As in previous years, the Guests of Honor and several companies graciously donated items to be auctioned. The most popular items were the original sketches, which fetched thousands of dollars each.

The following images are a partial selection of items that went on auction. They were photographed off the main projection screen, and corrected for color and perspective. We apologize in advance for the poor quality of the images—as soon as we have the original sketches scanned, we'll put up better images.

After the end of the Charity Auction, City of Hope Chairman John Taylor took the stage to show the check from last year's auction, in the amount of $113,487. Mr. Taylor also announced that The City of Hope will be taking donations in the name of the fans' favorite anime characters, and the character with the most donations will receive a plaque on a wall at the City of Hope.

The winning music video entries were shown, including the comedy piece "Tainted Donuts", which pit Vash (TRIGUN) against Spike (COWBOY BEBOP) in a hilarious deathmatch. Kawamoto, the character designer for BEBOP, was rather impressed and said he would like to meet the "director" of the music video.

Afterwards, the Guests of Honor were asked to come up on stage one by one, and give a few words in parting. Several Guests of Honor remarked that it was an honor to be sitting on the same stage as their idol, Mikimoto Haruhiko (who in turn was sitting on the same stage as his mentor, Ishiguro Noboru.) Once again, Ishiguro brought up the "translate" sign to the cheers of the audience, and even exposed the interpreter on stage as an impostor. (For those of you who know Taka Karahashi, his brother Yoshi was impersonating him with a fake goatee and hat.)

It was announced that Anime Expo 2002 would again take place at the Long Beach Convention Center. Some people weren't thrilled at the prospect of having to walk so much between the hotels and the convention center, but the added function space (including the spacious theater) seemed a worthwhile tradeoff.

And with that, Anime Expo 2001 came to a close. Despite some of the issues that came up during the convention (a few autograph lines were cut off prematurely, and some movies were cancelled or delayed), the general sentiment was that it was a fun-filled four days, and most attendees were looking forward to another year of Anime Expo.