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SPJA Charity Auction With so many Guests of Honor, this year's SPJA Charity Auction was bound to be a spectacle, and it was, with many unique items up for grabs. Some of the more interesting ones were the TRIGUN "grab bags" of merchandise donated by Guest of Honor Nightow Yasuhiro. These bags were filled with various goods: a mirror, a calendar, pencil boards, stickers, and Vash's ring -- all sorts of things for the discerning TRIGUN fan. Mr. Nightow also donated two "kuroneko" stuffed animals, which fetched over $200 each. And that's without a pedigree! Other interesting items included scripts and novels donated by Mr. Mitsui and Ms. Matsui, and the character design sheets for BLUE SUBMARINE NO. 6, which sold for over $700. Other unique items were the Escaflowne and Hitomi
cold-cast resin statues donated by Bandai Entertainment.
These were signed by ESCAFLOWNE director
Akane Kazuki; only five proof copies in the world were made. Pioneer donated its
big TRIGUN screen to the auction, and it
sold for $700 (which is severely less than the
cost of making one, so someone got a bargain!)There were
also a wide variety of original sketches from the Guests of
Honor, including two images of Vampire Hunter D by character designer Minowa Yutaka, a
beautiful Utena sketch by Saito Chiho, another great Vash by Nightow, Mutio from
BLUE SUBMARINE NO. 6 by Kusanagi Takuhito, and
Kino-chan from BLUE SUB by Murata Range. There
was also a beautiful movie version of Ruri by Gotoh Keiji which
sparked a small bidding war.Undoubtedly
the most sought-after pieces at the auction were the three
signboards donated by Takada Akemi. The first, a color illustration of
Creamy Mami, went for over $5,000, which was to become a new but
short-lived Expo record. The second illustration of PATLABOR's Izumi Noa,
went for nearly $3,000.
But it
was the final piece that would prove to be the crown jewel in this
year's auction. An audible gasp was heard from the crowd as the final
item, a color sketch of Madoka, went up on the block. Bidding rapidly
escalated skyward, pausing at $10,000. Now, with the small fry out of the
way, only two were left to bid on this item. After much back-and-forth from
the dueling bidders, the signboard finally sold for $16,000. A new Expo
record!The SPJA
Charity Auction raised over $60,000 for the City of Hope Heroes
for Hope program. Money raised goes to pediatric cancer programs. City of
Hope volunteer coordinator John Taylor said, "I can't believe it. This is
truly amazing."
Closing Ceremonies
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