Hanken cels

Amen to JWR's last paragraph. It's really a personal preference if you say something like "I wouldn't collect that stuff."

My only hanken is from a series (Narue no Sekai) that doesn't have production cels. There are some rilezu out there, but most of them are pretty unexciting. But I'm certainly not going to pass up either hanken or rilezu just because they're not production cels.

People need to recognize the fact that personal tastes are not universal. There's a really big series out there whose art is ugly, in my opinion, so I don't collect it. But I'm not going to get on here and suggest to people that they need to rethink their collection priorities.

I think that if you like a series, everything ought to be on the table - production cels, post-production cels, reproductions, sketches, settei, fan art - you name it. The variety of possibilities is one thing that makes this hobby fun.

Hey All,

I just wanted to clear up that my previous post was in regards too me and my taste. The last two posts' looks like a couple people were offended by the previous so I wanted to mention that I personally, prefer to purchase production cels as opposed to the other "cels" Ok? ^_^

Hi there! I figure I should lend my experience on Hankens. Basically a Hanken stands for "One of a Kind," and as been mentioned in previous posts were created by chief head animators of an animation project. There should only be ONE of this image created, hence the rarity and expensive cost. Not everyone can own a Hanken for the cover of an anime DVD or CD or art book so they tend to have a high value. I have been collecting cels since 2000 and I can tell you there has never been a time when Hanken are as "inexpensive" as they are now. There was a web site called Animaxis (now defunct) which featured many Hankens by AIC (Tenchi Muyo, Armitage, Etc.) and the average cost was about $3000 - $5000, most of which were art book inserts as covers had already sold. Other cel dealers connected to the then popular Anime Cels Ring (hosted by Animanga.com) would sell Hankens for about the same cost as well. Long story short - Hankens are expensive as if you have one or someone buys one you will likely never see that image ever again for sale as it would belong in someone's personal collection.

*Note: Rule of thumb, like a regular cel, the more sought out the image, the more detailed, the more popular a series the more expensive a Hanken (and cel) would sell for. There was this great website gallery with an excellent explanation of this (kimonocels.com now defunct) that I printed out and scanned that you can see from my website and link to photobucket (4 pages). It's a great write-up:

http://animationasart.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_info.asp?ItemID=339719

Now as for post-production / Rilezu, I understand some are made in limited numbers to promote an anime. Rilezu as I understand are just copies that are hand painted (like the popular You're Under Arrest, Slayers and One Piece replicas). As for post-production I believe anime that were created CG only had some Hanken's made for advertising, just like an original Hanken. I am unsure, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there may only be one image created as well. I say this as I have a couple World of Narue Hankens that are huge (about 2 ft x 18 in) and beside the cels the backgrounds are hand-painted. So in truth "post-production" may be One-of-a-kind" Hankens if they are that, the only one produced and you can prove by comparison the image and painted background are exactly the same as the published image.

One more side note: I have purchased cels that were mass produced images (small like a regular cel but no punch holes for flipping machines) that were given out at events in Japan (like Huis Ten Bosch Japanese amusement park) and others that were mass produced and sold as "paint by numbers" cels in Japan for anime such as Sailor Moon and Galaxy Express. They have no production timing placement numbers at upper cel edges and the black line is "printed" on the cel. Those are all uncommon but not one of a kind.

Remember cel collecting is all about enjoying anime so cost is in the eye of the beholder. I hope my explanation helps! ^_^
John

"Now as for post-production / Rilezu, I understand some are made in limited numbers to promote an anime. Rilezu as I understand are just copies that are hand painted (like the popular You're Under Arrest, Slayers and One Piece replicas). As for post-production I believe anime that were created CG only had some Hanken's made for advertising, just like an original Hanken. I am unsure, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe there may only be one image created as well. I say this as I have a couple World of Narue Hankens that are huge (about 2 ft x 18 in) and beside the cels the backgrounds are hand-painted. So in truth "post-production" may be One-of-a-kind" Hankens if they are that, the only one produced and you can prove by comparison the image and painted background are exactly the same as the published image."

This is not exactly correct, it depends on the company producing the Rilezu in the case of the Vampire Knight Rilezu and Loveless Rilezu each Rilezu was an edition of 1, and each piece was made from an original production douga. And in the case of these series you also got the production douga when you purchased the Rilezu. The rarity of the Rilezu for these computer animated series is akin to what would happen in production.

Here is an example of a Loveless Rilezu I have with the production Douga it came with and the matching sketch set I bought separately elsewhere.

http://jadeduo.net/i-belong-to-you-loveless-soubi-and-ritsuka

In other cases a small edition of like 10-20 is made from OPs and then no more were ever produced. They are still considered Rilezu because they are made from the original production douga then hand painted and the edition is super small.

Anything with larger editions I generally consider a reproduction.