Joe Maxwell, the convention chairman, said they had around 700 people on hand, which sounds good for a first-year event in a new market. Will there be a second Animazement in 1999? Tired after months of advance work, Maxwell couldn't say.

Raleigh, N.C. is roughly halfway between Alexandria, Va. and Atlanta, Ga., the locations of the previous two anime conventions attended by the author. That location probably encouraged people who had gone to Katsucon in Virginia and Anime Weekend Atlanta to head to Animazement. It looked as if much of the crowd was made up of people who had attended the previous events.

Certainly Maxwell's effort paid off in one respect; Animazement had a very strong gathering of Japanese guests of honor, including some very important people in the industry. The presence of a Bandai representative at the convention can't be overlooked, since that company is one of the world's most powerful toy companies - and is looking to make more money from the American market. Nov. Takahashi of Studio Hard talked openly of setting up a U.S. affiliate to find business in this country.

And Masakazu Katsura, creator of the fan favorite series Video Girl Ai, had great praise for the Animazement fans who showed him such a warm welcome - one cosplayer even appeared as Ai! Katsura was the object of some of the longest autograph lines at the new convention.

Animazement was nearly a battleground between two American anime companies. North Carolina is home turf for Animeigo, and that company sent their biggest guns - the Oh My Goddess American seyuu - to the new convention. AD Vision responded with their biggest star, Amanda Winn "Yohko" Lee.

Lee later noted: "Regardless of what sort of company competition between Animeigo and ADV was, there was no friction or even involvement between the voice actors. We all got along really well. We were all pleasantly surprised how down to earth everyone was, and we all hung out and partied."

The anime company competition picked up on Saturday when AD Vision announced they had the rights to several Japanese series. This author was most intrigued that AD Vision was going to release Compiler, the Kia Asamiya series known in the U.S. only by bootlegs and the occasional Japanese laser disk. However, the AD Vision property that really got tongues wagging was the new Bubble Gum Crisis television series. The first two BGC OVA series, films that drew many people into anime fandom, were hallmarks of Animeigo.

On the one hand, it was a coup for AD Vision to announce the BGC TV rights in Animeigo's back yard. On the other hand, there was a lot of skepticism among industry insiders at Animazement toward that announcement. Some people openly and loudly claimed that AD Vision previously had announced the rights to anime series when the company did not have a finished deal.

To which David Williams of AD Vision responded by E-mail: "I don't know who these "people" were but we have never announced the rights to a series when we didn't already have a finished deal. In most cases we have a `finished deal' months and months before we make an announcement. Just wanted to clear that up," wrote Williams.
 

Animazement day one

Animazement day two

Animazement day three