Cels Forum

   Myself, I have been collecting anime cels since July of
1992. I got hooked at anime when I was stationed at Yokota
Air Force Base in Japan. I had been there for about two
months when one of my fellow airmen took over to a house of 
a friend of his. His friend was an American artist that had
style similar to manga/anime. 

    Anyway, the artist's house was filled with all sorts of 
anime items. Video tapes, CDs, posters, cels, models, art 
books, etc., etc., if it was related to anime he probably
had some of it. Well, I asked about the some of the posters
he had and he played nearly 6 hours of anime that night to 
show me. I was hooked right out of the gate.

    A week later I went on my first anime hunt with my 
co-worker, the artist and his wife, and two other airmen.
On this trip I bought my first manga(Ranma 1/2), my first
art book(Art of Nausicaa), my first pencilboard(Gundam Z),
and my first cel(Project A-KO..picture below).

    This group became the core group of what would loosely
be know as the Yokota Anime Club. I have to be careful right
now but I could easily go on for a very long time about that
group of wonderful people. By the time I was sent to the 
Pentagon in D.C. the following is what you were likely to
see at the artist's home (a.k.a. anime central);


    In the back bedroom which was turned into an art drawing
room: One person drawing at the drafting table, 1 to 3 other
people watching and copying an anime video.

    In the small bedroom: 1 to 3 people on 1 of 2 computers
either playing D&D games or drawing anime characters. Also,
several people's poster and comic book collections were in
this room.

    The living room, dining room, and kitchen were all one
big room with no walls. Anywhere from 3 to 6 people at all
times with the number often reaching 10 to 15 people at any
given time. Someone was always cooking some type of food,
watching anime or science-fiction tapes, listening to music,
playing Majjong, drawing, and trading anything anime (At the
time I left I already had nearly 400 cels and mine was only
the 5th largest collection in the group, so if a memeber
wanted to trade this was the place to be.). Other things
you might at any given time was role playing, Kendo, Medevil
people (that is not what they were called but for the life
of me I cannot think what the name of thier national group
was called), and tutoring in college courses.

    The make-up of the group consisted of Americans (Blacks&
Whites), Japanese, Chinese, a Korean, a Philippino, and a 
Spainard;  ages ranged from 15 to 55; civilian and miliary
personnel (the ranks went from E1 to E7, and O3 to 05);
Jewish, Christian (Methodist, Baptist, Catholic), Shinto,
Wicka, Hindu, Atheist, and Muslim; and the group was nearly
evenly split between men and women. As much as I love anime
and that is what drew me into this group it was the great
diversity and acceptance of everyone differences that made 
me enjoy the club and what I miss most about no longer being
there.

    Earlier, I wrote I could go on along time and I have 
without even really getting into any great detail. Sorry,
for kind of getting away from your question. I think I will
leave it at that for now. If anyone is truly interested in 
hearing more about the club just e-mail me at the above
address. 


So long,
Long winded as ever,

gdpj