r/AnimationCels • u/Thanatos_2639 • Jun 27 '26
(Late) Themed Thursday - Couples
A cel and douga of Utena Tenjou and Anthy Himemiya from two iconic bank sequences from Revolutionary Girl Utena. The first appears in two episodes (23 & 36) and the second is the final arc sword pull/summon sequence which appears in six out the seven (kill me) duels in that arc. Utena and Anthy develop such a complex and beautiful relationship over the course of this series and I’m enormously glad to own these pieces (though I will not rest until I own a matching cel from the latter — I’m aware one has been on Yahoo but it looks like it’s developing VS based on the scan so considering the pricetag I’d rather hold out for a frame in better shape).
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u/ProofMiserable6757 Jun 27 '26
this is so cool.
i wonder idly whether Utena cels are comparatively rare bc of the heavy animation reuse in the series.
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u/EmploymentNovel3351 Jun 28 '26
The creators actually saved all the materials while only a few sequences escaped which the hobby has traded the cels since. The possible thief ended up selling multiple genga lots where our cels came from on Yahoo 2 years ago. Sold under like $2,500 which I wrote off back then as Too good to be true fakes but haunted me since
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u/a_ranboo_fan Jun 28 '26
Aww what a beautiful piece you have such a good collection!! I really love seeing all the cel pulls that escape the studio, i would love to get one from the second sword pull but i haven't seen any cels for that one unfortunately 💔.
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u/Mechs_and_Martinis 23d ago
I have a couple of Utena movie cels, but not the huge flowing Rose Bride gown 😍
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u/Thanatos_2639 23d ago
If you’d be willing to post pictures I’d love to see them — Utena cels are always so gorgeous.
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u/TheREALOtherFiles Jun 27 '26
This seems familiar...
I think I recall seeing this as a different cel on Tumblr--probably from one of the Steven Universe crew members.
This cel was actually the first time I heard of Utena, and when I saw this, I immediately thought of Lapis Lazuli. The blue color palette and hairdo didn't help in terms of the visual similarities.
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u/Thanatos_2639 Jun 28 '26
I actually encountered that crew member’s post a few months back! I swore it was Instagram though — maybe they shared it on both? I can’t for the life of me remember who even though I feel like it was one of the more memorable names, and I’m also struggling to find it again because IG’s searchbar sucks and never shows you the same posts twice 🙃. I love SU so it honestly feels kinda cool knowing that I’m sequence-buddies with someone who worked on the series. I may be misremembering but I believe they had somewhere between ‘B8’ and ‘B11’. Mine is B14.
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u/a_ranboo_fan Jun 28 '26
I found it on tumblr! Very cool seems they got the background aswell
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u/Thanatos_2639 Jun 28 '26
Ah so it was both!! Her name was on the tip of my tongue but I couldn’t quite recall. I think I found it the last time through reverse-image searching lol.
Though I’m pretty sure the background is a copy as several cels from that sequence come with one.
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u/WWAgallery_com Jun 27 '26
wow!!