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This author would have posted more on the opening day of Animazement had
a rash of thunderstorms not delayed his arrival in Raleigh, N.C. by eight
hours (Delta Air Lines was caught unprepared for the bad weather). There
was still some fun to watch, led by Apollo Smile, who made an appearance
at the new convention on Friday night. |
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Smile didn't sing; this time she introduced other singers at the Animazement
karaoke contest. The anime fans who dared appear on stage showed why they're
fans and not performers. |
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Listening to the show in the back of the room was Juliet Cesario, English-language
voice actress for the Oh My Goddess series... |
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...and also on hand were Scott and Billie Houle, owners of the Coastal
Carolina recording studio in Wilmington, N.C. where the OMG voice tracks
were dubbed. |
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Cosplayers, so numerous at AWA III and Katsucon 4, were in scant numbers
on the opening night of Animazement - but the author will be looking for
more on the second day. |
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The Japanese guests of honor weren't on hand on Friday evening, but one
of their works was: the Giant Robo 7 movie from Yasuhiro Imagawa was shown
to first-night fans. |
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Anime conventions don't seem complete without these familiar faces: Steve
Bennett, who offered his cel painting workshop... |
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...and fan favorite Fred Perry, who brought a computer and tablet to demonstrate
how he creates the Gold Digger characters. Perry tells the great story
about how, when he was serving with the military during Operation Desert
Storm, an Iraqi soldier rushed through the American lines, ran to a M1
Abrams tank and surrendered. It turned out the soldier was from Brooklyn,
New York, had gone home to Iraq to visit relatives and had been drafted
into the Iraqi army before he could get back to Brooklyn. |
