Animazement is an annual three-day anime convention held during May at the

Raleigh Convention Center The Raleigh Convention Center is a convention and exhibition facility in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina that opened in September 2008. The architect was Tvsdesign with the participation of local firms O'Brien/Atkins Associates and Clearscapes. ...

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Sout ...

. It is traditionally held over Memorial Day weekend. The convention is designed to be family-friendly. Animazement is run by unpaid staff and volunteers.

Programming

The convention typically offers an artist alley, classes, concerts, cosplay chess, cosplay contests, dealers room, gaming tournaments, manga library, masquerade ball, musicians, panel discussions, raves, various gaming rooms (arcade, console, retro), video screenings, and voice actors. Animazement raised over $12,000 for several charities in 2015.

History

The convention originates from a 1997 36-hour anime marathon, organized by the Triangle Area Anime Society (TAAS) at

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The univers ...

. It was first held in Raleigh, North Carolina at the North Raleigh Hilton in 1998, moved to the Sheraton Imperial Hotel and Convention Center in Durham, North Carolina for 2001, and to the month of May in 2002. In 2009, four Japanese guests canceled appearances due to quarantine concerns over the Swine flu. In 2009, Animazement moved to the Raleigh Convention Center.

Noboru Ishiguro was a Japanese animator best known for directing the anime series '' Space Battleship Yamato II'', ''Super Dimension Fortress Macross'', ''Super Dimension Century Orguss'', ''Humanoid Monster Bem'', '' Megazone 23 - Part I'', ''Legend of the Ga ...

was scheduled to attend the 2012 event, but died prior to the event. The convention celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2017. Animazement was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Event history

References

External links

*
Animazement Website
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