Shadows on White Gallery Updates

[Rekka Alexiel]

Your newest additions are gorgeous! Congrats on adding them. I always love seeing new B'tX and YST artwork in your gallery!!

Thanks, texie! Sorry it took me so long to respond to your post! xP

I recently took a look through a bunch of cel sketches I had stored away and I got to wondering why such gorgeous sketches were merely locked away for years with such little love. So, I just scanned a bunch of them and will be adding them to specific Sketch categories in my gallery. Many of the sketches were purchased as sets with their corresponding cels, but others were purchased separately. Here's a few that I've added thus far.

[Rekka Alexiel]

Wah! I had such an awesome day today!! I'm still quite freaking out about it.

First of all, it started out pretty bad. I had purchased 2 tickets to the jdk Band Acoustic live concert for today well in advance, hoping to snag a friend to come with me. I succeeded in snagging someone along sometime last week, but then I get a message the day before the concert that he can no longer come do to being "broke". -_- I really wish that he could have projected a little further into the future to have known that he couldn't afford the 2,000yen ticket price and transportation. I sent emergency messages to plead for someone else to go with me...but with the short notice, of course, no one could come, so I ate the cost of the unused ticket and went alone, as usual (I don't know why I even bother buying 2 tickets any more; I'll just go alone from now on and be lonely *angry pout*).

So, now that I was expecting to go to the concert alone, I decided to make a quick stop into Nakano Broadway before heading over to the concert hall in Kabukicho, Shinjuku. I usually always stop by the Mandarake display cases and then the store first, then head down the hall to Shop Commit... and as I was flipping through the cels in Mandarake...... I about died when I found this:


Of course, I knew what it was the second I laid eyes on it. It was a matching sequence mate to a cel I previously bought back in 2005...an opening sequence cel from my top series, B't X Neo (my older cel is A11 and this new one is A14). Not only that but the price was insane, just a mere 840yen! I'm just sooooo glad that they didn't know what sort of a gem they had! I'd rather not think of how much I'd be willing to pay for it had it gone to auction... *gulp*

Anyway, the above image is just a quick pic that I made with my iPhone. I'll be scanning it and adding it to my gallery within the next couple days, probably tomorrow.

So, even though the day started out kinda bad and I was upset to be going to the concert alone, I was well rewarded later on!! I guess I'm just meant to be a loner. *sigh*

[sensei]

"Sheep and goats walk in herds. A tiger walks alone ... fearlessly ... to the destined place."

Oh, and happy Year of the Snake to you and to everyone!

[BuraddoRun]

Congratulations on your find! It's a great feeling to be in the right place at the right time to find a steal like that! Sorry about the bail-out for the concert, but hopefully you will still enjoy it and hey, you can just pretend you paid 2840JPY for your cel.

[theultimatebrucelee]

that's a pretty sweet op cel right there, congrats! it also sounds like living in Japan is a lot of fun...and perhaps you can even open your own Rekka Channel on ebay for all those unseen cels at mandarake

and happy Year of the Snake to you and to everyone!

Thanks sensei! hopefully I get the motivation to work harder and smarter this year, my year and all lol

[HigurashiArchives]

Wow what are the odds of that happening?! To find your cel's "sister cel" after about 7 years, thats awesome! And for so cheap too! Congrats! You should play the lottery before all your good luck runs out lol.
Also, a cat is fine too.

[sensei]

Meant to add: even your cat likes the cel!

[Rekka Alexiel]

"Sheep and goats walk in herds. A tiger walks alone ... fearlessly ... to the destined place."

Perhaps...it's still lonely. I'm usually pretty shy at the actual event, so meeting new people is kinda difficult. :p

Oh, and happy Year of the Snake to you and to everyone!

Oh yeah! I'm sad to see my buddy the dragon leave for another 12 years, but I'm hoping the snake will bring some much needed change this year! Happy Chinese New Year, everybody!

Congratulations on your find! It's a great feeling to be in the right place at the right time to find a steal like that! Sorry about the bail-out for the concert, but hopefully you will still enjoy it and hey, you can just pretend you paid 2840JPY for your cel.

I know, right!? I have had, on occasion, found some rare stuff on my trips into Nakano, but I've never encountered such a find as this!! Truly amazing! Finding this beauty definitely helped to forget how upset I was not to find someone to tag along with me to the concert...not to mention not even getting a response back from half of the people I asked... Seriously need to rethink who my friends are. *sob*

that's a pretty sweet op cel right there, congrats! it also sounds like living in Japan is a lot of fun...and perhaps you can even open your own Rekka Channel on ebay for all those unseen cels at mandarake

Yeah, I always like going into Nakano. It's a fun and crazy place. You never know what you'll find there! And I've learned how great Twitter can be-- after going to all these concerts and stuff, I've followed many musicians and composers and it's really heartwarming that they'd even respond back to some of my tweets. It was funny; I sent a general "thanks for the fun time at the concert last night" "I bet I really stood out as the only foreigner in the crowd" sort of tweet to all the band members, and the guitarist wrote back and said, "I saw you!" haha Pretty funny! You can also see me at the very end of the Nico Nico broadcast of the event when they panned out. Quite funny.

And I'd love to set up something like that on YouTube...but there are specific rules at Mandarake and the like that don't allow customers to take photos or videos of the goods. I know I've seen them in the past and it's been great to see...but I think that specific person got special permission to do that. :p On the other hand, I made many videos of flipping through my own cel books one time when I was bored. I had them all up on my RS site but took most of them down because it made the whole page load slower. There should still be one up, though, and from that you can find all the others.

Wow what are the odds of that happening?! To find your cel's "sister cel" after about 7 years, thats awesome! And for so cheap too! Congrats! You should play the lottery before all your good luck runs out lol.

Yeah, quite amazing!! I'll be giddy about it for some time, I'm sure!!

Also, a cat is fine too.

Meant to add: even your cat likes the cel!

Heehee, I know!! She loves to photobomb my stuff! xP Of course, I can't help but leave a little leeway for her to do it! xP

[tex-chan]

That is a super awesome find, Rekka! I'm happy that your day turned around. Just think: if you had gone to the concert with someone else, you wouldn't have found this wonderful prize. So it worked out really great in the end. Yay! Congrats on your amazing find!

[theultimatebrucelee]

I remember seeing those videos visiting your site for the first time. thought that was a pretty cool way of sharing collection and commentaries are nicer and more expressive when its heard than read
it a shame mandarake don't allow photos, perhaps thats their business strategy to make people visit often, sucks for people who don't live nearby though lol

[BuraddoRun]

I took a trip to Japan a few years back. At the time, the Playstation 2 had recently been released there and was not yet available in the U.S. I went to a video game store and saw a giant stack of them and tried to take a picture, but the shop owner came and asked me not to take any photos. So it's probably some common business practice, though I don't exactly follow the logic.

[Rekka Alexiel]

That is a super awesome find, Rekka! I'm happy that your day turned around. Just think: if you had gone to the concert with someone else, you wouldn't have found this wonderful prize. So it worked out really great in the end. Yay! Congrats on your amazing find!

Yeah, I was really quite upset that 2 out of like 20+ friends that I contacted actually got back to me with an answer. It's such a great feeling to be ignored... so definitely finding this beauty really helped me cheer up. I just made a scan and added it to the gallery.

I remember seeing those videos visiting your site for the first time. thought that was a pretty cool way of sharing collection and commentaries are nicer and more expressive when its heard than read

Oh gosh, I'm like the worst commentator. They were fun to make, for sure, but I can only imagine how stupid I sounded... heh

it a shame mandarake don't allow photos, perhaps thats their business strategy to make people visit often, sucks for people who don't live nearby though lol

True. Shop Commit's had a really gorgeous harmony cel from Fushigi Yuugi in the display case for many months now... It's got a hefty price tag but I'm sure some dedicated collector would go for it. It's curious he hasn't put it on YJ yet. And I would totally visit more often if I lived closer. xD

I took a trip to Japan a few years back. At the time, the Playstation 2 had recently been released there and was not yet available in the U.S. I went to a video game store and saw a giant stack of them and tried to take a picture, but the shop owner came and asked me not to take any photos. So it's probably some common business practice, though I don't exactly follow the logic.

That's kinda weird. With pieces of art, I can kind of understand why they wouldn't want you to take photos of them... but stacks of gaming consoles? I don't quite get that one. heh

And tell me if this has happened to you before... I was looking through some of my cel boxes to find a specific cel to rescan...when I realized I never added several cels to the gallery? I probably had them for several years since I totally don't remember anything about when I got them, from where, etc. ^^; The brain just doesn't work these days. :p



I have a couple others to add, but it's already past midnight...and I'm wasted. One more day this week!!

[Rekka Alexiel]

Waaaah! I'm such a social idiot! xD Wait for it...

So, today I went into school on Saturday to cheer on my JH students or their annual Gasshokon, a sort of class choir competition. My students did pretty well, too. I think they only award 1st-3rd place to the 3rd years (even if they weren't all that great!!); I was really surprised when some of the younger classes didn't win a trophy but only an award for their "gakunen" aka graduating class.

After this event, I went on a spontaneous trip to Nakano Boradway and stopped to browse at Anime Shop Commit, where I ran into a fellow Rubbersugger! lol What's funny is how she figured out who I was...when she saw me purchasing a couple cels of Ryo from Samurai Troopers. xD But, being the awkward little geek that I am, I forgot to ask who she was! All I know is she collects from CCS. xP If this said CCS collector also stops by here... please feel free to kick me for being an idiot! orz

But anyway, will have a couple new things to add from today. I'm still quite exhausted from the week...and I've got more plans tomorrow and another interview at a college on Monday.... so I'll try to upload these new additions soon!!

[Rekka Alexiel]

I have a bunch more updates that need to happen in the next couple days, but I was wondering if specifically Nuku Nuku fans might be able to ID these cels and their corresponding episode number? Flipping through cels at ASC today, I couldn't resist these funny ones.


Natsume Kyusaku & Rie (Unmatching BG)


Unknown character w/ matching BG?

I also found this recently... not the greatest shot of Aya but it *is* an OP cel. I liked the character design in this shot... doesn't it resemble designs from Virus Buster Serge or something similar...? If anyone knows who was the actual design chief for the 1st OP, could you please let me know?? I scanned this with another unmatching BG.


Other updates will include Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, Senritsu no Stratus, and a B't X douga.

EDIT: I've finally gotten around to adding these couple to the gallery now. Feel free to take a look at the links below!

[Rekka Alexiel]

*sigh* so I'm having a really crap day and I come here to vent. ;p

First thing in the morning, I found out that I forgot about an auction for a gorgeous cel from my beloved B't X and thusly lost. If only those outbid notices could somehow trigger an alarm and wake me up in the middle of the night, I wouldn't have forgotten about it... This is the first time in a very long time it's felt this bad to lose an auction...

Secondly, people who sat next to me in the commute to work were so smelly (one was obviously a heavy smoker and the other massive BO) that it killed my nose, setting off another great sinus attack. *sneeze*

Thirdly, monthly woes and cramps. This is partially subdued with DRUGS. ...and here I just realized I forgot the rest at school and I have none at home. Ugh.

Fourthly, all foreign teachers had a meeting with the principal to discuss our fate with the university. They somehow want the JH kids to be able to speak more English so they want to decrease the number of foreign teachers from 6 to 4. I so love this logic. He also said they want to create an English village (???) on campus. Oh, and the very first thing he said was that I, being the only non-direct hire, will be replaced by some professor from Canada at the end of July. This I pretty much knew, but still hearing my fate like that at the beginning of the meeting pretty much made being there at all pointless.

So I'm really depressed now. I left work at 1pm because all students were finished taking exams and I've completed my grades early. I won't go into school tomorrow since nothing is going on at all. I'll go in for first period on Thursday to return exam results to my HS students and will probably leave early then, too.

And shall I also mention this nearly maddening crush I have on one of the guy Japanese teachers. It started way back in May of last year, too; I don't know how I'm still sane. He's cute, quirky, insanely musically talented... I feel like I'm one of those annoying characters in anime or jdramas who can't bring themselves to ever tell the person how they feel. It just makes me all the more depressed.

And then I think about not being at this school again and how I'll never get to hang out with these cool people (not just my crush) and I find myself crying. I've never had such a great working experience before and knowing it's all coming to an end and I still don't have another prospective job to fall back on...

I'm going to try and drown my pathetic sorrows in the things I love...as much as I can, anyway. I may make a massive update to my gallery a bit latter, so if I do, I'd really love to hear your comments or just say hi. I'm so dumb and always feel like I'm alone even when I know I'm not... I'm probably not making sense any more so I'll shut up now..... What a pity party...