Tokusatsu Fans Come Together at Anime Boston 2017

Over 25,000 attendees graced the halls of the Hynes Convention Center and the Sheraton Boston Hotel in Boston, MA for Anime Boston’s 14th annual event.

As with previous years, the tokusatsu fan community in Boston created a space for themselves at the event, not only with a cosplay meet-up, but also providing three different tokusatsu-related informational panels hosted by Simon and Trey Yacek.

The first panel focused on Super Sentai and Kamen Rider and covered many of the overarching themes in both shows, including notes such as how Kyoryuger was the first year there was no Yellow Ranger, Super Sentai’s episodic cycle, and the difference between Super Sentai and Kamen Rider– Sentai wants to protect the Earth, whereas Kamen Rider wants to protect humanity.

Subsequent panels focused specifically on tokusatsu created for adults, titled “Tokusatsu: After Dark“, noting series such as GARO, and tokusatsu series outside Super Sentai and Kamen Rider, such as Metal Heroes and Ultraman.

In Artist Alley, Simon and Trey Yacek also offered handmade tokusatsu-inspired pillowcases and plush dolls to fans and attendees alike. Furthermore, artist, Missy Peña, who also designed Anime Boston’s mascots for 2017, sold signed copies of her variant cover for the BOOM! Studios Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Pink series in addition to her art history inspired prints and original works.

Anime Boston also provided a dedicated cosplay photoshoot room for cosplay community and fan meet-ups which tokusatsu fans reserved for Saturday evening. Photos from respective cosplayers, including a classic Kamen Rider Amazon, Zyuoh Eagle, and an armored Mighty Morphin’ Blue Ranger,  can be found on Facebook here and here. The tokusatsu cosplay meet-up also included previous Artist Feature, Jordan Gibson representing Kamen Rider Stronger.

Here’s more of me being Kamen Rider Stronger at Anime Boston last weekend! I even had a tokusatsu team up with Kyoryu Red!! pic.twitter.com/H5VeVuFADp

— Jordan Gibson (@gibsoncomics) April 9, 2017

Anime Boston will be celebrating its 15th year in 2018. For more information, visit AnimeBoston.com.