As geek culture continues to expand the market sees new conventions cropping up regularly. In New England one of the largest, and longest running, is Anime Boston which has been going since 2003 and growing each year. With a dedicated volunteer staff, they fill the Hynes Convention Center year after year with fans of anime, manga, cosplay, and virtually any other stripes of geek. While their guests and programming stick closely to the New England Anime Society’s mandate of concentrating on Japanese pop culture, attendees still represent their individual tastes. Guests such as voice over artists bridge this gap well. This year Anime Boston hosted Cherami Leigh, Mona Marshall, Richard Epcar, Michael Sinterniklaas, and more who have worked dubbing anime television shows and movies into English such as Sword Art Online, Naruto, Robotech, Ghost in the Shell, Mobile Suit Gundam but are equally as well known for their American projects like South Park, Venture Brothers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Several guest were direct from Japan including Godzilla actors Akira Takarada and Haruo Nakajima (see photo at left) who graciously signed for fans and posed for photos on the convention floor all weekend long. Mr. Takarada also offered hand written calligraphy of Godzilla’s name in kanji as a memento. Furthermore, J-Pop star LiSA played to a sold out audience on Friday night.
The annual charity auction, the proceeds from which benefit the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, saw some records broken when an original watercolor painting of Aang and Appa by Avatar: The Last Airbender co-creator Bryan Konietzko sold for $2,500. Ultimately, the auction raised $23,485.84, its highest amount ever.
Next year’s Anime Boston has been scheduled for March 25-27, 2016!
