Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Anime Boston 2013 Con Report

Overall, Anime Boston 2013 was a good experience. It’s generally the best anime con I attend, and this year was certainly the most fun I had at an anime con since Anime Boston 2012, if not quite the stellar experience I expected based on past years.
I’ll start with the bad. First and foremost is something that had nothing to do with the con, which is that I spent the weekend in a less-than-stellar mood. Part of this was general tiredness, part of it the fun of discovering that somebody in a random town in New Jersey was making hundreds of dollars of purchases with my debit card, and part of it was the surprising discomfort of attending an anime con while single, which I last did in 2001. The problem is that I was 20 then and am 32 now, but the cosplayers are all still 20, so I got to spend the weekend feeling like a dirty old man. Not that I did or want to do anything untoward, it’s just that noticing someone much too young for you is attractive is very different when you're single as opposed to when you’re in an exclusive and committed relationship. Or maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, another thing that wasn’t really the con’s fault, but in this case was entirely avoidable, was security. There was a bombing in Boston not long ago, and therefore we had to go through ridiculous Security Theater in the form of security guards searching the bags of every person who went into the convention center. This created a MASSIVE crush right outside the convention center around noon Saturday, because the main entrance is in a mall. There was basically a solid mass of people, most of them trying to enter the con but blocked by and blocking a small number of people trying to go in the opposite direction, and it’s a miracle no one was trampled. That crowd, which was created entirely by the security measures, was a lot more dangerous than a couple of terrorists who were already caught or killed. This year’s Anime Boston was no more likely to be bombed or shot up than last year’s—actually, it was less likely, because there were two fewer terrorists living in the city.
Crowd control in general was a bit of a problem. The panel rooms just aren’t big enough for the convention—every panel I participated in or attended was filled to capacity (with the exception of one panel in Hall D, which is the ginormous room I two-thirds filled for the Madoka panel last year), and I was turned away from several panels I wanted to see because the room was full. (And one panel I only got into by pretending to be a panelist, by prior arrangement with the real panelist.) Apparently guests were given priority for the larger rooms, which would make sense at most cons, but I’ve found AB has a more intellectually inclined, less (for lack of a better term) “fannish” audience. I strongly suspect Charles Dunbar is a bigger draw than Laura Landa. (Never heard of either of them? My point exactly—you’re going to go to the one with the more interesting panel topic, not the one with Guest next to their name.)
Now, the good: Great panels, as always. I go to conventions for the panels, and Anime Boston never disappoints. I’ve said many times that every con should look to AB to learn How Panels Are Done, and I stand by that. Highlights included:
Totally Subversive Toons: I only got to see a few minutes of this one, but what I saw was great. This panel is different every year, but always a blast. The TV Funhouse segment with Jesus and the original version of the “Birds of Prey” song from Batman: The Brave and the Bold were particularly entertaining.
Charles Dunbar: A highlight at any con. His panel on the artists and folklorists who preserved Japan’s Yokai culture, from 17th century encyclopedists to the creators of Pokemon, was particularly fascinating. I know little about Japanese history, and what I do know is mostly political and military history, so this panel was a real eye-opener about the cultural history. The “three worlds” concept—the material world, the spiritual world, and the hidden world that forms where the two overlap—was particularly interesting, given my fascination with Celtic myth and Faerie, which is essentially the same concept.
Beyond Pokemon: Despite living with Viga for half a decade, I’d never actually seen this panel of hers before! It was both entertaining and informative. I’d watched and played Pokemon quite a bit back in high school, and to a lesser extent since, and been aware that Digimon existed, but most of the other shows she talked about I’d never heard of. I’m not actually going to watch any of them now (although I do hope to get around to Shadow Star Narutaru eventually), but now at least I’ll have some idea what people are talking about if they mention them. (NB: This is the panel I pretended to be a panelist on, at Viga’s invitation. This consisted of me making snarky comments during the video clips, and shutting up during the informational segments.)
Cheer Up Emo Kid: A great panel on uplifting anime, either because they’re cheerful or sweet or energizing or just plain funny. I now need to watch Inferno Cop, and so do you. It’s like Adult Swim, if Adult Swim shows were funny!
Judge an Anime by Its Cover: A weird but entertaining panel by Rym and Scott of Geeknights (whom I find amusing panelists but insufferably smug when they podcast) in which they went through the upcoming anime of next season and discarded half of them entirely based on their promo images and capsule descriptions. Much of this was generally good advice (for example, never trust a work where half the premise involves made-up nouns, or one where a character’s boobs fill up forty percent of the frame in the promo image), and asked a question that pretty much sums up my view of where the industry lies right now: “Why is so much anime made by and for perverts?”
My Own Panels: Animes Miserables was virtually unchanged from last year except for one key factor, attendance. Last year we had half a dozen people, this year we were standing-room only, and the result was far more energy in the room, more and better questions, and a couple of grand singalongs. Plus I relish an opportunity to inflict Arm Joe on as many people as possible.
Latin Latin Madoka More Latin 2: Thermodynamic Boogaloo also came off great, with solid content and some good questions. And people really liked my choice of AMVs for the transitions—I got requests at panels later in the con to show the Homura version of the opening. The one downside was the slides themselves—I’m not very good at making visually interesting slides to begin with, and these were made in a hurry, so visually the panel was less than great. I can’t wait for Latin Latin Madoka More Latin 3: The Search for More Mami next year, when we can get it right.
Reading Too Much into AKB0048: This was a blast. We got to pull our usual trick on the audience, of fannishly playing up the show to rev them up, then hit them with the problematic elements (though we really should have added in something more on male gaze), and then just as they’re starting to question, point out the hidden depths (in this case, glorious use of pop-Jungianism). A good panel, but I think we should revise it before Connecticon.
Analyzing Anime: At long last! I’ve been doing Analyzing Anime 101 for years, and always wanted to do a 201. AB is the first con to let me do so, by giving me a two-hour block in which to present both. I spent the whole weekend nervous about it, but it went really well! It was the best-attended version of Analyzing Anime better—on a good day I typically get a dozen people, but this was a good 50, filling the small panel room. And people responded well to the second half—lots of good questions that showed I was getting people to think, which is the whole point. One audience member even asked about post-positivism, which made me downright gleeful. I love Anime Boston audiences.
I ended up not going to any events this year, nor did I go to the game room or any video screenings. In fact, now that I think about it, I basically did nothing but present or attend panels all convention, which as far as I’m concerned is proof of a great convention.
Overall, great con, and I will as always return next year.

2 comments:

  1. hi! I came to your analyzing anime 101/201 panel at Anime Boston and I was so impressed by how in depth the panel was! So thank you for that haha

    I was wondering what the link to your more casual blog was, since we ran out of time at the end and I didn't get a chance to jot down the url.

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    1. Thank you for attending! That panel is all about the audience participation.

      I'm not sure which of my other blogs you mean, but the blog I update regularly is My Little Po-Mo, my My Little Pony Analysis blog. The blog where I fool around, which is also a good place to (eventually) get links to everything I write is my Tumblr.

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