| AnimeIowa - Panels |
 So what does
costumer Daifuku Mochi do when she's not creating new outfits? She's searching
for more anime cels, a portion of which traveled with her to AnimeIowa.
Why collect cels? Some people love the characters and the series for which
the cels were produced, but Daifuku just loves the artwork. Like most anime
fans, she enjoys the dynamic nature of anime as compared to conventional
U.S. animation, and feels that the cels are the best way to enjoy that
artwork. Daifuku was the host of an AnimeIowa cell collecting panel on
Saturday. |
 The cost of
the cel to North American fans depends on the popularity of the series,
she said. For example, this cel would have been inexpensive until recent
months. Most people would have seen this character as a dark-haired guy
with pointy eyebrows, but its value shot up when the character became familiar
to people through the Cartoon Network as Roger Smith from The Big O. Daifuku
had another beautiful cel of a panoramic shot from another series, and
she found that it was sold for around $35 because U.S. fans didn't know
the series that well and the demand was low. |
 Even Inu-Yasha
and Kagome were impressed by Daifuku's cel collection. But how many cels
does she own? She wasn't sure, but there were enough of them to back four
large collection books and cover a table in the AnimeIowa room where the
collecting panel was held. Many of her cels came with the original sketches
and layout drawings, prized details for serious cel collectors. Heartbreakingly,
one of her cels is a "stuck cel," meaning that the cell has adhered to
the paper backing. Daifuku hopes earnestly that she'll one day be able
to separate the two without damage. |
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