From: doi@jrd.dec.com (Hitoshi Doi)
Subject: cel hunting trip 1/24
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 09:01:25 +0900
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Here is what people have to do to get cels in Japan..

NOTE: I am NOT offering to buy cels!

I went cel hunting on Sunday (1/24).  It was cold.  It was snowing..

I arrived at Animate Kichijoji at 9:45.  The cel sale was going to start
at 10:00.  There were 22 people before me.  I heard that the "front group"
had been there since last night!  The way that the sale worked was that
they let 10 people in at a time.  Each group had about 5 minutes to pick
out the cels that they wanted to buy.  So I was in the third group, and
I think there were plenty of decent cels left.  They had the cels laid
out on a large table.  Lots.  Too many, actually.  (and not enough time)
When I finished buying the cels and went outside, there were still over
50 people in line.  Maybe I should have gotten back in line for more..
But the prices were VERY high for many cels.  There was a Compiler cel
for 8600 and 8500 yen.  It was a very large face closeup, but all of the
otaku passed it up.  Other smaller Compiler cels were 3000 yen.
Also there were quite a few Minky Momo.  Very expensive again.  The ones
with backgrounds went for 2500 and more.  The ones without backgrounds
still went for over 1000 yen.  There was a Minky Momo large face shot,
no background, eyes closed for 3000 yen.
There were quite a few Dream Hunter Rem too.  The small Rem shots were
300 yen.  Rem was very small.  The ones with larger Rem were over 1000.
There were some from Nekomusume too.  But since I never saw the anime,
the only character I recognized was Nuku Nuku.  Nuku Nuku cels were
VERY expensive too.  There was one of Nuku Nuku in a bikini, very small,
maybe 3 inches or so, too small to see if the eyes were open or closed,
and it was 3500 yen!  Other tiny Nuku Nuku were all over 1000 yen.
Also there were a lot of Yuuyuu Hakusho, some Mary Bell, some Free Kick,
some Cyber Formula (no Asuka that I could find), and many that I didn't
recognize.  They might have been minor characters from the shows
mentioned above.
I think that if it wasn't snowing and so cold, it would have been much
more crowded..
The ones I got were (all Yuuyuu Hakusho):
  800 yen pack
    Yuusuke and Botan.
    Yuusuke and two friends.
  800 yen pack
    Yuusuke and Botan.
    Teacher (?)
  300 yen pack
    Yuusuke large face, cross-eyed.
    Kuwabara.
  300 yen pack
    Yuusuke, almost full body, in a sitting down position.
    A girl with pig tails, multi-cel: face on one cel and eyes/hair on
    different cel.  (4 extra cels for the eyes/hair)  I have no idea
    who the girl is.
I think if I had more time to look at them, I would have bought more.

Then I went to Animec.  When I arrived, the guy was putting the cels in
the folders.  Great timing!  I got nice Da Garn cels of Hikaru, Hotaru,
and Pinky for 400, 500, 400 yen.  There were many good Mama 4, but I
think I have enough of them.  Then a couple minutes later, one guy
walked in and bought almost all of the new cels.  There were a lot of
City Hunter too.  They had a sign saying that they will have another
Cyber Formula sale on 2/11.  They will start giving away tickets on 1/30.
(I want it, but I don't think I can go to Tokyo again next weekend.)

Then I went to Harajuku.  They had a lot of new cels.  They had one of
Luna for 2000 yen.  One of Yuuichirou, with a little Rei-chan in the
back for 2000 yen.  I didn't get them.  They also had a whole bunch of
new Dragonball Z.  From recent episodes I think.  Over 10 Goku cels, a
couple Super Saiya Goku, some Trunks, some Super Saiya Trunks, all with
backgrounds.  But they were 2000 yen.  I saw many girls with their
parents buying just one cel of Trunks.  They also got a new set of
Video Girl Ai cels.  Most of them were of Youta or Takashi.  But these
cels were big.  Doesn't fit in A4.  Some of them probably wouldn't fit
in B4 either.  There was one with Moemi, Takashi, and Youta in the
movie theater, but since it was 2500 yen, I didn't buy it.  There was
a very large one (maybe A3 or larger) of Ai-chan (eyes closed) pulling
on Youta's arm behind the bushes, 3000 yen.  I wanted it, but there was
no way of getting that home.  Also many Bikkuri-man and a Taruruuto,
but the one I wanted of Iyona was gone..  (;_;)  I should have bought
it last week.  Will I ever see another Iyona again..

I also saw the new Sailor Moon ufo catcher dolls.  They had them for
display, and there was a sign saying that they will put them in the
machines during Spring break.  3 Usagi, 1 Ami, 1 Rei, 1 Mako, 1 Minako,
1 Naru, 1 Tuxedo Kamen, 1 Luna, and 1 Artemis.  They were not as cute
as I would have liked, but I will still try to collect them all.

--
Hitoshi Doi, International Open Systems Engineering        doi@jrd.dec.com
Japan Research and Development Center               decwrl!jrd.dec.com!doi
Digital Equipment Corporation Japan      [from JUNET: doi@jrd.dec-j.co.jp]
Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime