Arisia 2013 would be best described as a culture shock. I have alluded to my experience at anime conventions many a time on the report. While I judge Arisia as a stand alone event apart from anime conventions, I cannot help to draw comparisons. My decade of experience at anime conventions has certainly shaped my enjoyment at Arisia - for better or for worse. This is our first Boston area main event and I can certainly say it's starting to feel like home.

For the longest time, I had the biggest disdain for science fiction and fantasy conventions. It mostly had to do with the fact that I felt that they were doing nothing to reach out to the younger generations of fan. The World Con 2006 report was posted because of people in the Generation X and Y of fandom having a bad time at Reno's World Con. After meeting with the Orlando 2015 World Con committee, I am very proud that the older generation of fan is beginning to reach out to the Generation X and Y. There are plenty of us out there that are growing up from anime and exploring new fandoms. We're all just searching for a home to freely celebrate them.

What I really liked about Arisia is that it put in a lot of effort to bring in the younger generation of fans. Being in my late 20s, I'm still considered part of the young generation. I was certainly surprised to see a ton of Doctor Who cosplayers and I was very shocked to find Homestuck attendees. For the most part, people dressed in Renaissance Faire period garb. The general attendee was in their 30s to 40s, but this event appealed to all ages and all walks of life. I liked that Arisia celebrated diversity. It made me happy to see discussion panels on LGBTQ lifestyles. I've always felt anime conventions really need these types of panels - safe spaces to meet people and discuss issues. It was refreshing to meet people who did not like the use of homophobic slurs. Additionally, it was nice to meet people who were sex positive.

However, I do have a few critiques of the convention. I wish there was an easier way to transfer badges - like if there was a form you had to fill out to authorize the transfer of membership. I actually did buy my badge off someone and while I'm glad that registration took care of it, it still was a pain in the butt to authorize an on site badge transfer. I also heard that Arisia was giving out press badges onsite. I did not see this on the main website. A colleague from Cosplay Shinkou mentioned it was on the Arisia website, but it was hidden under programming registration. I feel that press registration needs to have its own section on the site and a form for reimbursement needs to be addressed clearly. I was really confused when I was filling out the reimbursement for for press.

Speaking of press, I did not appreciate one particular panelist's rudeness. A panelist stopped her panel to chew me out just for attempting to take a group shot of the panelists. As far as I know, Arisia does not have any "no photos" policy posted around. It is typically assumed if you are at a convention that your photo will get taken once you sign your name to your membership. Even when I explained that I was press and I do convention coverage, she did this whole "anti-media" bit on me. If people are very sensitive about photos, they should bring it up at the beginning of the panel / event. Otherwise, it's generally part of convention culture to take photos of various happenings.

I am already looking forward to next year. Because this is such a huge party convention, I think I'll be getting a hotel room. I do appreciate Arisia having party guidelines and I have to thank the attendees for being mature and classy about their partying. I liked the fact that badges were checked so people who were at the parties were also primarily there for the con. This was a huge problem at a previous event I attended where most of the party people did not purchase membership and were there just to get wasted. Thank you, Arisia for enforcing badge and ID check and thank you to the attendees for keeping it classy.

I certainly loved the programming tracks. I wish I could have stayed around to try out more. Because of scheduling, I'm bummed that I missed out on the Sailor Moon panel. The fact a science fiction and fantasy convention recognizes Sailor Moon is already enough for me. I had a great time at masquerade, but the only bummer is that it looks like I have to pay to download the official photography. Don't get me wrong, the photos are amazing, but I think $15 for a high resolution is a bit much. $15 for three digital downloads makes a bit more sense. However, I'm also used to free backstage photography from the anime convention masquerade community.

Overall, Arisia was a pleasant surprise. The diversity of the fan communities being celebrated is what did it for me. For the first time in a while, it was really nice to see people proud of their fandom. As a few east coast anime conventions are approaching this year, I've seen just a lot of self hate and self shame towards fandom. I attend events not to cover them for this website, but to also meet people and learn new things about culture. I felt that I got all those things and more at Arisia. Cosplay and photoshoots come secondary. Arisia represents the reason why we do conventions - to be proud of ourselves as nerds.

Pictures are copyright by Scarlet Rhapsody. If I took your picture, feel free to use it on your site or cosplay gallery. While you're here, do sign the guestbook. This site was brought to you by the font A Yummy Apology. Many thanks to Dream Host, Adobe Bridge, MS Photodraw, Picasa, and Dreamweaver for making this site design possible.