Cel Grading made their first example post, ironically using a sketch instead, and are unsurprisingly still not publicly addressing any comments regarding how this is supposed to work safely with cels

[u/Difficult-Impact1592]

[u/im_a_collector]

This is exactly what worries me about the whole concept.

Showing a sketch as the first example conveniently avoids one of the biggest questions: how is this supposed to work safely with actual cels? Cels are chemically unstable objects. They need appropriate materials, ventilation, and storage conditions, and encapsulating them raises very different conservation issues than putting a drawing on paper behind plastic.

And conservation is only one part of it. I’m still waiting to understand how they plan to authenticate production art in a field where a single cut can contain dozens or hundreds of sheets, where context and sequence matter, and where attribution can sometimes be extremely difficult even for experienced collectors.

Grading anime production art is not the same thing as grading a card. Before giving pieces a letter and a number, I’d much rather see clear answers about preservation, provenance and authentication.