Single Cels or Sequences

[Koneko Koji]

Hi All,

Over the years I've been collecting, I've come across people who are interested in single shots, sequence mates, and entire sequences.
When it comes to collecting - what do you go for?
I ask because I'm soon going to be revamping my cel site, and am curious whether people would prefer the opportunity to buy single cels - or the chance to obtain cels in partial or entire sequences.

Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Koji

[jiangdc]

Waifu

[sensei]

I've purchased all three, but on the whole go for single, well composed shots that are good representatives of the cuts they represent. There have been instances when I've gone for sequence-mates, but these often were the results of lucky opportunities rather than intention. For instance, my series of sequence-mates Meilin battling The Fight Card in CCS: that started with an early purchase from the Anime Chaos sales site, with another early auction win from Yahoo Japan. Then a couple of opportunities to make offers to other collectors got me two more, including the END keyframe. With one more auction win, I got a cel from earlier in the series, so I have enough to appreciate the really thoughtful fight strategy that went into this sequence. But I didn't start out with this intention: I just found myself with the chance of adding one more nice cel from a moment I liked ... and then another ... and ...

I do have some short sequences, often from series from which cels tend to come up in little runs. The Wonderful Journey of Nils is one of these, and I have another from Grimm's Fairy Tales: The Golden Bird. The series of Nils riding on Morten that I use as my avatar is a good example. But again this was a factor of opportunity rather than conscious desire to obtain sequences.

Overall, I'd always buy a well-composed single cel from an important moment over a series of sequence-mates or an entire sequence of a less important scene with less interesting frames included. (But if the cels in a sequence were nice and/or from a memorable scene . . . maybe . . . )

[Koneko Koji]

I must admit, my personal preference is generally single cels - unless, like you said, it's interesting - or if it's from an 'important' part of the episode.
I was curious because I've got a few sequences that would work better together (like my CCS one of the close up of Kaho's Moon Bell, and the Sorcerer Hunters one of Maron which then focuses on his hair as he goes past) and others that might appeal singly (such as Gon from Hunter x Hunter checking himself in the mirror).

[jiangdc]

I prefer single cel especially key frame. I would go for whole sequence only for genga.

[Pixel]

While I would typically prefer a single cel of good quality and particular significance (i.e. an especially moving or important scene for one or more characters), I can see the appeal of owning a complete sequence. I guess it depends really on what it is and what exactly is available, for what price.

As far as personal experience goes, I've yet to see even single frame representations of certain scenes/series, much less sequences. Often it's been a "go with what I can find" kind of thing.

It's worked out better than it sounds on its face.