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True to my screen name, I'm a teacher, a college professor to be specific. I've taught on the college level since 1973, mostly entry-level writing courses, but I have offered as many courses in folklore and world mythology as my various employers could justify. I've written some books and lots of articles on fairy tales, contemporary legends, and superstitions.
After my retirement from full-time teaching, my wife and I moved house to a development so remote from the rest of the world that we simply call it "Cephiro."
I became interested in Japanese anime in 1999-2000, thanks to the enthusiasm my teenage daughter had for adventure-oriented series like Gundam Wing and Slayers. To her amusement, while she developed interests in Cowboy Bebop and similar series, I became much more interested in mahou shoujo plots, because I could see the strong influence of folklore in these story lines.
My first cel (from Cardcaptor Sakura ) came to me in July 2000. As I learned more about anime and art, though, my tastes broadened, and I started collecting from a wider range of shows. However, I remain committed to the mahou shoujo genre, along with other series that are influenced by legend or folktale.
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I'm a scholar, so I annotate the items I collect. When I can, I say what is going on at this exact moment. This may include plot spoilers, but since animation art represents images in motion, it's impossible to appreciate a single "frozen" picture without knowing what came before and what's to come next. In addition, when I'm aware of a sequence-mate in another online gallery, I include a link.
As I've become more interested in the animation process, I've begun to collect sketches more avidly. Cels are more compelling as art objects, but sketches record the moment when these images came into being. Also, cels are often executed in sweatshop conditions by a "paint-by- numbers" method, but sketches show the pencil strokes of a master artist at the moment of creation.
As series moved from cel-based to CGI, these sketches became more significant. So I've tended to collect these creased and smudged work drawings rather than the more brilliant custom-made rilezu cels that have appeared for some series.
I always provide some kind of background when I scan cels. When I don't get a production background, I use art paper and enjoy discovering what kind of background the cel "likes" (often they change expression subtly when I hit on just the right color or texture). And since cels were designed to fit colored settings, art paper shows them off better than the backside of a scanner lid.
I include "extras" with the art that I display: dougas for cels, as well as screen caps, parallel images from manga, layouts, rough sketches, alternative versions, and so on. For CGI series, I nearly always include two "extras" for every sketch that I "feature."
When I go off on a tangent, I'll use this icon:
SENSEI CHECK!
This adds cultural background or plot information, or sometimes a personal comment on why this scene is especially meaningful.
Watch out for:
Caution! Fussy Notes
This is where I get into the minutia of animation details that interest hard-bitten collectors but (probably) not the casual visitor.
I share the same birthday as (Cardcaptor) Sakura's sensei-father Kinomoto Fujitaka, who gives his motto in one episode: "Rather than keeping something you enjoy to yourself, it's more fun to let everyone know about it, right?"
Right.
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