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Nov. Takahashi, head of Studio Hard, kept a promise he made in March
at Animazement in North Carolina. Takahashi said he would bring readers
of the new AX entertainment magazine to Anime Expo, because he liked the
event and because the magazine's name was so similar to the convention's
title. When the convention began, Takahashi was on hand - along with a
big delegation of people from Studio Hard and AX. Many of those people
had won a contest the magazine had run earlier this year. |
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Some of those people were reader correspondents, anime otaku who write
for the magazine. Masami Tatsumi said she learned of anime's international
reach when she worked at a laser disk shop in Kyoto and met Europeans who
traveled to Japan just to buy anime disks. Tatsumi enjoyed the "Otaku spirit"
of Anime Expo and added, "I would like one day to see Japanese animation
conquer the world." |
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Kotaro Hayashi wanted to see if anime was really popular in the U.S.,
and he got his answer at Anime Expo. "U.S. fans are very enthusiastic people,"
he said. "From the questions at the panels, they seemed to have a deeper
knowledge of the material than typical Japanese fanatics. I saw the art
contest, and it seems there are U.S. artists who are better than Japanese
artists as well." |
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Takahashi repeated his intent to spread anime throughout the world
through Studio Hard, competing with American entertainment. "Whether we
win or lose, if we find lots of characters we are proud of, we are all
winners," he said. By the way, Takahashi said he's interested in more than
anime and manga. He said he owns a shop in Tokyo that sells only U.S. comics
- with no manga available. |
