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© JW, march 2002
It’s an activity as painful as it is addicting. The tension invites headaches and nasia as fingers shake from the weight of uncertainty. Tears of sweat rain down as the numbers on screen begin their ascent. Voices ring out in urgency but the buyer is aware of only themselves. Last month it was next to worthless. A week ago it’s value increased by the hundreds. Yesterday a new development came to light, rendering today’s numbers hopelessly unpredictable. It isn’t the stock market. It’s the world of what is increasingly one of the most competitive, and expensive, markets around; that of cel collecting.
Just as snowflakes become sheets of ice on the ground, these thin pages of plastic, called acetate, are as individual as they are plentiful, combining to create a visual experience. Each bears a unique hand painted image which is used in a sequence with others to produce the film for an animated production. The illusion of movement is accomplished with thousands of still frames, every one subtly different than those that come before and after, so that when shown in rapid succession a solitary cel blends smoothly into the next.
While cels from the same sequence can be almost identical, each is hand made with the same level of care and the quantity to a sequence is limited. As over the years cels are separated through destruction or, ultimately, distribution, many become lost, damaged or part of a personal collection. Entire sequences, therefore, rarely exist to be acquired. It is not uncommon for even partial sequences, such as an individual cel, to be impossible to find. It is in fact not unusual for companies to withhold or destroy the cels that made up an entire movie or series, once production has ended.
Gainax, famous even outside Japan for their pivotal series, Neon Genesis Evangelion, is believed to have burned almost all of the original cels from the series. “It was too much to store,” theorizes one longtime collector, Kristin. “You can’t just put them in a room because they’ll melt, they’ll bleed. [They need] air conditioning. And it’s a lot of storage space. They were sick of paying bills for storage and they didn’t want to release them.” As to why the company felt this way... “A hundred million people want to know,” Kristin attests with vehemenence. She speculates that select cels were given as gifts or even bonuses to employees while the bulk of them were destroyed to retain the value of what was remaining.
Anime is a unique approach to animation which holds the product’s aesthetic on a higher level than do most members of this industry, including even the most famous of those based in the US. As a result, fans of the Japanese style, specifically, tend to be an artistically minded audience, gravitating en masse toward merchandising which spotlights the artwork. From posters and wall scrolls to artbooks documenting images from and inspired by individual features, enthusiasts hungrily absorb the work in a variety of available formats. Cel collectors simply take this venture to a higher level by focusing on the more expensive pieces, prized not only for their rarity, but for their active role in the production process of the title of interest.
Through the introduction of online auction sites and the increased awareness of anime through major television networks worldwide, this singular diversion is steadily gaining global appeal. No longer limited to distributors in Japan, sellers have surfaced from distant countries like Germany and Italy and international demand has increased to the point that major Japanese chains have expanded to key locations in the US and Europe, for example. The two biggest Japanese retailers, Animate and Mandarake, have each branched out into Los Angeles, California and according to our sources Mandarake is also opening up shop in Paris, France.
Equally as diverse are the ages of practiced and would-be collectors. Some adult collectors in the US were just children when Astro Boy, the first anime series acquired from over seas, first premiered here. Today’s generation of youngsters are more familiar with the medium than ever as they are introduced to a rapidly expanding array of anime made available on network and cable tv. Kids as young as eleven and twelve who are beginning to understand the animation process are already soliciting certain retailers. Unfortunately, the costly nature of the collectible usually reserves satisfaction for whoever has the most money when the desired cel shows up on the market.
The competition has reached new levels of intensity only in recent years. Controversy abounds over the benefits and disadvantages of popular auction sites like eBay and Yahoo Japan. Increased availability leads to increased awareness which in turn leads to heightened demand and higher prices. In addition, the more people who participate, the fewer cels there are to go around. While bidding is fierce, many buyers can’t complain when they consider that without these sources they would still not have access to a distributor. “If you’re in...the middle of nowhere you can buy it [on eBay] and it gets shipped to you,” notes Kristin.
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The amplified connectivity also broadens opportunity for individuals to track down cels from select shows of interest. Serious collectors have turned the Internet to their advantage and established lines of communication between groups and individuals who would otherwise be rivals. The community has become an inclusive one in which members advise one and other of delinquent bidders, untrustworthy sellers and the legitimacy of items sold, among other things. Cels being one of a kind, collectors can often recognize when a cel recently purchased is being resold for profit and such persons can become blacklisted among informed sellers.
Contrarily, sincere fans innocent of such scandals are welcomed appreciatively into the community. Building a positive relationship with other collectors is the most promising method to successfully acquire sought after cels, often at a fragment of the normal expense. Almost every person who partakes in the hobby has a favorite show or character designer that they prioritize in their buying. As collectors come together they are able to help one and other out. If one person has a cel of someone else’s favorite character and that person has access to a cel the first one wants, the two of them can orchestrate an exchange. At times, distributors will even remove certain cels from their inventory before offering the rest for purchase, reserving them for someone they already know who will cherish it.
In contradiction to the stock market, profit is not necessarily the priority for those who understand the true spirit of the endeavor. “I’d rather give you this cel for ten dollars rather than sell it for a hundred because I know you won’t resell it [since] that’s what you’re looking for,” explains Kristin. Her friend Chris also points out that it’s courteous not to resell for at least a year if the desire arises to part with it afterward.
Unfortunately, getting involved in the community does not protect the collector from those excruciating instances when a cel off their wish list suddenly becomes available and only to the highest or quickest bidder. Frequently, online retailers finalize sales just minutes after posting them to their sites, rendering it inevitable for collectors to miss out on desired cels almost daily.
Meanwhile, those with the ability to visit Japan can find cels at distributors there in vast quantities. And series that are just becoming known in other countries are even likely to be old news in their native land, thus allowing would-be sellers to stock up. A cel retailing presently at sixty dollars can easily fetch three hundred if, for example, the series is televised in the US, Kristin notes. But the value will not be consistent. What was worth eighty dollars in January might resell for two hundred in February, she adds. The numbers can be drastically affected by all manner of things, such as when a station decides to drop a show from the lineup or a major holiday inflicts temporary nation-wide poverty.
As cel collecting enters into its golden years of prosperity, technology casts a dark shadow across the future of painted acetate. Conventional animation, still hand drawn by the artists, is now being colored on the computer. Gradually, paint is being calculated out of the equation in favor of the more precise and expedient programs now available. Collectors are now having to face the harsh realty of productions for which there are and never were cels to collect. Modern hits like Xebec’s Love Hina and Studio Ghibli’s My Neighbors the Yamadas may look like cel art, but the best a fan can hope to come by will be the pencil sketch.
In one form or another, individuals adopt a method of risk-taking to infuse everyday life with a touch of excitement. For multitudes of those mild mannered animation enthusiasts who prefer less extravagant means to that end, cel collecting has sufficiently served the desired purpose. Second to second fluctuations in availability and value keeps the pastime exciting and moments of triumph procure not a trophy but a singular treasure already possessed of sentimental importance. As cels diminish to products of the past, the struggle for what exists will no doubt become even more heated than what has already been witnessed to date. It is, however, yet to be seen if future generations will embrace with such enthusiasm a collectible of what will be to them what Astro Boy is currently to the Poke’mon crowd. It is also a curiosity as to how upcoming fans of Japan’s latest output will satisfy their thirst for a token of the masterpiece.
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8.44/10 
8.43/10
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