Saturday morning dawned on Anime Boston showing the expected increase in crowds than the average Saturday normally brings. Parents were often seen with their children, some as young as 10 years old, standing in line to get into the convention.

This was an interesting facet of Anime Boston, where whole families showed up. From the young preteen boy, who has a fascination with giant robots, or the teenaged older sister that not only spoke Japanese but read it fluently as well. The more traditional age of Anime Boston attendees fell into the typical age group of older teenagers and the early to mid 20′s adults.

Another key difference was evident in the artist alley for which a strange but not entirely unexpected shift took place. Fans noticed that several key artists, some of which created stuffed plushie toys or other types of art outside the traditional medium, had left the convention.

This could possibly be because of reasons unrelated to attending the convention, but more than 1 artist was noted to be missing on Saturday that had been in attendance on Friday. Perhaps they had just wanted to sell what artwork they could on one day and head back home? Regardless, some of these artists were missed by fans, one in which did make plushie toys and it’s a shame that they left.

By mid day, many of the higher quality lanyards had been replaced in favor of thinner cheaper string. It’s likely that the anticipated need for the badges was miscalculated since lines to purchase individual day tickets were still somewhat long. While 20 or 30 minutes to wait in line to order to get a badge for the convention wasn’t bad, that was calculated just after noon. Earlier in the day, the lines were reported to be much longer, requiring an extra room to be opened for standing.

In the extra room, the panels for Mecha illustrator David White were jam packed with people standing in the back while he spoke. David White has been an illustrator of Mecha for Games such as MechWarrior 4, Black Knight and MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries. He has also been a featured artist in several of the “How to Draw” book series, including “50 Robots to Draw and Paint” and ‘Mecha Mania”.

Another panel that took place at Anime Boston on Saturday was the Funimation industry panel where coverage of that panel is included here with previews for movies, TV episodes and glimpses into the past and present of anime fans.

The Plushie tutorial workshops were not only packed, but promised to teach, for a small fee, the ability to construct a specific set of Plushie toys. This effort was hit or miss, as learning how to make Plushies in under 2 hours is a hard effort by any reasonably intelligent Anime Fan. Still, some did succeed, owing to previous needle and threading experience while others lagged behind. The following panel after Plushie toys was naturally, Plushie Weapons.

The swap meet, which took place both Friday and Saturday, was an interesting piece of commerce for Anime Boston fans. If you had some items that you wanted to offload from your collection, this was the place to do it. Fans traded manga, action figures, toys, as well as other Anime trinkets.

Stepping into this room almost certainly required both buyers and sellers to haggle over what they were willing to trade with another member of the panel. Therefore, it paid off to know the worth of not only the items you had in your possession, but the item that you wanted in trade at the Swap Meet Panel.

Let’s not forget the Swordsmanship from the ‘Around the World’ panel or the Mock Combat for the ‘Cosplay’ Panel. Its intermediate level of combat as Friday was its beginners day, the mock combat panel kicked it up a notch for Saturday. Other notable panels run by guests included a historical panel on the history of Japanese Animation, Metal Gear Science panels, as well as a slew of Anime TV Episodes in the viewing rooms.

There were several 18+ ID required panels this evening as well, for which several were in the video rooms while others were more interactive. A viewing of Funimations Licensed series “Heavens Lost Property: Forte” was a treat for fans that were old enough to get into the viewing room of this up and coming dubbed series.

An adult Q&A panel by FAKKU Group also took place, for which fans of Adult Anime cheered. Loyal fans of the Fakku website later gushed about meeting their heroes from the largest online adult anime website. Despite the timing mix-up by Anime Boston staffers, the problem was thankfully fixed and the panel was a huge success.

The panel titled Extreme Geek in Exhibition Hall D ensured hours of laughter as Anime fans danced, cheered and had a generally uproarious raunchy fun time. There were other more Anime driven panels but this one offered the most variety in experience, from music to dancing to YouTube clips to a drag queen contest. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen an entire room full of grown men and women do ‘Dance Central’ on camera on queue.

An informal dance, more appropriately mentioned by some fans as ‘the Rave’ took place at the same time as many of the evenings’ 10 PM panels. Dressed any which way as long as it was fun and exciting, the Hynes convention center as a whole was rocking hard until nearly 2 AM or later. Unfortunately, the Rave itself had an incident with the lighting as well as other additional safety concerns causing the party to end early despite party goer’s wishes.

The end of the panels and other events at Anime Boston on Saturday night were indeed not the total end of festivities as fans still littered the hallways and stairwells at 1 or 2 AM. The Hynes Convention Center, as well as the connected Sheraton Hotel and Prudential Shopping Center still had fans walking around, many still in full costume after more than 12 hours of convention events. Some fans were even looking for the bathroom to change out of their clothes, though many of them in the Prudential Center were closed unfortunately.

Day two of Anime Boston ended with thunderous applause from fans as events came to a close. Despite the early ending of the informal dance as well as the other hilarious panels, Anime fans walked away from this day at the convention having enjoyed themselves on Easter weekend.

Partying early into the morning, there are many Anime fans who will sleep satisfied with their Saturday at this Anime Boston convention. Day three coverage with the closing ceremony as well as final impressions to follow.

Image Courtesy of bobgz

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About the author

Calvin Li
Calvin is currently a Politics and Entertainment writer, as well as the Assistant Gaming Editor for Toonari Post. He holds a Master's Degree in History and a Bachelor's degree in Marketing. A Native New Yorker, he enjoys speed reading and eating, as well as exploring, snowboarding and bowling.

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