夜Night Storehouse

From the storehouse

Glossary

The words collectors use for vintage anime and game posters and magazine pages, in plain English.

Sizes and formats

A4 and A3
The ISO paper sizes used across Europe and Japan: A4 is 210 x 297 mm and A3 is 297 x 420 mm, twice A4. We give A sizes as a guide to how big a magazine page or spread is and what frame it suits.
B1
A larger Japanese poster size, about 728 x 1030 mm. B1 posters were used upright and sideways, and the sideways version sometimes carries different artwork. They turn up less often than B2s.
B2
The standard Japanese poster size, about 515 x 728 mm (roughly 20 x 28.7 inches). It is the most common size for Japanese film, video and shop posters, much as the one-sheet is in the United States.
B3 (nakazuri)
Half a B2, about 364 x 515 mm. Collectors also call it a nakazuri, after the advertisements hung inside Japanese trains; B3s were used in stations and on public transport.
Tatekan (STB)
A tall display poster, about 508 x 1473 mm, made of two B2-width sheets that hang one above the other. It was made for street frames and cinema-front stands and was largely dropped in the 1970s.
Variant trim (henkei-ban)
Japanese magazines are often trimmed to a non-standard size close to a paper size, written as "A4 variant" (A4変型判) or "A4 wide". So a page from an anime magazine may not measure exactly A4, which is why we list every piece's own measurements.

Kinds of poster and print

Advance and teaser posters
Posters issued before a film opens. A teaser comes earliest and says very little, sometimes not even the title; an advance poster comes closer to release and usually carries credits and an opening date.
Chirashi
A small Japanese cinema flyer, usually B5 (about 182 x 257 mm), handed out free at cinemas before a film opened. The front carries the poster art and the back usually has text, stills and credits; some fold to give four sides. Sizes vary, so each one should be measured.
Fake (bootleg)
A copy made, or an original altered, to pass as a genuine poster and mislead a buyer. Dealers say fakes can copy the right size and credits, and are often exposed by paper, colour and print detail, or by a doubtful history, rather than by one obvious flaw.
Promotional or shop poster
A poster made to advertise a record, game, book, magazine or video in shops, given to retailers rather than sold. Many are marked 非売品 (hibaihin), "not for sale".
Re-release poster
A new poster printed when a film returns to cinemas years later. It is a genuine poster of its own release, not a copy, and the first release is usually the more sought after, though not always.
Reprint and re-strike
"Reprint" is used loosely by sellers and can mean anything from an authorised later printing to an unauthorised copy, so always ask which. A re-strike is an authorised later printing made for sale rather than display; dealers do not count it as original.
Reproduction
A later printing of the same artwork, usually made to sell as a decoration rather than to advertise the release. Some are officially licensed; they can be good display pieces but are not originals, and they often differ in size, paper or finish.
Theatrical release poster
A poster printed by or for the film's distributor to advertise the film in cinemas at the time of its release. Dealers treat this direct link to the release as what makes a film poster "original".
Video release poster
A poster made to advertise a film or series coming out on VHS, LaserDisc or later DVD, usually B2 and displayed in shops rather than cinemas. They often print the release date of the tape or disc.

How a piece is kept

Dry-mounted
A poster permanently glued or heat-sealed to a board. Unlike linen backing it is not meant to be reversible, and collectors generally avoid it.
Folded
Many posters were folded by the printer or distributor so they could be sent flat. On older posters, original folds are expected and are not in themselves a fault; what matters is how well the folds have held up.
Linen-backed
A conservation treatment in which a poster is mounted on archival paper and then on stretched linen or canvas. It flattens and supports fragile paper and softens fold lines; it is meant to be reversible, and any restoration done at the same time should be described. Backing hides the reverse of the sheet.
Rolled
Kept or sent in a tube with no fold lines. Rolled posters are more common for later periods, but they can still show dents, creases and edge wear. Many dealers ship flattened folded posters rolled, so "sent rolled" does not mean "never folded".

Condition

Colour fade
Loss of colour from light exposure, often uneven where part of a piece was covered. Light damage adds up over time and cannot be reversed, which is why we suggest framing with UV-filtering glazing and keeping pieces out of direct sun.
Condition grade
A short summary of a piece's state, such as Near Mint, Very Fine, Fine, Very Good or Good. There is no single industry standard and dealers use the words differently, so the written notes and photographs matter more than the label.
Edge wear
Small nicks, creases, tears or fraying along the edges and corners, from handling and storage. Border wear is usually less serious than damage to the image.
Fold wear
Wear along fold lines: creasing, rubbing, small splits or lost colour where the paper has been bent. On folded posters this is where damage usually starts.
Foxing
Small brown, yellow or reddish spots on paper. Conservators think mould and metal impurities in the paper both play a part, and damp storage encourages it.
Pinholes
Small holes from pins, tacks or staples used to put a piece on a wall. Tiny holes in the corners or border matter much less than holes through the image.
Tape residue and tape stains
Marks left by old sticky tape. Conservators warn that tape adhesive ages, yellows and soaks into paper, so the stain often stays after the tape is removed and can be hard or impossible to clear safely.
Toning
An even yellowing or browning of paper with age. Paper made from wood pulp contains lignin, which discolours with light and air, and acids in paper speed up ageing.
Trimmed
A piece that has been cut down from its original size, for example to fit a frame. It lowers value for posters; for magazine pages, the original page edge is the trim, so we note any cutting beyond it.

Magazines and paper

Centrefold
The middle pages of a stapled magazine, where one picture can run across both pages without a gap. Some magazines also used fold-out pages, folded to fit, to print larger images.
Double-sided poster
A poster printed on both sides, often a different picture on each. Magazine furoku posters were often made this way, so the back of an original may show a second piece of art rather than being blank.
Furoku
A free extra packed with a Japanese magazine, such as a poster, booklet, stickers or paper model. Magazine furoku go back to the 1890s, and anime magazines often included posters.
Offset printing and halftone dots
Most magazines and later posters were printed by offset lithography, which builds colour from tiny dots of cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink. Under a magnifier the dots form small rings called rosettes. Seeing dots is normal for an original from this period.
Original vintage printed page
A page taken from a copy of the magazine as it was sold at the time, not a later reprint or scan. Magazines were printed in large numbers, so "original" here means "from the original print run", not "unique".
Pin-up
A picture printed for readers to take out and put on the wall. Japanese anime magazines use the word (ピンナップ) for these pages, which may be bound in or loose.

Collecting

Hibaihin (非売品)
Japanese for "not for sale", printed on promotional material given to shops or the trade rather than sold. Collectors look for it on promotional posters, but it is one clue, not proof.
One available
We use "one available" rather than "one of one" because magazine pages and posters were printed in many copies: other copies may exist elsewhere, but we have one. When it sells, it is gone from our shop.
Provenance
The recorded history of where a piece came from and who has owned it. For our pieces this is usually where and when we found it and which magazine and issue it came from; we record what we know and say when we don't know.

Tools

Guides