Saiyuki Douga Party!

When it comes to production cels, you won't find many--if any--for Saiyuki, because its anime incarnations have all been "CG" productions. The drawings themselves are done by hand--first the animator's rough genga, and then the cleaned-up douga--but the douga are then scanned into a computer system where they're digitally colored and recorded, rather than the traditional path of tracing the douga onto clear celluloid sheets, painting the cels and filming them.

But Pierrot, the studio that has produced all the Saiyuki animation except the introductory two-part OVA, is well aware of fans' desire for production art. Over the past several years, Pierrot has packaged and sold their production cels at special events (the bulk of my Midori No Makibaoh cel collection came from Pierrot sales in 1997-98--no one else would touch the stuff! ;^) ). But nowadays, with their move to cel-less CG production and the continued fan demand for cels long gone from their older hits too, Pierrot now makes and markets official fukusei ("reproduction"; the kanji are 複製) cels for several of their properties, including Saiyuki.

Produced in small, usually unnumbered editions--often 10 or less--with the issue price typically from 3500 to 4000 yen, official Saiyuki fukusei cels were first marketed in 2000. The cel image is hand-painted, and then taped into a rectangular cardboard matte that is almost always light green (Pierrot's very first release had a light beige paper matte printed with the Gensomaden Saiyuki logo [but with the copyright indicia mistakenly omitted--probably why that printed matte wasn't used again after this first edition] and numbered in the upper right corner; other variations are rare but recent, with Pierrot introducing pink-matte and brown-matte editions in 2004), with a color Gensomaden Saiyuki, Gensomaden Saiyuki: Requiem, Saiyuki RELOAD or Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK logo sticker and copyright indicia at bottom center. (A new, longer sticker came into use starting in mid-2005, with the words "fukusei celga" [複製セル画] lettered in pink kana between the logo and copyright indicia. An example from September 2005 is shown above.)

The back of the matte is white or greyish white, and the matted cel is sold inside a resealable clear plastic bag, with Pierrot's silver-and-blue sticker of authenticity on the back. Those that were produced to sell at the Studio Pierrot Anime Fair 2000 have an oval stamp in the lower right corner of the matte, in black or red ink (an example with the black stamp is shown at left). Most of the official Saiyuki fukusei cels produced from 2000-2002 don't have backgrounds, but increasingly in 2003 and on to present, printed backgrounds are being used for some editions.

An ongoing parade of editions has been offered by Pierrot at live events and through its Pierrot Shop online store, and by specialty shop Commit. Back in 2000-2001 the Animate chain, whose Ikebukuro headquarters hosted at least one Studio Pierrot Anime Fair in 2000, also sold some--including two types of oversized, unmatted Requiem cels of Sanzo that today are the most commonly found of all Saiyuki fukusei cels.

To try to document what's out there, these pages will attempt to catalog as many official Saiyuki fukusei cels as possible ("official" meaning Pierrot-produced; there are of course fan-created repro cels out there too). If you have one that doesn't appear here and would be willing to contribute a scan (be sure to include at least part of its matte for reference), that would be wonderful--please give me a write!

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This page was created May 27, 2004. Last updated April 26, 2008.

This page's text and source code are copyright Kagenami Q. DO NOT REPRODUCE. Saiyuki, Saiyuki Gaiden and Saiyuki RELOAD are copyright Kazuya Minekura/Ichijinsha; Gensomaden Saiyuki is copyright Kazuya Minekura/Issaisha, Saiyuki Project and TV Tokyo 2000; the Saiyuki RELOAD anime is copyright Kazuya Minekura/Issaisha, TV Tokyo, Dentsu and Pierrot 2003; Saiyuki RELOAD GUNLOCK is copyright Kazuya Minekura/Issaisha, TV Tokyo, Dentsu and Pierrot 2004. All images are copyright their respective artists and creators. No copyright infringement is intended or implied.