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Anime Boston

Cosplayers at Anime Boston 2004

Anime Boston is an annual three-day anime fan convention held in the spring in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The convention features a number of events which include a masquerade, an anime music video contest, video programming rooms, an artists' alley and art show, karaoke, game shows, video games, RPGs, and a LARP.^[1] Anime Boston was created and is run by the New England Anime Society, Inc., a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization.^[2]

History

Initial planning
Event history

Organizational structure
Mascots
See also
References
External links

History

Initial planning

The first plans for Anime Boston came along in October 2001. At that time, there was a clear need for some sort of anime event in the Boston area, but nobody had taken the initiative to hold one. There had been a couple small conventions in New England, but anime fans still had to travel to Maryland to find a fan convention with more than a few hundred people. Adam Ferraro and Patrick Delahanty started working together to gather a team to make it happen in The Hub.

A couple weeks later, Derek Guder and Tiffani Nadeau joined the team and the first real plans started to come together. Adam proceeded to get the New England Anime Society incorporated.

The Anime Boston mascots pose with the 2006 chairman (Patrick D.)

Other than being anime fans, the other thing that most of the convention's founders had in common was that they were all longtime readers of AnimeOnDVD. The founders wanted to maintain a good working relationship with the popular anime web site and even turned to its members when it needed to choose a name. Although the board had narrowed it down to two, there was debate over which of those two to choose. The question was presented to members of the AnimeOnDVD forums and the better choice became clear: Anime Boston.

After touring four Boston-area hotels in December 2001, the Boston Park Plaza Hotel won the bid. They not only offered the lowest room rate for attendees, but they were familiar with fan conventions from hosting Arisia for several years. Anime Boston estimated a "worst case scenario" of 600 attendees for its first year. This was nearly double the number of attendees at Mikkakan in June 2001, a record for New England at the time. Even if the high estimate of 1000 people showed up, they would still easily fit in the Boston Park Plaza Hotel seeing as how Arisia has been there for several years with an attendance of around 2,500.

Working with AnimeOnDVD, interest in Anime Boston began growing quickly. Large or nearby anime conventions were peppered with Anime Boston 2003 flyers, program guide ad swaps were arranged, and booth space was reserved at Otakon 2002. By the fall of 2002, Anime Boston was coming along nicely and the pre-registration numbers had surpassed Mikkakan's attendance. Talking with other anime conventions, Anime Boston's senior staff based the new attendance estimates on the advice from other conventions' years of experience. At this point, it was estimated that Anime Boston would have maybe 1,000 to 2,000 attendees by the time the convention came around in April.

In late 2002, the New England Anime Society needed to consider booking space for Anime Boston 2004. Figuring that For Anime Boston 2003 would have maybe 2,000 people at most and knowing that the Boston Park Plaza Hotel could hold more than that, a contract was signed to hold Anime Boston at the hotel for a second year.

When pre-registration for Anime Boston 2003 finally closed, there were 1,384 pre-registrants. No anime convention had ever had that kind of response in their first year. When the staff arrived at the hotel, they found thousands more wanting to attend the convention that weekend.^[1]

Event history

Dates	Location	Atten.	Guests

Organizational structure

Mascots

The Mascots for AB are A-chan and B-Kun. A-chan has long blue hair and she typically wears a dress, and her outfit changes with theme. B-kun has orange hair and red eyes, and his outfit also changes with theme.

There has been widespread debate over the relationship between A-chan and B-kun. Some suppose they are dating, others brother and sister, whicle others propose more outlandish ideas. Finally, the issue was cleared up by Anime Boston Through one of their FAQ's: A-chan and B-kun are mascots.^[3]