For those of you who haven’t been following the news of the past month or so, animation cels from a cancelled Rockman anime, which was in development by Ashi Productions back in 1992, were recently put up for sale. With the help of many of you in the Megaman community, max6464646464, Protodude, myself, and another donor were able to put together the right amount to be able procure these cels, once lost to time.
The 3 pieces are now divided up between three of us, and the cel now in my care is this one. This is one of the cels confirmed to be created by director/character designer Nobuyoshi Habara. Very reminiscent of Ruby Spears, with Proto Man shooting a fiery blast towards Mega Man, as Guts Man and Cut Man join in the attack above a decimated city. As the most action-styled of the three pieces, it totally was my favorite of the batch, and I am both grateful and thrilled to add it to my collection!
Max scanned all of the cels when they first arrived, which you can see linked in Protodude’s article here. But me being me, of course I had to scan this piece for myself as well, when it arrived yesterday. And I am bringing you a few additional scans, on top of the complete piece. These are versions you didn’t get to see when this was first shown off about 11 days ago. So, first up, let’s talk about the background. This background is actually comprised of 2 separate layers which are taped together. You can see them together in the 2nd image of this photoset. The back layer is a hand-painted sky with a few abstract buildings in the distance. Very simple shapes and lines to give that appearance of tall skyscrapers. You can see that in image #3. By itself, maybe not that cool to some. But when paired with the next layer, you can see how well it gives off that sense of depth and distance of the buildings. On top of that layer is a thicker, cutout piece that contains more detailed buildings that have sustained some pretty heavy damage. Wily’s robots certainly did a number on this city. I am not sure what the notation ‘281 Book’ is all about, but that is written on this piece. You can see this in image #4.
On the back of the sky background board, there are actually Xerox copy remnants of one of the other cels in this batch. Dr. Light is the most clear, but you can still make out a lot of Roll, Mega Man, Wily’s nose and moustache, and Proto Man’s mouth. Sadly, I can’t adjust the levels or brightness on this scan without washing out some of the lines, so it is not the whitest background for this scan. This is seen in image #5.
Next up, I’m sure many of you wanted to see the cel without the background behind it. So I also took the time to get a good scan of that, too, in image #6.
But, there is quite a bit of wear to the paint after all these years. Paint has chipped off in spots, there are smudges and lines on their faces and bodies, the flame blast, etc. I wouldn’t take the time to deface this revered relic by digitally repainting over all those areas that had paint loss and artifacts, would I…?
…I might have given it a little touchup…
It’s not perfect, but you can see the cleanest attempt I made at digitally restoring this cel in the final image of the set, #7.
Of course, tumblr resizing doesn’t help show these off in their full glory. So if you would like to view or save them at full 600 DPI resolution, you can check them out in their own album in my Google Photos gallery HERE.
Scanned from: My Production Art Stash
