{"id":897,"date":"2014-03-28T12:51:20","date_gmt":"2014-03-28T16:51:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/?p=897"},"modified":"2014-03-28T13:22:16","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T17:22:16","slug":"anime-boston-2014-report-part-2-saturday-and-sunday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/anime-boston-2014-report-part-2-saturday-and-sunday\/","title":{"rendered":"Anime Boston 2014 Report, Part 2: Saturday and Sunday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part 1<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The second day gets off to a much more leisurely start than the first.\u00a0 With my press pass already in hand, I\u2019m able to skip all the registration lines and wander into the convention center the minute it opens.\u00a0 This seems like a great idea until I realize that I\u2019m in almost an hour before anything starts.\u00a0 Secure on a bench in the Hynes second floor hallway, I collect my thoughts and people-watch.<\/p>\n

One thing is obvious: Attack on Titan<\/i> owns this convention.\u00a0 Nevermind that the dub premiere is set to be today\u2019s biggest event; it\u2019s obvious by looking around that the show is the darling of the cosplay scene.\u00a0 For every Sword Art Online<\/i> or Naruto<\/i> cosplayer, there are at least two people in Survey Corps uniforms or Colossal Titan masks.\u00a0 One clever individual even combines the two, draping the iconic green hood over his titan-print tights.<\/p>\n

\"AttackOnTitan\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Boston traffic would’ve been easier to deal with if I’d had a set of maneuver gear.<\/em><\/p>\n

My thoughts are echoed at the morning panel for review website The Fandom Post.\u00a0 Veteran anime journalist Chris Beveridge suggests that Titan<\/i> may be having an effect on the US anime scene on par with iconic shows like Cowboy Bebop<\/i>.\u00a0 The original manga is the main focus of the Kodansha Comics industry panel later in the day, as the publisher launches an oversized omnibus collection and several spin-offs.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s the epic scale of the series, an unconscious connection with today\u2019s fans, or the cosplay-ready military uniforms, some magic combination of factors has made Attack on Titan<\/i> king of the hill over here.\u00a0 As I sit through a screening of Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad<\/i>, the questionable English chorus of the theme song sums things up nicely. \u00a0To repurpose the quote,\u00a0Attack on Titan<\/i> was made to hit in America.<\/p>\n

The rest of the day rushes by in an exhausting blur of industry panels and dealer floor buying sprees.\u00a0 My brain short-circuits a bit during a panel explaining Kantai Collection<\/i>, the latest online gaming craze in Japan.\u00a0 Something about fighting aliens with anthropomorphized battleship girls is simultaneously baffling and completely logical.\u00a0 I guess I didn\u2019t realize the world had already moved on from airplane girls.\u00a0 I\u2019m hoping they go for classic sports cars next.<\/p>\n

\"KanColle\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How many ship girls could a shipper ship if a shipper could ship ship girls?<\/em><\/p>\n

At the Kodansha Comics panel, I learn a couple of interesting things.\u00a0 First, the Attack on Titan<\/i> manga, which has seemingly owned the bestseller lists for an eternity, wasn\u2019t a particularly big hit until the anime series came out.\u00a0 Second, there seems to be a push towards premium collector\u2019s editions throughout the US anime and manga markets.\u00a0 The hardcover release of Vinland Saga<\/i><\/a> reminds me of the big-ticket Blu-ray collections that Funimation is beginning to experiment with.\u00a0 I wonder if one of my past articles<\/a> was right, and we\u2019re starting to see \u201cstandard edition\u201d physical media replaced by a combination of cheap digital content and expensive premium items.<\/p>\n

The Funimation industry panel is most impressive for the way it takes a huge room and packs it to the back rows with people.\u00a0 After running through some repeat information from yesterday\u2019s events, we get to the big news items.\u00a0 There\u2019s the Toonami airing of Black Lagoon<\/i>, a dub release date for action comedy Ben-to<\/i>, home video rights for A Certain Scientific Railgun S<\/i>, and the dub cast announcement for Red Data Girl<\/i>.\u00a0 Most importantly, we learn that a second season of Space Dandy<\/i> will launch in July.\u00a0 Hooray for trippy sci-fi comedy, baby!<\/p>\n

\"FunimationIndustryPanel\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The crowd at Funimation’s industry panel. I’m in there somewhere. (Photo from Funimation<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

I wander out of the Funimation panel to find the convention more crowded than ever before, and find myself more exhausted than ever before.\u00a0 I decide to forego the completely mobbed Attack on Titan<\/i> dub screening and get a row of seats to myself at the Crunchyroll panel.\u00a0 A few catalog title announcements later, I\u2019ve completed my final event of the day.\u00a0 I\u2019m a bit disappointed to find that the convention is around a week too soon for spring simulcast announcements.\u00a0 A final trip through the artists and dealers nets a Kill la Kill<\/i> poster, the Blu-ray release of Wolf Children<\/i>, and a card game featuring anime maids.\u00a0 Yes, there\u2019ll be a full article on that last one in the near future, and yes, it\u2019s hilariously entertaining.<\/p>\n

I head straight home to New Jersey on Sunday, rather than stopping in for Anime Boston\u2019s final day.\u00a0 I\u2019ve done, seen, and bought everything I wanted, and am ready to call it a weekend well spent.\u00a0 The city of Boston sees fit to give me a parting gift by squeezing six lanes of traffic into two, and I spend as much time in stop-and-go hell as I did waiting for any panel at the convention.\u00a0 To quote Madarame from the classic otaku comedy Genshiken<\/i>, \u201cWe have to wait in line to get home, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Check out part one of our coverage here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Kawaii Overthink is written by Paul Jensen. You can follow his ramblings about anime on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Part 1: The second day gets off to a much more leisurely start than the first.\u00a0 With my press pass already in hand, I\u2019m able to skip all the registration lines and wander into the convention center the minute it opens.\u00a0 This seems like a great idea until I realize that I\u2019m in [Read more…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":906,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897\/revisions\/906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sharkpuppet.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}