Possible Fake

[KuroiTsubasa4]

I saw a cel pop up on ebay this week from a wishlist sequence of mine. However, when I went to identify it, something seemed off. It appears to be the end cel of the sequence, yet the shadows are off, and some of the lines don't quite match up (not due to aspect ratio, they are clearly different). The cel has a douga however, which fits the cel but not the actual anime. I can't figure this out >.< The seller doesn't have any feedback yet either Any idea what the deal could be? My only guess is that maybe it was cut in editing. I emailed the seller about the sequence number but no word yet... Anyone have any experience with this kinda situation?

[sensei]

It depends. There are some anime series that are well known for have "oddball" production cels that do not match the screencaps: Cardcaptor Sakura and Tenshi ni Narumon are two such. In both cases, some scenes were reanimated after the cels were ordered, evidently because the director was dissatisfied by the previews. These weren't just repainted, but redrawn from the douga up, and so the lines and highlights are different in visible ways.

After the shows were wrapped, all the cels, rejects and finals, were released on the market, and while both kinds are genuine studio products, obviously the intelligent collector would want the one actually used to make the show.

It is also possible that your cel comes from the start or finish of a cut that was edited later on to reduce running time. I even have a cel from the middle of a cut that was dropped, and the trimming covered in the final footage by a flash cut to another character.

But maybe you could post a link to the auction so collectors familiar with the series involved could comment? It's not at all out of line to be cautious about authenticity these days, and so even if the seller is known by other Betarians to be reliable I don't think your query would be seen as inappropriate.

[KuroiTsubasa4]

Thanks Sensei Sent you a PM.

[sensei]

PM back. My opinion: probably not a fancel or forgery, but a genuine studio production cel from a rejected version of the cut. It looks to me as if the checker pointed out a visible discrepency in the lighting between this version of the cut and the two sandwiching it. So the cut had to be redone to make the error less conspicuous.

Moral: the more desirable the cel, the more closely you should compare it with a frozen frame from the released version.