Bullish bidding on CCS: Mandarake edition

[sensei]

More bullish bidding on Mandarake. I have not been following the BWAs lately, but I was struck by this item, which (CCS fans immediately know) comes from the great Ep. 40 (Sakura and the Sakura in the Dream). During an introductory image song (“Hitorijime,” by Meilin's seiyuu) we see glimpses of the central five doing typical things, including going into a photo booth. We first see Syaoran alone, then Meilin joins him, then Sakura and Kero, and finally Tomoyo sneaks in doing her usual commemorative video.

This cel (apparently with no douga) is the final result, a sheet with nine small images of the pose, showing the usual comic mayhem taking place. Cute, funny and worth having -- but the opening bid was set at a daunting 10,000 yen and when I first saw it, the bidding had already reached 30,000. That seemed steep, even if it was an A1 tome image (with no douga), as the full image of the group is only about 10% of the area of the cel sheet, and the eight copies that surround it are all partials. Still, I figured I should at least watch it to see where the bidding went in the end. Indeed, all the way up to 95,000 yen, a sum close to the 110,000 yen (and two bits) for a nice Ep. 1 cel of Sakura releasing the Clow Cards, which seemed an extraordinary sum when the bullish trend became plain in early May.

It makes me wonder just how much my set-up is now worth in the current market. Those are full-sized images (with matching dougas), all the END keys, and all layers kept separately from the start.

IIRC, I logged onto YHJ on Easter Sunday, April 11, 2004, the end of my annual habit of fasting from auction browsing and bidding for Lent, and found this set of cels going around without a bid for ... well, shall we just say a minimum price of less than 10,000 yen. Winning it for that minimum made a great start to my "May Madness" that year to which the progressive clearance sale that Anime Chaos was holding (20% off, then 40%, then 80%) made a much bigger contribution.

[cutiebunny]

Of course the cel didn’t come with the matching douga; I’ve owned it for years

(And no, it’s not yet up my gallery.)

I bid a stupid amount in an attempt to reunite the douga and cel, but in the end, once that cel hit $1K (with BWA fees added in), I bowed out. I don’t think there’s any cel in this episode that I’d shell out $1K to buy. Can’t think of too many cels from CCS where I’d pay that much either.

I’ve often wondered, at these prices, how much my stuff from episode 40 would be worth if I had access to Mandarake for selling purposes. I remember buying episode 40 cels only a few years ago from BWAs that came with matching backgrounds, douga at 1/10th what that cel sold for. But, it’s just a temporary boost, and once Clear Card fades into oblivion and people move on to the Next Great Thing, just like in the past, prices will lower again. Perhaps then, there will be some buyers remorse, and some of these cels will return to the market at a lower price. And, if not, that’s ok too. I’m happy with what I have, especially at these prices.

[sensei]

Yeah, I think a long-range view of the market and its ups and downs is a good thing to have in this area of collecting. Like you, I've tried to balance passion (there is such a thing as being too shy to bid for a once-a-lifetime item) and patience (something just as good is bound to come alone at a better time). And, as I've often said, if you appreciate what you already own more than what you just won on auction (or would like to win), then you have a healthy attitude.

As often, I went into my Cel Book #1 and pulled that set out of its pocket to appreciate it. And by the way the trick of putting a sheet or half-sheet of Microchamber paper into the cel bag with the cel really does seem to soak up a lot of the chemical by-products: the bags were hardly puckered if at all.

If you ever get that douga posted, let me know. I'd love to include a link from my item as they do fit together nicely in that scene.

[Jadeduo]

I was not so surprised on the price of the episode 40 cel, I was more surprised by the pricing of the Episode 61 pan of Touya and Mirror Sakura, 4 years ago it would have gone for maybe $50-100 and it went for a cool $400 I don't understand the pricing it's not even the best part of the episode.

However the going theory is the combination of Clear Card being released with it's stomach churning characters designs and bland coloring; and China finally getting some anime that they never had access to before, hence, it is the perfect storm of crazy prices.

[sensei]

The Touya x Mirror-Sakura romance really appeals to a fringy lolicon audience, and it's one of several potentially transgressive topics in the original plot arc. (In some ways it "mirrors" the big psychosexual conflict which is Sakura x Yukito who is, notoriously, a clone of Sakura's father.)

See “ ‘You Love Your Father, Don’t You?’: The Influence of Tale Type 510B on Japanese Manga/Anime.” In The Routledge Companion to Fairy-Tale Cultures and Media, ed. Pauline Greenhill, Naomi Hamer, Jill Rudy, and Lauren Bosc, 391-398. New York: Taylor & Francis/Routledge, 2018. [TT 510B is the variation on "Cinderella" with the added complication that the heroine's father is infatuated with her; standard Freudian interp. is that the reverse is true, arguably one stage that young girls naturally pass through in constructing their sexual identity prior to puberty.]

So I actually think that a nice cel from one of these scenes could realistically draw a $400 price tag. But like a lot of collectors, it's getting harder and harder to justify "one more" to a collection that already has so many items that I never actually thought I would own. Still, I enjoy watching the market, even if it makes me appreciate things I own all the more.

[Jadeduo]

Actually it went for $600, $400 over what I was willing to pay, at that point that is getting into THE SCENE money for me. And I see what you did there... with mirror... punny!

I was always under the impression the target relationship for the Loli fans was more SakuraxYukito, SakuraxTomoyo, and or RikaxYoshiyuki Sensei, while Touya and Mirror Sakura is a valid fandom pairing it does not ring as true Loli to me as the cards themselves are 100s of years old or at least decades but I was always under the impression that Clow was more of the 100s of years ago than not.

[sensei]

Yeah, I'm still basking over getting the Princess Syaoran portrait for 5000 yen (Nov. 2016 prices) so $600 is past my current limit or desire to bid.

The manga is a little more explicit about this than the anime, but Clow Reed IS Sakura's father. The "Other Scene" (where she confesses her love to Yukito and is gently turned down) ends with a "Clow Presence," and Sakura casts "Maze" and "Illusion," both cards that have been used in the past in the context of complicated romantic relationships. Then (having accepted that her romantic feelings for Yukito are misdirected), she races through the maze to find the source of this presence. In the end, she reaches a curtained door; she tosses them aside and sees ---

Well, it's Eriol, of course, which makes sense as he's the Wizard of Oz figure who's stage-directing all these tests. But when he uses his power to make her lose consciousness, she has an extended vision of Clow Reed's final moments. That was expanded into Ep. 68 (Sakura's trip back in time to meet Clow), but it ends differently in the manga, where the wizard uses the last of his magic to divide himself into two clones, who are then projected forward into Sakura's era, becoming Fujitaka and Eriol. So (and it gets complicated, which is why all of this gets cut out of the anime) Eriol-Fujitaka is the split-into-twins modern-day avatar of Clow Reed. So her attraction to Yukito and, to a lesser degree, to Eriol, results from her unresolved Oedipal attraction to her father.

(This isn't as clear, but I think Kaho Mizuki is supposed to be a magical avatar of Sakura's mother, which is why Sakura feels all han-yaaan about her teacher, too. And of course why Kaho and Eriol are revealed to be an item at the end.)

Yeah, the sexual dynamics of this series are seriously complex, as are those of Wish (Shuichiro is in love with his mother -- yeah, he's a foundling and she's a wisteria tree kami, but that don't make it right). Also of Chobits (Freya, Chii's twin "sister" loves her creator "Daddy" in an incestuous way -- yeah, they're cyborgs but that still don't make it right.) I hope my little piece, based on a talk I gave at AnimeNext some time ago, will entice other scholars to dig into these complicated psychosexual issues in more sophisticated ways.

(BTW, CCS was written during the so-called "Grimm Boom" when a number of books claiming to unpack the sexual significance of the Grimm Fairy Tales were enormously popular in Japan. This provoked quite a spate of sophisticated novels, paintings, art installations, etc. in that country, a book of which, From Dog Bridegroom to Wolf Girl, I recently reviewed in an academic journal, complaining that it did not take advantage of the obvious manga/anime materials.)

[Jadeduo]

LOL, the Romeo and Juliet episode is a great one I am still looking for a nice light and dark but I am definitely cheap so it will probably be forever before I get one.

I've read the manga as well and I sort of disagree with this interpretation of Clow as Sakura's father cause then you are discounting all the Eastern influences in that Clow ACTUALLY reincarnated himself into two different people Fujitaka and Eriol, Fujitaka turned out normal and Eriol ended up with all of his magic they are not Clow, they are different people still, with different experiences that inform who they are. If you are going to argue that, I guess Eriol could arguably be considered closer to Clow in his reincarnation he was well traveled with all the same magic, whereas Fujitaka a school teacher fell in love with his student and ended up living a fairly normal life. IDK I just feel like when it comes to who we are, our experiences absolutely form who we become and I don't think it would be possible to say that Fujitaka and Eriol are the same they as Clow, on the surface there are some physical similarities but personality wise they are very different.

Clow's actual plan for the finale was to split the magic that Eriol had between the two of them AND for Sakura to fall in love with Yue/Yuki, as a replacement for himself in Yue's eyes. This... did not happen lol.

I feel that Sakura's infatuation with Yukito is not necessarily like an attraction to her father, but more like sibling rivalry response to her brother which opens up a whole other can of worms. There are multiple times when Touya is spending time with Yukito and she inserts herself into their alone time and they both allow it.

The OTHER scene as you know is a large part of my collection as well, mostly because it is a VERY pivotal scene and there really is so much going on there. There is definitely something there with ClowxYue (Yue's expression when he senses Clow in ep 66 *dies*), but he had not planned on Yukito falling in love with Touya, seriously how do we keep this shit straight in our heads... It makes me crazy that they have yet to reconcile that Yue is still in love with Clow and Yukito has moved on? Kero's two forms do not have this personality split why does Yue? Is it the grief or just a convenient plot device? Does that scene in ep 70 actually clear that up i.e. Eriol and Yue's talk? Or is there still conflict there?

I'm hoping Clear Card doesn't screw all this up, like I've said before I am not a fan of the new designs I think they picked the weakest of the animation directors to take over for the new series as the character designer. It irritates me that everyone looks age regressed instead of older, and the color pallette is seriously washed out.

As an addendum, CCS did not just pull from Grimm and WofOZ it also pulled heavily from Alice in Wonderland as well, which influenced a lot of anime/manga at the time and still does to this day.

And if you ever wondered what it looked like when two CCS nerds with English degrees get into it... this is what it looks like LOL.

[sensei]

Yeah, this is why some of my descriptions in my gallery get a tiny bit longish

I'll just say that, when discussing fantasy, it's always implicit that what is being discussed in the fantasy is a transformation of normal everyday social reality. The mode of storytelling introduces never-never-land elements so that the narrative is understood by everyone as nominally imaginary. But (as a lot of narrativology wonks have said) this is done so that certain issues that are important in real life can be discussed in a much more explicit way than would be usual. So allowing Yukito to morph into a magical alter ego makes it possible to introduce a same-sex romance that might otherwise be seen as transgressive. (But it's "OK," because Yukito-Yue is not really human, just as the Kirk/Spock bromance celebrated by Trekkies is "OK" because Spock is part-Vulcan and so inhabits an "imaginary" sphere of existence.)

So, yeah, taking the plot by itself you have to say that Clow Reed is one character, Eriol is another, and Fujitaka, yet another. The statement by CLAMP that the original scenario intended to pair off Sakura and Yukito is interesting, reminiscent of the Grimms' TT 510B variant "Allerleirauh," in which the heroine, pursued by her incestuous father, runs off to another kingdom, finds a spouse who reminds her or her father; they court, wed, and live happily after. But the first version the Grimms published has her come back to her father's palace in various disguises to dance with him a la Cinderella; and in the end father and daughter marry and all goes well. But the Brothers took some flak over this, and in the revised collection they make it clear that the princess goes to another palace and the guy she entices just looks like her father (and he's probably a Vulcan too).

But stories develop a trajectory of their own -- true of Princess Tutu also, which ended in a way that surprised even the creators. And so in my opinion the plot is all the more psychologically intense because Sakura renounces ALL the fatherly avatars and goes her own separate way with Syaoran. The autumnal feel of Ep. 68 (not in the anime but script by CLAMP leader Nanase Ohkawa) suggests that this was Clow Reed's ultimate intention -- to create a wizard who was stronger even than he had been in life. And indeed, it is most parents' wish that their children adopt their values and interests, and yet go forward into an independent life that achieves more than their parents' lives could.

So what I'm doing is not so much interpreting the story but the appeal of the story -- and any commentator who does this would have to admit that a story could appeal to many audiences in diverse ways, and no reading can be a "skeleton key" that unlocks "the" meaning of a tale. But clearly CCS hit a lot of people very hard -- I can remember the early "Bronyesque" community of male CCS fans that formed ca. 2000, all of us surprised and puzzled in our own ways about why this story somehow meant so much to us and why the Nelvana travesty that aired on WB-Kids was so deeply repugnant. So a reading that suggests a deep link to psychosexual issues that are human universals but are difficult to express in a slice-of-life way is, perhaps, part of the solution to this puzzle.

[cutiebunny]

Here's what I want to know - What do you think of the new Clear Card Arc?

Is it sad that my sole highlight thus far (I'm gonna watch Episode 21 tonight) is ED 2 because of Sugar High Suppi? Horrible character designs aside, I hate that everything feels like a regurgitation of the past. The episode where Sakura captures the card at the aquarium felt like a repeat of 'The Watery' capture. The episode where she captures the fire element card which looked like the fire version of 'The Fly' card. And the whole time it feels like both Sakura and Akiho are being horribly played by the people who are closest to them.

I don't like that watching this season feels like a chore. I miss the spunky, fun feeling of original CCS.

[sensei]

Well, I personally thought the original series (Eps. 1-70 with First Movie) was about as perfect a job of long-story-arc narration as could be done (though the Fruits Basket manga is masterful on this front also). But the second movie, though it has classic moments, had the feel of a sequel to me, and so I've watched it less often and think about it less when I collect and recollect my favorite moments. (I actually generated an alternative ending in my head . . . with a big three-way showdown between Void/Nothing, Sakura, and Clow Reed's restless ghost . . . which works better for me.)

So while I'm pleased at the new attention CCS is getting as a result of this new chapter, I wasn't anxious to watch it, fearful that it would turn out as you suggest -- as a rehash of old situations that were done in quirky, surprising ways in the original series and now are Sakura moments for the sake of more Sakura moments. I should give it a try -- but I have so many contacts that I still have from the "CCU" (Cardcaptors Uncensored) era that I keep listening for one of them to say, "Hey! "Clear Cards" is great! Go watch it!" But . . .

. . . [crickets chirp . . . locusts buzz . . . leaves rustle] . . .

[cutiebunny]

Took out the bag of popcorn for this morning's CCS BWA auctions. Was horribly outbid on the Kero/Yue flashback set, but with an end price of 190,000 yen, I did not feel too bad about losing that auction.

The hanken sketches ending for the prices that they did make me wonder how much some of the hanken cels would sell for if they were to ever hit auction.

[sensei]

There was some CCS on the BWA?

[Sensei,who was equally badly outbid for a Yamibou sketch,reexamines his collecting priorities once again...]

[transatlantique]

Was pretty bummed I lost out as well. Husband wanted to buy me one of the Sakura/Syaoran cels for my birthday but the prices went tooo high.