DESCRIPTION:
This is an adorable cel and douga of Ami and Luna from season 1 of Sailor Moon! The cel is marked "A4 END", which means it was the last cel of the sequence and is therefore a "key cel" which is drawn by a key (senior) animator. It comes with a non-matching background, which is stuck on the paint. Also comes with the matching douga.
This cel comes from episode 11, "Usagi vs Rei: Nightmare in Dream Land" in the first season, which aired on May 23rd, 1992. The animation director for this episode was Masahiro Ando, one of the most recognizable and probably most divisive animation directors of the series. He was one of the only to work on all 5 seasons of the anime. His art was notable for the round and child-like faces, his style probably had the most variation from the rest of the animation director's styles. I'm a fan of his style in particular for episodes with a more comedic tone, his facial expression design really worked well for these types of episodes. This cel is from the very first episode he directed, I especially enjoy his style in these early episodes, it's very cute!
Animation cels are sheets of celluloid which are hand painted and used to create traditional hand-drawn animation. Douga are drawings used in the animation process, they are the cleaned up version of Genga which are rough sketches done by senior animators. Douga are essentially clean linework which is used to create the final animation cels. The lines of the douga are photocopied onto the celluloid sheet and then the colors are handpainted to create the complete cel.
CONDITION:
Very good condition, cel is stuck to a non-matching background but could probably be carefully removed if desired. Includes matching douga, which has some minor creasing as shown in photos. This is original production artwork from early 1992, so there is some natural wear and normal line fading due to its age.