Anime-Beta TNG

I recently bought a lovely cel of Belldandy, which was clearly the OVA avatar rather than the movie version. The cel, which was purchased from a highly reputable dealer, came with all the earmarks of genuineness, including somewhat faded trace lines (as expected from a cel manufactured in 1993).

http://sensei.rubberslug.com/gallery/in ... mID=240728

The oddity was that the sequence number did not have a layer letter, but simply read "3" (rather than A3, B3, etc.)

Gabe (of the very impressive RS gallery "Gabe's Ruin") was interested enough to pass on a scan of the cel and of the corner with the sequence number to some contacts of his in AIC for comment. They agreed that the cel was a genuine AIC product.

Two thought it might be a repro cel (design #3 or perhaps cel #3 in a limited series of, say, 200). One thought it might be a hanken for trading card #3 in a set. (The OST 2 did come with a set of trading cards, one per cut.) One thought it might be a color test (third combination of paint choices).

If anyone can identify another cel out there that is the same as mine, then the first explanation is correct: it's a repro. If anyone knows of a trading card with this image of BD on it, then it's a hanken. I'm personally thinking that the "color test" theory is the most likely. (Repros that I've seen have tended to be much fancier than the relatively simple image that I have, though I find it exquisite in its very simplicity.)

Can anyone help? Or offer another theory for the odd letterless sequence number?

Could be a test or preproduction cel maybe? *shrugs*

I'm quite certain it's a regular production cel
I would expect that the leaving the letter off may have been a mistake at the studio for they tend to work fast (a few are hard to read). In the OVA cels I have there seems not to be a standard marking for while my sketches have it in the far right corner , the markings on the cels are all over the place on the top. Most just right of center as well as it appears to have been a different person marking the cels than the sketches.

I also would need to review my dvd's to see where that exact outfit appears. I have this one from just before they set out to find the temple http://ryan.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_ ... mID=161611 and she's wearing the same when she arrives there passed out from over using her magic http://ryan.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_ ... mID=174848

Very pretty cel!!!

Ok , found it.

It's from the pre episode "dream sequence" to OVA episode 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pP8R9tmEGQ

There is missing layer (A) of Keiichi holding out the ring for Belldandy so Sensei your is most likely B3.

Hey Sensei,
You must have missed this in your OH08 review of my site:

http://marzcelection.com/amg/images/AMG ... nk_web.jpg

I don't recall the sequence number, but I can look it up for you tonight.

gb

That's nice! You're Sequence Mates!!!

Looks like who ever had those cels threw Keichii's hand away... It would have been nice to know it came from that scene!

but the cel looks nicer without the hand blocking!

Woooow! Talk about getting information from the right crowd!

Not only that, but when I looked closely at the YouTube excerpt (twap why didn't I think of that!) I could see that my cel is the first one in the cut. [It can't be A3 or B3 because the lines in her blouse change as the cut goes on, unless the first cel in the final version was "3" rather than "1."] So the "3" might be a cut number rather than a sequence number (which would be A1). (Though as I count them, it's cut 7.) Remains a puzzlement what "3" is.

Anyhow, it's one of the most memorable moments for me, both for the bittersweet dream sequence and also for the music. Some of you might have heard the story: one night, while my daughter was researching a paper she was writing for a high school history class on Napoleon, she came rushing into my office. "What's this piece of music?!?" she asked, leading me back to the laptop, which was looping through a short, poignant melody.

I had no idea, but I assumed that, since it was on a page devoted to the love between the French general/emperor and his Josephine, that it was some minor early Romantic piece from the general period. But she loved it, and so she figured some way (kids are good at this) at downloading it as a MIDI file and saving it as "Mystery Tune."

Much later, my wife was given a piece of software from one of her students that could display MIDIs as sheet music. It had a bug, so we never could print out any of these sheet music images, but one nice feature is that it would call up any title that had been saved with the tune. So one day, out of curiosity, I tried it out on "Mystery Tune." The first page came up with the heading "Piano Sonata: Illusion." I did a websearch for this title, and to my great surprise turned it up in the AMG OST track listing.

Next stop: eBay, where I found a copy of the CD going for sale. A couple weeks later, and I had it in my car, ready to take home and confirm the link. I still remember the astonished look on my daughter's face when that tune started to play.

The rest of the music was nice ... haunting in fact ... and I began to look into the series it came from. After all, my daughter had dated a kid for a while who was a DBZ fancier, and was at the moment all agog over Gundam Wing. Neither much appealed to me ... but this seemed ... well ... different ... and worth looking into.

So began a long and unfailingly interesting journey into the anime world for this dinosaur who'd begun to think there were no more surprises left in the world.

And now I have a cel from the moment when that tune was being played. Talk about cel kismet!

Yes, Goldenboy, I'm sure I missed or simply forgot about your sequence-mate, or maybe that was the bell ringing in the back of my head that was trying to tell me "you just saw that cel somewhere!"

Or was that "Piano Sonata: Illusion" playing, very, very softly... ?

Well -- looks like I have quite a job ahead of me rewriting that cel description. Thanks again, you amazing, amazing folks!

aww, that's really sweet.

yeah, primo passo makes me want to listen to classical music because of the pieces.

Since the original discussion in 2008, I've continued to puzzle over this lovely cel's history. Now a new bit of information emerges as part of a YJ auction:

http://page13.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/r67827058

This is set to count down soon, with one bidder already good for the 25,000 yen opening bid. In case the dealer's scan is taken down, here's a copy I saved:



The interesting thing is that the cel is displayed on the back of a non-matching douga and is clearly labeled "A8" in the upper right corner. But "A8" can't be right: the cel image is that of the opening key in the cut, which would be "A1" if the cel were the genuine production number. When I count the images in the cut using stop-frame, the eighth one shows Belldandy's head back, all the hair highlights different, and her mouth open. Even the second image I can freeze is noticeably different from this one.

The highlights are most similar (but NOT identical) to my mystery cel, and both of these are similar (but NOT identical) to the first frozen frame in the cut.

I would assume that someone has tried to make this cel more marketable by altering the sequence number to add a letter and make it look like a legit. cel. Unless I miss my guess, too, the original number has been written over. It could have been a "3" or "5" that's been changed to "8." It would make no sense for someone to alter an authentic "A1" to "A8." Or maybe there really are eight of these subtly different test or repro cels.

Continues to be a puzzlement.

Gabe checks in:

...it could be fake.
There are some parts in her hair that say so.
AIC never drawed the white parts full in white what they told me a while ago.
They always added a bit of yellow.
Also the seller is not familiar for AMG art.
If you like to be safe on AMG art buy from kotetumaru2000 or twin_angels_xx since I know their sources and also Curt is buying from their source.

Currently not going for it.

The lot sold for the 25,000 yen opening bid.

Ouch! >_<;;

I'm seeing more and more fancels passed off as production
material these days.
Its making me more cautious than ever before
as opposed to blindly bidding. Especially with the preconceived
notion that since I don't collect $$$ series like Eva or Ghibli
movie cels I'm "safe."
Couldn't be further from the truth!

I've already spotted a fake Tenchi Muyo and recently 3 Ranma
cels, 2 of which were rips from cels I own

Its so important to ID and check the animation clips --
really track and scrub through counting frames to see
if you can even find said shot. Most of the time its off
or doesnt even exist as a whole aka hair would be
separate layer, separate mouth, etc..

Thou I feel for folks that fall for this (especially
when they end as high as 25k yen yikes!) -- at least you were
able to check beforehand and not bid.