Yay! My first real weblog entry. I thought I'd start out with the most exciting thing to happen this weekend: I got a new anime cel! Isn't she wicked?

This is Galatea from Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040. She's having one of her more sinister moments in this particular cel. It's actually really hard to find cels of her so it's terribly exciting that I managed to get this one. I bought this one out of someone's private collection by making them an offer they couldn't refuse. It was definitely worth it too!

For anybody who doesn't really understand what cels are or why anybody would want to collect them, basically they are the individual frames of movement used in animation. Each frame is hand painted and unique, but you can have cels that look very similar because they are part of the same scene or sequence. Although traditionally animation companies have considered them a waste product after they've been shot to film, they are highly sought after by collectors for a variety of reasons. Some people see them as valuable production art that they can invest their money in, while others just love the idea of owning actual pieces of their favourite cartoons. I do both because I'm relatively picky about which cels I buy. What makes this particular cel special is that besides showing a rare character, it also came with the background painting that was used for its entire sequence. This means that while other people might have a cel that looks almost exactly like mine, I am the only person with the background!

You can see my whole Galatea collection, along with some of my best cels from other series at my cel website: Cel Materia