(Photo Above: A packed audience waits in anticipation for the Masquerade. - Courtesy: LLNN)

Attractions at Anime North 2002.

Attractions that K-Max Media covered this year included the Opening Ceremonies which has a bit of a preview to the Red and White show. The Red and White show at Anime North is based on the Red and White Show by NHK aired every year where the male and female Japanese singers play a friendly singing war. In Anime North's Red and White show, guests and competitors try their voices at songs and you can also participate in the show. There's also the Charity auction where you can bid and go BIG to get sweet packages! This has been a great tradition at Anime North for a long time now and every year, all of the proceeds from that auction goes to Toronto Sick Kids hospital which has always been doing great things for children for many years. And who else to sell off the items than David Kaye and Scott McNeil? There were drawings, games, model kits, manga, t-shirts, Tezuka Studios threw in huge packages including awesome Astroboy T-shirts and manga, take a look at the charity auction clip. K-Max Media was also at the morning brunch which was hosted by the Con Chair. At the brunch, a representative from the Japanese Consulate in Toronto praised Tezuka Studios for their outstanding work and reflected on Osamu Tezuka's works and the Anime culture in Japan, the World and locally in Toronto. Tezuka Studios was honoured for their outstanding work and received a lifetime achievement award from Anime North.

(Photo Right: David Kaye and Scott McNeil were your auctioneers at the Charity Auction - Courtesy: LLNN)

The Dealer's Room was full as ever with double the space. You can never miss a Dealer's Room in an Anime convention where some of the rarest import items are sold. The Artist's Alley was downstairs in the hotel and there, artists both amateur and professional showcased their works and had art available for sale. So, if you're an artist who's looking to meet fellow artists and even to get new and fresh art, the Artist's alley is for you. You can watch as the artists battle it out in the Survivor challenge.

(Photo Right: Artist's Alley - Courtesy: LLNN)

A lot of the highlights of the show included Tezuka Studios from Japan who brought from their vaults new and upcoming projects and manga including, and wait until you hear this, the new Astroboy. No, not the older version of the re-released Astroboy videos, but footage from the new Astroboy Anime Series which has yet been even aired in Japan! Am I kidding you? No! Tezuka Studios will be making their rounds throughout other Anime Cons in North America and the world, so if you happen to hear that they are coming to your convention in your area, it would be a wise idea to register!

If you are a game show fan, you might like "The Weakest Otaku" which is a spoof of a popular TV game show. K-Max Media was there taking a look and we brought back some footage. We will show a bit from the show. But don't worry, no weak players were around, everyone had fun and the strongest link won a bit of money too! A favorite among viewers of last year's feature was Sailor Jamboree, the Sera-myu cosplay group. They were back this year with a performance honouring Sailor Moon's 10th Anniversary, Sailormoon World, a large event that is currently going on in Japan which includes live performances, movie viewings and much more.

Bishojo Senshi Sailormoon, which means "Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon" was created by Naoko Takeuchi. It was first printed in a weekly manga magazine "Nakayoshi" in Japan. Before Sailor Moon, Takeuchi wrote and drew "Codename Wa Sailor V" which was the manga before Sailor Moon feature a girl named Minako Aino (Mina in the English Dub) who is known to everyone as Sailor Venus. Sailor Moon first aired in 1992 on TV Asahi and earned very high ratings on television. The show ran for five seasons with its last episode, Episode 200, airing February 8th, 1997. The English dubbed Sailor Moon premiered in 1995 with networks airing episodes up to the midway of Season 2, then in 1997, new episodes up to the end of Season 2 were produced. Since the interest in Sailor Moon didn't disperse, the next two Seasons of Sailor Moon were dubbed in English and aired a couple years later. Now in 2002, there is only one season left to dub into English and many people wonder if it will ever happen. I won't be going through the whole history of Sailor Moon since it's beyond the scope of the coverage and also there are just hundreds and hundreds of sites out there that already do that. Even though that no new Sailor Moon episodes or movies are in production in Japan, the Musicals still lives on! The Sailor Moon musicals also known as Sera-myu brings Sailor Moon, music and drama to the live stage.

In this year's performance by Sailor Jamboree, they introduced new Sailor Jamboree Senshi. During the opening ceremonies, it was a passing of the tiara that vested a new "Venus". Graduated Sailor Jamboree member Tristen Citrine who played "Venus" on Sailor Jamboree's shows gave her cherished tiara to the new Sailor Jamboree member Briana who now stars as the new Venus in the Sailor Jamboree group and also played Tellu. With her new tiara what would be in store for Bri as she took on probably one of the most influential roles? The animosity between cosplayers is very intriguing to me. Lauren was the new "Moon" and also played Viluy and Katie was the new "Mercury" and also played Minete. Gina and Chrissy did their recurring roles as Mars and Jupiter and also played Cyprine and Pikurl respectively. Diana came back as the handsome Seiya Kou and Mistress 9. A mystery M.C. played Yaten Kou and Corinne played the evil Black Lady and Eudial. Whoa... lots of costume changes.

(Photo Right: Chun-Li from Street Fighter was one of the Many characters cosplayers dressed up as. - Courtesy: LLNN)

Okay, so maybe shojo might be too sweet of a cake for you. If you want some action, there's lots of gaming and role playing as well as a Video Game fight tournament. Lots of many different ways to ease that stressed mind and body of yours by virtually fighting your way to victory. That's not the only contest you can participate in. There's also an Anime Music Video contest, fan fiction contest and the big show of the convention, the Masquerade. Over 100 cosplayers participated in the masquerade which rivals other masquerade shows of all east coast Anime conventions and unlike last year's feature (where K-Max Media only covered around an hour of it and posted around 20 minutes), K-Max Media covered the whole masquerade so you can expect even more coverage from the masquerade. (Yes! The whole 2+ hours of the Masquerade!)

Let's not forget about the videos and panels. If you've been looking for that movie or show that you could never find, you might have found it there and if you've wondered about a certain thing about Anime, hum... like "What is an Otaku?", "How do you make Anime Music Videos?", "Do you Yaoi or Yuri?" and many more topics and issues related to the Anime and Art Industry you can discuss them with people who are very experienced in their topic in the panels.

Phew, well, I hope this small guide helps you a lot of what went on at Anime North 2002, but with only one camera, it's VERY hard to get it all, really K-Max Media only covered just a small part of the whole event! There's many more things you can do and the only way you can take in all of the entertainment and the full anime experience is to attend Anime North or any anime convention in your area. Go find one!

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