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argurotoxosThis year was my first time at Anime Boston and the sheer number of attendees were a little overwhelming. We went in a group of six with four of us cosplaying from all different series. For the first two days at the convention, we went as Killua Zaoldyeck (myself; Hunter x Hunter), Atsuro (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hitokiri_quatre; Kaikan Phrase), Mutsumi Saburo (623_san; Keroro Gunsou), and Kurama (one of hitokiri_quatre's friends; Yuu Yuu Hakusho). There was an ongoing bet over who would be most recognized and sure enough, Kurama won first place and many fangirls. We kept having girls run up to us and practically squee for a picture of Kurama and never gave the rest of us another look because they had no clue who we were. Killua was second in the recognition tally, with Atsuro in third with about three recognitions, and Mutsumi in fourth with no recognitions; he was very unloved.
We arrived at Boston Friday around 4PM. It was raining when we arrived, which was bad becausehitokiri_quatre had red spray in her hair that would've washed out if it had gotten wet. Fortunately, parking was right under the convention centre and we didn't have to go outside at all.
The set-up of the building was very convenient. Part of it was a mall with food court, part of it was the convention centre itself with three floors, and the rest was the Sheraton hotel. The room used for the Masquerade Saturday night was huge with two big viewing screens on either side of the stage and seats for thousands; the announcer estimated that up to three thousand people watched the Masquerade.
While heading to registration, we ran intovixaires, who I haven't seen for a looong time. It was really nice to see her and I was surprised she recognized me with my wig, but cj_gren and ryuuza_tamashii also recognized me and said hi to me later on.
The next person we met wassleepy_syusuke, our would-have-been Hisoka from Hunter x Hunter except he wasn't able to get his costume together in time and went as Koenma from Yuu Yuu Hakusho instead. It still amuses me that we randomly ran into each other so early on.
Registration on Friday didn't take much time at all, though I was rather disappointed with the badges; the graphics were a little fuzzy and nothing was in colour. The first thing we did was go to the dealers' room, but we didn't get to spend much time there since they closed at 5PM. The only thing I bought that day was a Killua plushie.
After the dealers', we headed down to the food court for some dinner and I ran into my first Hunter x Hunter cosplayer, a Kurapica! I kept seeing her on and off during the convention since she used Kurapica for all three days and waved to her whenever I saw her.
We really didn't do much on Friday; it looked like there were some interesting panels, but they were all after the time we had to leave by so we just wandered around until about 8PM.
Strangely, for how little time we were there Friday, I think that was the day I got the most Killua recognition. The one guy I remember most was the one who asked me if I could shoot lightning from my fingers before taking my picture. I laughed a little and said that was Greed Island, not the Hunter Exam, and maybe I'd cosplay Greed Island!Killua next year.
We did a little photoshoot with the people in our multi-fandom group that was quite fun. There was Togashi love with Kurama and Killua together (which I only realize now are actually the most popular characters in their respective series) and debate over which would be top in a crossover yaoi that proved difficult since I was the only one familiar with both. Sadly, when we did this, neither Kurama nor myself had our weapons and couldn't do any fighting poses.
Saturday was our looong day. Arrived around 9:30AM and didn't leave until 11PM because of the Masquerade.hitokiri_quatre had to go practice for her Gravitation skit in the Masquerade where she was a last-minute replacement for Yuki, leaving 623_san, Kurama, and myself to wander around until the dealers' opened. While wandering, we heard yells of 'Jesus!' around us and turned around to find someone dressed up as none other than Jesus Christ. I considered finding out what his reaction would be if I asked to pose with him ('I assassinated Jesus!'), but we instead watched as he wandered down the hallway posing while shouts of 'It's Jesus!' spread among the throng. Must be one of the weirdest things I've ever seen at an anime convention, though there was someone dressed like a Klingon from the later Star Trek series on Friday.
We spent a good deal of time Saturday in the dealers' room, going through all the stands first by ourselves and then walking through again whenhitokiri_quatre returned. I think we were all tired after that and ready for lunch and a place to sit down and rest our feet.
Both Friday and Saturday,hitokiri_quatre and I had to carry around rather unwieldy props - a guitar and a skateboard, respectively. However, because Saturday was disqualified!Killua day, I also had on long fake nails on my right hand that I had filed into points and spent most of the day pretty much one-handed. Those nails actually took a while to get on since I discovered in the morning that the nail glue I had brought with me had dried up and had to buy more on the way to the convention. Several of the nails came unglued at various points during the day - some as many as four times - but I carried the nail glue with me and managed not to lose any of the nails. By the time dinner hit, all of the nails had been sufficiently reinforced and stayed on for the rest of the night. Fortunately, I like trying to write with my left hand when I'm bored and it wasn't as difficult as it could have been to go without the use of my right hand.
In addition to the nails, I also had stage blood on my face. This proved to be an unexpected source of amusement for me as at least two people in the dealers' room thought it was real blood and asked if I needed help.
There weren't as many Killua recognitions this day, but two of the vendors stopped me to chat about Hunter x Hunter, how awesome the series was, and how surprised they were that there were so few HxH cosplayers. One of them in particular was very friendly and said Hunter x Hunter was his favourite series; when I replied that I was just trying to spread the HxH love, he was very enthusiastic and supportive.
We saw quite a number of Yuugiou cosplayers Saturday, some who were incredibly good. At least two Yami no Bakuras, two Maliks, a Pegasus, and a group from the Memory/Ancient Egypt Arc complete with Pharaoh Yami no Yuugi/Atemu, Priest Seto, Thief King Bakura, Kisara, and peasant!Jounouchi and Honda. The Memory Arc group was absolutely incredible; their costumes were very impressive and their Masquerade skit was one of the best I've ever seen. The Yami no Bakura who I was able to get a picture of was very nice and had an awesome Sennen Ring. Now I really want to get the Yuugiou DVD set and indulge myself in the fandom.
After lunch, we waited around in the Sheraton section for the ParaPara Panel to start. We also saw just how insanely long the registration line was and were very glad we had come at a downtime Friday to get our badges. Unfortunately, the ParaPara room was rather crowded and we gave up and eventually wandered back to the dealers' room. We ran intosleepy_syusuke again, this time cosplaying as one of the Seigaku regulars from TeniPuri/Prince of Tennis and had a fun time chatting about Hunter x Hunter, the HxH musicals, Kingdom Hearts 2, TeniPuri, Yuu Yuu Hakusho, and other things. Very cool guy.
Before dinner, we went up to the hotel room of two ofhitokiri_quatre's friends who were cosplaying different Shuuichis for their Gravitation skit so hitokiri_quatre could change into Yuki again. We also had an interesting discussion about pushing people off roofs and what the quickest way to kill yourself would be. Outside the hotel window, we could see a bunch of other hotel room windows, some of which people had written on (like 'I'm having sex lol' or 'come to room 1551') and others where people were dancing in front of the window. Yeah.
Had sushi at the food court for dinner. At some point, I also had a girl run past me yelling 'Yuki signed my boob!' while holding her shirt down to show part of her breast; they had had an 'official' Bad Luck signing session earlier that day. Yeah. 0_0
After dinner, we waited in line for for the Masquerade. We thought we were near the front of the line, but when people started filing in, we turned the corner and saw that the line was actually huge and we were actually closer to the back. However, we still managed to get pretty good seats and sat within the first few rows on the left hand side.
The female Anime Boston mascot was dancing on stage to entertain people as they were coming in, but a few people got the great idea to run on stage to join her and suddenly there was a mass of people climbing up to dance. A few of them tripped over my skateboard while they were rushing to get through and I thought for a second that they might have scratched it, but no harm done.
As for the Masquerade itself, there were some very good skits. My favourite was the above-mentioned Yuugiou Memory Arc one. It started with Pharaoh Atemu and Priest Seto discussing whether or not to free the slaves and then Seto going on about how they could use the oil in Egypt. Then Thief King Bakura walked on with the corpse of Atemu's father, happily molesting him and enjoying how perverted Bakura can be by insinuating all kinds of sexual acts. After Atemu's shock, the ghost of Atemu's father talked to Atemu from off-stage. 'So how have you been? Eating well? Brushing your teeth? Will I be having any grandpharaohs?'
Atemu's reply -- 'Dad, I'm gay.' So awesome. It got so much applaus that I missed what was said right after that. At the end, Atemu's father gave Egypt to Jounouchi and Honda to rule and Atemu left blaming Seto for everything. You probably have to know Yuugiou well to really get it and I really wish I had recorded it, but it was absolutely hilarious and very well-written and acted.
My second favourite skit was the Prince of Tennis one thatsleepy_syusuke was part of; they danced and 'sang' to one of the songs from the TeniPuri musicals. Apparently, one of the Seigaku members accidently fell during the song, but we in the audience thought it might have just been part of the skit. In any case, it was very awesome and made me very glad that crazylinguist had introduced me to TeniPuri.
Other mentionable skit were the Link one with the Triforce (go Triforce!), the Princess Mononoke one with the Nightwalker (quite impressive!), and the Bishounen Support group (very funny). And just for sheer randomness, there was an Ed with greenish hair who wandered on, said something like 'This isn't the right village', and wandered off.
While waiting for the judges to decide Masquerade awards, they showed a slideshow of the hall cosplay contest entries (to the Numa Numa song?; something was to that and a bunch of us sang and danced along) and the winners of the Anime Music Video contest. The AMV winners surprised me; two Chrno Crusade ones (one of which was set to 'Hallelujah' by Rufus Wainwright and had people waving their cell phones to the music like lighters) and the Princess Tutu one won two awards. My favourite was one with various mecha series set to 'Das Omen' by E Nomine; it won best editing.
Both the Yuugiou and TeniPuri skits won an award, but not for what I had thought they'd win for. There was also a Count of Monte Cristo from Gankutsuou who won 'best glowy make-up' or something similar that sounded like an invented category just as an excuse to give him an award. Though in his defense, his outfit was very, very good. The Link with the Triforce didn't win anything, but there was another Link skit that won two awards and several Paradise Kiss skits that also won things.
(A short clip of the Triforce Zelda skit is here on YouTube, but they missed the way Link charged off stage. There's also a bunch of Masquerade clips set to music here, but the Yuugiou and TeniPuri skits are in there.)
After Masquerade was a rush to find people and leave. I still missed getting a picture of Atemu, but was able to say goodbye tosleepy_syusuke in case we didn't see each other Sunday (we didn't). We also didn't get to see vixaires on Sunday.
We didn't arrive Sunday until 11AM and spent the first hour or so in the dealers' room. Due to some unexpected events, we didn't do much this day and just attended the closing ceremonies where we got to hear the guests speak about their experiences and see the AMV winners for a second time. Sunday saw me cosplaying Kurosaki Hisoka (Yami no Matusei) [making this the third time I've cosplayed Hisoka at the end of a convention],hitokiri_quatre cosplaying Tsuzuki Asato (also Yami no Matsuei), Kurama switching to a blue school girl outfit she had bought Saturday for $40, and 623_san cosplaying Kaji from Evangelion. Once again, our ex-Kurama was asked for photos even though she wasn't in a particular cosplay and 623_san was unrecognized. hitokiri_quatre and I got a hug and a request for a photo, but the girl realized she had no film left. I find it very interesting that as Killua, I had more males than females ask for a picture and no real fangirling/fanboying. With Hisoka, it's along the lines of 'OMG it's Hisoka! I love you!' but with Killua, it's more 'You're cool. Hunter x Hunter is a great series.' I find it rather refreshing.
As luck has it, on the one day I didn't cosplay Killua, there was another Killua cosplayer. The first thing he said to me was 'Yeah, I saw you before; you didn't have the right shoes.' I am fully aware that my Killua cosplay isn't 100% accurate (the light purple T-shirt isn't a V-neck, either), but I'm still damn proud of it, especially my skateboard.
Oddly, after wearing my Killua wig for two days in a row, I would sometimes still feel like I was wearing a wig cap. When I cosplay Killua again, I'm gonna seriously think about just bleaching my hair; I really hate wigs.
Overall, Anime Boston was quite an experience. It was nice seeing some of the lesser cosplayed series - like Hunter x Hunter - and the Masquerade was awesome, but it was overwhelming at times. For the size of the convention, I was also somewhat disappointed with the panel offerings and the dealers' room. The dealers' had a wide selection of toys and keychains and there was a vendor there with all Japanese manga, but there were no food or drinks and very few soundtracks and posters. The doujinshi selection was pretty limited and didn't have any Hunter x Hunter or Frodo x Sam, even though there was a Lord of the Rings section.
As for cosplays, I think I saw more Edward Elrics than anybody else. I've never seen more Eds in my life, though there were also plenty of Envys and Prides. Shuuichi from Gravitation, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, and Link from Zelda were also very popular. As for series, there were tons of Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto, Final Fantasy, and Kingdom Hearts. There were also a good number of cosplayers from Yuugiou and Prince of Tennis. Surprisingly, I only saw one Kyou Kara Maou cosplayer and was shocked that both Hunter x Hunter and Loveless had more than that.
At the end of the convention, I had bought:
-a Killua plushie
-three volumes of Hunter x Hunter in Japanese [21 for my favourite Killua scenes, 14 for the cover and one of my favourite Kirgon scenes, and 11 for the Kuroro requiem scene]
-two volumes of Yuugiou in Japanese [hitokiri_quatre bought 38 - the last volume of Yuugiou - with its Puzzleshipping goodness, so I bought 2 for the scene where Yami no Yuugi electrocutes some bullies and 27 for the Yami no Bakura and Yami no Malik duel on top of Kaiba's blimp]
-a Hunter x Hunter pencil board with the Hunters Four [Gon, Killua, Kurapica, Leorio]
-volume three of Earthian in English
-a Loveless keychain that I'm wearing as an anklet [not because I'm a Loveless fan, but I like the concept and the way 'loveless' sounds]
We also got free T-shirts from the Phoenix and free fans.
I won't be going to Anime Boston next year, but am currently planning on PortCon2007. I'd really like to cosplay either Yami no Yuugi or Yuugi from Yuugiou, finish either my Chihaya (Earthian) or Kurikara (Yami no Matsuei) outfit, and do Killua again. I think doing Gon would be fun, too, but only if I feel like actually learning how to sew. Eheheh.
hitokiri_quatre; Kaikan Phrase), Mutsumi Saburo (623_san; Keroro Gunsou), and Kurama (one of hitokiri_quatre's friends; Yuu Yuu Hakusho). There was an ongoing bet over who would be most recognized and sure enough, Kurama won first place and many fangirls. We kept having girls run up to us and practically squee for a picture of Kurama and never gave the rest of us another look because they had no clue who we were. Killua was second in the recognition tally, with Atsuro in third with about three recognitions, and Mutsumi in fourth with no recognitions; he was very unloved.We arrived at Boston Friday around 4PM. It was raining when we arrived, which was bad because
hitokiri_quatre had red spray in her hair that would've washed out if it had gotten wet. Fortunately, parking was right under the convention centre and we didn't have to go outside at all.The set-up of the building was very convenient. Part of it was a mall with food court, part of it was the convention centre itself with three floors, and the rest was the Sheraton hotel. The room used for the Masquerade Saturday night was huge with two big viewing screens on either side of the stage and seats for thousands; the announcer estimated that up to three thousand people watched the Masquerade.
While heading to registration, we ran into
vixaires, who I haven't seen for a looong time. It was really nice to see her and I was surprised she recognized me with my wig, but cj_gren and ryuuza_tamashii also recognized me and said hi to me later on.The next person we met was
sleepy_syusuke, our would-have-been Hisoka from Hunter x Hunter except he wasn't able to get his costume together in time and went as Koenma from Yuu Yuu Hakusho instead. It still amuses me that we randomly ran into each other so early on.Registration on Friday didn't take much time at all, though I was rather disappointed with the badges; the graphics were a little fuzzy and nothing was in colour. The first thing we did was go to the dealers' room, but we didn't get to spend much time there since they closed at 5PM. The only thing I bought that day was a Killua plushie.
After the dealers', we headed down to the food court for some dinner and I ran into my first Hunter x Hunter cosplayer, a Kurapica! I kept seeing her on and off during the convention since she used Kurapica for all three days and waved to her whenever I saw her.
We really didn't do much on Friday; it looked like there were some interesting panels, but they were all after the time we had to leave by so we just wandered around until about 8PM.
Strangely, for how little time we were there Friday, I think that was the day I got the most Killua recognition. The one guy I remember most was the one who asked me if I could shoot lightning from my fingers before taking my picture. I laughed a little and said that was Greed Island, not the Hunter Exam, and maybe I'd cosplay Greed Island!Killua next year.
We did a little photoshoot with the people in our multi-fandom group that was quite fun. There was Togashi love with Kurama and Killua together (which I only realize now are actually the most popular characters in their respective series) and debate over which would be top in a crossover yaoi that proved difficult since I was the only one familiar with both. Sadly, when we did this, neither Kurama nor myself had our weapons and couldn't do any fighting poses.
Saturday was our looong day. Arrived around 9:30AM and didn't leave until 11PM because of the Masquerade.
hitokiri_quatre had to go practice for her Gravitation skit in the Masquerade where she was a last-minute replacement for Yuki, leaving 623_san, Kurama, and myself to wander around until the dealers' opened. While wandering, we heard yells of 'Jesus!' around us and turned around to find someone dressed up as none other than Jesus Christ. I considered finding out what his reaction would be if I asked to pose with him ('I assassinated Jesus!'), but we instead watched as he wandered down the hallway posing while shouts of 'It's Jesus!' spread among the throng. Must be one of the weirdest things I've ever seen at an anime convention, though there was someone dressed like a Klingon from the later Star Trek series on Friday.We spent a good deal of time Saturday in the dealers' room, going through all the stands first by ourselves and then walking through again when
hitokiri_quatre returned. I think we were all tired after that and ready for lunch and a place to sit down and rest our feet.Both Friday and Saturday,
hitokiri_quatre and I had to carry around rather unwieldy props - a guitar and a skateboard, respectively. However, because Saturday was disqualified!Killua day, I also had on long fake nails on my right hand that I had filed into points and spent most of the day pretty much one-handed. Those nails actually took a while to get on since I discovered in the morning that the nail glue I had brought with me had dried up and had to buy more on the way to the convention. Several of the nails came unglued at various points during the day - some as many as four times - but I carried the nail glue with me and managed not to lose any of the nails. By the time dinner hit, all of the nails had been sufficiently reinforced and stayed on for the rest of the night. Fortunately, I like trying to write with my left hand when I'm bored and it wasn't as difficult as it could have been to go without the use of my right hand.In addition to the nails, I also had stage blood on my face. This proved to be an unexpected source of amusement for me as at least two people in the dealers' room thought it was real blood and asked if I needed help.
There weren't as many Killua recognitions this day, but two of the vendors stopped me to chat about Hunter x Hunter, how awesome the series was, and how surprised they were that there were so few HxH cosplayers. One of them in particular was very friendly and said Hunter x Hunter was his favourite series; when I replied that I was just trying to spread the HxH love, he was very enthusiastic and supportive.
We saw quite a number of Yuugiou cosplayers Saturday, some who were incredibly good. At least two Yami no Bakuras, two Maliks, a Pegasus, and a group from the Memory/Ancient Egypt Arc complete with Pharaoh Yami no Yuugi/Atemu, Priest Seto, Thief King Bakura, Kisara, and peasant!Jounouchi and Honda. The Memory Arc group was absolutely incredible; their costumes were very impressive and their Masquerade skit was one of the best I've ever seen. The Yami no Bakura who I was able to get a picture of was very nice and had an awesome Sennen Ring. Now I really want to get the Yuugiou DVD set and indulge myself in the fandom.
After lunch, we waited around in the Sheraton section for the ParaPara Panel to start. We also saw just how insanely long the registration line was and were very glad we had come at a downtime Friday to get our badges. Unfortunately, the ParaPara room was rather crowded and we gave up and eventually wandered back to the dealers' room. We ran into
sleepy_syusuke again, this time cosplaying as one of the Seigaku regulars from TeniPuri/Prince of Tennis and had a fun time chatting about Hunter x Hunter, the HxH musicals, Kingdom Hearts 2, TeniPuri, Yuu Yuu Hakusho, and other things. Very cool guy.Before dinner, we went up to the hotel room of two of
hitokiri_quatre's friends who were cosplaying different Shuuichis for their Gravitation skit so hitokiri_quatre could change into Yuki again. We also had an interesting discussion about pushing people off roofs and what the quickest way to kill yourself would be. Outside the hotel window, we could see a bunch of other hotel room windows, some of which people had written on (like 'I'm having sex lol' or 'come to room 1551') and others where people were dancing in front of the window. Yeah.Had sushi at the food court for dinner. At some point, I also had a girl run past me yelling 'Yuki signed my boob!' while holding her shirt down to show part of her breast; they had had an 'official' Bad Luck signing session earlier that day. Yeah. 0_0
After dinner, we waited in line for for the Masquerade. We thought we were near the front of the line, but when people started filing in, we turned the corner and saw that the line was actually huge and we were actually closer to the back. However, we still managed to get pretty good seats and sat within the first few rows on the left hand side.
The female Anime Boston mascot was dancing on stage to entertain people as they were coming in, but a few people got the great idea to run on stage to join her and suddenly there was a mass of people climbing up to dance. A few of them tripped over my skateboard while they were rushing to get through and I thought for a second that they might have scratched it, but no harm done.
As for the Masquerade itself, there were some very good skits. My favourite was the above-mentioned Yuugiou Memory Arc one. It started with Pharaoh Atemu and Priest Seto discussing whether or not to free the slaves and then Seto going on about how they could use the oil in Egypt. Then Thief King Bakura walked on with the corpse of Atemu's father, happily molesting him and enjoying how perverted Bakura can be by insinuating all kinds of sexual acts. After Atemu's shock, the ghost of Atemu's father talked to Atemu from off-stage. 'So how have you been? Eating well? Brushing your teeth? Will I be having any grandpharaohs?'
Atemu's reply -- 'Dad, I'm gay.' So awesome. It got so much applaus that I missed what was said right after that. At the end, Atemu's father gave Egypt to Jounouchi and Honda to rule and Atemu left blaming Seto for everything. You probably have to know Yuugiou well to really get it and I really wish I had recorded it, but it was absolutely hilarious and very well-written and acted.
My second favourite skit was the Prince of Tennis one that
sleepy_syusuke was part of; they danced and 'sang' to one of the songs from the TeniPuri musicals. Apparently, one of the Seigaku members accidently fell during the song, but we in the audience thought it might have just been part of the skit. In any case, it was very awesome and made me very glad that crazylinguist had introduced me to TeniPuri.Other mentionable skit were the Link one with the Triforce (go Triforce!), the Princess Mononoke one with the Nightwalker (quite impressive!), and the Bishounen Support group (very funny). And just for sheer randomness, there was an Ed with greenish hair who wandered on, said something like 'This isn't the right village', and wandered off.
While waiting for the judges to decide Masquerade awards, they showed a slideshow of the hall cosplay contest entries (to the Numa Numa song?; something was to that and a bunch of us sang and danced along) and the winners of the Anime Music Video contest. The AMV winners surprised me; two Chrno Crusade ones (one of which was set to 'Hallelujah' by Rufus Wainwright and had people waving their cell phones to the music like lighters) and the Princess Tutu one won two awards. My favourite was one with various mecha series set to 'Das Omen' by E Nomine; it won best editing.
Both the Yuugiou and TeniPuri skits won an award, but not for what I had thought they'd win for. There was also a Count of Monte Cristo from Gankutsuou who won 'best glowy make-up' or something similar that sounded like an invented category just as an excuse to give him an award. Though in his defense, his outfit was very, very good. The Link with the Triforce didn't win anything, but there was another Link skit that won two awards and several Paradise Kiss skits that also won things.
(A short clip of the Triforce Zelda skit is here on YouTube, but they missed the way Link charged off stage. There's also a bunch of Masquerade clips set to music here, but the Yuugiou and TeniPuri skits are in there.)
After Masquerade was a rush to find people and leave. I still missed getting a picture of Atemu, but was able to say goodbye to
sleepy_syusuke in case we didn't see each other Sunday (we didn't). We also didn't get to see vixaires on Sunday.We didn't arrive Sunday until 11AM and spent the first hour or so in the dealers' room. Due to some unexpected events, we didn't do much this day and just attended the closing ceremonies where we got to hear the guests speak about their experiences and see the AMV winners for a second time. Sunday saw me cosplaying Kurosaki Hisoka (Yami no Matusei) [making this the third time I've cosplayed Hisoka at the end of a convention],
hitokiri_quatre cosplaying Tsuzuki Asato (also Yami no Matsuei), Kurama switching to a blue school girl outfit she had bought Saturday for $40, and 623_san cosplaying Kaji from Evangelion. Once again, our ex-Kurama was asked for photos even though she wasn't in a particular cosplay and 623_san was unrecognized. hitokiri_quatre and I got a hug and a request for a photo, but the girl realized she had no film left. I find it very interesting that as Killua, I had more males than females ask for a picture and no real fangirling/fanboying. With Hisoka, it's along the lines of 'OMG it's Hisoka! I love you!' but with Killua, it's more 'You're cool. Hunter x Hunter is a great series.' I find it rather refreshing.As luck has it, on the one day I didn't cosplay Killua, there was another Killua cosplayer. The first thing he said to me was 'Yeah, I saw you before; you didn't have the right shoes.' I am fully aware that my Killua cosplay isn't 100% accurate (the light purple T-shirt isn't a V-neck, either), but I'm still damn proud of it, especially my skateboard.
Oddly, after wearing my Killua wig for two days in a row, I would sometimes still feel like I was wearing a wig cap. When I cosplay Killua again, I'm gonna seriously think about just bleaching my hair; I really hate wigs.
Overall, Anime Boston was quite an experience. It was nice seeing some of the lesser cosplayed series - like Hunter x Hunter - and the Masquerade was awesome, but it was overwhelming at times. For the size of the convention, I was also somewhat disappointed with the panel offerings and the dealers' room. The dealers' had a wide selection of toys and keychains and there was a vendor there with all Japanese manga, but there were no food or drinks and very few soundtracks and posters. The doujinshi selection was pretty limited and didn't have any Hunter x Hunter or Frodo x Sam, even though there was a Lord of the Rings section.
As for cosplays, I think I saw more Edward Elrics than anybody else. I've never seen more Eds in my life, though there were also plenty of Envys and Prides. Shuuichi from Gravitation, Sora from Kingdom Hearts, and Link from Zelda were also very popular. As for series, there were tons of Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto, Final Fantasy, and Kingdom Hearts. There were also a good number of cosplayers from Yuugiou and Prince of Tennis. Surprisingly, I only saw one Kyou Kara Maou cosplayer and was shocked that both Hunter x Hunter and Loveless had more than that.
At the end of the convention, I had bought:
-a Killua plushie
-three volumes of Hunter x Hunter in Japanese [21 for my favourite Killua scenes, 14 for the cover and one of my favourite Kirgon scenes, and 11 for the Kuroro requiem scene]
-two volumes of Yuugiou in Japanese [
hitokiri_quatre bought 38 - the last volume of Yuugiou - with its Puzzleshipping goodness, so I bought 2 for the scene where Yami no Yuugi electrocutes some bullies and 27 for the Yami no Bakura and Yami no Malik duel on top of Kaiba's blimp]-a Hunter x Hunter pencil board with the Hunters Four [Gon, Killua, Kurapica, Leorio]
-volume three of Earthian in English
-a Loveless keychain that I'm wearing as an anklet [not because I'm a Loveless fan, but I like the concept and the way 'loveless' sounds]
We also got free T-shirts from the Phoenix and free fans.
I won't be going to Anime Boston next year, but am currently planning on PortCon2007. I'd really like to cosplay either Yami no Yuugi or Yuugi from Yuugiou, finish either my Chihaya (Earthian) or Kurikara (Yami no Matsuei) outfit, and do Killua again. I think doing Gon would be fun, too, but only if I feel like actually learning how to sew. Eheheh.
