Anime Boston

by Chloe
Created 4/22/2003
updated 5/15/2003

Finally, a con near my home turf!

Friday:   

   I was riding the Red line to Arlington when I spotted a Wolfwood and other costumed people.  Wolfwood carried a cross so big that he had to tilt it to get it through the train door, stairs and escalators.   When I entered the hotel, I was dismayed at the length of the registration line, Hoping for a pre-registered line, I asked around and was directed to a nice and short 2 person line.   I gratefully accepted my badge and bag, and went to find a ladies room in which to change into my costume. 
I shamelessly recycled my previous cosplay, Chloe from Noir, since I had  no time to build another costume, and didn't want to be yet another Sir Integral Hellsing.  Here's some pictures of Chloe.

 

   When I left the ladies room as Chloe, the people in line looked at me and one of them said, “Oh, she’s from Noir.”    And so I was real happy on being recognized.    A lot more people recognized me later.   However, I was a little disappointed when a particular   pair didn’t recognized me.  While I sat listening to Brad’s Panel, two people dressed up as Kirika and Mirelle passed in front of me and sat a few empty chairs to my right .   Kirika got up from her seat several times and passed me.   Not once did I sense a flicker of   recognition from either of them.   (Hey, I’m not desperate to be recognized, I was elated to find more Noir.)  Finally, when the panel was over, I went over to them and asked if I could take their picture.   And then Kirika said, “Hey, you’re Chloe, right?”   Yay!

   We posed together, and while doing so, got   photographed  by   someone who might be press.  So I’m crossing my fingers and hope we end up in a magazine.  

   I went to Ted’s Panel, then to the How to Draw Manga workshop.   Workshops are 1^st come, 1^st served.   I came late, so I just sat on the floor.   Robert de Jesus went over some basics.   Using his techniques, I drew a caricature of   Robert  and Chloe.   Just for fun, I made Robert’s face   look more bishonen and gave him more beefcake.   Then I left it on his desk for laughs.   (^_^)

   I went to Kirby’s Panel and waited patiently for his autograph and picture.  Merle was there as his escort (in a nice way).  She had a cool costume with well defined ears.  I took a picture of her too.  Then I listened to Mark’s Panel, and racked up the nerve to ask, “If an anime character were real, which one would you date?”.    Mark replied (after some thought)   “Relena”.  Then the audience protested much too loudly.  Despite the audience’s protests,  he remained firm on Relena.   (Much sadness.)

   Next stop was to watch “Sugar”.    It was cute, but I couldn’t get into the story.  I saw 2 episodes and then went to see the “Whose line is it?” event.    It was Oh-My-(insert favorite deity)-Awesome.   I was laughing so hard!   A few pictures are posted in the cosplay pictures section.   I did feel bad for the voice actors because some the skits they had to do were really lame.  Especially Brad, who seemed tired.  Ted and Kirby made me an instant fan (I wasn’t before).   They were so…  so… COOOOL.  

   After this event, I was near the end of endurance, and tried to find food.   To my dismay, Au Bon Pain closed early, so I spent an hour trying to order takeout some place.  I missed the beginning of the Music Video contest.   But I made it in time to see the Hello Kitty video dubbed to Mortal Kombat.  I swear, I can never look at Hello Kitty the same way again.   The video made it seem like the sweet, gentle cast of HK became the ultra dangerous fighters in Mortal Kombat.  The video sync’d well with MK, so that when the music said “Fight!”,   “Excellent!”  or “KO!”   it showed an appropriate clip.   There were quite a few videos that made me want to see the anime, such as Arjuna and another that had an angel-turned-weapon character.   A copy of my scoresheet is in the Souvenirs section.    

 

 

Saturday
   By the time I got there, there were a ton of people.  Like twice as many as Friday’s.   I went to Scott’s Panel and then to Ted Cole’s autograph session.   While waiting, another pair dressed as Mirelle and Kirika passed by as I waited in line.  They stopped when they saw me, and I waved to them.   Then we took a picture together.  After I got Ted’s authograph,   I went to wait for my friends who lined up to register.   It took them 1.2 hours to register!   By noon, registration stopped, because there were 4000+ people in the con.  Two of my friends came after that, and weren’t able to register.   My friends and I went to the dealer’s room.    We bought some CDs for my friend from California who gave up going to AnimeBoston because her father had a stroke.   I bought some Pocky for the voice actors after I got their autographs.

  Then we went to get something to eat.   My friend was impatient and didn’t want to wait for me to change, so I went out to Au Bon Pain in my Chloe costume.    I did get a few curious stares, but it seemed the Au Bon Pain folks weren’t that surprised since there were other costumed customers there.     After lunch, we went to see the Voice Actor contest.  The contestants were on stage and were each shown a scene from anime.   Then the scene was played back and they had to sync to the mouth movements while reading from  the script.  It looked real hard to do, and some of the contestants did a really good job.   Jamie McGonnigal, Kristen and Tiffany Grant were judging.   The judges gave feedback to each contestant, which I thought was really nice of them to do.  But in the end, only 3 were chosen to go to New York’s contest.   After the contest, we went to get some dinner.

  We came back later and parted ways.   I stayed to watch the Masquerade while the rest went to see Neo-Ranga.   I stayed long enough to see the Gundam Wing skit and Kirika, now dressed as Utena from the movie, do her catwalk.   Then I  went to see Neo-Ranga.   It was weird!  And I can’t get over those spiral designs on the robot.   It reminded me of the spiral shaped mosquito incense which my mother used when I was young.  After Neo-Ranga,  we all went home.

 

 

Sunday

   I was determined to get the rest of Gundam Wing autographs and Hiroki Kanno’s.  When my turn came for Kanno-san’s, I plaaned to say, “Konnichiwa, Sensei.  Onegai. (show autograph items)  Kore to kore  (point to each item)”.   However, when my turn came, I forgot to say “Konnichiwa”.   I was so embarassed!  Kanno-san said “Hi.”, but somehow I couldn’t reply.   I tried to show my items, but the translators nearby said I could only have one autograph.  He suggested that I line up again since the line was short, in order to get my second.     So I did, and showed up in front of Kanno-san yet again.  And I forgot to say “Konnichiwa” again!  Kanno-san was nice enough to sign again.   But I managed to say “Arigato gusaimas” a little louder.   

   I ended up lining for the overflow line to get the rest of the autographs.  I blame it on my absentmindedness, when I lined up for Kirby’s, which I already had.   For some strange reason, I thought Kirby was Scott.    I even booted someone who cut into Kirby’s line ahead of me.  Of course, Kirby took a look at my autograph sheet and said, “What? Sign it again?”  I was so embarassed, and punished myself by knocking my forehead on the table.    Finally, I got all Gundam signatures, and I was happy.

  Then I watched Win Chris’ DVDs.    To my surprise, Monkey D. Lufy was secretly Skuld-chan (in FF cosplay, middle)  or was it the other way around?  Monkey became a contestant and wowed the audience with her anime knowledge.   Alas, it didn’t help her in the next round, but everyone was sad to see her go.  The final round contestants did well, but Chris won the final round.  

 

 

Overall, it was fun, and I would go again!
  

Memorable Quotes

“You may have quantity Brad, but I have quality.”   - Scott McNeil

A staff member pointed out that Brad’s line was longer than Scott’s, so Scott left his place to stand in a corner.   A desperate fan shouted, “Please don’t go!   I waited 2 hours to see you!”

 

“Let me put it this way – Oh, I’m Wolverine?   And he’s Canadian?” – Scott McNeil

Scott’s reply to:  “Were you an X-Men fan before you were cast as Wolverine?”

 

“You guys really don’t like Relena, eh?” – Mark Hilbert

When asked, “If an anime character were real, which one would you date?”, Mark replied (after some thought)   “Relena”.  Then the audience protested much too loudly.

 

“That’s not your music?” – Masquerade Emcee

 

“We will see the end of  this skit yet.”  - Masquerade Emcee

The Gundam Wing skit  had some Technical difficulties, and had to be redone later.

 

“900 and 1100?  Wow, we actually have a contest without Monkey!”   -  Win Chris’ DVDs Emcee

Sadly, the audience favorite, Monkey D Lufy was disqualified.
 

Cosplay Pictures

I put the pics I took in a directory.  It's just  a list of jpg files.  Just click on the link above to get to them.   If you get a message saying that the page is unavailable, it is just geocities trying to limit my bandwidth usage.  So please try again later.  

Souvenirs

Voice actor  autographs.
Mark H :  To Jen - MH

Scott M, X-Men :  Mike, Thanks for watching, Scott M
Scott M :  Jen, I may run and hide, but I'll never tell a lie, Scott M
Kirby M, Brad, Ted C :  
   To Jen From Trowa, Kirby Morrow  

    Dear Jen, Really nice to meet you, Brad S
    To Jen, All the best, Ted Cole, "Wu fei"

My Anime Music Video scorecard .  

Recommendations

Register early!  4000+ people came to the con.  Due to fire safety, registration was stopped, and people as far away as PA, were turned away.
It got warmer during the day, so if you plan to cosplay, design your outfit to accomodate the heat.
In this particular hotel, elevator service could not accomodate the volume of attendees.   Some otakus even got stuck in the elevator!   Take the stairs if you can.
Some dealers only take cash and those that take credit cards may charge a slightly higher price for a credit card purchase.
 

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