Anime Boston 2017

http://www.animeboston.com/

You guys going?

We’ve done 33 panels at Anime Boston since 2009, and it’s easily the best anime con in America as far as we can tell. It’s been a good run.

But, I think we’re going to skip a year. Maybe we’ll return in 2018. But I kind of need a break.

The main reason is the bag checks and security. It’s real bad. If you think PAX East has it bad, the Anime Boston situation is a hundred times worse. We’ve almost been late for our own panels. If we leave the convention center for any reason (e.g., lunch), we’re hesitant to go through it to get back in even if there are panels we want to see.

The last few years it’s been so bad that we didn’t even go in on Sunday unless we were forced to to run a panel.

They’re such a cloud over the event that I think I need a year off from dealing with it…

Do you know the ubersecret, no security way into the heinz that if someone sees you using it you will be politely but firmly asked to leave?

You can always try digging a trench with a spoon smuggled in from the kitchen.

The secondary issue is that we can’t really generate as much youtube content from AB as we can at other cons. Most of our anime panels have clips, which generate copyright tags if we upload them…

Still on staff…

Will and I have been vaguely talking about skipping a year or just Lobbyconning a couple of days. AB is increasingly the con we go to because a bunch of our friends go to it, but now most of y’all are going to other cons, too…

I just realized I hadn’t said whether or not I’m going. No , I’m giving it a miss this year.

We went originally because it was, in practice, a better-run Otakon. It’s one of the best anime cons in America hands down and from every angle. We literally dropped every other anime con for AB.

Except those bag checks. As panelists carrying equipment in and out, it was just under the line of dealbreaker. Last year was particularly bad, and we agreed at-con we’d decide if we returned in 2018 based mostly on it.

It will be a weird year though, going to zero anime cons.

Feel free to give me a holler at the con if you want me help to try to expedite/skip the bag check process.