Collecting cels - relationship builder?

Wow some great stories!

I agree sailorsv13, how can anyone fall asleep during Nausicaa! That is sinful!!

evilgordo, your story is -exactly- what I wanted to hear about, thanks for sharing! *kyuu kyuu*

I agree! Gordon, that was a lovely story. *_* How cuuute! I can totally imagine how it happened.

Now I feel inclined to share my story as well. I met Senor through our mutual love of anime. He was working as a manager at a Movie Trading Company video store and I was a customer. I'd come in with my boyfriend at the time and Senor admitted later to always noticing me. He'd wonder, "Why is she with -that- guy?" LOL, ahem....

A few months go by and I eventually become single, all the while still visiting MTC. I did get around to finally noticing Senor, who'd find floor work to do whenever I was in the store (something he'd never do normally!) He confessed to me after we got together that he'd purposely work near me. I'd frequent the anime section, which sparked our first conversations.

"So, what anime do ya like?" and so on. Turns out we liked a lot of the same properties, such as Akira. We developed a bit of a flirty-friendship. He'd give me free rentals, which I used as an excuse to come visit him. I'd rent like 10 movies one day and come back the next evening, claiming to have watched them all. O_o I had it pretty bad I guess. I think I watched one of the movies I rented, the rest were just a "clever ruse" (if you can call renting dozens of movies everyday "clever"). Hehe.

The fact that his store had tons of anime and the fact that he'd give me free movies and rentals led to our meeting, connecting and eventual matrimony. It's kind of weird how love works.

One bit of irony I still giggle at to this very day is, during one of my visits, I traded in some old VHS tapes. Senor processed my trade-in, closely examining everything I was selling. I had two random video tapes from the Giant Robo OAV series. He snatched the videos and was horrified to see me, the girl of his dreams, selling his favorite anime.

"What are you doing?!"

"Well, I don't own them all. I won those at a convention and I just don't want them anymore."

"Are you INSANE? This is the best anime ever!"

"...sorry?" O_<

I honestly didn't know any better. It wasn't a series I was interested in at the time. After we started dating, Senor made a point of showing me his GR DVDs. I immediately fell in love with GR and it will forever hold a special place in my heart. We often discuss those early MTC days and those GR videos are always mentioned. Five years later and he still won't let me live it down ;_;

This is yet another great tale of anime/anime cel romance! I am not surprised your hubby was horrified when you were getting rid of your GR vhs. Also glad to hear that anime brought the two of you together. Sneaky sneaky Senor! Hilarious, this needs to be added to your comic adventures so the whole world will know. Thanks for sharing!

In my case my wife knew I was interested in comic book art before we were married so I knew I found a keeper early on.

As far as cels go, like with the comic art I seek her input and cels were actually more of her desire. In 2002 I had to have knee surgery a week before the San Diego Comic-con so as we walked around I had to take a lot of breaks as my knee got tired fast. To kill time we checked out the anime rooms. One we saw was Oh My Goddess OVA episode 4 & 5 and we fell in love with the character designs and the story. Later we walked around the floor of the Dealer Room and found DVD's of the OVA and next store was Anime Link who had some cels. We picked out 3 and that started our cel collection. Even now unless it's for a present (much of my Ai Yori Aoshi section) My wife views those cels I pick out as possibles and if we agree then they get added to our collection.

Sadly my boyfriend doesn't even know what an animation cel is. I was talking to him about a cel I was debating on selling back to the original seller, who I got it from, and the conversation went like this:

Him: A cel?
Me: You know, an animation cel...
Him: A what?
Me: You know, what they use to make cartoons with?
Him: I don't follow you...
Me: You know, to make a cartoon that take a picture of the image on the cel, and then you put it all together to make a cartoon.
Him: Sorry I have no clue what you are talking about.

So yeah... I guess as of right now it doesn't have any impact on the relationship since he has no clue what cel collecting is. Maybe that will change when he knows how much money I could spend on these things. ^^;