The Charity Auction for Sakura-Con 2010 was held in room 2AB from 11:00am to roughly 2:30pm. The benefitors of the auction were the Make-A-Wish Foundation®.
Sakura-Con had a huge pile of items to auction off. Everything from DVDs, to key-chains, to autographed posters to exclusive sketches, this event was sure to be exciting.
The most notable (high-priced) items that were auctioned off were mostly exclusive sketches and autographed items. Noizi Ito had provided four sketches for this event. Two Haruhi Suzumiya sketches and two Shana sketches. Each with the words Sakura-Con 2010 written across the top or side, her autograph and the character sketch in a shade of red. Each exclusive sketch sold for $2000, $1500, $1600, and $1600.
The three hour event finally ended around 2:30pm. Most of the items were sold, though some items never found a home. At Sakura-Con, items that are not sold during the Charity Auction are cycled to next year's Charity Auction. With a total of over $27,000 raised, Sakura-Con's Charity Auction in 2010 was a definite success.
Organized annually by the Asia Northwest Cultural Education Association (ANCEA), Sakura-Con 2010 was held from April 2nd 2010 to April 4th 2010 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, Washington. The Guests line up this year was pretty impressive and attracted a total of 18,002 attendees.
Anime Expo has just announced Yuu Asakawa as their next guest of honor at Anime Expo 2010. Asakawa has starred in many prolific anime such as Love Hina, Azumanga Daioh, and School Rumble. With an extensive resume, it looks like Asakawa will have no problem drawing in fans for her autograph sessions and panels that will take place at Anime Expo 2010 in the Los Angeles Convention Center from July 1 - 4.
Full press release after the jump
Seattle based anime convention, Sakura-Con has announced famed character designer Noizi Ito as a guest. Noizi is best known for her work as the original character designer for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Shakugan no Shana, and various adult PC visual novel games. Sakura-Con 2010 will be held from April 2-4 at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. Should be interesting to see the fan reactions. Press release inside.
After having returned from Japan, we've finally sorted out all the cosplay photos we took at Comiket 76, day 3. It was pretty hot and humid that day and we like to thank all the cosplayers who allowed us to photgraph them. The only thing we regret is not being to take more! Check them out now in our gallery.
While Morning Musume can be considered to be the Japanese Menudo (in the sense that the group is more manufactured than the rest and the producer is generally the only person that has any lasting association with the ensemble group), it has hardly dampened the enthusiasm of their legions of un-named fans across the globe. Certainly they also have fans within the anime industry as Yasuhiro Nightow, of Trigun fame, felt honored to be on the same stage as them and confessed to having auditioned and failed. Even the Gundam 00 Guests of Honor, Seiji Mizushima, Yousuke Kuroda, and Yun Kouga, mused about wanting to go to the Morning Musume concert upon the completion of their ticketed autograph session.
After a quick introduction of Daisuke Ishiwatari, the original creator of Guilty Gear and composer for BlazBlue's music, and Toshimichi Mori, a producer for several of the past Guilty Gears and BlazBlue, the panel went straight into a Q&A with the fans and the two guests.
After our previous live blog of Nightow and Nishimura's Trigun Panel, we would like to present to you the full transcription of their panel at Anime Expo 2009. Please note that the transcription is based off of the translation done by an Anime Expo staff member and some liberties were taken.