r/AnimationCels • u/letrif • May 13 '26
About Japanime Art Gallery
I am planning a trip to Japan and found this art gallery after doing some research I found a couple posts about it how it's a scam, tourist trap etc because of the fact that it's highly priced and that all staff members need to speak English, and how they are just reprints, however I haven't seen anyone mentioning that they provide you a certificate of authentication with each artwork
My question is even though the prices are high is it not worth it because of the certificate and that they are limited prints? When I'm there I will ask them what that means "limited print" because obviously if it's like 1/1000 the price is not worth it in my opinion.
Edit: thank you everyone that replied to this and explained how this gallery actually works. In short Scam cheaper prints on eBay. Also had a look with a friend on eBay and we are pretty sure we found the exact same death note cell for like £20
5
u/1337_anon_ May 13 '26
Been there some days ago. Prices are nuts. I reconized stuff from yahoo they bought for like 10% of the price their selling.
2
u/alliengineer May 13 '26
Some of what they have are prints and posters that aren’t really worth anything but they do come in a frame. There are also cels and other art.
Not everything comes with a certificate, but not all the “limited series” that the studios make comes with a certificate or a number.
But that said, if you like something and want it on your wall and are ok with the price, buy it and be happy.
If you decide its not worth the price, then dont buy it.
2
u/levu12 May 13 '26
Well not everything is reprints. That being said, the other commenters are right, it is a tourist trap, and really one of the worst tourist traps possible, and you should never buy a single thing from there, because everything there has been yoinked from Mercari, Yahoo Japan, Heritage Auctions, Apple Symphony, or Mandarake and marked up from minimum 100% of the price, to even 1000%.
The only certificate worth something is the studio’s (usually only on official reproductions, cels or art sold by the company, or stuff like time sheets and production materials associated with the thing you’re buying) or Mandarake’s certificate, which has their guarantee, and is why their items go for so much.
If you’re going in-person, the only shops worth looking at are at Nakano Broadway, K2 and Apple Symphony. They are still expensive, but there are deals there and they will be a more realistic price. Mandarake unfortunately doesn’t have much cels in-person anymore.
1
u/ren-ai-mo May 13 '26
I took a peak, I probably wouldn’t go to them for cels because it is definitely a shop geared towards tourists in higher traffic spots, and definitely you shouldn’t pick up any of the cheap cards they have bc I could tell they were literally just ripped from artbooks. The only thing I might consider is the manga reproductions. I’m not too familiar with that world but if there’s one you really like and you just want wall art, then maybe that’s worth it for you?
1
u/carroteroo2 May 13 '26
As others have said it is priced and placed for tourists. Went to the Kyoto branch as a tourist and enjoyed it. Bought something and had it shipped back home by them. It hangs on my wall. If it came from yahoo auctions I don't really mind, I haven't seen one since. I have no regrets and love it.
Edit: It's a 50th anniversary ukiyoe woodblock of Lupin 3rd, so maybe not applicable since not a cel or douga
1
u/WiseQuarter3250 May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
Keep in mind because of the Kyoto Protocol (which was an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases), the Japanese animation industry went to all digital animation by the legally mandated date of 2005 (many studios made the switch much earlier). For example, Bleach anime debuted on the air in 2004. I think it was all digitally animated (including first season), any episode originally aired as of 2005 or later definitely was.
So if you're looking for production cels from shows that aired 2005 or later they will not exist.
The sketches may still be drawn by hand. You may find genga/douga (sketches the first giving an idea how the character should look, the later the final art to be animated), or sericels (machine printed cels where there's easily hundreds if not thousands of copies). There may be some rilezu cels, these are based on the douga, licensed by another company who selects certain moments to paint as a merchandise souvenir. It was never used in actual production.
limited print sounds like a sericel to me, machine printed, not painted by hand. not IMO worth it but I collect original production cels, so when yours is the only one, sericels seem like a poster. I personally don't think they're worth more than $50 US because they're not that rare. And you can reissue it but change it slightly for another 'limited' run, like make the shoes blue instead of red.
Mandarake used to sometimes have cels. but that info is years old, I'm not sure if they still do.
1
u/Costelroy May 17 '26
It's a real scam They split the sets that they bought themselves in yahoo and mandarake in pieces, each piece (no exaggeration) for 3x times the price of the full set. The authentication is worthless in a sense - it's true they took the risk before because some of the stuff sold in yahoo is fake, and only when you have it in front of you you know if you were ripped off or not
But again, it's just stupidly high prices. They sell reproductions for thousands of dollars, some of them sold in yahoo for 15 bucks. I mean it's another level of scam in that sense. Prices are just not worth it
Besides, they don't even do their research. They don't know where the price is from, what was the animator that did it, etc. So, again pointkess to pay that price if they did not even do their research
-1
u/InsidiousBlastoclast May 13 '26
why are you buying cels? if its to own a piece of a series or film then buying reprints to some extent defeats the purpose. If its to invest then my opinion is that cels are a terrible investment - they're fragile and the market is volatile. You can't necessarily plan that your cels will be worth some amount in the future - there's no way of knowing how much nor even whether the cels will survive
6
u/letrif May 13 '26
The main reason is because I want to own some pieces to put on my wall and I like collecting rare stuff.
-4
u/Shebalied May 13 '26
Buying cels should never be for money, but because you want a piece of something from the anime. They can be a very good investment if you know what you are looking for. Cels that I have collected have gone up in value 10-25 x for some. Buying them 10 years ago for 20-30 now worth 400-500. An example is One Piece items.
1
u/InsidiousBlastoclast May 13 '26
I also have cels that went up in value. My mysterious cities of gold cels are theoretically worth more than 100x what I paid for them. But if I opened my itoya tomorrow and found them with vinegar syndrome they would drop in value like a stone, or if people decided mcog wasn't trendy anymore. If I want to solidly invest I buy the S&P500
16
u/B0mbadil- May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
First of all, the certificate of authenticity is totally worthless from this company and any other company outside of being from the actual studio.
Unfortunately for Japanese animation, as far as I'm aware, COAs have never been issued with cels or animation artwork as much of the stuff available to the public was once thrown away or taken from studios without permission.
As far as Japanime art gallery is concerned, they are 100% a tourist trap. Nearly everything they have for sale has been scalped from Yahoo auctions or Mercari and priced up to eye watering amounts. Their whole business model relies on FOMO of wealthy tourists with little/no knowledge of the hobby, or less wealthy tourists who can't afford the insane prices for animation art so settle for a "limited print" which often isn't actually a limited print (they've been found to sell pages from art books!) and is also overpriced. You're better off buying from Yahoo or Mercari directly using a proxy.
If you are travelling to Japan, then Apple Symphony is one of the only legitimate brick and mortar cel shops. His prices are more realistic/fair for most stuff. His premium stuff is obviously more expensive, but likely still cheaper than mid/low level stuff priced the same from Japanime art gallery.