Cels Forum

-groan- not again ! :) We already discussed that plenty
of time on the forum so if you want details, search
for "hanken" keyword. To make it short, a hanken is
a cel that wasn't used for the anime directly but for
a produce. A poster, LD/CD cover, ramicard, shita...

One of the reason why they are expensive is that they
are usualy bigger, more detailed and of much better
quality than a production cel.  (it's the original
from which a whole produce is made).

Another reason is because they are very rare and
unusual : You can get plenty of cels from Belldandy
but how many people have the cel of her that was used to
make the LD cover ?

Finaly, as mentioned by people, the term "hanken" is
derivated from "copyright" in Japanese. That's because
each such cel has it's own copyright. (Cels used for
an anime are not copyrighted in themselve : it's the
whole anime that is. The cels are just a production
by-produce of the anime).

Last year, for their 10th anniversary, AIC sold
by auction and lottery several of their hanken.
Those on lottery were between 60000 and 120000 yen.
That was also the starting bid of those on auction.
The most expensive one was the one of Belldandy used
for a LD cover : it ended-up at 860000 yen.

After that event, AIC made a few other exhibit
and put several from the un-sold or new hanken
for sale on their website. But the minimal price
seems to be around 500000 - 800000 yen now...
-shiver-

Naturaly, there is hanken cels that are much cheap
especialy if they are from less know anime.
(The hanken AIC is selling are custom framed and
coming with a certificate from AIC).


Cheers,
Yann Stettler