Anime Boston 2008

Haven’t rushed to get this written, as there isn’t much to write about this year’s Anime Boston. Picked up my badge Thursday and spent most of Friday killing time in the dealer’s room or catching some shows. There were no anime industry guests from Japan this year leaving only three Japanese bands as seasoning from the East. Only one of them had a panel, Luv and Response. Billed as a fashion oriented dance troupe, I knew they wouldn’t be my cup o’ tea but checked them out anyway.

The highlight of the panel was “D” admitting he was an otaku; the rest of the troupe chimed in and said he would routinely slip in fashion from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. eLu admitted to visiting Tokyo Disneyland at least once a month. It was an amusing panel with some genuinely funny moments.

Caught some Beck, dubbed even, some Hell Girl, and Kaleido Star. Bought the Mon-sieur Bome sculpt of Takaya Noriko along with the remaining Japanese volumes of Emma. Basically, I was killing time until the tokyo pinsalocks concert.

Listened to some of their stuff on their MySpace but didn’t know what to expect from their live show. They were setup in the ballroom, a small intimate setting. They went on close to 11PM and rocked my world; they put on an amazing live show and had a lot of fun with the crowd. They said they would be touring the US in October, and I’ll definitely try to catch their show if they hit a local venue. Best I can describe them is to take Republica and Erasure, stick them in a blender, and then pitch their voices a few octaves higher.

Saturday was a first, as Jm joined me for her first anime convention. She’s not really into it much, but she digs Emma and thought it was time to see what the hell I do one weekend every year. Since she wasn’t pre-registered, she had to stand in line for two hours or so to get a badge. Stood in line with her most of the time; again, nothing on the schedule really piqued my interest. Bailed only at the last to head up to the AnimeOnDVD.com panel. She caught up with me there, and we went to lunch afterwards. Watched some Mushishi and killed some time in the dealer’s room before trying to find the line for the Luv and Response and the pillows concert.

Line was huge and poorly managed; despite the line cock ups, we managed to get seated in the balcony area and settled in. L&R didn’t impress me much; they had good choreography but too many distracting elements. Most notably, they had their videos playing on the jumbo screens while they were performing. This wouldn’t be terrible except for the fact that they were doing the exact same routine as seen in the video. Maybe this is a cultural difference in how concerts work here and in Japan, but if you are live, I want to see something fresh, something I can’t see on a screen.

I’ve heard the pillows before and knew they would put on a good show. Couldn’t understand them half the time due to the acoustics, but they rocked hard and long even making Jm think about picking up some of their tunes. After the concert, we got some ice cream and made our way to the ADV panel. Nothing major announced there except what I was already expecting. All the titles they pulled from their site a month or so ago was due to licensing renegotiations. Titles are slowly finding their way back into production.

Overall, would have liked to have introduced Jm to the kind of con I really enjoy, one with actual anime industry guests from Japan. But, it was cool to spend the time with her and show her just how much costumed flesh there is milling about at one of these. As for the long registration lines on Friday, let’s just say they cocked things up royally. Hopefully, they’ll have learned their lesson and regroup in ‘09. Can’t say the rhetoric from the officials in the AB forums have been encouraging though… Prove me wrong, guys!