10 Frogs: Two Frogs Production Cel (Toei Video/Tohokushinsha/Trans Arts, ca. 1990s)

10 Frogs: Two Frogs Production Cel (Toei Video/Tohokushinsha/Trans Arts, ca. 1990s)
A delightful original production cel featuring two of the ten main frog characters from 10 Frogs (10-biki no Kaeru), a charming and lesser-known children’s anime based on the beloved picture books by Hisako Mado with illustrations by Michiko Nakagawa (PHP Institute).

Produced by Toei Video and Tohokushinsha, and animated by Trans Arts, the series follows ten uniquely characterized frogs from Gourd Swamp as they go on gentle adventures. Directed by Masahiro Hosoda, with character designs by Hirokazu Ishino, the animation is clean, expressive, and perfectly suited to its preschool audience. This cel, likely from a direct-to-video or TV special such as 10 Frogs' Summer Festival, is a rare and heartwarming find from a forgotten gem of the cel animation era.