Sensei's 2015.04 Update: Just in time for Thanksgiving

[Jadeduo]

LOL that would be great but don't kill yourself! I always look forward to your quirky tours, maybe one day! With my moratorium on buying maybe I will get one done soon... Maybe...

That reminds me I've got to come up with my questions for the Open House!

I also wanted to reformat a section of my gallery to ask is this set up better or that set up?

So much to do, so little time!

JD

[sensei]

After a longish haitus, due to both my slow recovery from surgery and my getting used to a new teaching job, I've finally uploaded the last pieces of my final update for 2015.

Cel lovers have a treat in store: this update is about 50/50 plastic vs. paper for a change. So for acetate aficionados, here's the preview:

CCS Movie cels have come on the market in large numbers for the first time in more than a decade. I've been picky, but think the two I went for are the pick of the new crop:


Madoushi ensnares Sakura Came with the original matching background (sadly stuck to it with strips of celotape) and matches the start keyframe of a wonderful set of gengas that I'd previously gotten for this cut.


Sakura possessed by Madoushi These I remember were very avidly scrambled for back in the day, and so it was nice to see one of these reemerge in the recent crop.

And Tennimon was not neglected either:


Miruru taking orders from Dispel I've always liked the character design of this sly catgirl, and again it was a welcome surprise to see this one pop up after a long drought.

And my Golden Age collection got a wide-ranging boost. The big winner was the 1981 Sanrio film The Sea Prince and the Fire Child :


Syrius and Malta embrace and


Malta on the Hill of Moebius

And the 1980 TV series The Wonderful Adventures of Nils (Studio Pierrot's first project) also picked up two nice items:


Nils and Carrot survive a close shave and


Nils taken aback

Nils cels often come damaged or heavily faded, so it was nice to see items appear that were in relatively good shape like these. Another event was a new gallery featuring Yōsei Florence (Sanrio, 1985. This was a hugely expensive effort to produce an anime equivalent to Disney's Fantasia, which proved a domestic flop that took down Sanrio's entire animated film division with it. Cels from it seem nearly impossible to get -- I picked up one by accident in a grab-bag of minor items from Syrius/Sea Prince. Now I've gotten the two more needed to give this interesting project its first Rubberslug gallery.


Michael in flight He's the oboe-playing musician/gardener who attracts flower-fairy Florence's attention and gets a romantic night in her magical realm as a reward. Yes, in a controversial decision, there's even an implied sex scene And yes, Florence's companions decidely do not approve of the match:


Yōsei Florence being pulled away Notice: the fairy gowns and hair are painted in white cel paint on the back and airbrushed in pastel colors on the front. This one has endured a little damage, but it makes one wonder just how much time and labor it took to produce the cels that went into this long anime movie. All the trace lines are hand drawn, too.

And a cel for Blue Bird, too.


Mytyl is worried Not an important moment, but it's always interesting to see how complex Office Academy images always are.

OK, for sketch lovers, the big story is this item:


Wolf’s Rain: Kiba in Wolf Form Art from this important series has been around, but it's always been very competitive. It was an unexpected pleasure to see a high-end batch come up recently and go for the one that I really wanted.

And another highlight was adding two items to my small Fruits Basket collection (another new gallery). Especially two from an immediately recognizable moment close to the beginning of this saga:


Shigure (in dog form) barks at Kyo (in cat form) That set was surprisingly complete (many cuts were dismembered and sold sheet by sheet in the aftermath of this series' release), making it possible to do a simple reanimation of what happens to poor Yuki-mouse when Shigure-dog pops his head up so abruptly. And, happily, I could add:


The three Sohmas realizing that The Jig is Up.

From the classic cel period (but all paper), there's a new set from Pierrot's 1997 Hyper Police, a longtime passion of mine:


Natsuki in Jail This is from Episode 19, one that I and other collectors note is distinguished by unusually beautiful animation work. This is likely due to the influence of Takeyuki Yanase, a wide-ranging artist who stepped into this and many other anime series (notably Gravitation), contributing some memorable visual moments.

And the visually brilliant yuri series Yamibou gets another sketch set:


Eve/Hatsumi conforts Lilith Sensei doesn't swing this way even remotely and has to take a shower every time he does a screen grab to get off all the cooties. But dang! that art is good. And I've wanted a good Lilith for a long time, and to get one with Hatsumi in her Eve avatar is icing on the ... well, I like the art a lot.

And that leaves, as usually is the case ... Rozen Maiden, an event made the more interesting as a spate of high-end sketches from Studio Deen's 2013 continuation of the story now makes it possible for a new gallery devoted to Rozen Maiden Zurückspulen. All the new sketch sets come from the climactic Episode 12, where the two Juns from parallel universes meet and reconstruct Shinku from the doll parts that have survived from their worlds. And so now we get:


Younger Jun flying in just in time to save the day! (And I love that he's flying with the help of Kanaria's little doll umbrella!) And when the two Juns get Shinku put back together...


she has just as much attitude as ever. But that's OK, as the college-age Jun seems to have rather more of a relationship with


The gardener doll Souseiseki who likewise perishes in one narrative world and is put back together in another, and in gratitude


gives Older Jun this very passionate kiss on leavetaking. Don't ask me to explain the plot; as ANN says, it doesn't make a lick of sense. But it's an entertaining way to revisit the RM narrative world, and this version comes with nice shuusei roughs by senior animation director Kyuta Sakai (Higurashi). Nice ... nice ... but for sheer visceral pleasure, Sensei still turns to Season 1 Nomad roughs like this one of


Shinku trapped by Suigintou. For my money, no one ever gave Shinku so much internal fire as senior animation director Kumi Ishii. That's the sketch that I kept pulling out of the pile as I worked and marveling over.

That's it for 2015. While I have some things in the works, I will leave those for an early 2016 update and start work on the year-end retrospective soon. It's been another enjoyable year, with some dry spells but certainly enough action to make me feel that it's still a very good time to be in the anime art game. Enjoy!

[ReiTheJelly]

I love the new Madoushi cel; it's so rare to see color cels of this character.

[JWR]

Nice update.

The Yosei Florence cel the dresses almost look like flower petals.

[frozentime]

Wow, impressive update and beautiful additions. Thanks for finding the time top post with all that has been going on. Hope the recovery is going well!

[lunacels]

Brilliant additions!! I love them all! I wondered who beat me to that Miruru...so happy to see it went to you!

Thanks for sharing...I am looking forward to the next update! And I also wish you well in your recovery. I hope you're back to 100% very soon.

[cutiebunny]

Really lovely updates. I really like the emotion in Shinku's face. Definitely my favorite amongst the dolls.

[sensei]

Thanks, Rei, JWR, and Frozentime. It actually took me forever to put it together, as the box came before Halloween and I've not had a lot of energy left over from teaching. But doing a little at a time each day, scanning, researching, writing up, little by little got it all done.

Yes, I'm very happy with the Madoushi addition. These were very hard to find back when these were first released. One of the highest prices I paid for any cel was for a full-face Madoushi. I think I was lucky here because I was willing to work with the results of a previous owner's poor storage decisions. And I'm thoroughly bemused by the Yosei Florence cels. Hand tracing, custom air-brushing in color -- Sanrio must have spent an emperor's ransom on this project! It was a notorious flop at the Japanese box office, though fans of Sanrio's brief fling with animated feature films say it has many remarkable moments where music and visual fuse nicely.

Yeah, I knew I had internal competition for Miruru from another Rinkya user ... thanks for not being mad, luna. It is a nice cel in good shape, though the "original background" that came with it was not matching and had previously been used (and damaged) behind another cel. (I'm guessing it came with a cel from Toei's gift shop bargain bin as it was cut down in the same way.) And I like both Shinkus, CB, the Nomad one and the Studio Deen "rewind" one. But put the sketches side by side and there's no question who would win a Battle Royale bout: Kumi Ishii's version just has seven times the gumption that Kyuta Sakai's avatar can muster. (Attitude, yes, battle-seasoned staying power, no.) But "Rewind" is fun for what it is: an extended apology for a screwed up conclusion and efforts to make amends.

Thanks for good wishes, frozentime and lunacels. The tests since the surgery have been encouraging, and while I'll need to be vigilant for the rest of my life, I'm happy to have escaped the worst scenarios (hormone therapy, radiation, etc. etc.) I'm getting accustomed to the new internal wiring in my nethers, and that thankfully has not held up my social and work activities, though I now find that I need a nap EVERY day, not just on teaching days.

[KinoLRB]

It's so great to see this update, Sensei, and I'm glad to hear you're feeling well. The update was worth the wait. I love how sinister the Madoushi cel is (from a movie that I need to see), and the Kiba Wolf's Rain sketch is amazingly detailed, but I think my favorite is the Yosai Florence Being Pulled away. I'm not familiar with the movie, but the image is very sad and beautiful.

[sensei]

Thanks, Kino, for your kind words and comments on the gallery. Yes, do watch the CCS Movie 1, which I find a stronger effort than the second movie overall. Madoushi (voiced by the great Megumi Hayashibara [Lina Inverse, etc. etc.]) is one of the great tragic villainesses of recent anime. The final scene is heartbreaking: I still remember watching it with my daughter and both watching the credits roll and listening to the end theme play with tears in our eyes, as my anime-hating wife commented incredulously from her armchair, "And they show this to little kids in Japan?!?

(And don't miss Kikuko Inoue [Belldandy!] in a smaller but crucial role as Syaoran's Mom.)

And yes, I love both the wonderfully detailed Kiba sketch and the much simpler but exquisite Yosei Florence cel, damage and all. One wonders just how many other cels survived this lovely but doomed animated Titanic's plunge.

Weary ... but looking forward to holidays with family next week. Safe travel and restful days wished to all my followers!