The Issues Guy At Anime Boston 2013

Going into Anime Boston 2013 for one to say I was slightly ignorant to the world I was entering would be a major understatement. So, for my first year working this event I figured the best way to express the experience would be in a blog form. This will not be the norm in the future, but feel it may be useful in some occasions to illustrate my thought pattern when learning or discovering something new.

Night one:
We got to the hotel early. Checked in and headed to food court to socialize. My first impression of the experience was that the people were even nicer than I thought they would be. I expected some good folks, but there was an incredible amount of positive energy coming from the people I would interact with on Thursday evening as the hype was building for the the event to start. Staying up late on Night One was enviable as I made myself part of this universe interacting with people. So as 4:30 am became a reality, the hype in my eyes started building and I tried hard to close them. I must be up early for full day of work and more enjoyment of the festivities.

First Day of Event:
Woke up early and immediately got to work with King Baby Duck getting “man on the street” interviews from people as we walked over to the Opening Ceremony. Each person we talked to were very nice about what they could offer us and what they could not. Just a good vibe in general. We offered two questions for random people and a few more for the industry folks.

Then we headed into the Opening Ceremony. We entered the room and sat down and I hate to say it but this was pretty useless. Most of the folks being introduced as guests were not even there. And this carried over to our first interview as well. I didn’t see the point of the Opening Ceremony and the process of people being trotted out on stage for a second to get a taste of what we will be seeing in full effect later. It seems to me some of the people who did wake up didn’t even want to be there, well except Tom Wayland. He put a bit more time and effort to his introduction by creating a very funny home movie.

So heading up to the first interview, as I mentioned before was sadly cancelled. So KBD and I headed into the Marketplace to see what cool things there were to buy while we wait for the Stephanie Sheh interview. Overwhelmed is the best way to describe the feeling of this room. So many toys, costumes, games and more in the gigantic two room display. I would go back to Anime Boston just visit the Marketplace again.

We then went to see Stephanie Sheh and she loved Voltron which alone made my day. But she was very nice and talked to us for a while about acting, directing and her process. She even agreed to speak with us after for a few minutes.

Then we headed back towards hotel to meet up with the 3rd man in our team Mr. John C Riley. We proceeded to head back upstairs to the press room to head into what would be my highlight of all the interviews our sit down with Tom Wayland.

The minute Tom came into the room you could just tell this was going to be an extremely unique experience. He was open and candid with us.You can watch it here.
In fact his handler said after the interview that we had some of the best and most varied questions for him all weekend.

Then the late night fun started and we all went our separate ways for a bit. JCR and King when to see some Music Videos. After they were done we all recorded an amazing podcast you can listen to here. And I bumped into Tom again by the pool area and talked his ear off for a while more.

After this long day and lack of sleep I ate some O’s and drank some beer and cuddled up in bed waiting for the next days fun!

Day 2:

This was by far the craziest work day of all. From early in the day to later in the evening The Dream Team from TIP, JDS and B3 worked hard to get interviews, attend pressers and just in general kick some ass. I got to be the instigator. Basically going up to strangers and asking them for interviews. It was good change up from working camera the day before. In fact, part of the fun was when asking people to be interviewed and they obviously wondered what this is this interview going to be like? And would it be on the level? But once King Baby Duck started talking about Anime you could just see the fan in the persons heart warms right up. Evan knows his stuff and it’s a definite asset when talking to both fans and industry people. We did face a few deer in headlights but for the most part got some serious gold!

One of the standouts of this day was Kari Wahlgren she was so warm and made the event very funny and even talked a bit of sports. We just had a great group of other reporters and broadcasters in the room and it was an excellent vibe. She also connected with King about his love for her work (she even asked him to make her a mix CD), JCR with Dr. Who and with myself about sports. We all just made a good impression and the event was so fun King Baby Duck put it out on the B3crew.com page as a podcast. Check it out here. But she was nice enough to record a promo for the Issues Program and may even guest on a future show on B3 or TIP. Kari was amazing.

We all recharged a bit leading up our interview with Nabeshin . Ok, this guy is pure joy. I hope his first time to Boston was as memorable for him as it was for all of us in the room. Even not being full familiar with all of his work this was the person I felt the most star struck by. He just has that “IT” factor and this interview is right up there with Tom Wayland and Kari for most entertaining pressers. I also was getting as much joy from watching his translators face when he would say something insane and she would have to translate. Evan got to got an awesome picture, JCR got to have Nabeshin touch his beard hair and he and I had an epic “we both have crazy hair moment”. I hope to have a chance to meet him again this was very exciting. KBD did an excellent job transcribing the presser and you can view it here.

We had one more press thing left with Raj Ramayya & ORIGA and this was interesting as we were the only press members there. This had happened earlier with Tom Wayland but that was intentional. But with this situation some other press members had just not shown up so we got these two all to ourselves. And it was also a very unique time. King got in all his questions and then I asked a couple as well. The best part was after KBD last question about what 3 albums one would bring to a desert island. This sparked an excellent side conversation in the room after the interview was when i felt Raj really warmed up to us and we all just talked as music fans. I even got in an offer to play drums for him. I will be waiting for my call. (781-990-8509 ) You can check out that interview here.

This was the last piece of official work for the evening and for the event. I then tried to get into the Zelda panel but it was packed. So instead went to a video game room and did some Smash Bros. commentary and some playing. Let’s just say I did better at the commentary than the playing.

JCR and I also took some time to shoot an independent film. We then met back up with KBD and some more friends while waiting in line for Hentai Dubbing. Now that line was maybe the biggest of the entire Con spanned many hallways. I waiting in line and then decided at the last minute to head to the Concert instead, unrealistically hoping I would be called on stage to play some drums.

That obviously did not happen but I was still feeling perform-y so I want to a high traffic place and played some music and actually made a little money from busking. I turned that loot around for some food. Its great making cash like that for your own dinner! WIN!
I didn’t want to go to bed as this night was my last evening in this fun world. But around 5am I finally did.

Day 3:
This day was different than the rest. No it was not Passover. But it was a half day. There was no work to do and we all needed to find our ways home. Although, we did get a few more “man on the street” interviews and talked to a few more great folks. I guess the thing that occurred to me on Sunday was something that all the voice actors and industry people were saying about Anime being in trouble because of too many folks illegally downloading it. This never occurred to me that a niche industry would be so negatively affected by the streaming- torrent world we live in. In fact a similar thing has happens with Season 4 of Arrested Development. In that case, $7 for one month of Netfliks one can watch everything and even record for future enjoyment. But instead people are choosing to use torrents to save that big $7. Anime faces the same issues. So if you love it please buy it! This worlds is amazing with a lot of great folks doing a lot of good things. So if fans don’t fund the things they love the creators will not have the time or resources to continue to make such this form of entertainment. Please take care of the people that have been taking care of you for years!

It was nice being a guest in these people’s house learning about something I was ignorant to in the past. But after a weekend of being immersed I have a far greater appreciation for the vibes, people and art. I really did love it and I will be back doing Anime Boston again!