Anime Boston is an annual three-day

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

fan convention held in the spring in Boston, Massachusetts,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Anime Boston was created and is run by the

New England Anime Society The New England Anime Society, Inc. is a Massachusetts-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to furthering United States, American understanding of Japanese language and culture through written and visual media. Founded in 2001, The N ...

, Inc., a

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

-based

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Programming

The convention features a number of events which include a masquerade, an

anime music video An anime music video (AMV) is a fan-made music video consisting of clips from one or more Japanese animated shows or movies set to an audio track, often songs or promotional trailer audio. The term is generally specific to Japanese anime, howev ...

contest, video programming rooms, an artists' alley and art show,

karaoke Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...

, game shows, swap meets, Anime Unscripted,

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

, RPGs, and a

LARP A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique feature ...

History

The first Anime Boston was held in 2003 at the

Boston Park Plaza The Boston Park Plaza is a historic hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, opened on March 10, 1927. It was built by hotelier E.M. Statler as part of his Statler Hotels chain. A prototype of the grand American hotel, it was called a "c ...

, as was the 2004 convention. By Anime Boston 2005, the convention had moved to the

Hynes Convention Center The John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center is a convention center located in Boston, Massachusetts. It was built in 1988 from a design by architects Kallmann, McKinnell & Wood. It replaced the John B. Hynes Memorial Auditorium, also ...

and Sheraton Boston Hotel. Since then, the convention has continued to be held at the convention center and adjoining hotels with attendance seeing steady growth to 14,339 people (or 35,224 turnstile) in 2008. That year also saw Japanese rock stars

The Pillows are a Japanese alternative rock band formed in 1989. The group has released 22 studio albums, several Extended play, EPs and compilations, and over 40 singles. Outside Japan, they are best known as the group responsible for the soundtrack to the ...

finish up the east coast leg of their American tour at Anime Boston. In 2009, the convention saw the attendance rise to over 15,000 people for the first time, and the attendees who got tickets at the convention for the concert got to see

Kalafina was a Japanese vocal group formed by composer Yuki Kajiura in 2007, mainly to perform theme songs for the anime ''Kara no Kyōkai'', but later expanded to include many other theme songs for other anime shows and films including the '' Madoka Mag ...

for their first-ever North American performance. Attendance jumped again to over 17,000 attendants in 2010.

Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the ''Final Fantasy'' video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton Jo ...

made an appearance at the convention, with the Video Game Orchestra, a Boston-based 90-piece orchestra that performs video game music with an orchestra, choir, and rock band. In 2011, the ''

Boston Phoenix ''The Phoenix'' (stylized as ''The Phœnix'') was the name of several alternative weekly periodicals published in the United States of America by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts, including the ''Portland Phoenix'' an ...

'' selected Anime Boston as the city's "Best Nerd Gathering", beating out contenders such as New England Comic Con and

PAX East PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia in the United States; and Melbourne in Australia. PAX wa ...

. The convention won the award again in 2012. In 2012, Anime Boston celebrated its tenth year. In addition to its events, a museum of the convention's history was displayed; photographs and memorabilia such as mascot costumes and previous t-shirt designs, from each of the past years created the museum's exhibits; some of Anime Boston’s guests from previous years also submitted letters of congratulations. Held on the same weekend as Easter, its attendance reached a total of over 20,000 attendees. An attendance cap was announced for weekend memberships for the 2015 convention due to overcrowding concerns, despite this AB plans on being at the Hynes Convention Center through 2026. Anime Boston 2020 and 2021 was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Anime Boston returned as an in-person event in 2022, although with fewer guests present.

Event history

Since 2005, Anime Boston has been held at the

. The 2003 and 2004 events were held at the

Mascots

The mascots for Anime Boston are A-chan and B-kun. A-chan has long blue hair and she typically wears a dress. B-kun has orange hair and red eyes. Their outfits often change to match the convention's theme for the year.

References

External links