As a collector of 10+ years, I've struggled a lot with the authenticity of my studio sheets. There's very little information out there and I hope this information I've collected helps my fellow collectors.

What is settei (設定)? Settei is a japanese term for any sort of images of characters, objects and places. Basically these are reference images for anime production studios (in Ginga-series: Studio DEEN and Toei Animation). Their main purpose is to tell everything relevant to the working artist. How they end up to collectors is a bit unknown but they could have been sold by studio or single workers after the project is done. Mainly they are being sold from one private seller to another second-hand or they can be sold by sellers who specialize in studio materials. The most important things to consider when identifying the authenticity of studio sheets: 1) Seller Most of the studio sheets are still being sold on Japanese selling platforms like Yahoo!Japan Auctions. They might end up elsewhere via collectors though. When looking at a seller, it is important to be critical: Do they have multiple sets for sale or just single ones? Does the seller provide information of the set or it's origin? What do you see in the images of the sets? Most of the sets have multiple pages (the GDW ones I buy usually have around ~50 pages included). Sets can be related to a certain episode. It's usually a good sign if the seller has multiple different series for sale. Sets are usually not from the cheaper side: the last ones I've bought have been around 40€ but more popular series might be more expensive.

2) Paper The paper used in studio sheets is different to more common, modern copy paper. It has a bit more opacity and it has - especially if the series have been made long ago like Ginga ones - more of a yellowish tone instead of pure, blueish white because of the age. Sheets used in production might also have imperfections like wrinkles, stains, bended corners and marks from staples.

Left image shows older studio sheet in used condition and staple marks on left. Right image has clear picture of a fake studio sheet on top, below is real one.

However, when examining paper, the following should be taken in consideration: - Paper batches vary, different production companies may use different papers - Storage and age affect paper, significant factors in conditions are, for example, humidity or sunlight 3) Content of the set What the set includes can tell a lot of the authenticity. Sets that only include the most popular characters are usually a bad sign. Most of the sets include more "unpopular materials for collectors" like side characters, scenery, instructions, step-by-step movement and anatomy.

When it comes to Ginga, colored studio sheets are more rare to come by. Additionally to full colored sheets, there are studio sheets that only have highlight colors and lines for markings and details. In my experience there might be a slight difference to used paper on colored studio sheets. Color copies are often more valuable in any production (e.g., color copies cost more in printing services), so it is not unusual that they were most likely not preferred to be taken as easily.

It is also not exceptional - in fact, it's very common - that there are several pictures of the same character in a set. Often there can be an unshaded and a shaded version of the same character - or if the character has gone though changes during the series, studio sheets may be found before and after the changes (e.g., there is a picture of Smith with and without a missing front leg). Characters who get a lot of screen time usually also have much more studio sheets done, which is why for example Weed has the most studio sheets, while the side characters might share a sheet. A character who is drawn a lot has often lots of different expressions and angles.

At first it might seem like same sheet but the sheet on bottom actually is a black & white copy of the highlight GB seen above. Easiest way to spot this is to look at the "messy coloring lines" on bottom right. 4) Quality You can tell a lot of the authenticity by quality, right? ... Right? Err... not exactly. Not easily. As studio sheets can be copies of copies of copies... and still be totally authentic. When you take a new copy of the image that has been copied many times before there is always some quality loss. Images that have been copied many times will begin to lose detail, depth and darkness. The people using the copy machine can also influence the result by adjusting the darkness higher or lower when taking a copy. There might have been issues with the printer that affected the quality.

Different quality copies of the same studio sheet.