The Last of Sensei's 2012 Upgrade Thread: Mayan Doomsday!

[teggacat]

wonderful updates!
as usual I find the Palme cels beautiful and rather moving,
the Rozen is always stunning,
and I agree with Rei, the Condition Green squirrel-thingy is so neat!
Great job! And YAY for your 10th!

[cutiebunny]

I liked the Sirius no Densetsu cel. It's amazing to see cels that old so well preserved, especially with the airbrush effect.

[sensei]

That squirrel-thing from Condition Green sure is cute!

It's a pity that actual footage is so inaccessible. I've been tempted to get a used LD player on eBay just to see if the laser discs I have will run on it in raw Japanese. Yeah, the psychedelic squirrels and Bad Girl are amazing character design.

as usual I find the Palme cels beautiful and rather moving,
the Rozen is always stunning,
and I agree with Rei, the Condition Green squirrel-thingy is so neat!

A Tree of Palme is the classic great anime that is just not very good in parts. The art is crazy good, production qualities are over-the-top, and in places it's unforgettably intense. But much of the plot is murky in bad, generic-action-plot ways. One must be thankful for the great parts and tolerant of the dross.

Yes RM is always exciting to get hold of. I wish that RS still had the option to show oversized items in something bigger than 550 px wide, as it's hard to get the impact of those pan gengas without seeing them in their enormity. And I think Kimiko Tamai is destined for bigger things. (My current "Featured Gallery" image is a Tamai rough from Ep. 2.)

Condition Green 2, Cardcaptor Sakura 0

I liked the Sirius no Densetsu cel. It's amazing to see cels that old so well preserved, especially with the airbrush effect.

The trace lines are all hand-drawn in colored ink, which gives the cels their long-lived sharpness. But that airbrushing is incredibly fragile. When I saw the cel in the dry-cleaner's bag, I figured this was going to be a tragedy. But while there is a tiny bit of wear, it's so minor it's not visible except on close inspection. Putting it on the scanner (it took two passes to get it all) was hair-raising. I had to protect half the cel each time with a sheet of polypro or the frame of the platen would scratch off the wings. They don't make cels like that any more.

[theultimatebrucelee]

...Condition Green!!!!!! lol my favor is the Rozen Maiden Pan, interesting camera angle.

[Quacker]

Congratulations on yourDecade anniversary Sensei. Here's to a few more decades full of 'Quirky Tours' & 'Sensei checks' while shining a spotlight on those little known or under-appreciated anime gems.

Out of your latest additions, it is a toss up between your Cardcaptors & Rozen Maiden as to which I liked the most (but if I had to call it - it would have to be the Rozen's by a little plastic nose)!

Oh very nice Gallery background pic too!

[sensei]

Congratulations on yourDecade anniversary Sensei. Here's to a few more decades full of 'Quirky Tours' & 'Sensei checks' while shining a spotlight on those little known or under-appreciated anime gems.

Thank you Quacker. While my retirement budget will never make me a big hitter on the BWA, there are still lots of eyeworthy things available for decent prices. I won't ever be adding stuff as I was doing in 2003-07, but I reckon I'll hang in there to see what comes up for sale next.

Out of your latest additions, it is a toss up between your Cardcaptors & Rozen Maiden as to which I liked the most (but if I had to call it - it would have to be the Rozen's by a little plastic nose)!

The "Gallery of the Year" competition is shaping up to be a tight one. Both these series are in the running, but don't count out Blue Bird or Tennimon, both of which got strong additions this time also.

Oh very nice Gallery background pic too!

That's the Chesapeake Bay on a brilliant afternoon. While I'm sadly not near any important metropolitan area, retirement in Cephiro has its amenities.

[Tsunami3k]

That's the Chesapeake Bay on a brilliant afternoon. While I'm sadly not near any important metropolitan area, retirement in Cephiro has its amenities.

Ahh memories. Your gallery and collection are quite nice (particularly the CCS cels) but I must admit that your picture of Chesapeake Bay was highly evocative. I've lived in the Midwest all my life (currently a couple of hours drive from Curt at Anime Asylum HQ) but I spent a fair amount of my youth visiting my grandparents on Gwynn's Island on Chesapeake Bay. I have many similarly sparkly photos of the Bay from many years past which, oddly or not, triggers a similar mechanic as those unusually sentimental cels that move me in some unseen way.

Cheers on the excellent gallery and thanks for the oblique (and unanticipated) nostalgia buff!

[sensei]

A newbie! A newbie!



Welcome to Anime-Beta, Tsunami3k. Feel free to post, comment, and ask questions about anything. It's been quiet this summer, and we're in need of some mental exercise. And thanks for your comments on my gallery. It's been an interesting, and mostly good ten years.

Heh. You were on the Autozam side of the Cephironean landscape. I bet on a clearer day you could see Gwynn's Island in the distance from the dock where I took this photo. (As it was, I was fascinated by the osprey who had built a jack-straws nest on one of the pilings in the harbor and was energetically bringing fish back to her nestlings.)

[tex-chan]

Happy 10 year anniversary, Sensei!! I think your gallery just gets better and more fun with time, so here's to at least another 10 years. (or 20 ... 30 ... etc. One can never have too much of your lovely collection!)

I loved all the new additions. As always, there were some evocative and thought-provoking pieces in this round. And I loved every moment of reading descriptions and information.

And the quirky tour -- my favorite so far!! It was fun to see your "humble" (not really -- you had a sense of style from the very beginning!) beginnings!!

Cheers to you, my friend. And many happy returns.

[sensei]

Happy 10 year anniversary, Sensei!! I think your gallery just gets better and more fun with time

It certainly has evolved from the 2000-2003 emphasis on CCS and the fairly narrow CCS/MKR/TnN emphasis of 2004-05. By expanding my interests, I've probably escaped the fate of some other galleries that have had more narrow interests and so have grown dormant as the supply of art has dwindled. It's certainly a different market now, but so long as I keep finding eyeworthy art, I'll keep collecting and updating (not as often).

As always, there were some evocative and thought-provoking pieces in this round. And I loved every moment of reading descriptions and information.

Thanks for your commitment, Tex! The longer period between updates encourages me to write up longer commentaries, which makes sense as sometimes the series is not familiar to many visitors. It was interesting to revisit my 2002 uploads and see how short the comments were. Well, CCS was a major-league show then, and so people didn't need or want a lot of comment. Now, with the Pioneer DVDs out of print and selling at prices that rival the cels, newcomers need a hint to let them know that this isn't your typical moe cute-magical-girl series.

I admit that at times I go on. But at least in an online gallery the constant push is to look at the image and not read the comment. That's fine. Lots of times my comment is saying in one way or another, "Stop reading, and go back and look at the scan!" But I do appreciate your conscientiousness, Tex, and I hope you update soon so I can repay the favor.

And the quirky tour -- my favorite so far!! It was fun to see your "humble" (not really -- you had a sense of style from the very beginning!) beginnings!!

It was very interesting to pull back to my first couple of cels -- almost all off-beat and a-kilter in some way. Some of this is just inexperience -- "OMG, it's Sakura in the xxxx battle costume, hanyaaaaaan!!!" But it was intriguing to see me develop from what I really liked in these first cels to a collector's eye that led me to much better buys over time.

I think all of us could learn from beginnings. But what is important is that they are where you start from, and look back to only to judge how far one has come. As T. S. Eliot justly said,

Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity.

[Tsunami3k]

Welcome to Anime-Beta, Tsunami3k. Feel free to post, comment, and ask questions about anything. It's been quiet this summer, and we're in need of some mental exercise. And thanks for your comments on my gallery. It's been an interesting, and mostly good ten years.

Thanks for the warm welcome. I'm not quite a newbie but not really a grizzled veteran either. I attempted to purchase a couple of AMG cels from as far back as 6 or 7 years ago from a seller on eBay. They were flaky about getting them delivered in a timely manner so I got paranoid and canceled. A few years later I began to organize trips for my anime club to Asylum Anime which have since come to be known as "Curt Con"s. He's got quite a few cels so I finally dipped my toes in with an El Hazard OP of Miz Mishtal, an AMG:Movie cel of Peorth and a few Azumanga Daioh and Genshiken production sketches. It's probably fair to say that both cel were mid-grade but it was more than enough to set the hook pretty deep.

All in all, I can still count my cels on [exactly] one hand but my subsequent additions have been much nicer. Sadly, most cel collecting communities have withered as have sellers since I first started looking into collecting cels myself so locating new sources of material of any substance to sift through has become challenging. Still, I hold out hope that there are the occasional gems to be found; I just hope that I can manage to keep my fledgling collection growing.

Your description of your evolution as a collector was interesting. I think I'll re-visit your gallery with that bit of history in mind.

[sensei]

All in all, I can still count my cels on [exactly] one hand but my subsequent additions have been much nicer. Sadly, most cel collecting communities have withered as have sellers since I first started looking into collecting cels myself so locating new sources of material of any substance to sift through has become challenging. Still, I hold out hope that there are the occasional gems to be found; I just hope that I can manage to keep my fledgling collection growing.

It's certainly a changing environment and one that is changing the collecting community. I think the growing role of deputy services like SMJ (which now also includes Japanese sales sites) is one thing that has made stateside sellers less and less profitable. Why wait for a US dealer to buy it and sell it to you for a markup when you can get it for less on Yahoo Japan, even with commissions, shipping, etc.?

But another factor that is working to collectors' advantage is the aftermarket as curators who built collections during the "glory days" lose interest and begin to liquidate their holdings. Some of my nicest additions this year have come via this route. It does require patience and vigilance, but I still think it's a good time to be collecting. Especially when people like myself look at the row of cel books and ask ourselves, "Isn't this the anime art collection you originally wanted to have when you started out?" That question makes it progressively harder and harder to justify going after "just one more" wishlist, and leaves room for newbies to build good collections.

Good luck, tsunami3k. Certainly Curt is the person to befriend if you're interested in AMG cels!

[rosesleep]

From an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s sad children’s story, The Little Match Girl (But which version? And is it even anime? All I know is that frames from the same adaptation were used as part of a Japanese staged production of the tale, publicity photos of which I found online.

O___________________________________O !! I love this one! It has that children's illustration appeal to it, that is a fantastic find! Aye, I'm jealous

[sensei]

The Little Match Girl
O___________________________________O !! I love this one! It has that children's illustration appeal to it, that is a fantastic find! Aye, I'm jealous

Thank you, rosesleep. I liked that one as soon as I saw it, and figured it would not be hard to track down what it was. "Little Match Girl" seems to be enormously popular in Japan, and there's a t-shirt that's commonly sold on YHJ with a really sinister image of her holding something like an incendiary torch that makes her look as if she's come back as a yurei with a serious grudge against society or has been reincarnated as Evie in V for Vendetta. All of which would make an anime version well worth watching, with "Hello Kitty" as the protagonist or without.

But the source remains a mystery after a lot of hunting. I'm guessing it is an illustration from a children's book (I saw some lovely cels used for this purpose at an exhibition of original children's book art last summer) but would appreciate any tips or suggestions from other collectors.

[sensei]

I'd normally wait until my November upgrade to add new items. But since there was interest among other collectors in this lot, I figured I'd put these new additions up early.

The pan gengas from The Light Card's first appearance in CCS Ep. 42.

They are impressive images, as befits this moment, and the sketches (as often happens) reveal interesting things about the studio process of making the anime. For non-Sakuraphiles, this scene is the major turning point in the series, and The Light and her twin sister The Dark, prove to be the Cardcaptor's most powerful cards. The studio obviously took pains with it: the cut before seems to have been animated at least twice, and perhaps three times, judging from the number of rejected cels that have come on the market. And now it looks as if The Light Card cut also was retooled at a very late stage, with a significant costume design change.

I expected trouble with all the sketches, as anime studios seem to have stocked giant rolls of the cheapest imaginable transparent adhesive tape and used it for every imaginable purpose. The adhesive is highly acidic, and it literally burns the paper brown within a few years of its application. That's why I asked for the lot as soon as it arrived at SMJ's US facility, so I could get it into my lab and do the long-overdue celotapectomy. While all the sketches were damaged to some extent, I was able to get quite a bit off with just some yellowing around the edges of the tape.

Happily, the most impressive one is the least damaged, as it was done on one huge sheet of paper without joins. And all are well worth a look.