Cels - Kiki's Delivery Service

For any true Ghibli Freak, the holy grail is collecting animation cells from the movies. Production cells are not easy to come by, but they can be found, thanks to Ebay and the internet. But these are very expensive, costing hundreds of dollars apiece, and I have no doubt the costs will only rise as demand rises and the supply goes down.

Studio Ghibli moved entirely to computers a decade ago, during the production of My Neighbors the Yamadas, so traditional hand-painted cels are a thing of the past. That makes these works of art all the more valuable. They're a piece of animation history. They're also a direct connection to the artists who created them. It's remarkable, awe inspiring, really, to look upon an original animation production cel and realize, hey, so-and-so made this!

In a perfect world, all the animation cels would be preserved for history and displayed in the world's museums. If only life were that easy.

Here is one of the best Ghibli cels I've discovered online, from Kiki's Delivery Service. In all fairness, this is more of a composite shot, which includes the backgrounds. Ghibli has sold prints like these; I'm sure more informed folks to give us all the finer details. Such prints appear to be even more rare than the production cels, which no doubt receive all the attention.

I'll be posting more animation production cels as I find them online. I'd also appreciate your help in finding any links to sites or auctions. We'll share anything and everything here on the blog.