List of Series that Have Been Targets for Scams
Anything popular enough to get a good market price can be a target
for a scam so know that even though the series isn't listed here, it may
be in the future.For a list of official reproduction cels check out Keys'
very handy list.
It's a very useful and thorough page.(Thanks Keys for letting me use the
link) Most fancel artists are very scrupulous at signing their names somewhere
on the cel and will also raise a fuss if and when they see one of their
cels for sale as production. But don't just rely on them. If you know of
a series that is not listed here, please e-mail me. Thanks!
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Ah My Goddess -- This is a very tricky case. Several years
back, AIC (AMG's studio) printed the lines of a bunch of cels from the
series in order to test new painters. AIC sold many of these in the 90s
at AnimeExpo in order to promote the series. Now these cels are on the
market (both in the US and Japan) and are passed off as actual production
cels -- although the seller may be just as clueless as the buyer about
authenticity. These aren't technically "fan cels" nor are they "repros."
Marcus used the term "test cel" which seems to fit best. Also according
to Yann Stettler, none of these cels were kept track of by the studio so
there's no official list anywhere! The best thing you can do in this case,
is to ask somebody on one of the cels forums and look very closely at the
cels' paint job and colors. There you might be able to detect irregularities.(thanks
to Marcus for much of this information who says he got his information
from Yann -- so now everybody pass it on!)
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Dragonball -- Fortunately a lot of the fancels I've seen
for sale, have been easy to spot as such but I'm not looking that hard.
The biggest tip-off to a fancel for Toei cels in general, is if there is
absolutely no fading whatsoever on the trace lines...I'd be very suspicious
of those unless the seller is particularly reputable and can trace the
cel's history.
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Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli -- Lots of professionally looking
fancels make it to the market somehow -- including the infamous Nausicaa
cel.
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Neon Genesis Evangelion -- Gainex didn't release the
cels for this series officially and has only put out repros (both hand-painted
and machine made). There are some production cels that have made it out
to the market, however.
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Sailormoon -- I've seen several repro cels of the more expensive
bank scenes as well as portrait shots. These have been passed off as production
cels.
E-mail me with comments at wndrkn@rcn.com
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Last Updated: June 16, 2002
