Welcome to Cel Oasis
Cel Oasis is a Japanese company. Our facility is based in Osaka Japan.
We all started out as Japanese cel collectors, since 1996! During that time, we became curious in understanding how to keep our collection in the best condition possible.
We began by reaching out to some of the biggest collectors, experts around the world, gathering whatever we could. Soon, it became apparent that very limited research had be conducted into cel preservation, with only some done for American cels, particularly Disney, but almost nothing for Japanese animation cels. We also realized that there were considerable differences between American cels and Japanese cels. Due to the nature of the material (composition) used in Japanese cels, they’re completely different from American cels. It’s simple, Japanese cels use different “plastic”, different paint, and different techniques than American cels.
As our collection grew in size along with the money invested, we started to worry knowing that without proper care, our cels could end up like many Disney cels that have completely deteriorated. So, we decided to invest our time and money (a lot actually) to get all the information that was missing in the conservation field, specifically for Japanese cels. We actually started from scratch after realizing that the American research conducted was absolutely not applicable or transferable for Japanese cels. We wanted to understand scientifically, every common issue that a Japanese cel can encounter by making tests in laboratories, to be sure that the cels in our collections will not succumb to the same fate. What started out as pure curiosity driving our search into conservation soon became an endeavor, as we just wanted to know why all of these things were happening to our collection. And little by little (it took us more that 12 years) we began to understand what was happening, why it was happening, and what to do to prevent these things from happening.
So, with the help of scientists, private laboratories, and also Art conservationists, we have created the first facility that can identify, understand and treat most of the common issues that a Japanese cel can encounter. After getting some very promising results on our cels, we wanted to proudly share our findings to collectors, and by doing so, offer access to our facility, treatments and knowledge to keep their cel collection in the best condition possible so. We can help to keep this incredible Art form alive.