I’ve been attending the Smoky Mountain events since their inception; however, for one reason or another, I was unable to attend all three of their events in the same year. I finally changed that this year and completed the trifecta of Smoky Mountain events by attending Smoky Mountain Anime for the first time. Unlike Smoky Mountain Fan Fest and Terror, this event takes place at the Rocky Top Sports Complex in Gatlinburg, TN, and this is my first time at the venue, and I’m very excited to tell you all my thoughts on the experience.
Starting off with the guest list, it was really impressive. The list included a wide variety of names, but most importantly, they were individuals who really don’t attend events this close to me. For context, the Smoky Mountain events roughly take me two hours to get to. Their guest list included names like Michael Sorich, Terrence Stone, Steve Staley, and Greg Chun. The list also included other well-known names in animation, such as Zach Tyler Eisen and Mae Whitman from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The roster included very specific individuals whom my wife and I needed for autograph collections that we were previously unable to continue, as they predominantly attend events much further away from here.
Meeting the guests was a quick and easy process as the lines were well managed and spacious. I came here with the intent to spend a lot of money on autographs and did plenty of that in less than an hour.
Where everything was all in the same space, the vendor’s hall was adjacent to the guests. My first thought was loving how easy it was to walk around and see all of the vendors regardless of the time of day. I found a lot of vendors I’ve seen at various other cons in the area, but not all of them were attending the same event, as there’s a pretty limited anime event scene in this area. It’s far easier to add to your anime merch here than to attend various other conventions, and I even ended up finding something new as I got a 3D-printed Mosslax figure inspired by Pokopia. You’re not going to spend a massive amount of time shopping, but that’s fine as there’s still plenty to find and, most importantly, you won’t feel crowded as you look around.
As for panels and events, you had a few panels throughout the day featuring Q and As with subsets of the guests. Some were based on particular franchises, while others included actors discussing how things like voice acting have changed from classic anime to modern. The panels are also in the same room as the vendors and guests, and I’ve seen this set up before at various events with mixed results. It absolutely works here, though, as the panels are in a corner well away from the rest of the stuff at the convention, so it does feel like a separate room. Plus, having everything so close meant having anything you wanted to do easily accessible. The convention also featured a variety of gaming tournaments, and I decided to do one for the first time in a while. I tried my hand at the Super Smash Brothers Ultimate tournament and lost in round one, but I had fun doing it.
Overall, Smoky Mountain Anime offered an opportunity to meet people whom, even with my resume of conventions, I have not had a chance to meet. I honestly hope that this trend continues because it absolutely beats trying to plan five to seven hour drives or flights to see them. The venue is spacious and offers easy access to all aspects of the convention. You can pretty much do anything you want to do in a short amount of time, but you will also be happy about how you can do a lot for your anime collections in one event in this area versus adding to them sparingly at several others.