Cels Forum

Dear Romir0,

Hi, well in my so far short experience, it is almost
IMPOSSIBLE to track down the original background for a cel
unless it comes with it.  Studios (especially TOEI) are
notorious for mismatching backgrounds with cels, sometimes
taking any background from ANY show and packaging it with
a cel.  There are a few places that do sell backgrounds
exclusively, but I can't recall them now though. =}

As for numbering, some series do mark which background goes
with which cel.  There will be a number near the upper
middle right of the cel (like #104 or something) that
indicates that the cel belongs with background #104.  If
you are lucky, some studios also mark on the back of the
background or in the upper right middle the number of the
background.  Some of my Ranma 1/2 cels and Wedding Peach
cels have these markings.  Another way to tell if your
background matches or not is if you happen to have the
genga (the rougher of the animator's sketches) that goes
with the cel.  Some genga have a rough sketch of the
background as well.  The best way to check if a background
matches though is to go through the episode and find the
cel in question and look at the background there.

As for handling of cels, check the various cel FAQ lists
that are on the cels.org homepage:

http://www.animanga.com/celsorg/welcome.html

or Nichibei's care and handling of cels section:

http://www.nichibeianime.com/care.html

which describe in detail how to handle cels properly much
better than I could!


Sincerely,

Sonia