A fully intact production archive from an ensemble scene of Pokémon, preserving every stage of the cel animation pipeline from pre-visualisation to final painted cel. All documents belong to the same scene - Cut 43 (C.43) — giving the set unified single-shot provenance that is nearly unheard of on the market for television animation material.
The scene is from "Whichever Way the Wind Blows" (キレイハナとラフレシア！そうげんのへいわ！ / Kireihana to Ruffresia! Sougen no Heiwa!), episode 239 of the original Pokémon animated series (Pokémon: Master Quest, Season 5 Episode 30), first broadcast in Japan on March 7, 2002. The episode is positioned between Ash's seventh and eighth Johto gym badges, on the road to Blackthorn City. The narrative centres on Steven, a Grass Pokémon field researcher who is studying why Bellossom and Vileplume in a meadow evolve differently depending on the direction of the wind — his hypothesis involves trace amounts of Leaf Stone and Sun Stone fragments carried on northeasterly and northwesterly air currents. The cel captures the ensemble moment where Steven first meets Ash, Misty (holding Togepi), Brock, and Bayleef in the meadow as he explains the phenomenon.
The central ensemble cel is rendered in OLM's peak analogue production standard, with strong colour saturation and the studio's distinctive wispy-cloud sky work. The matching hand-painted production background places the group against a landscape of rolling mountains and warm daylight, preserving the exact composition as it appeared on screen.
The supporting production documents form the complete animation-pipeline chain for the cut:
- Layout sheet (#229 / C.43, 15-frame duration), OLM-stamped with the studio's official production-approved stamp and a personal Hello Kitty 済 (sumi / "completed") mark from the production staffer who signed off on the cut. Sanctioned studio approval markings of this kind rarely leave OLM's internal archive.
- Key genga (A-6) — the senior animator's primary ensemble drawing, carrying Japanese character-design page references for every figure in the scene (サトシ / カスミ / タケシ / トゲピー / ベイリーフ) and red-ink vermillion paint specifications for the characters' rucksacks.
- Three dougas (A-0', A-①, A-3') — the clean in-between drawings covering Steven's animated motion across the cut and the group's separate layer.
- Motion path chart (C-②) — the production camera/action timing document with RP40M/RP60M trajectory markers specifying the object movement across frames 40 and 60.
- Composite master sheet (B-0' / 合成の親) — the compositing alignment reference sheet, literally titled "parent of the composite" in Japanese production terminology. This is the sheet that tells the compositor how to layer every element of the cut.
The through-line across all nine documents is the C.43 cut notation, which appears on the layout and on the finished cel. This cut-number continuity is the strongest authentication link that exists in the cel market — it confirms that every document in the set was produced for the same fifteen frames of screen time. Without matching cut numbers, an asserted "complete production archive" could theoretically be assembled from unrelated pieces. The C.43 chain rules that out.
Pokémon television series cels surface with some regularity on the Western market. Complete production archives of this depth from a single Johto-era cut do not. Sets that include the layout, the composite master, and the motion path chart typically remain inside studio archives or surface only through sanctioned deaccessions.
Title: Whichever Way the Wind Blows - Complete Production Archive
Series: Pokémon (Pokémon: Master Quest, Season 5)
Episode: EP239 "Whichever Way the Wind Blows" (キレイハナとラフレシア！そうげんのへいわ！)
First Aired: March 7, 2002 (Japan) / March 22, 2003 (US)
Cut: C.43 (15-frame duration)
Scene: Ensemble meeting with Steven, the Grass Pokémon researcher
Chief Director: Kunihiko Yuyama
Studio: OLM, Inc.
Type: Complete production archive — 2 cels, 1 matching hand-painted production background, 6 production documents (layout, key genga, 3 dougas, motion path chart, composite master sheet)
Medium: Hand-painted acetate cels; hand-painted gouache production background on board; graphite and coloured pencil production drawings on animation paper
Production Notation: OLM studio stamp; production-approved 済 (sumi) stamp; Hello Kitty personal approval mark from production staff
Provenance: Acquired through Japanese auction channels
Authentication: ORIOGI オリオギ certified. Includes Certificate of Authenticity. All documents cross-verified via C.43 cut-number continuity. Scene attribution verified by direct frame-match against official episode playback.
Condition: Cels, background, and production documents in very good to excellent overall condition, with handling and production marks consistent with intended studio use. Full condition report available on request.
