NEW YORK, NY.- Pikachu, Goku, Totoro and Kaneda are returning to Christie’s this fall as the auction house continues its exploration of Japanese popular culture with Anime Starts Here: Japanese Subculture Reimagines Tradition, an online sale running from October 9 through 22, 2026.

The auction follows Christie’s first edition of Anime Starts Here in March, when a mix of anime, manga and contemporary art influenced by those traditions brought $1,442,466—four times the sale’s low estimate. For the October edition, Christie’s is narrowing the focus more directly onto anime and manga themselves, offering original production material connected with some of the most recognizable characters and films to emerge from Japan over the past several decades.

It is a lineup that crosses generations. Dragon Ball, Pokémon and Sailor Moon appear alongside works from Studio Ghibli, while original drawings by manga pioneer Osamu Tezuka and soft-vinyl figures from Ultraman broaden the sale beyond animation cels.
“Anime made a big statement at Christie’s in March,” said Takaaki Murakami, Head of the Japanese and Korean Art Department. “Now, we are back with another sale that shows the beauty, power, and creativity of Japanese subcultures.”

Among the most immediately recognizable works is an original production cel of Pikachu from Season 1, Episode 77 of Pokémon. Produced by OLM, Inc. for the television series that ran from 1997 to 2001, the cel shows Pikachu holding a piece of food against a painted landscape presentation background. Appearing at approximately 09:07 in the episode, the 9-by-10 3/8-inch image is estimated at $2,000 to $3,000.

Another highlight comes from one of anime’s most enduring action franchises. An original production cel of Gogeta from Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn, the 1995 feature produced by Toei Animation Co., Ltd., shows the character in close-up against an original hand-painted background. The cel appears at approximately 46:45 in the film and carries an estimate of $5,000 to $7,000.

Few images in Japanese animation are as closely associated with the cyberpunk imagination of the late 1980s as Kaneda speeding through Neo-Tokyo on his futuristic red motorcycle. Christie’s is offering an original production cel from Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira depicting Kaneda riding his motorbike, produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha in 1988.

The cel, which appears at approximately 1:45:30 in the film, measures 9 by 13 7/8 inches and is presented against a printed background. It is accompanied by a JAMAC certificate of registration and is estimated at $5,000 to $7,000.

The sale also moves into the gentler world of Studio Ghibli with a production composition from Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbor Totoro. Dating from the film’s 1988 production, the work brings together Satsuki, Mei, Chibitotoro, Chu-Totoro and Totoro in a sequence appearing at approximately 59:22.

Rather than a single layer, the image consists of four original production cels placed over a printed presentation background. Measuring 9 by 13 7/8 inches, the group is expected to bring $3,000 to $4,000.

Another Pokémon work captures a wider ensemble of characters. An original large production pan cel from Season 1, Episode 45 features Pikachu, Ash, Block and Misty, according to Christie’s catalogue description. The image appears at approximately 03:40 and is offered on its original hand-painted key master background together with a timing sheet.

At 10 3/8 by 18 inches, it is one of the larger animation pieces among the announced highlights and carries an estimate of $5,000 to $7,000.

Taken together, the works underscore how objects once created as working materials for animated films and television programs have increasingly entered the collecting world as artifacts in their own right. Production cels were never conceived as standalone fine-art objects: they were individual components in an elaborate process designed to create movement frame by frame. Decades later, surviving examples can preserve a particular instant from a film or episode that has become embedded in popular memory.

That transformation is especially visible in a sale like Anime Starts Here. The characters may have originated on television screens, in movie theaters and on printed manga pages, but their influence now stretches well beyond those formats, into fashion, contemporary art, design and an increasingly international collectors’ market.

Christie’s decision to return to the category only months after its inaugural March auction also reflects the growing visibility of Japanese popular culture within the traditional auction world. Rather than positioning anime merely as a source of inspiration for contemporary artists, the new sale places original production material at the center.

Anime Starts Here: Japanese Subculture Reimagines Tradition will be on view from October 8 through 12, 2026, with the online auction running October 9–22 at Christie’s in New York.