Linus Lam's Coverage of AnimeExpo2000

Surely you couldn't have missed anything, could you? You caught all the panels, you caught all the Guests at the Reception Dinner, and you got a chance to see the Dance, the Art Show, the Concert, the movies, the videos.... oh, you can't forget the Exhibit Hall and the Masquerade! Here we'll show you highlights of the extra tidbits you may have missed on Monday.

AnimeExpo2000
Miscellaneous Main Events


From large events such as Opening Ceremonies to Masquerade, the ballroom at maximum capacity was an excellent place to host the biggest and brightest announcements of Guests, winners, and other surprises.	When regular convention setups were set in place, the ballroom could be broken up into one Programming ballroom and two adjacent Video Rooms from which a large crowd could watch their favorite shows as they were meant to be seen: not on a TV!

The Charity Art Auction created a storm of applause when art piece after art piece conjured up increasing amounts of bids that stabbed their way well into the tens of thousands range. The top bid was $16,000 for a full-color Madoka sketch by Ms. Takada Akemi, and total proceeds for all donated pieces went to City of Hope at a heart-stopping figure of over $68,000! For a complete list of all donated pieces and their bids, please check the AX2000 Memories edition on the Anime Expo website.	But wait! The charity doesn't stop there! SPJA also held its own small staffer-driven fund-raiser by offering to several bidders a chance to literally buy a couple of stylish Anime Expo 2000 polo shirts off the beautiful body of Ms. Eileen Hu (staffer not included!).

Shot of the massive collection of SPJA Industry Awards that numerous companies and fans adore. Categories included favorite anime characters, shows in Japan and the US, Karaoke Competition, Music Video Competition, Masquerade Contest, and much more! For a full and official listing of all the SPJA award winners, please go directly to the source at the Anime Expo website!

Closing Ceremonies has a history of being just a little saddening as the festivities slow down and the AX fans realize that the weekend will eventually end... but after FOUR full days of packed panels, events, exclusive premieres, tons of Guests of Honor, and more activities and sights to see, the momentum of AX2000 still lives on long after the convention is over. The Ceremony repeated introductions of all the Guests, announced a bold registration figure of over 9700 attendees (unconfirmed at time of writing), Ms. Akemi Takada drew in the last eye of the AX2000 daruma statue, and Ms. Rica Fukami, in proper form as Sailor Venus!, declared Anime Expo 2000... closed!