Saw the original Sailor Moon cels at a convention in Portland last month

I was at the Sakura-Con in Portland (well, it was a smaller offshoot) and they had a booth with actual hand-painted animation cels from the 90s Sailor Moon series. The detail on them is crazy different from what you see on screen, like the shading on Usagi's hair has like 4 distinct layers of color. I spent a good 15 minutes just staring at one of Sailor Jupiter in her transformation pose, you can even see the tiny brush strokes on the sparkle effects. It made me realize how much work went into each frame before everything went digital. The seller told me some of these cels were used for the actual broadcast and others were backups, priced anywhere from $80 to $400 depending on the character. Has anyone else come across original cels at a con and bought one?

3 comments

3 Comments

kimw5716d ago

That was actually Sakura-Con in Seattle, not Portland.

max_cooper2116d ago

Oh man, my bad on the city mix-up but that's rough you went through all that effort just for someone to correct the location. That booth sounds incredible though, I would have seriously considered dropping $80 on a Sailor Jupiter cel if I had it to spare.

nancy_king2916d ago

I saw an article recently about how much Sailor Moon cels have gone up in price over the last few years. Some of the rare ones from the final season are going for hundreds of dollars now, not just eighty. It makes me wish I had held onto a few things from the old days instead of letting them go at garage sales. The Jupiter cel sounds like a fair deal, honestly, compared to what some people are asking online these days.