2020 Year in Review & 2021 Cel/Sketch Resolutions

[sensei]

It's time for the YoR/Resolution thread! I began this post back in 2006, and with the help of Cutiebunny it's become a Rubberslug tradition for more than a decade. Now it returns for its 15th year. With the old year thankfully wrapping up, it's time to look back on its low (and infrequent high) points and make some plans for 2021.

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2020?

2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?

3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2020?

4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?

5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2021?

6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2020 or for 2019, how true did you stay to it?

I'll post my responses in a little while, but meantime, take a moment to look back and hope for what's to come.

[sensei]

Best thing: Finished the inventory! Now I know (with 99% accuracy) what I've got and where to put my hands on it.

Surprising thing: the market rather suddenly picked back up in the summer, and I was able to put together three substantial updates in 2020. On the other hand, even with the enforced solitude caused by Covid-19, I find it increasingly hard to finish these updates. Some is just creeping old age and loss of youthful energy. Some is the rush of other things that I have to use my computer for these days, from research to shopping for groceries.

Most proud of: A tie: Flowers in the snow, an original background from CCS Ep. 68 (Sakura's journey to meet Clow Reed) with its layout and one cel overlay. (Increasingly rare and a sequence-buddy to one of my most cherished CCS backgrounds). And Shippo holds the letter of challenge, master set-up from Inuyasha Ep. 68 (Also VHTG and poignant as it came with the original layout executed by Shouko Ikeda and OK'd by episode director Yasuhiro Takemoto; both were killed in the tragic arson attack on Kyoto Animation in July 2019).

Concerns me: (Again...) the growing insecurity of the virtual platforms that anime art collecting has relied on. This forum is growing increasingly antique, Rubberslug is irretrievably broken in some ways that deter fresh blood from entering the community, Photobucket (on which I rely to import images to my RS gallery) also is prone to crashing and slow to come back. Rinkya was mostly stable in 2020, but also much less used.

Resolution for 2021: See next item.

True to 2020 resolution? "Finish the dang collection inventory." Nailed it. Though I now need to do a full gallery crawl to locate the last few discrepancies. That in itself is a big project, even for the cels, but they too need checking and bag replacement as needed.

[jiangdc]

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2020?
With help of friends, I was able to obtain arts from one of my favorite anime that I have been looking for many years.
2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?
My anime cel/genga collection hit 600 series by the end of 2020. With relevant ova, movie, season2 etc being considered, it's over 700 now.
I was also able to picked up some cels from those I labeled as super rare legendary animes.
3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2020?
I went through my cel/genga collection list this year, they are mostly good or great, but not yet in "proud of" level.
I will go with this set of Toradora confession scene. One of my favorite performances in Toradora. Especially with the help of ED as background. It didn't went as high as I expected, defenitely a nice pick of the year.

4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?
Millionaires entered the game and the market became super competitive. I didn't won any childhood memory series this year lol.
5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2021?
Survive by the end of 2021, hit 700 series.
6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2020 or for 2019, how true did you stay to it?
2019: This year only aim for those I REALLY Want.
Failed, since my collection goal shifted corresponding to the market, picking up really great cel in $$$$ is no longer my solution.

[JWR]

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2020?

That I still own it. This year has been rough

2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?

That the last update was done last February . Between Family health scares , Covid and my current side project rescuing Kittens and getting them adopted (26 this year) I have rarely had time or energy to scan or upload.

3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2020?
This is another lithograph from one of our favorite artist Tetsuro Sawada titled Red Space




4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?

That I am finding less and less time to devote to it. With very elderly parents , working each day at a company with reduced staff due to covid but no reduced amount of work to be done, and the eventuality of retiring and selling our house and moving to another state and the planning that entails. Time for a fun hobby is lacking.

5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2021?

To actually attempt to update a few times, never stopped finding a few pieces here and there.

6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2020 or for 2019, how true did you stay to it?

i would say not , hoped to update more after getting a large scanner that works with windows 10 but life and 2020 happened.

[GuyvarIII]

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2020?

I added three cels to my Rubberslug gallery on Halloween; a Devilman cel, a Black Jack cel, and a Demon City Shinjuku cel.

2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?

I guess it's surprising that I updated my gallery... I need to upload more cels.
However, this is more of an observation than a promise that I will actually do anything... sorry.

3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2020?

I got quite a few good cels. I was very excited that I got a rilezu of Guin from Guin Saga. To the best of my knowledge there were only two rilezu made of Guin, so I am stoked to have one of them. I also got the best Giant Gorg cel I've ever seen.

You can see some of my notable acquisitions this past year, below:

4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?

Because there is just about nothing from current shows, my perception of what is new and what is old is way off.
I consider Guin Saga a newish show... but, it's over a decade old.

I've seen new shows. I liked Akudama Drive, but I doubt I'll see any production sketches from it.

5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2021?

I think I can safely say that I'll update my gallery more in 2021 than I did in 2020.

6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2020 or for 2019, how true did you stay to it?

Sort of ...
I wrote that I would update the gallery, and I did...
But, my only adding three cels was a bit pathetic.


HAPPY NEW YEAR!

[cutiebunny]

I feel sooo old when Sensei reminds me that this is the 15th year we've had this topic


1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2020?

I updated more frequently than I thought I would. My corner of the world has been largely locked down since the end of February 2020 but I've still had to go to work. I've been trying to motivate myself to update Instagram once a week with artwork and then also post that on Rubberslug. My Instagram following is relatively small. Maybe I should post some My Hero Academia memes since those seem to get thousands of views

I also organized my cel books so that the same series can be found in each book. Before, they were largely organized by whenever I bought them.


2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?

I didn't think that Covid was going to impact collecting as much as it did and definitely not in the way that I thought. With people losing their jobs worldwide due to lockdowns occurring throughout the world, my thought was that people would save their money and not spend it on frugal things as this..thing..was going to be here for a while. But because those that primarily buy artwork were already well off, without the lure of fancy vacations, parties and things of that nature, their money went to driving up prices even higher than they did in 2019.

In 2017, I loaned some artwork to a fancy pants museum in The Netherlands. The exhibit was successful and the items were loaned to Museum aan de Stroom in Belgium. All of those were returned to me this year, although there was a slight hiccup where they didn't return the backgrounds and then included a cel that was not mine that I had to pay out of pocket to return. Fancy museums send artwork back in a fancy box. I think what impressed me most is that I didn't see much damage done to the cels that I loaned. I was worried that the lines were going to completely fade away as I was unsure how knowledgeable they were about animation art preservation. I feel a bit more confident in loaning out items to museums in the future. Picture on the top is the 2020 picture while the bottom one is the pic I took of the cel prior to sending it off to Museum Volkenkunde in The Netherlands.



3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2020?

Cel -I did not buy any cels this year. I did try for every Episode 40 CCS cel though

Shikishi/Sketch - What appears to be a complete set of Ikuko Itoh Animage hanken images used in 1999 for the magazine. There was a lot of Ikuko Itoh artwork up for sale this year and most of it was incredibly expensive.

Nengajo -By default as it was my only nengajo purchase this year, a sketch by Akemi Hayashi (character designer for the original Fruits Basket anime)

4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?

TBH, I'd love to have some of the issues I've had with previous years regarding conventions, their (sometimes) idiotic policies and the unrealistic expectations that staff have. That would mean that conventions are still a thing and everything was normal. But I don't anticipate them coming back in 2021 and if they do, not the scale that they were in 2019. It's going to take a long time for those vaccines to trickle down to those that want them, especially in a large country like the US where there are millions that do want the vaccines. So while many conventions are announcing dates, I wonder how realistic it is to even think that there will be an Animazement in May or even AnimeFest in August. And yes, I realize that this is such a trivial thing to be concerned with when thousands of people are still dying daily from this virus.

Most of the other concerns, like the feasibility of continuing to post on Rubberslug, I've covered in previous years.

5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2021?

I don't know if I really can make a resolution this year. Everything still feels so strange. Things like "I'm going to scan my backgrounds", "Focus on buying at US cons" or "Spend less" seem so uncertain right now. I think just taking things one day at a time until things return to as normal as possible will just be my goal for this year.

6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2020 or for 2019, how true did you stay to it?

In 2019, I said that I wanted to scan more CCS backgrounds. Didn't do much of that this year.

In 2020, I said that I wanted to get the artwork that was owed to me from a fellow friend/collector. Other than the Mamoru Yokota sketches which I'm sure I'll never get (Bye Money!), I managed to do that. Here’s one of them -



I also said that I needed to decide how I should update artwork in the future. I think I've settled on updating the nice stuff on Instagram and the other stuff that people won't be as interested in seeing will head to RS (along with the nice stuff too).

[eternaltorture]

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2020?

I managed to obtain a few artworks from series I've read and enjoyed. Also kickstarted my cel collection!

2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?

I now have more production art in my collection than autographs/artwork . I didn't expect to like so many items and had to rein in the urge to bid a couple of times.

3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2020?

Cel - Kite hanken reproduction
Sketch - Noriyuki Yamahana shikishi

I've seen a lot of shikishi drawn by Noriyuki Yamahana auctioned off the last two years. While they were all beautifully drawn, I never felt compelled to own one of them. During lockdown, I started reading one of his series (Little House with the Orange Roof) and greatly enjoyed it so when he started listing pieces in the last half of 2020, I bit the bullet and won one of them. It looks even prettier in person

4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?

For cels, definitely the vinegar syndrome. My first few cels I bought came with VS and I was distraught. The seller didn't mention it in the description and the photos didn't show it. Now I'm a bit hesitant in purchasing expensive cels.
For sketches, the competition. There's this Japanese collector who I have similar tastes with and I've never won an auction against them . They seem to have an unlimited budget, much to my chagrin.

5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2021?

2021 cel resolution - GiTS and Patlabor cel by end of the year
2021 sketch resolution - Same as last year: only buy ones I have watched/read.

6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2020 or for 2019, how true did you stay to it?

I stayed true to my 2020 sketch resolution. For the 2020 cel one, I failed to acquire a GiTS cel but did managed to get a Ghibli one

[jiangdc]

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2020?

I managed to obtain a few artworks from series I've read and enjoyed. Also kickstarted my cel collection!

2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?

I now have more production art in my collection than autographs/artwork . I didn't expect to like so many items and had to rein in the urge to bid a couple of times.

3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2020?

Cel - Kite hanken reproduction
Sketch - Noriyuki Yamahana shikishi

I've seen a lot of shikishi drawn by Noriyuki Yamahana auctioned off the last two years. While they were all beautifully drawn, I never felt compelled to own one of them. During lockdown, I started reading one of his series (Little House with the Orange Roof) and greatly enjoyed it so when he started listing pieces in the last half of 2020, I bit the bullet and won one of them. It looks even prettier in person

4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?

For cels, definitely the vinegar syndrome. My first few cels I bought came with VS and I was distraught. The seller didn't mention it in the description and the photos didn't show it. Now I'm a bit hesitant in purchasing expensive cels.
For sketches, the competition. There's this Japanese collector who I have similar tastes with and I've never won an auction against them . They seem to have an unlimited budget, much to my chagrin.

5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2021?

2021 cel resolution - GiTS and Patlabor cel by end of the year
2021 sketch resolution - Same as last year: only buy ones I have watched/read.

6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2020 or for 2019, how true did you stay to it?

I stayed true to my 2020 sketch resolution. For the 2020 cel one, I failed to acquire a GiTS cel but did managed to get a Ghibli one

I got Noriyuki Yamahana shikishi couple years ago via his yj as well. However, my proxy (zenmarket)messed up with names and I got someone else's name on the shikishi And I only got my service fee back.

[kizu]

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2020?
I finally sat down and painstakingly scanned all my cels and found the majority of the emails from 15+ years of collecting and was able to track the value of my collection.

2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?
Out of the blue, someone offered to buy a cel off me for a really good price. It was a good cel but I was surprised at how good the offer was so I accepted after wrestling with it. Again it was a good iconic cel so I had to really think about it. Then of course I bought Saitou cels with it and that was another surprise as Saitou cels don't usually come on auction with regularity - usually it's 1-2 years in between before I see one to buy.

3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2020?
This cel of Saitou - http://hajimenokizu.rubberslug.com/gall ... mID=436622

4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?
Well other collectors really. I'm very surprised at some of the activities collectors do now. I find some of it shady but I guess that's the norm now. Thankfully I'm at a point where I appreciate what i have more than what I don't (though I still go try to hope for a Saitou cel)... Also though I say the above, those are more the exception - there were a few collectors who had treated me kindly too.

5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2021?
I really want to try to do a better job of recording the cost of my cels. I never buy a cel to resell later (generally) so I don't tend to look or remember the prices I paid for my cels. But when I get offers I never really know how much I bought my cels for - i only have vague ideas so unless it's a really great offer - I end up not letting go.

6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2020 or for 2019, how true did you stay to it?
I don't think I posted any. This is a reflection of the fact that I was in dormant mode for 4-5 years. I'd buy something but i wasn't really involved or interacting. I'd even missed out on some items I really would've liked.