Fancels

Cels wishlist

Cels and sketches for sale

Sketch wishlist

Other production art
American/European animation
Videogames

You like a show, you get a cel. Maybe you get two cels. If you're lucky, you get another one for your birthday. Some time goes by, and you like another show. You get another cel. Maybe two. It seems the most natural thing in the world, right?

Ah, but after you have those first dozen or so, when you're buying a special plastic binder to store them, or running down to the frame shop and choosing acid-free mat board and UV-protected glass... that day when you think to yourself that paying $200 for a single image is not so bad... the moment you realize that if somebody outbids you for that full-front, eyes-open, multilayer key cel with watercolor background, you're going to curl up in a ball and cry... that first time you sell another once-treasured possession to afford a cel of your favorite character... my friends, that's when "hobby" has become "addiction".

There are no self-help books available for cel addicts. No Animeholics Anonymous groups meet in the local community center on Tuesday nights. No non-profit credit counseling agencies exist to help you plan that next big Miyazaki purchase and still afford your mortgage payment.

And so, if you happen to be one of us, all I can do is offer this paltry piece of wisdom, cold comfort when you're holding your wallet upside down and wondering where all the money went:

"At least you don't collect Precious Moments figurines or something equally stupid."

Yes, my friends, you may have been sucked into a mighty expensive pastime, but at least it's an extremely cool one. Short of creaky old grandmothers with wonky vision, nobody would ever walk into your home and commend an extensive collection of Hallmark ornaments or Red Rose tea animals. Let's be honest here... who the heck cares about a vast display of empty vintage beer cans unless they'd just consumed a huge amount of the beverage themselves? But anime cels! Each one is a unique piece of animation history -- an instant in the lives of beloved fictional characters. Hang a few of those on your wall, and watch the admiration ooze off your friends and acquaintences.

And if they're not properly awed, you can always make snide comments about their ancestry, personal hygeine, and probable secret stash of Precious Moments figurines.

So now, without further ado (or gratuitous rambling), I present the Vanous household collection of anime production art.

Somewhat tardy NOTE: Many of the cel descriptions in this gallery contain spoilers. This is due in large part to me being a fricking idiot. *sigh* And I really don't want to rewrite a hundred descriptions, so please be aware that the spoilers exist. If you haven't seen a series yet, do not read the commentary!

Hell, if you haven't seen a series yet, just avoid that section altogether. Run! Flee! Save yourself!

Before it's too late.

The cel hobby, I mean -- it all used to be so straightforward. A new show was released in Japan. You fell in love. You wanted a cel of your favorite character... you waited until the cels appeared on dealer sites... and finally you leapt upon them with the ferocity of a starving badger and woe betide anyone who got in your way. Simple, right?

But then along came affordable graphics processing, and easy-to-use digital coloring packages, and flatbed scanners so large you could seat an entire bare-bottomed fraternity on 'em and outshine the moon in the sky. And all of a sudden, hand-painting each individual frame of animation just wasn't cost-effective any more.

So what is a true fan to do in this brave new digital age?

Well, you can either log onto your favorite anime forum and whine pitiably about the whole situation... a solution which does nothing to either pad your binders or impress your friends... or you can sharpen the ol' badger claws and leap rabidly on all the art which is still available, an amount and variety which might just surprise you. Even the most cutting-edge anime movies and shows still generate immense quantities of art-laden paper -- concept and layout sketches, genga, douga, the occasional settei or model sheet -- everything, in fact, except the cels themselves.