What are these sketches?

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:04 pm

Are these Rilezu sketches? No one bid on any of them:

http://page5.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/e109363264

http://page7.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g96380958

http://page10.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/m87615143

Post by **sensei** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:54 pm

They look to be individual dougas from the ecchi series Queens Blade released by the studio for sale. I've gotten douga sets for some CGI series that probably would be good enough to break up and sell individually, and Fruits Basket and Chobits were popular enough for this practice to become fairly common.

But 1575 yen is a fairly expensive opening price for a single douga from a series that seems to rate no better than "decent" ANN. Though of course chest size may count for something among some groups of collectors.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 2:54 pm

I thought it was strange because of the printed tags on them. I thought those might be Rilezu tags, but I have no idea how the Rilezu tags look.

They didn't straight look like Rilezu or production sketches either.

But they're not in an obscure YJ category and no one bid on any of them so I thought it was rather odd.

Post by **sensei** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 4:31 pm

It's possible that the studio thought they could sell the dougas separately from the rilezu. Or that they could make the best dougas into rilezu and still sell the extras as well. In any case, it suggests that they overestimated the demand for art from this series. Though probably good douga from a more highly rated series might well bring in 1575 yen a pop.

Not knowing the series (and my brief visit to ANN did not make me very curious about it), I can't say. It is an puzzlement, as you say.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 9:39 pm

I wonder if this will be the start of a new trend.

Some people have sold off their Rilezu sketches before, but this looks different from those other ones.

Would people buy Rilezu sketches if they drew those?

klet · Post by **klet** » Sun Apr 17, 2011 10:11 pm

Well, each auction says that the seller chose the nicest sketch to display, and that there may be sketches without eyes or mouths (and probably some of just eyes and mouths), so I think it's safe to say that there is probably more than one douga per auction. They may even be entire cuts.

Queen's Blade is an odd case. All reviews rate it as average at best. But, there seems to be a fair number of fans of it--and the merchandise seems fairly popular. At least, they keep releasing figures and such. I suppose it just hits its target audience.