2018 Year in Review & 2019 Cel/Sketch Resolutions

[sensei]

It's time for the YoR/Resolution thread! I began this post back in 2006, and with the help of Cutiebunny it's become a Rubberslug tradition for more than a decade. Now it returns for its 13th year. With the old year wrapping up, it's time to look back on its high (and low) points and make some plans for 2019.

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2017?

2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?

3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2017?

4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?

5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2018?

6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2018 or for 2017, how true did you stay to it?

I'll post my responses in a little while, but meantime, take a moment to look back and look forward.

[jiangdc]

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2018?
This year I graduated from several series that I thought I would never be able to obtain.

2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?
This year I met many friends that go to cons and was able to obtain several shikishi from artists I like.
Also, I was able to get in touch with one of my favourite Chinese mangakas. He also drew my favourite character from his manga for me.


3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2018?
My best Genga of this year

My best Cel of this year


4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?
Chinese Cel collection society is growing faster than my expectation. Hope we can still get cels we want at a reasonable price next year.

5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2019?
I hope people in my chat group spend more time researching and writing rather than just buying more collections. I need to make this thing happen by organizing more events and encourage people to dig into anime itself.

6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2018 or for 2017, how true did you stay to it?
80% true. I became more picky this year but still over-spent some money.

[Princess Nadia]

I look forward to this thread every year

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2018?

2018 has been my worst year in collecting terms. My family struggled real life hardships so I was unable to purchase artwork. Worse was I had to sell pieces to make ends meet. Despite this the few pieces I've brought I consider to be a much higher quality than my normal choices! such as this Ah! My Goddess op cel.
I had to sell in order to buy in addition to selling to meet bills.
This doesn't sound good but its taught me life lessons and changed how I value my art. AND my troubles are now finally over and I became a home owner
I'm not sure I've expressed myself well, but I hope you understand.

2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?

Nadia took a surge in popularity, driving the prices up. This meant my cels were easy to sell quickly and for a profit. I miss them BUT I've made a new friend. It's been wonderful talking cels/nadia/anime! Theres even hope of meeting up one day - I've always wanted to visit Italy!

3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2018?

Very easy question! My Roger Rabbit hanken!


As above, can't believe the high end quality of my new additions in a year full of uncertainties. She's already hanging on the wall and my whole family fell in love with her in a way I'd not seen before. No one questioned for a minute my purchasing such an expensive piece when we were struggling to buy food. I love my very supportive family They knew I'd made my own funding but I would still forgive them if there was some resentment as to why I'm buying cels at such a time.

4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?

I don't want to say this but - Brexit. The sharp fall of the pound. Our postal services are already noticeably diminished, putting off casual sellers from shipping to UK. I'm lucky to have a USA work address I can use but its a last resort thing. And typical we leave just as the EU sign a trade deal with Japan which would save a fortune in customs fees.

5. What cel/sketch related resolution do you want to make for 2019?

I want some bloody stunning Nadia's to fill the hole I have from those I was forced to sell. If it seems like I'm going on, it's not as bad as Im making out. I value my new friend more and I love that his collection already has some real gems!

Happy New Year!!!!!

[Princess Nadia]

My best Genga of this year

My best Cel of this year

Damn! Gorgeous art!!!

[jiangdc]

My best Genga of this year

My best Cel of this year

Damn! Gorgeous art!!!

Thank you！
I really love your AMG op cel
Good to hear you got rid of troubles

[sensei]

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2017?

Overall, this has been a good year for adding to and enriching the sketch art part of my holdings. Notably, I added two important sketch sets from Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, which has become both uncommon and expensive thanks to a recent exhibition honoring Arina Tanemura's contribution to manga.

Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne: Maron gets licked by Cute Kitty


Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne: Jeanne holds a wounded Sinbad

The fine but so-far under-rated series Asatte no Houkou got several fine updates including the first and last appearance of one of my favorite characters, the tricksy dea ex machina Kotomi.


Asatte no Houkou (Ep. 5) Kotomi’s first appearance


Asatte no Houkou (Ep. 12). Kotomi’s last appearance (an incredibly rare color test)

And, thanks to one of my increasingly rare visits to the Mandarake auction site ...


Asatte no Houkou: Karada-san in PJs (rough hanken sketch by Ikuko Itou)

Another major series, the Nomad first season of Rozen Maiden, also got two additions. This too is a series that has now been "found" by collectors with money to spend, and so prices for good sets have become increasingly hard to find and harder to win. But I'm not complaining: both of these were superb in quality.


Rozen Maiden: Suigintou kills Shinku (or so she thinks)


Rozen Maiden: Souseiseki apologizes to the clockmaker

Other series with good sketchwork additions included NieA-7, Wolf's Rain, Gegege no Kitaro (the CGI 5th series) and Ouran High School Host Club (a welcome development that will see more additions early in 2019.)

2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?

Most surprising was the appearance to two cels that presented authenticity issues.


CCS: Yue holding an unconscious Touya


MKR: Hikaru casts Fire Arrow

Both of these were virtually identical to other cels known to be held by RS collectors, so either they or the other cel had to be a forgery, or so I thought. Well, indeed, the CCS item turned out to be a very clever fake, and that gave me a chance to write up a long piece in my gallery explaining why it had to be so. The MKR item wasn't so easy to dismiss, and I wrote up another long piece on that one, concluding that it was possible that BOTH "identical" (or nearly so) cels were likely original production art. (Happily, I owned this other "identical" cel, plus a full set of gengas for this cut, making close comparison possible.)

3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2017?

That's easy:


Princess Tutu: Prince Mytho (shuusei genga by Ikuko Itoh)

Tutu is a major artwork, and Itou its creator, character designer, and principal animation director. So obtaining any piece of her art from this series was a major "holy grail" for me. This led to yet another of my too-long gallery descriptions, but I wanted to make sure that my attribution was more than just my desire for a "wish come true."

4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?

That too is easy, though not so enjoyable to relate. As I age and my situation changes, I'm finding it difficult to carry out the updating and regular maintenance that I used to enjoy. And so it is becoming more likely that I will need to make serious decisions about the ultimate disposition of my gallery. I'd like the bulk of it to go to an institution that will continue its conservation and provide access to researchers, as I'm more certain than ever that anime is a major artistic genre that will attract serious attention in the future.

5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2018?

Finish a complete catalog of my entire collection, cel-by-cel, sketch-by-sketch, douga-by-douga, with clear identification of how to find any single item that I own.

6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2018 or for 2017, how true did you stay to it?

The above was my 2017 resolution, and I did work on it very hard from time to time. But there are some "miscellaneous" boxes that need to be pulled out and indexed one by one, and it's work that gets mind-boggling after a while. So I'm not proud but also not ashamed: it's a big, necessary job, and every box I finish is work to the good that won't need to be done again (unlike changing cel bags.)

So in sum: more maintenance, more conservation and apt use of energy, and probably less auction browsing as I come to terms with the fact that I have a LOT of stuff which is extraordinarily important for the future study of the artform we all love and admire.

[cutiebunny]

Thank you for doing the honors this year, sensei. I've been about 2 weeks behind this holiday due to my mom being hospitalized and needing a pacemaker in December. I think this is the first year where I didn't put up a tree and instead I spent time putting one up for her, so yeah...it's been an odd feeling for someone who is so used to be prepared.

Just as with the last few years, I'm dividing this up by gallery/collection/experience.


1. What was the best thing that's happened collection-wise in 2018?

Collection - Eh, this was a really slow year for me. Highlights were the drunk Katyusha sketch from Takeshi Nogami, Lina Inverse sketch by and the Kero-chan ni Omakase cel of Sakura from Episode 33 without breaking my bank.

Experience - A certain convention decided to play fast and loose with immigration regulations. That certain convention also had their guest denied entry to the US.

Guess who denied them entry?



Also having dinner with a couple of Japanese artists was pretty fun. Boys can put away some chow.


2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?

Gallery - I updated less than in previous years. Too much overtime.

Collection - Just not buying as much as I did many years ago. Not sure if that's because the prices for certain things that I collect have skyrocketed over the past few years or I'm just too picky. Probably both.

Experience - Had a couple people come up to me this year and were familiar with the gallery. Lots of comments about enjoying my stories about each entry. It was really weird because I'm not the type of person that does anything for people to notice her collection. It's a very "take it or leave it" sort of thing with me.

Also met an artist at a convention this year who I had met years prior when he was still a newbie. He's changed for the worse. Showed him a picture that I had taken of a sketch he drew for me back then and he was not happy about it. That was sort of depressing. I was hoping he'd be a bit more excited that someone saw him back when he was just a junior animator.


3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2018?

Douga - Large chunk of Mercury's Aqua Rhapsody bank attack that I found while in Japan. Pricey AF.

Shikishi - Drunk Katyusha sketch

Nengajo - Hidaka Banri sketch from "Berry Berry". I had seen it years earlier and lost the auction, but it reappeared this year.


4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?

I've come to realize that with some of the prices things are selling for now that my buying days are mostly on hold. I'm not going to bother to compete with the Chinese market. If these collectors want to spend what amounts to me as round trip airfare to Japan for a Cardcaptor Sakura cel, I'm out.

I always observed the rule of buying things in this hobby because you like them and not because you were gonna resell them years later for a killing. I was ok with that because they held more value to me than other things that I could have bought with the same funds. I had written off all the CCS backgrounds I purchased as money I'd never see again because, who really wants a rando street background? But with the emergence of the Chinese collector market, I'm seeing even the most basic backgrounds hit $50+. It's a weird feeling when you've operated under the assumption that what you've collected mattered to you and maybe several others now matters to a lot of people with a lot of money.


5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2019?

Loft goal. Finish scanning and uploading the CCS backgrounds.

6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2018 or for 2017, how true did you stay to it?

I said that I'd only bid on things that I'd looked at several times before bidding, and I stayed true to that. I really did not buy that much artwork this year.

[sugarcels]

I've come to realize that with some of the prices things are selling for now that my buying days are mostly on hold. I'm not going to bother to compete with the Chinese market. If these collectors want to spend what amounts to me as round trip airfare to Japan for a Cardcaptor Sakura cel, I'm out.

I always observed the rule of buying things in this hobby because you like them and not because you were gonna resell them years later for a killing. I was ok with that because they held more value to me than other things that I could have bought with the same funds. I had written off all the CCS backgrounds I purchased as money I'd never see again because, who really wants a rando street background? But with the emergence of the Chinese collector market, I'm seeing even the most basic backgrounds hit $50+. It's a weird feeling when you've operated under the assumption that what you've collected mattered to you and maybe several others now matters to a lot of people with a lot of money.

Forgive me, I'm really out of the loop. What's this about Chinese collectors?

[cutiebunny]

Forgive me, I'm really out of the loop. What's this about Chinese collectors?

There are a lot of Mainland Chinese collectors that have entered the market within the last few years, driving the prices up for artwork from many older cel based series.

[GuyvarIII]

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2018?

I updated Devilman cels towards the beginning of 2018, and then more cels to my gallery in August and September of last year. The cels added later were from a variety shows, including: the 1960s 8-Man; 1980s-90s OVAs: 8-Man After, Queen Emeraldas, and Vampire Princess Miyu; Hentai OVA, Advancer Tina; Yaoi OVA, Ai no Kusabi; movies: Dirty Pair-Project Eden, Ninja Scroll, and Dagger of Kamui; and I added a new show, Tenamonya Voyagers.

2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?
and
3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2018?

I spent less time searching for cels in 2018, but I got quite a few awesome cels.

Some notable acquisitions include:
three pan, key set-ups from the Kawajiri classic, Demon City Shinjuku-


more oversized set-ups from the anime that started it all for me, The Guyver
(I have close ups on the right of the cels on the left)-


this stupendous cel of Queen Beryl from Sailor Moon reaching towards you-


the best opening cel I've seen from the Cutey Honey OVA, complete with "Flash!" written behind her-


And, after looking at it for years on Madoka's website, I broke down and purchased this drawing of Astharoshe Asran from Trinity Blood (I still feel a bit stupid for not getting a rilezu of her when I had the chance) -

4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?
and
5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2019?

I'm hopelessly behind in updating my Rubberslug gallery, and I hope to update it more frequently this year.

Happy New Year!

[graymouser]

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2018?
2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?

The answer for both of these questions is pretty much the same. It is that my collection has continued to expand. For a long time it seemed like I would never find the items I wanted to find. It seemed that each year I was buying less and less. Then this year I actually went up. I bought 11 cels in 2018. Admittedly that is nothing compared to 10 or even 5 years ago, but it did buck the trend.

3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2018?


I finally own a kenshin battousai cel. On top of that, it was a trade so the only cost involved was shipping.


4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?

Probably the same thing as last few years. I miss the heyday years when it was so easy to find gorgeous new cels on a weekly (sometimes daily) basis. I will continue to collect, but although I can hope this year will see many more purchases, I suspect that the cel market is going to continue to dwindle.

5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2019?

Hard to say. Maybe I will make a point of visiting this forum more often and not be such a lurker.

6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2018 how true did you stay to it?

Does not apply. I do not think I made any in the last few years.

[sugarcels]

Forgive me, I'm really out of the loop. What's this about Chinese collectors?

There are a lot of Mainland Chinese collectors that have entered the market within the last few years, driving the prices up for artwork from many older cel based series.

Ah, thank you! That explains a few things :/

[star-phoenix]

2019 has arrived!

1. What was the best thing that's happened to your gallery/collection in 2017?
Got a few wonderful Disney pieces.

2. What was the most surprising thing that happened to your gallery/collection this year?
I bought my first comic book cover art of my favorite DC sueprhero!

3. Which piece were you most proud of acquiring in 2018?
http://starphoenix.rubberslug.com/galle ... mID=423805

4. What's something that concerns you about your collecting experience?
How expensive it is! Yipes!

5. What cel/sketch-related resolution do you want to make for 2018?
Keep spending wisely and no impulse buys.

6. If you posted a cel/sketch-related resolution for 2018 or for 2017, how true did you stay to it?
Stayed pretty true.