Fans Rule: A Recap of Anime Boston 2019
By: EyeSpyeAlex
When at conventions I always try to hit up as many fan panels and AMVs as humanly possible. Without the fans there would be no Anime Boston! It’s also nice to hear from fellow fans what their opinions are on anime or manga, or to listen to their interpretations on a series. Below are my favorites from the AMV sessions and the fan panels.
Having seriously jumped back into the anime and manga fandom about three years ago, I feel like there are a lot of great shows I missed out on. I always like to attend the Anime You May Have Missed panel to scope out some titles that I, well, may have missed. Imagine my surprise when several titles that The Geekly Grind has covered popped up! If you are looking to try before you buy (or stream), the following titles come highly recommended from The Geekly Grind Team and from fans at Anime Boston:
Another panel that taught me a lot about the anime industry was the Anime & Japan: A History Lesson panel. The panel covered the creation of anime, starting with the father of manga - Osamu Tezuka. His style is what modern anime has become. He got a lot of inspiration from Disney, specifically the big eyes and small mouths.
From there the panel discussed how three studios (Toei, Tatsumoko, and Mushi) helped grow the industry into the booming business it is today. There was also discussion on what it costs to make an anime. Anime costs $100k-$300k to produce per single episode. This sounds like a huge expense…until you find out that The Simpson’s costs about $5 million per episode to make.
The major takeaway was if you like anime, be sure to support the industry legally. This allows the price of goods to go down and ensures the creators and artists are paid a livable wage.
Panels with a focus on exploring the tropes of a series are also one of my favorites to attend. This year the standout panel for this was “Madoka Magica and the Philosophy of Tragedy”. The panel was more or less a summary of the panelists’ college thesis and included a brief overview of the history of philosophy and the major elements. From there, the panelist delved into these different elements, providing examples that occur in Madoka Magica to backup their claims. Overall the panel was incredibly thought provoking and felt well worth my time.
AMVs
The one AMV that has stuck with me is a Princess Tutu one I saw during the AMV That Made US Watch the Anime session. The AMV was set to “Hold Me Now” and it is just so incredible how well the two go together. The beat meshed with the scenes the creator chose to showcase Princess Tutu perfectly, and is something I thought about for the remainder of the day. Luckily, I was able to find the AMV on YouTube! Please be sure to give this creator some love and be sure to check out Princess Tutu!