Celebrating Ten Years

Today marks the tenth anniversary of Sensei's Anime Gallery. While I did not officially open it until the fifth, so I could clean up all the bugs and typos, I started uploading items on August 3, 2002, beginning with my "Cardcaptor Sakura 01: Episode 01" page.

It's been an interesting and entertaining activity ever since. I can't think of a time when I really neglected it for long (and for no good reason), and around the edges I've been trying to keep it current and fresh-looking ever since. It still amuses me that academic books I've published had press runs of 1500 to 2500 copies, while this gallery is ready to cross its 90K mark on the hits counter. (Yes, yes, inflated a bit by indexer bots, but still good enough to keep it in RS's top ten popular galleries -- thanks to all my followers!)

I've marked it with an update in several areas, both old passions (CCS and TnN) and new ones (Rozen Maiden, Syrius no Densetsu). But if you're interested in history, please have a look at my new "Quirky Tour"

http://sensei.rubberslug.com/gallery/master_query.asp?SeriesID=43369

This goes back to that time in August 2002 and looks at some of the cels that I had in my little collection at the time. Putting it together revived some old memories of the anime art collecting scene of the time, back before deputy services became the standard source of new possessions.

It also reminded me of how much chatter there was in forums and in email between collectors. The intensity of that chatter is one thing I enjoyed then and miss now, although I continue to appreciate strong friendships built in the ten years since this gallery's founding. I hope that the community carries on, in a quiet but still supportive way, for another ten years. Certainly I'll be around for a while yet.