|
|
|
 This
sign at one booth in the Anime Expo exhibit hall tells of the changes from
Friday to Saturday. Adult material that was sold in the dealers' room at
the start of the convention was removed on the event's second day. As usually
happens, different people had differing versions of what happened. One
person said that dealers had been told by convention staff they could sell
adult material, and that permission was revoked. Others said that convention
staff checked the room to make sure adult material was not visible, then
it was brought out into the open after that check. Later, as the story
goes, Disneyland Horel officials found the adult material was being sold
and ordered it out of the hall.
What we also heard at the convention was that Disney security spotted one dealer that was selling Vivid porn DVD's and not checking buyers' ages to make sure they were over 21. That led to the dealer (not the one illustrated in this picture, by the way) being asked about his practices, which then led to the dealer demanding that a police officer be called to confirm that he was doing something wrong (and apparently the officer did make that confirmation). When the dealer called the police, that set into motion some additional actions by Disney which led to the removal of adult material. One source said that the dealer who was in trouble went to other dealers' tables, pulled tapes and discs from their displays and demanded that they be treated the same way - which helped lead to the adult material removal. That led the convention also to stop some late-night video showings, just in case, we heard. The contract signed by dealers at Anime Expo read that "...exhibitor may not display material depicting nudity or sexual conduct unless it is blinded (covered) or displayed in such a way that it cannot be viewed by minors. Adult material must not be accessible to minors in any way." And the contract also allows the convention to eject a dealer that violates those terms. |
|
 |
One company showed up, despite a week of crushing adversity. Anime Depot, the retail arm of the Manassas, Virginia-based Syconet, had a simple booth in the dealers' room - and was planning to have another booth at the huge Dragon Con sci-fi convention in Atlanta on the same weekend. Syconet announced a few days earlier that the company was short of cash, could not meet its payroll and that many of its recently-hired key executives had left. (A filing with the SEC said Syconet lost $1.2 million in the first quarter of 2000: the stock price dropped to $0.25 at the end of June.) Sy Robert Picon, the founder of the company, resigned because of health reasons. |
 |
The most elaborate booth in the hall was the Bandai booth. It wasn't a sales booth - other dealers sold Bandai videos - but it was there to promote the company's shows. Obviously, Bandai is riding a wave of success with Gundam Wing, Blue Submarine No. 6 and Escaflowne moving to American television, enough for the company to afford several of the megabuck Pioneer plasma flat-panel video displays to screen its shows for visitors. |
 |
The second most elaborate booth was from ADV films, although it was staffed by the Suncoast Motion Picture Co. (as happened in 1999). This booth resembled the setups used by production companies at the huge National Association of Television Production Executives trade show. Underneath the ADV logo is a booth where private meetings can be held - and company executives were busy in that booth all weekend. |
Friday
 |
Saturday
 |
Sunday
 |
Monday
 |
 |