First person of note spotted at the convention hotel: Toshifumi Yoshida of Viz Communications. That company provided manga giveaways for Animazement fans, and planned to show a new film at the convention. |
First artist spotted: Michael Hayes, fresh from his panel take-over at Katsucon one month earlier. Hayes was one of six artists scheduled to hold panels and workshops during Animazement. |
First guests of honor spotted: shojo manga artists Rurika Fuyuki (left) and Yukako Midori. Fuyuki was at the inaugural Animazement in 1998, and Midori was making her first trip to the U.S. Both arrived at the convention with a fan escort in a massive limousine. |
Fan favorites spotted: Tiffany Grant (left), voice actor who has been giving life to Chocolate Miss in the Sorcerer Hunters dubs under productions by ADV Films, and Fred Perry, creator of Gold Digger. Perry, who served in the Gulf War, spent Thursday afternoon talking about some new military hardware. |
From the Oh My Goddess and Shinesman dubs come Juliet "Belldandy" Cesario (left) and Scott "Keiichi" Simpson. They were full of talk about new roles and auditions... |
...with fellow actors Michael Brady (left), who had a story about an odd audition, and Dave Underwood, who said his work was in vending machines - but not providing voices for them. |
Hanging around in the general vicinity was Scott Houle of Coastal Recording studios, the company that produces many anime dubs. That studio, in Wilmington, N.C., was right in the path of a hurricane last year - but everyone got out okay. |
If you took a wrong step at Animazement on preview Thursday, you ended up with the North Carolina Association of Compensatory Educators. Head down another hall and you found a technical review meeting of a group of plumbers. Business suits on one side of the hall, anime T-shirts and costumes on the other side... |
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Thursday | Friday |
| Saturday | Sunday |