Which do you prefer?

[Maiko]

This is a tough subject for lots of people- because I think people are all over the fence on this one ^_~x

For me, I have been hard-core "purist" for the longest time. I never purposely displayed cels with unmatching backgrounds- the only exceptions have been a couple of Eat-Man 98 cels that horrifically and permanently stuck to the bogus watercolor backgrounds they were sold to me on.

I liked to keep my collection "authentic", so I always skipped out on backgrounds that didn't belong with cels, even if they would like nice on one.

My biggest beef in the debate is the fact that sellers jack up the prices on cels that have grossly unmatching backgrounds with them. There's no way the cel in a lot of those cases are worth what they are asking for it- they just use the unmatching background as an excuse to ask more money for it when I don't want a cel of Kenshin standing in the middle of a crowded subway. I want to pay for what Kenshin is worth- not what he can be marked up to because he has some stupid background. It *really* bugs me when Dealers do that.

However, I noticed that if you care what the public thinks, most viewers PREFER to see cels against backgrounds, even if they are completely unmatching. And I won't argue- lots of cels look wonderful on carefully picked, hand-chosen non-matching backgrounds to compliment them. With the exception of "no-background" cels that are exceptional because they are a rare character, or an important scene, I'll bet the cels that get the most pageviews in Rubberslug galleries tend to be the ones on backgrounds, matching, or not.

I would LOVE to have every one of my cels on a background, but it's next to impossible to do that- whether it's the painted original or even just finding a laser copy of it. I've started to become more flexible, though, in some circumstances. I purposely put one of my Inu Yasha cels on a non-matching background...but that background I put it on is from the same episode, same location, just a few scenes earlier. I felt it was justified ^_~x

Plus, I have been discovering the joys of making Matching Laser Copies from DVD screencaps when I have been able to ( some backgrounds a character walks or moves into, giving you at least one frame of just the background un-obstructed ). I've just been editing them on my computer, blowing them up, and taking them to Kinko's ( in fact, I'm just about to head out now and print up some more ) and I've actually been quite surprised by how nice the resolution and quality has come out each time.

Recently, I've started buying just original backgrounds to collect. Since I never went out looking for backgrounds to add to my cels, I had never really noticed before that there are some out there that are beautiful as just stand-alone pieces. So now I've started collecting original backgrounds to enjoy.

And blah blah blah. I just realized no one probably cares at this point- just shuttup Maiko, ne? Anyway, thanks for the topic post, it's been very interesting seeing what everyone else has had to say ^_^x

[Krafty]

Too difficult for me to vote either way. I like the authenticity of a cel on its own without being bastardized by a non-matching BG, however some non-matching BGs do look good on certain cels...

I've actively bought 2 original, non-backgrounds for cels I had. These looked similar to the original images which I'll never have the opportunity to get. That's the reason I wnet for these images.

Getting screencaps is a good way to satisfy your need for a proper looking BG, I've thought about doing this before but haven't gone through with it yet! *writes this on the ever-growing 'things to do' list*

[tex-chan]

I voted for the unmatching background. Matching is always best, of course ... but, if I can't find the matching one, I will pair the cel with a non-matching bg that I think looks nice with it. That is just the way I like to look at my cels ... I prefer it to the white space around the image. I crop my cel scans, too. I just think they look better that way. But, I also enjoy visiting galleries where the cels are not backgrounded and the scans are not cropped.

As so many others have already said, it's just a matter of personal preference.