Forum - View topicThe Mike Toole Show - The Hard Cel
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neocloud9
 Posts: 1178 Location: Atlanta, GA |
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I was lucky enough to snag a close-up cel of my favorite character (Ascot) from Magic Knight Rayearth. Framed it and everything.
Huh, the video doesn't seem to be able to play for me... Last edited by neocloud9 on Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:28 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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The video isn't working for me either
Don't have any cels but do have an assortment of signed/sketched books, including Vol.1 and 3 of DramaCon from Svetlana Chmakova. Also have a Batman TPB signed and sketched in by Darwyn Cooke, and some Narbonic trades. And a double-signed copy of the X-men manga. Oh, and a Sakura Wars DVD boxset Mike sent me in an animejump contest back in the day. It is obscenely awesome. Also super cool- a friend got me a copy of the anthology of superhero comics by manga artists, signed by several of them, including GuriHiru. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8502 Location: Penguinopolis |
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I have what appears to be a reproduction of a cel from the classic Mobile Suit Gundam, which depicts Amuro Ray and Lalah Sune during a Newtype vision.
I got it back in 2005 or 06 at Otakon (I forgot which year). It comes in a bag that says "ANIMEC" on it and there's a little silver sticker with a Gundam head in the upper right corner with some Japanese writing I can't read. (Here's a screencap of the scene... not the cel itself, but what it depicts!) Pretty sure it's a reproduction. I mean, I don't imagine I could really have gotten a real original Gundam cel for twelve bucks at Otakon. Last edited by penguintruth on Mon Mar 14, 2011 4:05 pm; edited 5 times in total |
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sepherest
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That one looks great, Ascot was also my favorite character from MKR 
I have a couple from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, specifically the episode with D'Arby the Gambler because that was my favorite part of Stardust Crusaders. I'd like to get some from one of the later episodes that Satoshi Kon was involved with, too.
That's exactly how I feel about cels. Just knowing that someone actually made it and I'm holding their work is a pretty powerful thing. I'm glad that they don't seem to be as expensive as they used to be either, though I haven't been able to find ones for Giant Robo or Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust for cheap. There's even some for Legend of the Galactic Heroes going online still, and I'd be willing to pay a lot for those if it weren't for more important things. |
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sonickid101
Posts: 132 |
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Until reading this I never understood cell collecting, or the appeal, but now I really get it, especially seeing them in the video up close, it really does feel like you have something that's apart of your favorite show, I'm really envious now
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BeanBandit
Posts: 303 Location: Canada |
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Man that was an awesome writeup (as always), great video too, I just want to say though I ENVY those Big O cells something bad. Have been to Japan twice now and never saw any cell's from Big O when I was there. Buddy of mine bought a cell from Gunbuster not to long ago and I have to say I envy him as well as it's pretty awesome even though it did cost him a pretty penny.
I would have some cell's but unfortunately the ones I would want go for a few hundred at least, and between buying DVD's & manga, being a hardcore toy collector, and general life expenses makes cell's a hard sell (pun intended :p) Maybe in 2012 when I go back to Japan I might pull the trigger if I see some half decent ones. |
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Weazul-chan
 Posts: 625 Location: Michigan |
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reanimator
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Although I don't collect cels, I do receive free anime cels from time to time. They're mostly some unknown anime title.
We fret about cel collecting is dying art and all that and I understand why. From a hardcore fan whom I know, studios like Bones are discarding their beautiful drawings to document recyclers for lack of storage. Anyone who have seen making of Full Metal Alchemist movie, there are boxes and boxes of those envelopes piled up in the shelves. Imagine that for a TV series. It's like 2 times the amount. With TV animation today having better animation quality, it's likely that the amount will increase further. Even though the cels are not used, I think the underlying drawings like Genga and Douga provide just as equal value as scratched-up cel sheet. Without Douga for tracing lines and painting, Genga direction for where to color, and color coordination that matches background, there can't be cel painting or cel image. For me, it's fascinating to look at that xeroxed Trigun genga sketch and the layout sketches because I can have a glimpse how these animators worked on their sketches. |
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Charred Knight
 Posts: 3085 |
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Always wanted to collect cells but I simply didn't have the money to go to Japan to buy them, or to buy them in person. Hell I barely have the money to buy an I-Pod Touch.
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reanimator
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You're not the only one. You don't have to be a cel collector to enjoy cels. Depends on where you live, pop art museums and galleries display anime cels. Cartoon Art museum in San Francisco displayed anime cels and drawings of a private collector last year. There was a private collector in LA showed off his anime cel collection, even though he doesn't know much about them. Although they're not good as the real thing, but Japanese art books and magazines feature numerous Genga and layout drawings. Their print quality is far better than what we in the US. One of my favorite books is Studio Ghibli Layout Designs which features awesome layout drawings from all theatrical and some TV animations done by Miyazaki, Takahata, and others I do feel that cel collecting itself feels like total rip off because each sheet of cel costs about $2 to $5 to produce. It's the middle men who jack up the price to 10 to 1000 times to take advantage of popularity. It's kind of stupid waste hundreds of dollars on a plastic sheet simply because the picture is pretty and rare. Cel could be reproduced again as long as underlying drawing still exists. If the actual drawing (Genga and layout) was drawn by a famous animator or director, then it's worth it. For example, if a Genga drawing of Nausicaa's God warrior melting scene, which was drawn by Hideaki Anno, out in market right now, then hardcore Japanese collectors would kill to obtain one. Last edited by reanimator on Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:36 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4640 |
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I've been interested in collecting cels since I definitely see the appeal of owning a piece of a show, but the cost of anything that seemed worthwhile to me was prohibitively expensive. Now with the lack of cels in anime, those prize cels are going to get more expensive since they're such collectors' items.
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Elves
 Posts: 269 Location: USA |
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That's pretty cool, Mike. Thanks for the supplemental video showing us your swag.
Too bad cells are a dying bred since most studios have gone digital, but there is an upside - less of an environmental impact. Nice column. Oh, and I didn't see any cell with an exploding building. Not at all. 
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domino
 Posts: 373 |
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This article makes me want to get into a hobby that I cannot afford.
(anime in general tends to have that result on me) |
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williamflipper
 Posts: 32 Location: London UK, Trieste Italy |
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It makes me want to start a collection of old cel... so many old shows that I'm interested into...
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Swissman
Posts: 797 Location: Switzerland |
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Mike, that was a very interesting article and video. I must say I envy you for all these awesome Giant Robo cels; it's one of my most favorite OAV shows of all times. By the way, did you know that the opening sequence with that shot of the broken skyskraper has been animated by none other than master Hideaki Anno himself?
I have collected cels myself in the nineties and pretty much stopped buying them when the industry shifted to digital ink & paint around 2001/02. Here is a small sample of my collection: http://www.donmai.ch/cels/my_cel_gallery.htm I do remember that cels were pretty cheap, like you wrote, in the late nineties. I saw a lot of them too in Mandarake and Anime World Star around 1999, but I don't remember having seen as cheap and good ones as you have from famous shows, with the exception of long running tv shows like City Hunter or Ranma. I wish I had some huge & pricey hanken cels like one of the biggest cels dealer I personally knew back in the day. This guy had good relations with AIC and other animation studios. At his home in Switzerland he had hanken cels of shows like Tenchi Muyo, You're under arrest and Crest of the Star (oh boy, I'd kill to have a hanken cel of Lafiel).
Yeah, and a good cel of Lum from Uusei Yatsura was even more expensive. They still are. If you visit Mandarake and other shops nowadays, all the good cels are kept safe behind a vitrine and cost at least 5000 Yen upwards. All the other cheap cels are mostly from unknown old robot shows or from some forgotten kiddie shows no one really cares about.
Well, not exactly! Animeigo sold around 1993/94 a good amount of cels from Totoro, Kiki and Porco Rosso through mail order for prices between 20 and 80$! That's how I could manage to get two cels of Mei and Satsuki in Totoro, three of Kiki's delivery service (with Kiki and Tombo) and one from Porco Rosso. Too bad they weren't with any background or a cleaned up pencil test, but still! If you see such cels these days in Japan, you'd have to pay at least 20'000 to 30'000 Yen each. I and everyone other buying directly from Animeigo back then was simply lucky. |
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