This was my second year at Anime Boston and though there were some notable differences from last year–some good (vastly improved registration process), some bad (noticeably subdued industry presence)–the greatest difference in my experience was definitely due to my own change in perspective. Last year I was a bubbly new fan at my first anime convention, wowed by the cosplay and eager to attend things like “How to become a ninja in one hour.” Everything was novel and I was anxious to try it all out. This year, as a convention “veteran,” I had a much clearer idea of what kind of content was truly interesting to me. Unfortunately for me, there was not all that much of it. With virtually no manga industry presence at all (only one publisher, Media Blasters, bothered to attend and none presented panels) only fan panels catered to the manga crowd, leaving the anime companies to carry the industry side alone.

Being the third Manga Recon writer to weigh in on the weekend, I’m going to avoid talking much about panels I attended in common with Ken and Sam and focus on things I attended on my own, though I will comment briefly on two of the anime industry panels I attended because they were so strange. As my colleagues have mentioned, David and Janice Williams of ADV spent their panel on Friday announcing… nothing, though the strangest aspect of that panel really was the nature of some of the audience members’ questions which seemed clearly aimed at putting the panelists on the defensive. Stranger still, however, was Sunday’s “State of the Industry” panel to which representatives from the attending anime companies simply failed to show. Though the panel proceeded gamely, thanks to impromptu panelists Neil Nadelman and Eric Stehmer, those of us in the audience couldn’t help wondering what exactly it said about the “State of the Industry” for the industry to simply stand us up. You can read more details about both of these panels in Ken’s and Sam’s reports, and I shall now move on.

One highlight of the convention for me this year was attending panels presented by fellow Manga Recon reviewers, one of which (Friday morning’s “Please Save My Manga”) I participated in as well. Particularly enlightening was Saturday’s “Manga Genre Madness,” presented by Erin Finnegan and her fiancé, Noah Fulmor, assisted by Chloe Ferguson. This ninety-minute panel ran through every crazy genre of manga Erin could manage to find, spanning everything from obscure sports (such as curling and ping-pong) to religion, with multiple examples of each. The panel was presented in a wonderfully humorous, fast-paced manner mainly by Erin (with Noah taking over asking questions of the audience during the breaks between sets of slides). Both fun and informative, this panel was probably my favorite out of all those I attended this year.

In a very different vein, I also attended Saturday’s “What Is Boys’ Love?” panel. I chose this over the late-night 18+ yaoi panel, partly because of my long commute and partly because this was billed as an introduction to the genre meant to appeal even to non-fans (or perhaps parents of fans) and I was very interested to see what it would contain. Presented by Cynthia and Nikita of Boys Next Door, the panel began with an explanation of the different terms used to describe the genre, including the outdated Japanese term, “shonen-ai,” which is no longer used except to refer to pedophilia. After establishing “Boys’ Love” (or BL) as the appropriate term now used in Japan, they continued with a brief history of the genre, beginning with older works (such as Moto Hagio’s classic Heart of Thomas) which they find generally offensive due to the common themes representing homosexuality as something tragic and torturous, frequently leading to the death of one or more of the main characters.

They then broke down recent series into a few sub-categories, some of which would not be labeled as BL, such as “amitai” series like Legal Drug, Tokyo Babylon, or Yami no Matsui, in which somewhat ambiguously sexual and/or romantic relationships between men are featured, but not as the primary plot of the story. They also discussed “slashable” series, in which those relationships exist only as subtext (often deliberately inserted–especially in related official artwork–to appeal to female fans) and, on the other end of the spectrum, the vast volume of (mainly untranslated) doujinshi, much of which is very sexually explicit.

The panelists were knowledgeable and fun to listen to, and though their choice of slides and subject matter was definitely restrained with the all-ages crowd in mind, they presented a very well-rounded look at the genre. One highlight for me was an audience-prompted discussion regarding the disturbing power imbalance featured in stories that adhere strictly to the “traditional” seme/uke dynamic, and how the panelists feel the genre is changing to accommodate more stories with the characters in equal roles. If there was any point in which I wished they might have felt at liberty to recommend specific titles it was then, as these books are sometimes difficult to find and are (in my opinion) much healthier reading choices for young women. One of the aspects of the genre I personally find troubling is the seme/uke pairing, which reinforces submissive roles for women (who are intended to identify with the uke) that are archaic and, frankly, offensive. The panel was well-attended, and though I was a bit dismayed by the general audience reaction throughout much of it (watching a bunch of young women hooting lustfully at slides of suggestively posed bishonen does tend to bring to mind images of unruly, drunken men in a strip club), friends on Twitter were helpful enough to remind me about the natural overexuberance of youth and I was eventually able to chill.

In a different vein once again, one panel I attended last year that I decided to check out again was Bettina Kurkoski’s “Inside Manga: The Creating Process.” Joined this year by fellow artist Tabikat, Bettina (My Cat Loki) once again went through her process as a creator, from concept to print. Though the information presented was still incredibly useful and I was grateful to have the opportunity to go through it again now that my basis for understanding is much greater, I couldn’t help but feel that Bettina was just going through the motions this time around. Whether the listless (occasionally rude) audience or the demise of TOKYOPOP’s OEL line (of which My Cat Loki’s final volume was an unfortunate victim) might have been responsible, it’s hard to say, but there was definitely less enthusiasm up at the table this year, and I declined to stay on for Bettina’s follow-up panel, “Inside Manga: Getting Published.”

Though there were relatively few panels to interest me this year, the convention in general was a very satisfying experience overall. Having spent the year interacting with fellow reviewers and manga bloggers online, it was a great pleasure to be able to meet and speak with so many of them in person, something which more than made up for the lack of official manga industry presence. Also, despite even higher attendance than last year’s con, this year was much better managed overall, evident in such areas as the dealer hall which was alloted twice the space–not to provide more room for vendors, but to allow significantly more breathing room for con-goers browsing the hall.

Many thanks to the conventions organizers, panelists, vendors, guests, artists, and attendees for making Anime Boston 2009 a success!