an image of a drawing of a man in a blue and white outfit
FRANCOIS EPIN ART & DESIGN CONSULTING

133 - Queen Emeraldas Original ink and gouache celluloid used in t…
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Estimate €100 - €200
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Description
Queen Emeraldas Original ink and gouache celluloid used in the production of the anime, based on a story by Leiji Matsumoto (松本零士) Produced by Studio OLM 1998, Japan H23 L26 cm This cell likely depicts Vaidas — an armoured character from episode 3 of Queen Emeraldas (OLM, 1998), which was never broadcast in France, and one of the most narratively significant antagonists in the entire thematic series. Vaidas was not always a cyborg. He was originally an ordinary man, driven by poverty to work in dangerous environments. An accident destroyed his body to such an extent that he required complete mechanisation. Since then, he has tirelessly upgraded his exoskeleton by buying spare parts — financing these purchases through crime and violence, his reputation being such that no one dares to confront him. Only the Cosmo Gun wielded by Hiroshi, the series’ protagonist, can pierce his armour. Her story is that of Armanoid told in reverse. Armanoïde — whose production is documented in lots 131 and 132 of this same auction — is a woman whose flesh has turned to metal whilst retaining her humanity: she protects, she is loyal, she sacrifices herself. Vaidas is a man whose flesh has turned to metal whilst losing his humanity: he takes, he kills, he seeks revenge. The same transformation, the opposite result. Mechanics as a means of survival for one, as a means of revenge for the other. The final detail of the episode says it all: Emeraldas disintegrates both his forearms. Beneath the armour, there is nothing left that could pose a threat. With the armour removed — even if only partially — a powerless being is revealed, one who begs, who lies, and who is ultimately struck down by the man he was attempting to betray one last time. This is the most brutal demonstration of the thesis that the series has been developing since Volume 1: armour does not make the warrior. It can also make a tyrant — and when it fails, the man it concealed is revealed, in all his inadequacy. The reference to the previous episode—in which the Metanoids, beings with a naturally metallic constitution, defeated the people of Alfress—adds another layer: as he dies, Vaidas claims that it was the Metanoids who transformed him and drove him to kill. Whether a lie or a partial truth, this final statement places his character within Leiji Matsumoto’s thematic framework — one in which the boundary between armour imposed and armour chosen, between mechanisation as destiny and as a choice, is constantly blurring. This film version of Vaidas is the darkest answer to the question that all the other works pose in different ways: what happens when armour is not an ideal, a virtue or a code — but a necessity that becomes a prison?
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About the sale Knights, Armour and Samurai + Animation Art Selection
Auction location
Auction time 06/28/2026 at 3:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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