the fancel question

[adminpoll]41[/adminpoll]

Here comes controversy! (So I hope, this place is a little quiet lately.)

The three schools of thought are just what I gathered from reading this board and others. Personally, I am a little disturbed by the whole fan cel painting thing in general. When anyone with a set of French curves and patience -- essentially the same process used by many anime studios -- can make something near studio quality, who's to stop a more sinister third party from writing a sequence number on it with a Sharpie and selling it as an under-the-camera original?

The only thing between fan cel and a good scam is one person with flexible morals.

On the other hand, the single-release post-production cels sponsored by the original studios I think are a neat idea. I would have actually bought a Haibane Renmei post-production cel had it not sold out.

There's also the price and availability thing. If you don't care about "original production art" aspect of it and you just want an Inuyasha cel and don't want to pay hundreds of dollars, isn't everybody happy? (Well, aside from the blatant copyright infringement of painting someone else's character and selling it for money.)

Your thoughts? Is there a way for everyone to get along?

I'm of two minds about this. I absolutely can't stand fancels that ape production cels. Too often these end up masquerading as production cels as they get sold and resold. I don't see any good reason for this type of cel to exist except for fraud. However, I can appreciate fancels from shows that have no cels to begin with, or that are totally original works of art. If a fancel is made from a show that does have cels, you should be able to tell at a glance that the fancel is not a production cel. Meaning, no sequence numbers, use acetate that doesn't have tap holes in it, possibly use outfits or poses that are never seen in the anime. Make it...distinctive. I think if all fancel artists did this, there would be no "fancel" controversy to begin with.

The problem of course is there are a few artists who seem to only copy production cels to sell on ebay and the like, and they give all fancels a bad name. Not sure what can be done about that.

Hmm, well I'm a bit of a hypocrite myself. See, I won't buy fan cels, but I love painting them. If you visit my site you'll see my whole 'code of ethics' for fan cel painting, because there have been a lot of shady practices going on out there.

But I feel acetate is a valid art medium, and there's something about a slick and shiny cel that you just don't get with paper. I don't see the point of buying a fan cel when there's a real production cel just like it - somewhere - but if the fan cel has a great amount of detail, or characters in situations you don't usually find them in, then why not have it to own and enjoy?

The copyright issue is enough for a whole other discussion...

If I were going to buy something like fancels, I would probably just buy some other kind of fanart instead.

Really, I buy cels because they are production. I've thought about buying a good fancel maybe once, but I didn't.

I have very mixed feelings about this, but in my final analysis I think (very basically) that it is okay if a fancel artist is not doing it on auction sites (trying to make a business out of it) along side of anime production, post-production, fine art, or reproduction art, in the same area, along with a few other caveats.

Why? Well, this is my opinion:

That venue is very bad. Visually, some fancels "look better" than the "real thing", but with a very low price. I won't go into the psychology of this, but it doesn't look good to have "real art" besides "fake art" posted for sale in the same EXACT place. I hope that this is common sense--Apples and oranges.

I have said this before, but fancels on auctions should not be mixed in with anime production, official production, post-production, or hanken cels. So, actually the display of fancels need a separate category all together. That fancel artists label their work as "anime cels" is misleading since no fancel has been a part of any animated process. It is just that simple. It avoids confusion. Some people will still try to scam, but at least it will be illegal, as trying to sell fake designer brand stuff along side of the real thing, which is also rampant on eBAy and elsewhere.

Ideally, I think that contracted or commissioned work of fancels, or hankens for special events, etc. are fine. This is a one-on-one private situation and is not broadcast. But, of course if the cel is produced and it offends someone because it was taken from a cel image of an owner without their explicit permission is also wrong.
And anyway a fancel ideally should not be created from a production scene as was noted. That is completely correct, but I have to admit that I am a hypocrite for having such a cel.

Before I knew it, in my "blindness" for GUNNM cels, books, manga, cd, etc. etc. I compulsively bought a fancel without thinking about it, that was from a production scene. I immediately got my senses back, contacted the two or three known cel collectors that have a similar cel from the same scene, and asked them if they think that I should take it down, or were offended by it. They said no. And have told me that they appreciated that I contacted them about it. I have the cel labeled as "fan cel" and I also explain the situation and "give props" to those real production cel owners here :

http://e.rubberslug.com/gallery/inv_info.asp?ItemID=6733

I will be honest, I still have thought just to burn this cel, or at least to take it down, to end any controversy whatsoever. I just have never got any over it. But, I know people, and some may find it distasteful that I even have one in the first place. Some will think that it makes me less than a "pure production cel" collector. And they'd be right. I am not. I collect ALL kinds of anime JUNK, either real or imagined! That said, I know that I will never waste another cent on any fancel ever again.

Just my 1 cent..(the other one was fake)

=)

E