Ft. Worth Star Telegram 5-7-2000

5/7/2000

SECTION: HOMETOWN STAR-NORTH, Arlington, Page 21

LENGTH: ??? words

HEADLINE: Animated business

22-year-old deals in Japanese collectibles

BODY:

A golden Buddha sits happily in a glass case surrounded by robots, mech warriors and Gundam Wing fighters. The Buddha statue was a present to The Anime Store's owner, Raymond Vo, to bring him good fortune. The figurines are there for collectors looking for hard-to-get imported Japanimation associated items.

"I'm really big in Japanese animation," Vo said. "I drove out to Dallas every two days just to return videos. Then I asked myself, 'How many other people did the same thing from Arlington?' There wasn't really a store in this area."

Vo, 22, had been working since he was 16 and picked up a second job when he was 19 to finance his store. Now, he's been in business for two years and specializes in imported items such as models, figurines, wall scrolls, video games and Japanimation video rentals.

Many people associate Japanimation with the recent Pokemon craze. Vo was Pokemon when Pokemon wasn't cool.

"I carried it even before it was introduced in the U.S.," he said. "Now it's Dragon Ball Z and Gundam Wing because the Cartoon Network has them going pretty strong. At first I thought Pokemon was going to be a kid thing. It got so big that adults got into it. They stripped the idea of it being a game and it became a money thing."

In keeping with his habit of staying ahead of trends, Vo managed to get his hands on three of the Sony Playstation 2 video game consoles. The PS2 has been released in Japan, but won't be available in the United States until sometime this fall.

The store has imported video games for Playstation and Sega Dreamcast. Video game junkies can give their consoles a makeover with a new translucent console casing, giving their Playstation or Dreamcast the colored plastic look popularized by the iMac.

Some items may be familiar to American eyes but carry different names. The popular video game hero Megaman is packaged for the Japanese consumer under the name Rockman. Vo said the names often change when repackaged for the U.S. market.

In early March, Vo, along with his fiancee, Autumn Dove, took a business trip to Japan. Vo bought plenty of items and Dove, who doesn't share Vo's passion for animation, went along for the culture.

"Since he likes it and I'm his significant other, I have to put up with it. A lot of people like it," she said. "Japan was a neat trip. I think if anything, I like Anime because I got to go to Japan because of it."

Vo said he has about 500 people who rent from the store's 800 Japanimation titles. It is the largest collection of Japanimation rental titles in Arlington.

He hopes to possibly pick up some more customers by displaying at the Project: A-Kon 2000, a convention June 2-4 in Dallas. The convention is scheduled to feature exhibitors, the voices of several Pokemon and other Anime heroes, writers and interactive booths.

The Anime Store is also doing business online at www.theanimestore.net. Damien Davis, 20, maintains the store's Web page, which features an online catalog.

Davis met Vo two years ago after coming into the store and, like many of Vo's customers, became his friend.

"Online sales is the biggest thing right now," Davis said.

"Along with giving daily updates, the news, new products, I change the format and looks of the Web site daily so it will attract people. When people see something different they'll be like 'Oh, I want to keep coming back.' "

F.Y.I. Anime store 2225 W. Park Row Drive 801-6633

Author: Tobias Xavier Lopez, Star-Telegram Writer

PHOTOS: Bobby Ornelas