One of the professional cosplayers from Japan, dressed up as Misato from the show EVANGELION.

Although Anime Expo officially started on Friday, 3 July 1998, the activity to transform the Anaheim Hilton and Towers and Anaheim Convention Center into the headquarters of the largest convention devoted to Japanese animation and comics began several days earlier. Staff members began straggling in as early as Wednesday in an attempt to have all preparations finished for the Friday start time.
On Thursday, the lobby started to become crowded with Expo attendees—some obvious and some not so obvious. At 8:00pm, Registration opened to allow pre-registered members to pick up their badges, thus avoiding having to stand in a potentially long line on Friday morning. Remembering last year's lines, many attendees made arrangements to arrive on Thursday night to get their badges.
The next day, however, they were all in another line—the line to get in to the Opening Ceremonies, held in the Anaheim Convention Center's ACC1.

Opening Ceremonies

Finally, shortly after 10:00am on Friday, Anime Expo 1998 officially began with the Opening Ceremonies. As usual, the Guests of Honor were introduced to the fans, who would be seeing plenty of them over the weekend. Akitaka Mika, Hayama Junichi, Kamiya Akira, Naito (aka "Nightow") Yasuhiro, Kitakubo Hiroyuki, Watase Yu, and Yoshimatsu Takahiro were all introduced to rounds of applause and cheers.
Mr. Kitakubo even joked that he had come over to Anime Expo as part of his plan to "conquer the universe." Several of the other guests all joined in on this joke, with Mr. Naito saying that he was there to prevent Mr. Kitakubo from taking over. Mr. Yoshimatsu added that he also had grand designs on universal domination, but he had already been defeated by Toys 'R Us.

	Clockwise from top left: The line to get in to Opening Ceremonies; some of the Guests of Honor at Opening Ceremonies; The UCI Taiko group performs; Mr. Maruyama of Madhouse Studios and Mr. Kamiya present the check for last year's auction to City of Hope.

Continuing a tradition that began during Anime Expo 96, Ms. Watase was asked to fill in the first eye of the Anime Expo 1998 Daruma, a Japanese tradition when asking the gods for a wish. In this case, the wish was for a successful convention. When the wish is granted, the remaining eye of the Daruma would be filled in (at Closing Ceremonies). Ms. Watase added her own unique flavor to the Daruma's eye, creating perhaps the world's first Shoujo Daruma. The Daruma was later autographed by all of the Guests of Honor.
Opening Ceremonies concluded with a bang—literally—as the UC Irvine Taiko group performed, adding another unique Japanese touch to the festivities.