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Li's Anime Boston 2005 Convention Report

Thursday

We don't usually start our con reports with Thursday night, but it seems as we are doing more traveling to cons, the travel is significant enough to warrant talking about the Precon events. Except really the drive to Boston wasn't exciting. The only cool part was that we got to invade Chateau Mookie and hang out with him and his friends until we were joined by Matt and Brianna (of CTCon). We weren't entirely freeloading houseguests though, we arrived with 2 loaves of soy-free vegan banana bread for Mookie and he nearly fell over when he saw the HUGE box of 100% pure VT maple candy I'd brought.

Friday

We woke early, and Mookie treated us to bagels. (Let me just say, Mookie is an amazing host and an amazingly nice guy). Loaded with all our con stuffs, we took the T to the con center (saw a few other con goers in costume on the T as well.) Today, I was dressed as Akabane from Getbackers, and Akiko was a Kappa, a mythical Japanese water demon.

It took a few minutes to find registration (which wasn't well marked, but several nice people helped direct us to it). After we were registered, we went to the artist alley and got ourselves set there. Then, while Akiko set up our table, I left the con briefly to visit my old place of employment and chat with my friends there. I picked up some food on the way back, and joined Akiko, who was already busy with some commissions.

We spent the afternoon in the Alley, hard at work. Like several other cons, we were near Novablade. Between us were a couple very talented artists. On our other side was a young artist. Akiko and I got the impression it was his first experience at a convention, particularly an art table, as he showed up late, and pretty much only used his space as a place to set up his (elaborate) cosplay. He didn't show up at all on Saturday or Sunday.

While we didn't lose our pencil case at this con (though we almost did on Saturday), we did forget our color pencils, so had to resort to using watercolors for our color commissions. (I also forgot my calligraphy case, so no kanji commissions this con.)

I also spent the afternoon trying not to accost Saiyuki cosplayers ("darn it...wrong series. I'm not Lirin today. Can't accost them!") I did have too much fun challenging all the Getbacker Cosplayers, including a really nice Mido Ban-kun, an Emishi who looked JUST. LIKE. EMISHI. And a couple of nice Akabane's, whom I posed the question, "Which is the real Akabane? You or I?"

My Akabane costume seemed to have been quite well received, over all. I was glomped a couple times, and got a couple fangirls squealing. I was even told more than a few times that I had the best Akabane costume (*blushes*). Akiko, while not a recognizable character, got a few compliments as well and looked stunning in her hooded cloak. Not that I'm bragging or anything. (Ok, I am, but I'm just pleased)

In the afternoon, I headed out to the Anime Name That Tune game, while Akiko continued working. This time, selection for contestants was a little different. Instead of seeing who got the most right out of 10 songs, they just picked the people who correctly guessed a couple songs first. There was one song I KNEW I knew, but I couldn't name it. It was the Legend of Basarra theme (DOH! I KNEW THAT!), but the very next song was the Hana Yori Dango opening theme which I KNOW, so my hand was the first one up.

So suddenly I found myself as a contestant. In the first round, I tied, and eventually won in a tiebreaker. Honestly, it was a bit unfair. The tie-breaking song was from Gravitation. The guy I was competing against didn't stand a chance. I was totally crushed in the second round though. It was unfortunate... I would have rocked the third round... I knew more than half those songs!

Still, I won 2 dvds and had a great time. After I finished that, I met up with one of my high school friends who was there for the evening. I found the "Getbackers photoshoot" which didn't really happen. I found it odd though that I saw 5 Akabane's (including me) and about 4 Emishi's, but only one Ginji and only two Ban's the whole weekend.

Akiko joined up with me and my friend to watch the Who's Line is it Anime. Some of it was quite funny, some of it not so much. Some were better at improv than others. Still, it was over all quite fun.

Akiko went back to the table while my friend and I stuck around to watch the AMVs. It wasn't the best bunch of AMVs I had seen (last year's was better over all), but there were a couple really good ones, and the rest were decent. Pretty much all the ones I liked won, and none that I didn't like did, so I was happy enough. (The GunGrave video has some of the best editing I’ve ever seen. It is high on my list of best AMVs. It's really that amazing, I think).

After the AMVs, Akiko and I packed up our art table and headed back to Chateau Mookie, where the rest of the group was playing a rousing game of Kung Fu. Shortly there after, it was time for bed. Although Mookie had his own room, for the rest of us (Akiko and I, Matt and Brianna of CTCon, Hawk, Ananth, and Katy of Applegeeks, Dave Lister (not of the Red Dwarf, but of Paradox Lost), and Brian (of Instant Classic)) it was a free for all and we wound up: 3 to the futon, 1 on the couch, 3 on the floor, 2 in the hall.

Saturday

Again we woke pretty early. Akiko and I split off from the group early to stop at the art store to get more paper, but ironically met up with Matt and Brianna on the train (since they'd slept in slightly). Once we reached the con, we set up our table again and finished putting on our costumes. We reprised our Saiyuki costumes from the previous year, with me as Lirin and Akiko as Yaone. We were surprised by the number of people who recognized us (well, surprised that they recognized us from CTCon, and not from last years Anime Boston. Only one person said they recognized us from our Masquerade skit.)

We spent the morning in the Alley. I finally got to accost the Saiyuki cosplayers, particularly any Sanzo whom I immediately would yell out "Droopy Eyed Priest!" at. (I also continued to accost a couple Getbackers, but that's besides the point).

In the afternoon, we closed up our table briefly and made our way up to the Anime Dating Game. I had applied to be part of it, but was unfortunately turned down. However, there was going to be a slightly staged event during the game, and Akiko and I got invited to help out. Before we were allowed in for the seating, Akiko and I hung out with another small Saiyuki group that had been sucked into helping out as well. We played with Sanzo's fan and stealing the nikuman plushie, and generally keeping ourselves quite entertained. Unfortunately, that group also had a Lirin cosplayer, who couldn't play with us during the game since I was also a Lirin.

Inside the room, we the Saiyuki group got to sit up front. One of the hosts was Gojyo, so we (well, mostly just Sanzo) got to heckle. Goku and I squabbled a bit (we really fed off each other well) and Yaone had to separate us twice. Sanzo was quite funny and pulled off the grumpy, angsty attitude well.

The first bachelor was Ed from Full Metal Alchemist. The girl playing him was just fabulous. She was really funny. I loved her "Ooo. Mysterious." She had to pick from 4 bachelorettes: Rei (Evangelion), Kagome (Inu Yasha), Sailor Cosmos (Sailor Moon Stars), and Beldandy (Ah My Goddess). All the girls were really into their roles and were a lot of fun. Rei, though, had some of the best bits. Ed asked her, "are you a people person?" The audience died of laughter. After a pause, Rei: "No." Later, Ed asked her "What kind of tree would you be?" Rei: "A dead one." It was really funny.

The second round, Faye (Cowboy Bebop) was the Bachelorette, and the bachelors were Seifer and Squall (from Final Fantasy 8), Naruto, and Sesshoumaru (InuYasha). Seifer and Squall got into several arguments, eventually causing Seifer to get kicked out of the game (this was planned). So the host Gojyo called Sanzo up to the stage. It was a lot of fun. Sesshie was majestic and magnificent. Seifer and Squall arguing was hysterical. Sanzo threatening to shoot Gojyo and/or himself was priceless.

It really had been a lot of fun.

After it ended, Akiko and I headed back to their table for a few hours before closing up again to get in line for the masquerade. The line wound up being much longer than it first appeared. When the line finally started to move, I began singing 99 bottles of sake (much to the annoyance of the group ahead of us, but to the amusement of the lady behind us in line). Just as we reached the door to the main events, I had just reached 0 bottles of sake. The line was that long.

The Masquerade started off with a mini concert by a cosplay band "Bad Luck". They were pretty good musicians, and really got into their character. Still, we were a bit surprised it was not the Shuichi from last year's masquerade. We were more than a little disappointed we didn't run into her this year.

The masquerade was alright. The costumes over all were of stunningly high caliber. But the skits were a bit disappointing over all. (Last year's was better, we thought, and not because we were in it!). Also, there was just too much yaoi. Now I'll be the first to admit I'm all about yaoi, but it looses its impact when two out of every three skit has some sort of shonen-ai kiss or such.

Akiko and I were more than a little frustrated though when there were five last-minute cancellations in the masquerade. We had a skit already for this year, but unfortunately were so far down in the wait list there was no hope for us to get in. For the two of us who wanted very much to be in the event again, to see canceled acts was frustrating. Still, those costumes and skits that should have won did so. It was alright over all.

The masquerade finished up early, so we went back to the artist alley and chatted with my cousins. The line of the night (or the con, really) came in regards to my cousin about my LJ... Well, more accurately, a particular story I wrote a few months back. He very indignantly scolded, "When it's said that Helsing staked Dracula, that wasn't what was meant!" (*halos*)

Akiko and I joined up with Matt and Brianna and made our way back to Chateau Mookie a bit earlier than Friday night. This time, the game was "Apples to Apples". When it came time to crash again, our numbers had grown larger still. We were joined by two more (Dave's friend Breanne, and Aido (Of Fallen)): 3 to the futon, 1 on the couch, 3 on the floor, 3 in the hall, 1 in the entryway.

Sunday

We all woke up slightly late and was a bit slow to get going. Eventually we reached the con center. I was Akabane again, and Akiko was a Dominic Deegan catgirl. I set up the table, while Akiko helped out Mookie for a bit. Straight away, I was approached about a couple of commissions, so I eventually had to go and fetch Akiko back to the table to get to work.

Around lunch time, Akiko and I joined up with the other webcomic artists in giving a present to Mookie to thank him for letting us all crash at his place. We completely surprised him with the videogame he had been wanting. He of course made his adorable "oh guys, you didn't/you shouldn't have" face as he does whenever you give him something (which is so cute, so we keep doing it!).

I wandered around the Artist Alley and met up with an old acquaintance that I met working in the Dealer's Room the first AB. Then I chatted for a while with Sketch's (Leather Vash) cosplay prop business partner. He was discussing their plans, not just for their business, but for Sketch's remake of his famous Vash cosplay. All I can say is OH. MY. FUCKING. GOD. These guys are nuts. Talented beyond belief. But nuts.

Then I had to rush off to get ready for Human Chess. It was SO. MUCH. FUN. I was in front of the stage, the pawn to the Black King's Rook (Sketch's Vash). Our king and Queen were Inu Yasha and Kagome. White's king and queen were Sakura and Li.

I was being a total ham. First I harassed Vash. After all, he's a complete pacifist and I get off on killing people, even ones who stand no chance against me. Eventually he offered me one of his donuts. Which I proceeded to stab with one of my knifes. And then I crushed it.

Across from me on the white side was Alucard with Helsing as his pawn. First I challenged/threatened Helsing. She was taken out rather quickly, so I started to harass Alucard. It was hysterical. Eventually Alucard was placed in the spot directly in front of me, and we had a bit of a "Who's hat is bigger" episode. (Alucard's was MUCH bigger than mine, but it lent to a big laugh.)

There were several incidents of hats being traded around (involving me), and a couple incidents of guns being traded (Vash and Sanzo). My side seemed to have the most active silliness going on. Goku kept trying to steal Vash's donuts, and getting smacked by Sanzo. Inu Yasha would keep getting forced to sit by Kagome. Actually, Inu Yasha got picked on a lot, leading the announcer to comment on how this is the first time he'd seen a team pick on their own king that much.

Goku wound up getting killed, and Sanzo beautifully played the grieving part. Fortunately, he immediately was able to revenge his "pet" the next move. We were all a bit disappointed that Sephiroth and Aeris didn't face off.

Certain characters had "special attacks." For example, Chiharu (Spirited Away) who was next to me got to "summon" Hyaku when she took out someone. It was fantastic to watch. Yuna summoned Totoro for her attack. Naruto summoned another Naruto and they double teamed their opponent.

There were two actual chess players who were directing each side. When they took a while to think of their next move, we pieces got to act up and be silly. One of the best moments in the entire game I thought, was when Scott, the announcer, started singing the Time warp. I tried to resist. But in the end, I succumbed and started doing the time warp. When he sang it again, more people joined in. It really was hysterical.

Alucard and I kept challenging each other, but it was Vash that eventually took him out. After Vash finished up his victory dance, I got in his face to complain that he took out my chosen opponent. Vash, much to the huge disappointment of the crowd, was taken out shortly there after (by Sakura no less!)

That left me a bit put out, since all the people I was playing off of were now out of the game. Fortunately, the game didn't last that much longer. Sakura went in for the checkmate. With the game over, they decided to end the event with a couple "matches" between us final characters. Sanzo was taken down by a bunch of square FF heroes. I was next to be taken out by Vincent. I threw my knifes but they missed, and then Vincent went in for the kill. (since our side lost, in these final matches we were told to all lose.)

It really was so much fun!

We went back down to the alley to say our goodbyes, then met up with Mookie and the crew for a quick bite to eat. Back at Chateau Mookie, we did a quick repack of our things, then hit the road for the long drive back.

Final Words

This con was one of the most fun we've been to in a while. Of course, any chance to hang out with Mookie, Matt and Brianna, and other webcomic artists is a good time. Although we would've loved to actually be in the masquerade, we had more than enough to do this weekend to keep busy. Ada who ran the masquerade events was terrific to work with. And most especially, the artist alley was the best run I think we've ever seen. Although there weren't enough tables for the number of artists who wanted them, they were well labeled, there was enough space behind them, and Snack, who was in charge, was incredible about making sure all the artists had everything they needed, even going so far as to provide donuts on Friday and Saturday mornings. We really had a great time.