One of the many events that people attend is the Opening Ceremony. It is supposed to be the event that opens the convention, but for some reason other activities like the Anime and Hollywood panel and Black Butler Season 2 screening coincides with it. I would have thought the opening ceremony came or at least start up first prior to other activities.
Regardless, many people attended the ceremony to see their favorite voice actors and the mascots of Anime Boston. Plus, the presenters threw freebies out into the audience. I think they were t-shirts…
One of the first things that I like to do at any convention is visit the Dealers Room. I love buying things at conventions, because you can get good deals and/or find unique items, if you look hard enough. At Anime Boston, there were Anime Boston themed merchandise like mugs and pins, while another dealer was selling vintage anime products, like dolls and art books. Then there are some dealers who sold items that were not directly related to any anime or manga series. Hint: Chewbacca. Also, this was the location of the Charity Raffle event, and the Charity Auction items were available for viewing.
I usually do not like putting money into raffles because of the chance that there is no return on the money that I have spent. However, since the money is going to charity, and I was interested in the Mahou Shoujo Basket, I ended up buying tickets, LOTS of tickets. I ended up putting all the tickets in that basket, left to do other things then went back to the Dealers Room in time for the 4:30pm raffle. So above is the picture of the shoujo basket.
They had quite a bit of things available at the Charity Auction: autographed items and anime and manga series merchandise. When it comes to certain items, like autographs, rare or one of a kind items, I tend to want a certificate of authenticity to go along with it. I was especially curious about the frame by frame animation cells. Unfortunately, there was no certificate of authenticity accompanying it. Sometimes not having the certificate is ok, but one day someone may ask you to prove whether or not an item is genuine. :-)
In regards to the Game Room, the set up or layout looks similar to last year. It had the three projectors in the back and tables grouped to together. However, I did notice that it had more arcade games lined up against the walls. So there was nothing significantly different.
Now this was something I wanted to check out. Because I come from an archival background, I was curious to see how the “museum” atmosphere would be. Would there be proper lighting or would it simply be items on displays in a bright lit room? I was surprised to see dim lighting; displays that told the story of the specific year; television screens with a video playing; laptops for browsing the convention photo galleries and there was no flash photography allowed. That’s pretty impressive, right? They made the effort beyond simply showing you the items from a certain year to giving you the feeling that you are in a museum.
Another interesting room is the Anime Boston Chibi-Zone. I took a peek and there were children and guardians utilizing the room and its available toys. I do not believe that this was available to our younger fans last year, but it is nice to know that there was a space available for the infants and toddlers to play in.
Guests
This year’s Anime Unscripted was performed by Christopher Ayres, Greg Ayres, Carli Mosier and Keith Silverstein. Unfortunately, only two of the actors, Chris and Silverstein (back row), were comically entertaining, while the other two, Greg and Mosier (front row), were not. As instructed, all the actors were able to portray their characters; however, I attended the show to get a good laugh. It would have been a nice way to end the night, but, sadly, this year’s event was not as enjoyable as last year.
Monsuno voice actors from left to right: Karen Strassman (Jinja), Kirk Thornton (Beyal), Keith Silverstein (Dax) and Christopher Corey Smith (Bren). The panel was quite the entertainment, while being informative on the behind the scenes work of the show. I was intrigued to learn that the show pulled a The Simpsons: all the actors voiced more than one character in the show ranging from high pitch to low pitch voices from good guys to bad guys. Reflecting on the acting ability of the actors performed during the panel, I wish they all were part of the Anime Unscripted. They probably would have been funnier. :-)
Pictured here are Takamasa Sakurai, author and cultural adviser, and next to him is his translator Szu-chan. The whole panel was to show his experience at different Japanese culture events and what he encountered during his trips to different countries. The moment this picture was taken Sakurai was holding up a prize that the audience can win by beating him in rock, scissors, paper. With only 3 players left, the poster was won by a female audience member.
© 2012 Linda Thai
Photography by Linda Thai
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