On-Site At Anime Boston 2011: Day Three
Team SITCAS was on stage. Tons of dancing filled the Auditorium. It was time for some Cosplay Chess!
This year's theme was Magic VS Science, with Link representing magic and Professor Oak playing for science. I'll be honest that this year could've used a bit more rehearsal time, as there were many technical errors throughout the show. Nevertheless the crowd was really into seeing the battles between their favorite anime and video games. (Having Queens of the Stone Age play during Bioshock's Little Sister character battles was a nice touch, in my opinion.) In short: this year's Cosplay Chess was entertaining but flawed. Here's hoping that the Cosplay Dodgeball game they announced for next year will be a lot more fun to watch.
Alas this was to be the final main event today, as the only thing left was the Closing Ceremonies. The guests this year gave their final bow for 2011, and it was time to close the book in Anime Boston 2011. Anime Boston 2012 was announced for April 6-8 of next year. The main issue with these dates is that it falls on the same period as PAX East. The staff at Anime Boston has reassured everyone that there will be a way for people to go to both. How they will do that is still up in the air, though.
I will say that Anime Boston 2011 was an improvement from this year. They went all-out on the guests and panels, and made sure that everyone had something to do during the entire duration. However I do believe that they should work on trying to avoid various technical difficulties that would've been simple to steer clear of (i.e.: music cues, video errors). Also I believe that seating really needs to be fixed in regards to the Main Auditorium, at least from the Press perspective. Where they have us sit is too far to the right, and because of that we missed a lot of the video-based stuff that was part of Masquerade. (One skit involving Deathsmiles was done in a silent film style, and the words could only be seen on the center screen. Because of that the majority of the people on the right-hand side missed on half of the bit.)
One other thing that should be fixed this year is the overlapping. Too many of the more popular events wound up running at the same time, so it made it difficult to cover everything. This was heavily evident in the timings of the Hentai Dubbings and the stereopony concert, and while I really enjoyed laughing my head off during the Dubbings I still wish I could've seen stereopony, as well. I don't regret my decision, but I'm disappointed that I never got the chance to see the band perform live.
As Anime Boston 2012 will be its tenth anniversary I suspect that they'll want to plan something big. Perhaps we'll see some old guests return, and maybe some newer anime series make an appearance. Nevertheless it's going to be tough, as it will be overshadowed by PAX East. It's a dilemma I'm still trying to figure out, and will still think about until the time comes once again to register.
This concludes the main coverage for Anime Boston 2011. Stay tuned during the next week or two for the interviews with Brina Palencia and girugamesh.
