I also went to Taro's site and saw all the sketches of
Kusanagi from Blue Seed. . . I should have been in heaven!!
But somehow, after seeing the real cels, the sketches alone
don't hold too much draw for me. And mind you all,
*ADORE* sketches to the point that each one I have gets
it's own pocket in my cel books! But dropping $100 on a
pile of sketches of Kusanagi when I could take that same
money and have a cel? I'll save my money for the cel.

Now assuming that there were no cels of him to be had, would
that make a difference to me? Not really. I would probably
pick up a sketch here and there if they weren't expensive,
but I wouldn't collect heavily. I just had a perfect example
of this. . . I did pick up one of the Monster Rancher sketch
sets that showed up at Animebox. (The show is CG - there are
no cels for it.) I was going to get more than one (I play
both the games as well as watch the anime) but even at
essentially just $5 a pop - and of the Nagas!! (my favorite
monsters) - I simply wasn't interested enough. (*shrug*)

As for anime going 100% cel-free. . . I don't think it will
ever go completely, totally, 100% cel-free. There will be
studios that keep the method as a novelty, if nothing else.
However, the number of cels could drop considerably and what
is there will become *very* expensive.

There is another option that people haven't considered.
(*slow grin*) If studios see that they can make decent money
on the side selling off the cels when they are done with
them, then they might keep cels around as both promotional
items and to defray the cost of animation. Of course, in
that scenario, the prices of cels will still go up (if the
studios are using them for profit) but at least they will
still be available.

Many Sharp Smiles,
--Drac