smartphones which team has control of the panel room. It was nifty gimmick.

History of Lupin III by Jared
My Lupin panel made a comeback as part of a new panel track that looked at the Foundations of Anime. This time the panel was expanded to discuss some of the lost productions like “Lupin VIII” and table top gaming in the Lupin world. The panel drew in a good sized audience that was even able to help me find the French term for ‘home boy’ (garcon a la maison). The biggest surprise was that after the panel I was approached by the guy behind the online Lupin Encyclopedia, one of my sources for obscure Lupin information.

Old School RPGs by Jared
This panel looked at the anniversary of the cult classic Super Nintendo RPGs Chrono Trigger and Earthbound. The panel talked about the costs of bringing the games over and how difficult they are to find now. In addition to that other classic games like Secret of Mana, Unlimited Saga, and Terra Nova were brought up as well. This panel pushed for discussion and compared translations of the games in their other formats. It was an interesting panel and it was rare to attend a panel that was more focused on discussion than just lists of good games.

Official Sailor Moon Panel by Eri Kagami
Since Viz announced the licensing and distribution of the Sailor Moon anime (both Bishoujo Senshi and Crystal), the Sailor Moon fandom has been abuzz. The Viz official panels is where you will find news first. We last left off at Katsucon where the primary R voice cast was announced. For this panel, we had Charlene Ingram, the marketing director for the Sailor Moon release, and Cherami Leigh, the new voice actor for Sailor Venus. In addition to anecdotes as to how Cherami Leigh got into Sailor Moon in the early days, we also got to learn some news for the upcoming release. We learned about the new voice actors for the rest of Sailor Moon R - specifically the Black Moon family. Also, we got to see a clip for Sandy Fox as Chibiusa when she first meets Usagi and Mamoru. We also had a trivia contest and a dvd box set giveaway. One question asked was "Who is the voice actress for Sailor Uranus?" Q&A was followed from fans as they wanted to learn more about the upcoming Viz release.

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