Linus Lam's Coverage of Anime Expo 2001

Panels! Panels! Panels! More panels than you can shake a stick at and then some! AX2001 offered a huge four-day weekend variety of panels galore featuring many esteemed Guests of Honor, noted fans, and industry representatives from as far as Japan all heading healthy discussions on various exciting anime and manga-related topics ranging from new shows, fan activities, industry follow-ups, historical perspectives, and other forms of fan entertainment lasting well into the night. Packed full of attendees, every single panel, workshop, or activity offered something to learn from, whether you were into the discussion subject or not, as shown below with a brief description of each session.

Anime Expo 2001
Panels and Workshops 3


Cel Collector's Panel: Visions of heavy cel books and boxes packed with clear acrylic sheets and fresh clean paint danced in the eyes of the audience as top anime cel collectors from dealers, hardcore cel trade clubs, and newbies shared wisdom and advice on where to buy and sell the best frame shots, how to grade a cel in terms of quality and rarity of a scene shot, proper care and storage of cels, and special framing for those prized cels that would look great above the fireplace mantle. Afterwards, small groups formed to start sharing cel books packed with memorable scenes from some of the most popular anime shows, numerous signboards with drawings and autographs from famous Japanese Guests of Honor from many anime conventions, and excited exclamations about each individual's prized catch of the day.



Escaflowne: (left to right) Jerry Chu and Ken Iyadomi of Bandai Entertainment and Egan Loo of the Escaflowne Compendium gave status reports on the current releases of Escaflowne VHS tapes and DVD releases as well as bringing Escaflowne the Movie: Girl from Gaia to audiences possibly in the San Francisco Bay Area first and then spreading abroad.	FUNinmation: Representatives from FUNinmation, a fast-maturing player in the domestic anime distribution world, discussed more releases of subtitled Yuyu Hakesho and followed up on concerns dealing with cut scenes and Japanese translation difficulties for the mainstream American audiences. Highlights included Dragonball and Dragonball Z to be scheduled to be receiving new voice auditions and Dragonball GT could be possible for 2003 release.

Bandai Entertainment: Bandai representatives Ken Iyadomi (center) and Jerry Chu (right) gave information on new releases for Outlaw Star, Escaflowne, Gundam Wing, Silent Mobius, Cowboy Bebop, and many other popular titles totaling 80,000 DVD units to be churned out for 2002. Highlights also included bringing Cowboy Bebop to the television networks very soon and steady progress on clamping down on illegal distribution of its own titles over the Internet.