Dragon Ball Signings and Charity Auction at Animazement

The Dragon Ball Z voice actors signed memorabilia for fans and auctioned off rare DBZ items to raise money for the 2011 Tsunami Relief Fund.

On May 25, 2013 at the Animazement convention, the Dragon Ball Z voice actors signed all sorts of Dragon Ball merchandise and memorabilia for fans who attended the East Meets West Panel.

Less than 100 people out of 1,000 were allowed to attend the signing, as they were the winners of a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors with Masako Nozawa.

You can see the winners standing in line in the video above, and here they are getting more of their Dragon Ball memorabilia signed:

While they were signing autographs I saw that the Dragon Ball Z Battle of Gods movie poster was hanging on the back wall of the stage. One of the Kanzenshuu.com forum members who was with me, named “theoriginalbilis,” suggested that they sign it.

I agreed that would be a cool idea, so I walked up to a translator and made the suggestion that they all sign it and then auction it off for charity. He talked about it with the coordinator of Animazement, and they agreed it was a good idea. So each of the actors signed it near their anime counterpart.

Ryusei Nakao signing the Battle of Gods Poster:

Sean Schemmel signing the Battle of Gods Poster:

Masako Nozawa signing the Battle of Gods Poster:

Toshio Furukawa signing the Battle of Gods Poster:

Kara Edwards, Yuko Minaguchi, and Kyle Hebert signing the Battle of Gods Poster:

The Dragon Ball Z cast next to the signed Battle of Gods poster:

A rare moment in time.

They also signed a copy of my book, Dragon Ball Z “It’s Over 9,000!” When Worldviews Collide so that it could be contributed to the charity auction.

Masako Nozawa, myself, and Toshio Furukawa.

Animazement Charity Auction

For the second year in a row Ryusei Nakao held a charity auction. The money was sent to The Red Cross of Japan for the Tsunami Relief Fund, to help with the continual need for repair after the 2011 Tsunami.

The room was full of people, and it was a very exciting feeling being part of an auction to raise money for a good cause, while also being Dragon Ball and anime related.

I signed the front of the “It’s Over 9,000!” book next to the voice actors’ names (first time I’ve ever done that), donated it, and the book was then auctioned off.

Here’s a picture of the lucky winner.

I also signed it to her on the inside of the book, with a special message.

They continued auctioning off some signed Dragon Ball manga.

A Dragon Ball Z Battle of Gods Movie Pamphlet from Japan signed by Masako Nozawa, Ryusei Nakao, and Toshio Furukawa:

A Piccolo figure signed by Toshio Furukawa:

Followed by a Goku figure signed by Masako Nozawa:

They auctioned all 7 dragon balls up for charity, each signed by Masako Nozawa. They auctioned the 1, 2, and 3 star balls, followed by the 5, 6, and 7. The 4 star dragon ball was last because it’s associated with Goku and is the most important:

After this, the signed Dragon Ball Z movie poster was auctioned off:

That was really fulfilling to see, and I’m glad all the voice actors signed the poster. The money goes to a great cause and the winner received a one-of-a-kind prize.

But that wasn’t the most incredible event in the auction. That honor belongs to a rare illustration of a Macross (Robotech) character, drawn and signed by the original artist.

This video shows the heated auction between two bidders, who had already raised the bid to over $2,000!

This was the largest amount that any item had ever brought in during Animazement’s 16 year history.

In total they raised over $5,280.

After the auction was over I interviewed Laura Brown, the accountant for Animazement who said, “That is fantastic!”

Another Round of Signatures

Because there were so many fans who weren’t able to make the cut at the East Meets West panel, the staff at Animazement pre-scheduled a secondary signing on Sunday morning.

Over 200 people showed up in line for this signing, and once again this was too many, so the Animazement staff once again cut it off at 100.

I was number 102, so I didn’t make the cut.

Some fans were really dissapointed and felt like they got a bad deal two times in a row.

In a situation like this, ‘What Would Goku Do?’

I stayed persistent. The line had shrunk, so I hung out, walked forward after everybody else quit and walked away, and then got back in line.

The doors had already opened and the line had shrunk, so it seemed shorter. Then after about 15 more people came in behind me, they cut off the line again to make the “final 100.” I was in!

While waiting to enter the signing room, one of the first people in line was now walking out of the room carrying Goku’s orange dogi, fully autographed by all the voice actors.

It was Benjamin Oregame, the same young man that had fired a Kamehameha with both Goku’s at the panel the day before.

http://youtu.be/de_v7wOtOis

Chatting while we slowly moved forward, I made friends with some dedicated DBZ fans, and they ended up buying a copy of “It’s Over 9,000!” (as all good fans should do)! That was fun.

Photography of the actors was forbidden inside the signing room, but here’s a picture of their copy of the book, signed by all the voice actors.

I’m glad I was persistent to get back in line, because after I had another copy of the book signed for my own personal collection, I spoke with Sean Schemmel and he agreed to do an exclusive interview after the convention was over!

That’s it for the signing and exciting charity auction. I’m glad I was able to be a part of this moment in history, and hopefully you found it entertaining as well.

How much would you have bid for that poster?!