Although we used to frequently attend Anime Boston, we hadn’t actually gone in several years I think that 2016 may have been the most recent one we attended. After having several interests kind of forced on me as a child, where traditionally feminine hobbies like ballet were compulsary while my interest in things like Batman and comics in general were extremely frowned on (and my toys given away) we had made the decision not to try and unduly influence our daughter and try and force her to have interests in our hobbies like anime. Fortunately or unfortunately, the kiddo is a rather voracious reader and had picked up some manga a few years back and otaku mode was unlocked! We frequently watch anime together now and take turns choosing what will be watched next- she particurly loves Madoka, Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, Toilet Bound Hanako-Kun and Tanya the Evil.
We started attending conventions again in general about three years ago, the kiddo loves attending conventions but does have issues with anxiety so they can also be problematic for her. Basically the con has to have guests or panels she is really interested in for her consider pushing past the anxiety to attend and we also go into these things with the understanding if she gets overwhelmed we are either going to a quiet/calm room and/or leaving. We had discussed attending Anime Boston last year but it didn’t line up well with our schedules and the guest list was kind of light. Kiddo has been working on a few long-term projects she is trying to get a Funko Pop signed of each character by their respective voice actor from her favorite anime originally this was just from My Hero Academia but now she is also working on Demon Slayer as well. I think kiddo had a dozen signed Demon Slayer pops and over thirty signed My Hero Academia Pops before Anime Boston. I was absolutely delighted when I saw that Zeno Robinson was announced as a guest for Anime Boston this year because he was one of the kiddo’s top wants because he does the voicework for Genya in Demon Slayer, Hawks in My Hero Academia and Hunter in Owl House (a non-anime favorite of kiddo’s). So off to Anime Boston we go, originally the plan was to only go for one day but then the lottery system for Japanese guests was announced and it’s like we should wait for the results to see what day to attend and then we won different guest lottos on Friday and Saturday so we got a weekend pass.
After losing my camera at Galaxy Con last year, I have been kind of gunshy about bringing my camera with me to cons but decided to take my camera with me kind of last minute and took a truly unfathomable amount of cosplay pics this weekend. After I eventually got caught of burnt out on it, kiddo started running around with the camera and taking pictures. If you just want to look at cosplay pictures here is the link to the photoset (or click on the mha pic below) from the con on my flickr WARNING LOTS OF PICTURES WERE TAKEN AND THIS ISN’T ALL OF THEM. Cosplayers or other cosplay inclined people in the unlikely event you wish to use my photos for whatever reason you may – I just ask that you link back to here or my flickr.
Friday
Since Friday seems to be a somewhat calmer day in general for conventions we decided to try and knock out all of the non-lottery guest autographs then. Kiddo got her Genya from Demon Slayer and Hawks from My Hero Academia Funko Pops authographed by Zeno Robinson as well as a Hunter from Owl House print. He was really nice and kiddo was really excited to finally meet him!
We had intentions to meet Kira Buckland the voice actress for the boob hashira love hashira from Demon Slayer Mitsuri at CT Anime and Gamer Con which we will be going to this coming weekend but the she got announced for Anime Boston sort of last minute, I packed the pop just in case her line wasn’t somehow crazy. We were able to get her signature, I may have influenced kiddo a bit into choosing to get the “premium signature” for $80 from her as I was morbidly curious what all $80 get you. I have to say it’s pretty cool! Kira Buckland was also super nice and gracious with the kiddo. Kiddo also got a signed print of her Genshin Impact character… more on Genshin Impact later.
We also met Alejandro Saab and got a Genshin Impact/Honkai Star Rail print signed, Christina Vee who we somehow caught in a rare moment without a giant line to get a Homura and Madoka print signed (Madoka’s voice actress Christine Marie Cabanos will be at CT Gamer and Anime Con!) and Greg Ayres. We also got to meet Lotus Juice which was sort of a surreal experience and I got a signed CD/DVD. I also now have my Chobits art book signed by Yukana the Japanese voice actress for Kotoko.
We did not go to any panels on Friday, while we did have plans to go to the Queen Bee concert that night we reached exhaustion well before that point.
We did however track down the Hazbin Hotel meet-up, Hazbin Hotel is kind of my shiny new obsession at the moment to be honest though the entire household is lowkey obsessed with it… And while I do refer to my child as kiddo, I should probably note that she is a teenager and not actually a little kid; she is now in fact two inches taller than me.
Holy hell I was not expecting this many Hotel Hazbin cosplayers. Hilariously the first cosplayer we saw at the whole con was a Lucifer who gifted kiddo a rubber duck.
The room was probably too small for the amount of people so apologies for the odd angles on some of these. There are lot more from this meet-up on my flickr I’m just including a small taste here.
Charlie and Vaggie.
Huskerdusk.
This was probably one of my favorite little groups at the whole con, I dunno if they knew each other and coordinated their cosplay efforts or if this was just a happy accident but absolutely loved them! I did get some non-Hotel Hazbin cosplayers as well on Friday including Owl House,
SpyxFamily which is another household family,
and even some Madoka characters.. Tomoe Mami is still my favorite!
Saturday
Oh boy! Saturday was kind of busy. I brought a CD with me and got an autograph from Queen Bee and we also met Chained Soldier. Kiddo looked at the schedule on the app and discovered a My Hero Academia cosplay meet-up as well as a Genshin Impact cosplay meet-up so we ended up attending both of those. I try to mostly focus on what interests the kiddo or myself to a lesser extent when I take cosplay photos, which means sometimes I have no idea what it is I am photographing exactly just that it will make kiddo happy.
I have seen all of My Hero Academia and even read some of the manga. Kiddo and I marathoned it a while back and we have kept current since then so I have some familiarity with the characters even if I maybe don’t remember some of the finer points especially since we were bingewatching 10-12 episodes a day.
Pro-Heroes versus villains! Protect baby Deku!
Personally one of the high points for me in My Hero Academia are the villain characters, they are an interesting mix.
As many My Hero Academia cosplayers as there were I was kind of disappointed that there was not a single Tsuyu/Froppy cosplayer. Lots more from this meet-up on my flickr.
I have never played Genshin Impact, I think I can successfully identify the traveler, Paimon whose voice actress Corina Boettger we just met in New Jersey last month-ish and Yoimiya (kind of looks like Saber, is the kiddo’s favorite) but that is seriously about it. Kiddo is absolutely obsessed with Genshin Impact so I have spent a not inconsiderable amount of money on Genshin merch, voice actor autographs as well as in game (then again it’s not like I haven’t spent way too much on fortnite for myself).
There were probably a couple of hundred Genshin Impact cosplayers that showed up to the meet-up and I have no idea who most of these characters are ^^; Kiddo asked me to try and get as many Yoimiya cosplayer photos as possible unfortunately I don’t think there were any there that I recognized. Kiddo did try to educate me who various characters were before the cosplay meet-up but way too much information for me to digest while navigating the halls of a crowded anime convention ^^;
Lots more photos from this meet-up on my flickr just please don’t ask me who anyone is T_T.
In general we got a lot more pictures on Saturday from a variety of different series like Tokyo Mew Mew,
Kill La Kill
These three from Demon Slayer OMG!
Rozen Maiden!
We did actually attend a few panels on Saturday, we wanted to stay for the Bad, Anime Bad! panel as we had attended it in years past and it’s always hilarious and one of the highlights of the con for us seriously if you ever get a chance to attend one of Brian T. Price’s panels you should totally do so!
While we were trying to kill time between the meet-ups and the panel, I looked at the schedule and saw that HIDIVE was holding a panel for The Most Heretical Last Boss Queen anime where they would be premiering the first two dubbed episodes of the new anime series. The kiddo LOVES the Most Heretical Last Boss Queen manga series so we went to the panel, watched the first two episodes which were entertaining kiddo was super excited for the panel and very enthusiastic . After the first two episodes were over we were surprised by a mystery guest Karlii Hoch the voice actress for the main character: Pride.
Kiddo’s unbridled enthusiam for Last Boss Queen won her a gift bag with the first volume of the manga and a bunch of the light novels as well, Karlii was gracious enough to stay after the panel to sign the first volume of the manga and take a quick pic- Kiddo was beyond over the moon and was even featured on HIDIVE’s post about the event. She still hasn’t stopped talking about it and has been keeping herself busy reading the light novels.
We really wanted to stay for Bad, Anime Bad! but at that point I had a migraine and had not slept between Friday and Saturday we managed to stay for part of it at least and watched Wolf Creek’s Dinosaur Island which was indeed very bad but with surprising voice talent!
Kiddo has already expressed interest that she wants Anime Boston to become a yearly thing for us again! We had a really great time this weekend and if you saw us just want to thank you to everyone for being so kind and gracious!