Ginga-- that's really sad that an essentially stolen cel is one of your most popular pieces. It certainly doesn't help to forget the whole experience, either... I'd hope that it's because people want to help you find it, though! I actually tried a google search of that image, but I think it's just a screen cap, right?
I hope it's returned to you someday!
Anyway, it's really interesting to see what are the top items in my gallery. Some I can understand, but others? A complete surprise! lol
#1: B't X Neo - The Final Blow
This is a pretty nice shot, but I never would have imagined it to be #1! This is the final blow that B't Madonna receives while trying to save her counterpart donor, MetalFace. This is one of the many scenes in the OVA that always gets me.
#2: Samurai Troopers - The Last Strike
Other than these top two sort of sharing the same theme, I'm not all that surprised that this one made it into the top three. This is the last strikes that Ryo takes in the onslaught by the armorless Mukara. He could have easily fought back, but realizing that this is exactly what his armor wants him to do (to fight, kill, destroy...), he refuses to let it control him...and gets wasted in the process. Poor boy.
#3: Gulkeeva - Crossed Swords
This is another surprise for me. Gulkeeva is a relatively unknown series by Sunrise back in 1995. Some really amazing cels from it were available some 15 years or so ago, but they've all seemed to disappear since then. The character designer is Hirai Hisashi, as you might have recognised his work especially from Gundam Seed or s-CRY-ed before that. Anyway, this particular cel is from the opening sequence in which it depicts the one-on-one battle between the main protagonist and antagonist, Touya and Lem, respectively. Although the art on this one is pretty lacking (lots of line fading and other problems), I like this shot the most because... these two characters never actually physically fight each other. This is the only instance in which you will ever see them engaged in battle. This *could* be because the series was cancelled after only one season even though the last episode had a pretty obvious cliffhanger that would lead into the next season. Pretty sad.
The item that I thought would have been higher on the popularity chart was the
Generator Gawl OP set of both White and Black wings. The white one comes in at #10 with the black following at #18. And for something like
this fan cel to beat it in 4th place...??? I'm really shocked.
