Anime Boston 2012

Wow, I really don't know what to say about this convention. It's really hard to rate this convention, since I was there for one reason, Haruko Momoi. All could have gone to shit and it wouldn't have mattered, as long as I got to meet Haruko and see her concert. Both happened, and I kind of forgot what else went on.

No, I didn't dress like Komugi.
The costume arrived one day late.

I have to say, it was my first time in Boston, and it's a really cool city. I would have liked to have spent more time up there to do non-convention stuff like see architecture and try out more food.

The location of the convention itself, the Hynes, is basically situated inside a shopping mall. Yeah, a freaking mall, so the convention takes over the whole mall. Everyone is in costume walking around the food court. People who are not there for the anime convention must be like, "WTF is going on?" Especially when confronted by magical "BROLITAS" like myself, six and a half foot tall Sailor Moon crossplayers, and guys with 12 foot Cloud Strife swords.

As you can probably guess, I took the train up because I hate to drive, and I've heard horror stories about driving in Boston. I love trains anyway, I just wish they were more like the ones in Japan (comfortable and you can drink alcohol on them).

I was lucky enough to meet up with some friends and split a room. However, since they didn't arrive on Thursday, I had a night to myself to hit the hotel gym/pool and explore town. I should have looked for a microbrewery. I ended up drinking random Sam Adams and Harpoon because that's what they've got up there.

The city of Boston does not shy away from expressing it's hatred of New York sports teams (especially the Yankees). I thought this was hilarious. I'm a Philly guy, and down here you can't walk into a store and buy an "I hate NY" t-shirt, but it is commonplace to do so in Boston. I met and hung out with this crazy Celtics fan all weekend who happens to be from Brooklyn. He probably spent more money on Jeremy Lin, and "I hate NY" t-shirts than on anime stuff in the dealer's room. It was pretty awesome!

The view from my hotel room at night. Pretty baller.

I managed to eat the worst pizza in my entire life up in Boston, and I got yelled at for it because apparently, Boston pizza is supposed to be great. So, I guess my friends and I just picked the wrong joint. I seemed to make a few poor food choices over the weekend, not trusting my better instincts. Plus, mall food was always "just right there" outside the convention center exit.

Friday: I really didn't do much. The big thing was getting in line for the Ito and Momoi concerts, and I managed to get in about the third row which was pretty cool. Ito did a few songs on acoustic guitar, which caught me off guard. They were actually my favorite part of her set. Momoi did not have her key-tar, but I'll forgive her (LOL). She did a good number of covers (from Slayers, Haruhi, etc) in addition to originals. She didn't do too many songs from games, but she did stuff from Komugi, Seto no Hanayome, and Kujibiki Unbalance. Both were hour and a half sets, which was nice.

Best shot I could get on a cell phone camera of Haruko Momoi.
At the concert.

  Saturday, the focus was on hitting up the autograph rooms, where I got to meet Momoi, which I still cannot believe happened. I know this sounds strange, but to me, Momoi is what The Beatles are to most musicians. She is one of my number one influences and favorite artist of all time, so just standing in front of her was completely surreal. She doesn't know English, and I froze up and could only say one-word things like "Shiawase" and "Arigatou" in Japanese.



I did remember the words to "Daikirai Anata Ga" however, which I got to play for her on ukulele for 8 bars.
She song the background vocals with me; it was easily the best day of my life.

Yes, She signed my uke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggg!

Just watching Haruko sign things was amazing. She signs her name HUGE, and writes all over everything! She drew all over my ukulele, which was AWESOME! The guy behind me had an art book with a two page spread and she wrote all big on both pages.

She has a method to signing things. In addition to her name, she dates everything and if there is a character in the picture, she'll write the character's name too (on my picture of her in Komugi cosplay, she wrote "Komugi-chan").

I've never been a wait in like for autographs kind of guy, but it was so worth it. I missed Ito's session, even though I had a CD booklet ready for her to sign.



Saturday night I missed the Bad Anime Bad panel, unfortunately, but did manage to make it to "hentai dubbing." I spent the remaining time in places like the dealer's room, karaoke, and game room.

From the Kanako Ito concert

Overall, it was a lot of fun. Boston is a big con, like Otakon, and while I've found lately that I have more fun at smaller/mid-sized conventions than I do at the big ones, I felt a more intimate atmosphere with Anime Boston than I have with some of the other larger east-coast conventions.

I'd definitely do Boston again.