The Choices, the Choices

[KinoLRB]

For anyone who didn't see it, I posted a poll on the general anime page asking Beterans to vote for the # of anime series they're seen. 50% of voters have seen 300+ series, and ultimateBrucelee brought up an interesting point, basically about the lack of correlation between the number of series seen vs. the number of series collected from, artwork wise. I mean, very few (if any) galleries boast artwork from every show the curator has seen, and even for someone like me, who has completed less than 100 animes all total, choosing what and what not to collect from has been very difficult.

I was wondering how everyone else deals with this issue. How do you choose what to buy? Collect from? Has the element of choice played a cumbersome role in your collecting experience?

[star-phoenix]

I honestly am not one of the ones that saw 300+ series. In fact, I doubt I have even seen 100 series during my 17 years since I had first started seeing Anime. Even now, the # of series I watch is maybe 1 if I even have time.

When I collected from Anime a few years back, I based my choices on availability, $$, and type of media (cel vs. sketch). Now, I base a lot of my collecting in vintage art which mainly is determined by whether I like/love it, significance of the piece, rarity, and then $$$.

[Animechaos]

With me it's always about the characters. It can be a good series but if there isn't a character that really stands out then I generally won't try to find any artwork for that series.

But also I think it's the very limited availability of artwork from more recent series. A good example for me is "Demon King Daimao". There is only one sketch I've even been able to find from that series, lucky for me of the only character I can say I liked for the whole show, but even it was mistakenly sold by the seller under a different title:
http://animechaos.com/series-demon.html

So with modern anime it's just so rare and hard to find I'm guessing many collectors just can't get their hands on them. Then when they do show up out of nowhere.....sometimes the price is just stupid. I have a few I have yet to scan up that I paid way too much for.

Like my favorite comedy anime right now, Watamote......I can't find those at all. Maybe because it didn't do that well in Japan and demand may be very low...but I still want it.

[JWR]

Well just cause someone has seen a show does not mean that they end up enjoying it enough to want to collect from it. Other more modern shows that one might want to collect from the studios never released the art or destroyed it (see Haibene Renmei).

I have watched a lot of series that once viewed I have zero interest in buying the DVD/BluRay let alone would wish to spend money on artwork from it. I miss the Newtype USA magazines that used to have preview discs that were a great source to weed out series. Now I use streaming services such as Hulu+ to do the same. There are so many series out there we might like to collect from but decided not to (or just got one piece from) due to having a limited budget since house payment, food and such are required.

[cutiebunny]

I find that very little in the way of new production art tempts me. There are certain series that I enjoy but that enjoyment usually stops at the end of the season. I usually have no desire to buy any merchandise associated with the series I watch and even less desire for the artwork. Most of the series I watch are comedies and usually the artwork is average, if it is available.

I do, however, buy original sketches that are drawn and signed by the people who create anime and manga. There have been some cases, such as the abec Sword Art Online sketch, that were bought for its rarity, but these cases are few and far between. However, I think the majority of the original artwork I own breaks down into two major categories; "Artwork from stories I love" and "Artwork from people I've met *and* admire". The 'admire' part is very important for me. If an artist is full of themselves to the point where they ignore and/or reject their fans, I won't want to have anything to do with their works because I don't want to support that behavior. Granted, I don't expect that any guest I've ever met will become my LINE buddy or sit around for hours to draw something spectacular for me, but I do expect some courtesy. The hard part is being able to separate the person you dislike from the franchise itself. For example, I still hold a grudge over Akemi Takada's behavior at AX in 2009(?). She was the character designer of Kimagure Orange Road. However, I dearly love KOR's mangaka, Izumi Matsumoto and think he's a very kind man. My solution is to buy Matsumoto's artwork and ignore anything Takada touched.

It's strange - A while ago, I joined a French collecting community as it was far more active than Beta. There was a topic about buying shikishi on YJ, and a member mentioned how everything there was fake. I disagreed because, while the sketches attributed to Miyazaki and other famous artists are fake, the sketches from the relatively unknown or unpopular artists are almost always legit. The response I received was 'Why would anyone want to collect those?' It made me sad. What's wrong with buying something simply because you love the story and/or its artwork?

[theultimatebrucelee]

The factor I could think of is timeliness, there are series that I used to collect, and ones that I really desired to collect from back when I first started, many no longer matters to me at this point because my taste changed, and perhaps evolved overtime. After watching more series, some that impressed me initially had been overshadowed by others. I watched quite a few series spreading through the last two decades(there's a will there's a way), but at this point I only have the desire to collect from a handful of the series that I've watched from more than 10 years ago. If artwork showed up for some old series I used to like, then I won't try to collect them.

The response I received was 'Why would anyone want to collect those?'

That's one of the more ridiculous things I've heard as of late...I recently started to collect fanart and original illustrations, and I exclusively collect those and not the drawings that are done by any"famous" artists(I don't know many either so I can't see why people spend hefty amounts on those). My principle is very simply that I want to get artwork from those people that has time and can draw right, I want the artist to work on my piece for many hours instead of a mere scribble or anything remotely close. If the finished piece is to my standard, then I would consider the piece work of art...I don't really give a damn who did the work(I'd feel insulted to see the work people did in a hurry being presented, from a viewer's point), rather, I simply want it to be good and really carious why would people spend thousands on mere scribbles.

I think people that are famous or not are matters of perspectives anyways, heck, I know people that do watch anime but have no idea who Miyazaki is, and want about people who collect arts but have no interest in animation artwork? What about people that don't care for Miyazaki? What about people that liked Miyazaki's films but didn't bother to do any research on the guy that made them? To these people a scribble from him that others would spend ridiculous amount pursuing would be totally worthless...except the money they can get by selling them.

[Jadeduo]

Interesting topic Kino!

I myself stayed very focused through my collecting journey and have most recently just started branching out into new series. Most of what I collect I would say is very character/nostalgia driven and then beauty. I am a sucker for a well drawn Bishonen, but the emotional tie to the piece/anime has to be there first. I've noticed what draws me first to collect a new series is I usually have to love the source material first. So in the cases of Saiyuki and Loveless I was drawn to the Manga first and then watched the Anime and fell in love with the art. Saiyuki at first was a pretty hard sell, but when I first saw Burial it was love at first sight. Loveless while never finished in the Anime format I am still picking up the Manga when Yun Kouga deigns to work on it... Darn thing has been in progress for 10 years now lol, and right now it is in a super dark/cliffhangery place, so I go to the art from the Anime with it's fairly happyish ending cause there was no ending... for solace... With Tennimon it was mostly through urging from other fans to give it a shot, and I will never regret it, it is funny, emotional, and at times surprisingly dark.

I would say price sometimes is a factor, I try not to collect new series that will break the bank, because I already collect a couple pretty pricey ones... I've also noticed that the REALLY pricey artwork tends to be the new stuff (2014-2015 Series) coming out of Japan where the art has not been released to market yet so when you do see a piece/set it goes for 1k I've noticed over time, if you wait 5-7 years, the art will trickle more readily to market and at more decent prices, as studios empty their coffers to the dealers to free up room in storage.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there is nothing wrong with keeping a small narrow focus, and if you can manage it good on you. It sometimes feels like I have ADD when I am going through the auction sites every morning looking through so many series. ^_^;; It can be hard to stop yourself from collecting the new shiny thing after you first watch it, but give it time to germinate. If the art still calls to you after a few months. Feel free to take the plunge, but if after a few months it doesn't call to as much, don't.

I am however, not one of the people who has watched a ton of anime, I choose to spend most of my free time working on my gallery and being the Beta Cheerleader. I will pick up new series based on the Manga but rarely will I watch something new unless it comes highly recommended. I want to say I've watched maybe 15-20 Animes, granted a few of them were over 200 episodes but I can't say I will ever hit over 300 @_@ Maybe if you count the movies... (which I did not in this number) IDK

I also can't imagine abandoning the series that got me started in Anime especially Sailor Moon and DBZ, and while I am not always the most active of purchasers in these series right now as the inventory has dried up some or the prices in the case of DBZ have tripled in the last year. I will always come back to them if something catches my eye, I still stalk all the usual places as well so my eye is always open. I also find in the case of older series keeping an eye open for private collectors accepting offers is a good place to rediscover your old favorites.

One last thing, spending more time working on my gallery and learning about the animators and process has been eye opening, and has only deepened the love I have for the series I already collect, is it possible there is room in my heart/house for more series? Sure... but it will take a special character or artist to make it so.

[cutiebunny]

(I don't know many either so I can't see why people spend hefty amounts on those).

Speaking for myself alone, it depends on who is on the receiving end of the payment. In the cases where the (majority of the) money will go to the artist themselves, I want to show my support of that artist by giving them my money. I'm sure we've all read the stories on sites like ANN where the average animator is paid very poorly, having to share rooms and depend on family support just to get by. Buying licensed merchandise and goods of course helps, but by the time the distributors, localizers, producers, etc. take their cut, that artist may only be making pennies per manga volume or DVD/Blu Ray (depending on their contract) sold. Granted, most of the artists that I meet in the US no longer are newbie artists and perhaps earn more than I do, but by paying an artist for a sketch, I know that I'm giving back to the people that make the art instead of the middlemen who market and distribute it.

In cases where a sketch donated by the artist will be sold for charity, such as at a convention, I feel similarly; The artist wanted to help another and the money that their artwork could potentially sell for will achieve that goal. For example, the creator of Nekopara, Sayori, was informed by her US localizers of the "Make A Wish" charity and, that day, drew and sent off a sketch to be sold at SakuraCon 2015. That one sketch sold for over $3K. With the exception of Anime Expo (their auctions are sometimes for their own benefit as their charitable rating is the same as that of the NFL), I have yet to see any artist donate a quick squiggle. The items that appear at convention auctions are typically really well done.

I typically don't spend as much when the sketch is coming from a dealer. On the one hand, I'm grateful that they're able to get really nice artwork from certain artists, but on the other hand, I sometimes know the backstory behind the sketch and don't want to condone that sort of behavior.

I think people that are famous or not are matters of perspectives anyways, heck, I know people that do watch anime but have no idea who Miyazaki is, and want about people who collect arts but have no interest in animation artwork? What about people that don't care for Miyazaki? What about people that liked Miyazaki's films but didn't bother to do any research on the guy that made them? To these people a scribble from him that others would spend ridiculous amount pursuing would be totally worthless...except the money they can get by selling them.

That is the downside. There will always be people who will either line up to resell or only want stuff they feel will be worth bank. But every hobby has people like this who only show support when someone is famous or popular and then ignore it when it's not.

[Krafty]

Hmmm, I like to buy art from series I've seen and sometimes ones HAVEN'T seen too. It's dependant on the image. If the character/setup/pose/colouring attracts me I might want it for aesthetics' sake and I'm happy with that- even if other collectors may believe that's wrong. Such series include Black Lagoon, TnN, Girls Bravo, Photon, Gatchaman to name a few.

I back that up by acquiring most pieces from movies/series I love on a deeper level. Usually, I adore the settings, characters and story structure and therefore choose to focus my collecting on 10-12 titles. As we know, collecting our favourites is limited by sheer availability and cost. I'd like to think that if money was no object I'd have a supreme collection but I'd be brought back down to earth by the non-existance of dream setups anyway!

[lunacels]

Interesting question! I have only seen a very few series, and collect from even fewer. For me, it's about a connection to the characters and story line, with a secondary reason being the beauty of the artwork. I will probably never have a Rayearth collection the size of Sailor Moon, because I wasn't quite as engrossed in that story (though I love the character design); same for Cowboy Bebop. I was drawn to Tenshi ni Narumon originally because I loved the art, and am only now getting around to watching all of it. My two favorites are Utena and Sailor Moon (my first anime love); but Utena is next-to-impossible to find these days, and what's out there is pretty pricey. For all those reasons, Sailor Moon will likely continue to make up the bulk of my collection.

I can't see myself expanding into collecting other cels. The Last Unicorn, for example, is one of my all-time favorites, but I don't have any cels from it--too expensive, and it's easier not to break the seal on that one! Being a Sailor Moon collector is bad enough!