Anime Boston is an annual three-day

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

fan convention A fan convention (also known as a con or fan meeting) is an event in which Fan (person), fans of a particular topic gather to participate and hold programs and other events, and to meet experts, famous personalities, and each other. Some also inc ...

held in the spring in

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Anime Boston was created and is run by the New England Anime Society, Inc., a

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

-based

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

Programming

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, swap meets, Anime Unscripted,

video games A video game or computer game is an electronic game 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 generate visual fe ...

, RPGs, and a LARP.

History

The first Anime Boston was held in 2003 at the Boston Park Plaza, as was the 2004 convention. By Anime Boston 2005, the convention had moved to the Hynes Convention Center 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 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 is a Japanese vocal group formed by composer Yuki Kajiura in 2007, mainly to perform theme songs for the anime ''The Garden of Sinners'', but later expanded to include many other theme songs for other anime shows and films including the '' Puel ...

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 Joh ...

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 by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts, including the now defunct ''Boston Phoenix'', '' ...

'' selected Anime Boston as the city's "Best Nerd Gathering", beating out contenders such as New England Comic Con and PAX East. 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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Anime Boston returned as an in-person event in 2022, although with fewer guests present. Since 2024, Japanese guest signings have been exclusive to a lottery which is held before the convention.

Event history

Since 2005, Anime Boston has been held at the Hynes Convention Center. The 2003 and 2004 events were held at the Boston Park Plaza. Lottery only guest signings are bolded.

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