These
notes were started during the wait to get into the costume contest. A fan
said that he kept checking for the notes column at the end of Anime Central;
they didn't appear until after that convention was over, so they were
written early this time.
Animazement had gotten a reputation among fans as being a Yu Watase event
because that popular manga artist had appeared at most of the North Carolina
conventions. She didn't make the trip in 2003; this author was told that
Watase had to stay at home and work on two manga series. Not having Watase
around might have discouraged some of her fans from attending the convention,
but those who stayed home missed a special treat.
The convention didn't learn until it was too late to promote, but they were
getting some special extra guests. When the first voice acting panel was held
on Friday, there were familiar faces like Brett Weaver, Tiffany Grant, Scott
Houle and Pamela Weidner -- and two cute young Japanese actors. Not just
any actors, but the voices of two characters that have inspired a thousand
costumes, despite their series not being released yet in North America. They
were Di Gi Charat actors Asami Sanada, the voice of Dejiko, and Kyoko Hikami,
the voice of Rabi-en-Rose. They charmed fans with their enthusiasm and good
cheer, and surprised the costume contest audience when they gave a short
concert before the show began. There was no way that Animazement fans could
have expected that they would hear the real Dejiko sing the "Welcome" song
in person at the convention.
The appearance of the Di Gi Charat actors was bigger than the surprise of the
additional Japanese guests who went to the previous month's Sakura Con. It
was like going to a pickup basketball game and having Reggie Miller offer
to join your team; the same as buying a lottery ticket five minutes before
the deadline and hitting the jackpot. Many English-speaking anime fans say
they prefer the sound of Japanese actors, especially the women, but they don't
get to meet those actors often at North American conventions. With the surprise
appearance of Asami and Hikami - and the previous weekend's appearance of
Maya Okamoto at Anime Central - sub-prefering fans are finally getting what
they want. Of course, the annual appearance of legendary Akira Kamiya at
Animazement should delight any animation fan, regardless of language.
For the author, the joy of conventions comes from the creative people they
attract. Animazement's staff has an amazing talent of drawing some top creators
to their convention; having the likes of Hiroyuki Kitakubo attend your event
is a solid vote of confidence. It's like having Stephen Spielberg attend
your weekend film festival. And when Kitakubo overslept his Friday afternoon
panel, he profusely apologized to everyone involved, and held a replacement
panel that night.
Then there was the Saturday afternoon stroll the author took toward the dealers'
room. A friend walked up and asked if the author had considered a certain
person as a personality of the week. No, the author answered, so he walked
into the room, struck up a conversation, took some pictures and left. Stay
tuned to the personality page to see who shows up in the next couple of months.
Animazement was the second convention in a row to be blessed with good weather
luck. In the previous week, North Carolina had been drenched with record rain.
Low-lying areas had flooded from the runoff and campgrounds at the Lowe's
Motor Speedway had become quagmires of mud. On the Friday morning that Animazement
started, the rain tapered off to a few drops. The sun returned on Saturday,
just in time for the convention to place fans outside the Sheraton Imperial
for the costume contest line. Skies were overcast when cosplay groups went
outside for group photos on Saturday and the grass was damp,. but the weather
was far, far better than anything experienced in previous days. Rain returned
on Sunday, just as the author made a hopeful rush to Indianapolis for the
500-mile race.
That was an interesting trip to Indianapolis. The promised hotel shuttle
ride wasn't available, but a taxicab arrived one minute after it was called
by the hotel; at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport, the author looked
up from his computer and spotted Asami, Hikami and Hiroaki Sakurai, the Di
Gi Charat director, who were on the same Sunday morning flight that the author
took from
North Carolina to Dulles International Airport; a driving rain in North Carolina
didn't stop the flight to Virginia; while the rain delayed other flights
leaving Dulles, the author's flight left on time; while the flight arrived
on schedule in Indianapolis, there was a ten-minute delay in getting another
plane out of the gate; that delay didn't keep the author from arriving at
the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with 30 minutes to spare; while the author
was the next-to-last car to arrive at the reserved lot he used, he got one
of the closest parking spaces to the track.
Outside the speedway, ticket scalpers were pushing hard to get rid of their
unsold inventory, but the author ignored them and bought a $20 general admission
ticket. That lets a racing fan wander around the track's infield, where the
most fun can be found in watching people be themselves. On the backstretch
spectator mounds, there was a group of Japanese fans with Japanese flags,
cheering on the Japanese drvers in the race; next to them was a bunch of
all-American
beer-drinking guys, and both sides got along just fine. Walk down the backstretch
and there was a pile of beer cans, lovingly tended by a guy whose afro wig
would have been perfect for a Nabeshin costume, except he was wearing a Larry
Bird uniform from the Boston Celtics. Then there were the New Zealand fans
cheering for Scott Dixon (who didn't win the race) and the Brazilian fans
waving their flags for all of the Brazilians in the 500 (Brazilians Gil DeFerran
and Helio Castroneves were first and second).
The author admits he's a lot different from most people. Anime fans usually don't care about racing or sports (with the possible exception of pro wrestling), while racing fans are equally single-minded. But the author gets the same excited sense of potential from going to a race track as he get when he enters a convention hotel and sees the first group of cosplayers. It was just as impressive to watch Tora Takagi blast through the field at the 500, passing cars at 225 miles an hour at the end of the back stretch, as it was to watch Kazuko Nakazawa make anime-styled sketches of fans or see
Akira Kamiya teach anime-style voice acting. In each case there's a lot to be experienced, and there's a lot to do to get the web site updated.
After the crowded Anime Boston and Anime Central, the smaller Animazement
meant the author had to get used to a slower pace. In previous years, many
of the fans who flock to mid-Atlantic conventions had gravitated to Animazement.
That didn't seem to be the case in 2003, but there appeared to be plenty
of new fans this time, younger fans like the girls who struck up a card game
not far from where these notes were written. The youngest fan was a baby
dressed by his parents in a mage costume from Final Fantasy. Also, a toddler's
parents went up to the author and asked if he remembered taking a picture of
their baby when he was holding a Kero-Chan doll at NekoCon? The baby was
now on his feet and still coming to conventions, and the parents had made
him a cute costume.
The most resourceful costumer of the weekend had to be a young woman who
had foot problems which required bone surgery and confined her to a wheelchair.
Making the best of a bad situation, she spent the weekend as an injured Rei
Ayanami from the early episodes of Evangelion. The bandages and IV bag were
props, but the foot cast was for real.
Fans kept asking the author how many pictures he took at Animazement.
The total was 4,125, of which 704 were posted on the web site. (And the author
still missed a lot of costumes and some cosplay groups). The author's notebook
PC says he's taken around 25,000 pictures at anime conventions this year,
which may have worn out his camera's shutter again...
North Carolina to Dulles International Airport; a driving rain in North Carolina
didn't stop the flight to Virginia; while the rain delayed other flights
leaving Dulles, the author's flight left on time; while the flight arrived
on schedule in Indianapolis, there was a ten-minute delay in getting another
plane out of the gate; that delay didn't keep the author from arriving at
the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with 30 minutes to spare; while the author
was the next-to-last car to arrive at the reserved lot he used, he got one
of the closest parking spaces to the track.
beer-drinking guys, and both sides got along just fine. Walk down the backstretch
and there was a pile of beer cans, lovingly tended by a guy whose afro wig
would have been perfect for a Nabeshin costume, except he was wearing a Larry
Bird uniform from the Boston Celtics. Then there were the New Zealand fans
cheering for Scott Dixon (who didn't win the race) and the Brazilian fans
waving their flags for all of the Brazilians in the 500 (Brazilians Gil DeFerran
and Helio Castroneves were first and second).
