Part 1
Part 2
Below is the initially posted version, though I have tried to correct and polish it up since.
Remember I once talked about the "Pull" of a piece. This is the exact one I had in mind, though others have done the same. I spotted this poor cel about 3-5 months ago on the Mandarake "Mail-Order" web site. It was a "store front item" at their shop in Nakano Broadway in West-Central Tokyo. As far as I can tell, this was the very last Marmalade Boy cel they had for offer on the store website-the others were all listed Sold Out.
I watched other cels of this character come and go, thinking "that's not what I want". As time went by, I noticed this one remained available. I thought of the state it must be in by now, probably not having even been picked up for a look in who knows how long.
I tried to stop it, but this cel just kept pulling on me. Sometimes it would nearly go away, only to come back.
For months, off-and-on it went, as if it were an electromagnet on a switch. When it was on, I could feel the pull from all the way across the Pacific.
Finally I decided, "Even if it's not 'what I wanted', if it's up to me to care for this cel, so be it. At least now someone will." Specifically, I was thinking about all the people who visit such stores day after day.
Obviously, I don't take this attitude with every "forlorn" cel I come across, but I wanted this cel for my collection anyway.
Besides something seemed rather special about it. True, the trace lines are terribly faded, and it may have been trimmed at the bottom. For all it's problems, it actually looks somewhat better than one might expect. It did NOT smell of vinegar, and the expression on this little girl's face seems to almost look like a response to the rough treatment this cel appears to have suffered over the years. This cel is a survivor, and it comes from a not-so-well-remembered corner of Japanese animation history. I was sure this cel had a story to tell, but little did I know exactly what I was letting myself in for in trying to tell it.
The Stories They Tell - "Suzu Doesn't Want Yuu Hurt"
Vertical Pan Cel Setup (non-matching BG, trimmed?) - Sequence No. A1, B1?, C1, D1
Marmalade Boy
Episode #33 - "Lost Love/I Love You"
Toei Animation
First Aired October 23, 1994
Runtime Location of Cel, Scene 1 (approx.) - 00:07:29:25 (Pan Start) -> 00:07:33:09 (As Pictured)
Runtime Location of Cel, Scene 2 (approx.) - 00:20:19:13
Single Character: Suzu Sakuma
The Cel, on Unmatched Background
Production Shot, Scene 1 (Scene 2 is similar.)
"Fixing" the Cel
The cel was in rough shape when I got it. It had been stapled to a background, and from what I read it has a tap crack. I think I remember seeing a small one in the left hand-side registration holes.
First, that background had to come off.
I pulled the staples out with my fingernails, which was fun.
To unstick the background, I decided to try a cheap silicone cake spatula from Walmart. I placed it in between the lowest cel layer and the background, then gently worked around the edges of the stuck spot until it came apart. The background sustained a small amount of damage, but any damage to the cel layers appears to be minimal.
I put some MicroChamber paper between some of the layers. I should try to air it out a bit, but I'm limited on when I can actually work on my collection.
Description of the Cel
What you see here are the remains of a vertical pan cel setup. It is sort of like the Jinny pan cel setup I posted awhile back, but this one has been structured to allow movement of the eyes, and I think even the head.
It looks like the bottom was trimmed at some point. I think Toei might have done it, but it could have been done later. The setup has four layers, A1, an apparently unmarked layer that I think is actually B1, C1, and D1. I think her head and neck scarf may be on their own layer. I noticed that the cel didn't seem to be stuck to the BG at the top very much, this is consistent with my thinking on the layering.
After further study of the cel, I'm now sure her head and neck scarf are on a separate layer from her body. Her right hand (on our left), is on it's own layer.
Sadly, the included background does not match. I am not sure that it is even from Marmalade Boy. The trace lines are severely faded.
This cel setup was used twice in this episode.
Extensive Exposition
There is so much going on around this cel, that it actually pulls in scenes from two prior episodes. This article features a particularly high degree of story exposition-I can't possibly cover how it all relates to this cel. I will try to get the major points in though. Just as a reminder, Episode 33 is the section that features the cel, if you'd like to skip ahead.
Suzu in Brief, The "Adorable" Little Brat
Suzu Sakuma is something of a unique character in the Marmalade Boy series. Cast as an extremely pretty girl, she works as a top model and is apparently very famous. While Meiko is cast as the overall series beauty, she has not parlayed her looks into the same kind of recognition. Both Suzu and Meiko come from wealthy families, so I can see why it may not have been thought of as necessary for Meiko.
From what I can tell Suzu is the youngest recurring character in the cast, somewhere around 12-13 I think.
She attracts attention wherever she goes-though it isn't always all positive of course. If you watch her long enough, you can tell she has an attitude about her appearance. It is this attitude, in part, that eventually casts a shadow over Yuu's and Miki's relationship.
She is very much a "Daddy's Girl", and her father dotes on her to the point of pampering. Maybe that's part of her problem?
Episode 30
Miki is upset at all the time Yuu has spent modelling for his mother's company. I think Mrs. Koishikawa (previously Mrs. Matsuura) works for an ad agency, but don't quote me on this. Of course, the main problem is that a large chunk of his work has placed him in close quarters with the "beautiful" Suzu.
When Miki finds out that he is going to be in a commercial with Suzu, she becomes very distressed. I'm sure she thought that they would be playing love birds. Little does she know-when the commercial is shown, Miki discovers that Suzu dreams about flying to an alien planet, where a tall and "pretty" alien "princess" gives her a bottle of Marmalade Boy perfume.
Yuu tries desperately to prevent his mother from showing the tape. It doesn't take long for us to find out why. You see, it's Yuu himself in the pretty princess costume. His own mother tricked him into performing in drag for the commercial. Of course Miki is relieved, as this shows no threat whatsoever to her and Yuu. For his part, poor Yuu is embarassed to no end, insisting he will never do it again. The impression I get is he intended to quit modeling altogether. This commercial will haunt him for the rest of his life. Okay, well to the end of the episode, anyway.
Yuu's intent to quit modeling greatly pleases Miki, as Suzu is now out of her hair for good.
HA! HA! HA! Sorry Miki-chan, this is shoujo! Suzu just got here, you didn't think that she'd simply pack her bags and leave, did you?
Miwa asks Yuu to tutor his cousin in English and Math, as a paid favor. Apparently, she [Miwa's cousin] specifically requested Yuu-this doesn't seem to register on him. He at first seems reluctant, but apparently agrees. Take a guess as to who his cousin is? Why of course, it's dear little Suzu.
The end of Episode 30 sees her introduced to the primary cast. Miki is, as you might expect, ecstatic (!) to discover that the little pain-in-the-neck is still going to be a problem.
Poor Miki, she just can't catch a break.
One After Another - Episode 28 (I know, this is out of order.)
As a TV series, Marmalade Boy is written to be one problem (or more) after another for Yuu and Miki. I'm guessing this is standard fare for shoujo. No sooner is Arimi resigned to let Yuu go, when along comes Suzu for her try. Maybe not quite so agressively at first, but that quickly changes.
While Suzu is threatening on one side of the relationship, a young man named Kei Tsuchiya is thrown into the mix to complicate Miki's feelings. When they first meet in Episode 28, Miki falls off a ladder and into his lap, both of them crashing onto the floor of the walk-in freezer at the ice cream shop where she works. Later it is revealed that he had been working there for about two months when she started.
This incident results in her losing the medallion that Yuu gave her as a memento of their relationship. (More on that later.) Unbeknownst to her at the time, Kei-kun found it and kept it without telling her.
Eventually she finds out about what happened to it the hard way-not from Kei, but from Yuu. Too much other stuff to cover to get into it.
Episode 31
While tutoring Suzu in her lessons, Yuu notices a drawing on her chest-of-drawers. From inquiring about this sketch he learns that her father is the renowned architect, Rihito Sakuma. As Yuu aspires to be one himself, this serves to indirectly tighten his link to Suzu. Just moments later, she spies the top of a medallion fob in his coat pocket. When she pulls it out and asks him about it, Yuu explains that it's his schools lucky charm. Of course, this is the mate to the one Miki lost at the ice cream shop. Suzu thinks it's nice, at first. Opening it up reveals the hidden picture of he and Miki together.
"A photo of Yuu-sensei and Miki??" Suzu's surprised reaction causes him to snatch it back out of her hand. "Hey! You haven't finished the translation yet, have you?"
Suzu winks and sticks her tongue out. "No, I haven't." She sits down at her desk off-camera, while he returns to studying the drawing.
Instead of actually doing any work Suzu prefers to stare at Yuu, pondering to herself. "Yuu and Miki aren't a good match.", she muses. I get the impression Suzu might be just a bit lazy when it comes to her lessons.
Fast-forward to later in the episode, Kei impresses Miki with a virtuoso performance on piano at a night club. Later they are walking on the street, when she complements him on what a great piano player he is.
This triggers some troubled memories for him, prompting him to run away. She calls after him, only to suddenly pass out on the sidewalk. Miki occasionally has random spells of fainting/dizzyness, but exactly what causes them is never explained. In this case, it is strongly implied that she has overextended herself with tennis practice, the school festival, and her part-time job.
Kei notices her collapse and runs back to her, picking her up into a standing embrace.
"Are you okay?" He asks.
He wraps his arms tightly around her, and Miki presses her head in his chest. Whatever has happened to her left her too out of it to think much about what is going on. As they are standing there like this, the camera pans out and rightward through a car window to a partial view of a the back of girl's head. The camera switches to a more-or-less front view of Suzu, who is looking on in surprise. Apparently she has fantastic eyesight-she recognizes them both at night (in front of some lit shops) from what seems to be 30 to 80 feet away.
It's worth mentioning that in the manga, Suzu wants Yuu with Meiko because Meiko is pretty. In the TV series Suzu wants Yuu for herself. Her manga preference for Yuu to be with Meiko is actually referenced very briefly in a sideways fashion during this episode. In both cases, she has deemed Miki not pretty enough for him. I find this notion to be rather silly on it's face-she really doesn't look all that different from Miki, except for the longer hair and being a bit younger.
One more note from Episode 31, Suzu suggests that Miwa-oniichan ask Yuu to perform for the upcoming school festival-on vocals, because he's so pretty. Unless I missed something in the original Japanese, it would seem she is not the least bit interested in whether Yuu is a good singer.
One wonders just what would Suzu know about singing anyway.
Onward we go.
Episode 32, Near the Start
Suzu is very angry with Miki for what she had seen, interpreting it as Miki two-timing Yuu. "I can't allow it!" This is where her attitude toward Miki begins turning from mere disdain to outright abhorrence.
I'm sorry, maybe this is too much context, but the flashbacks that occur as "part of" the scene seem like they could use more exposition.
Episode 32, Ending
I expect the school festival is the same type as what are called "cultural festivals" or "culture fests", in some later anime.
When an injury prompts the keyboardist in Miwa's band to drop out of performing, Miki makes a special appeal to Kei-kun to play in his place. With Kei on keyboard and Miwa on guitar, Yuu sings a rock-pop romance ballad entitled "Rain".
Yuu's voice actor, Ryoutarou Okiayu, is a fantastic singer.
I'll go ahead and mention it now, Okiayu-san was very impressive as Yuu-not only singing, but also speaking as well. He gave Yuu a generally calm, chill sound. Yuu seldom lost his cool, but when he did Okiayu-san was right there with him on the delivery.
Moving along-
After a rousing round of applause following the performance, Suzu walks out on stage with flowers for Yuu. She holds them out, only to jerk them back before he can reach them. She then stands on her tip-toes and plants a big kiss on his lips. His eyes flare with surprise. We are treated to reactions from several major players, including Arimi, Ginta, and of course Miki-she watched the whole thing from stage left behind the curtain.
Wait, Suzu reccomended Yuu to sing here in the first place. Did she actually plan the kissing stunt in advance?
With as much context as I can muster short of tying you down and making you watch two+ episodes, finally to the scenes containing the cel.
Episode 33
Scene 1, in Context
I have included links to two videos, the context in them is limited strictly to the scenes containing this cel.
Scene 1 will be presented first with no sound, then both scenes together in a single video with sound and English subtitles. I will explain why later, but it's not absolutely necessary to watch it to understand what I'm saying.
WARNING: I strongly recommend pre-adjusting the volume, especially for Scene 2. It shouldn't take long to figure out why. There may be a some brief flashes due to the editing of the veideo showing both scenes, especially at the transition screen between scenes-please be mindful of that if you are sensitive.
Episode #33, Scene 1 (no sound, no subtitles)
Episode #33, Scenes 1 & 2 (English subtitles)
Yuu is at Suzu's house, tutoring her in English. She is sitting there looking at him, and thinking to herself. Suzu is what I call an "editorial character"-she talks to herself a lot. She also talks about herself in the third person, even to herself. To the viewers, her thoughts are presented in the standard fashion-in her own voice that we can hear, but of course everyone on the show can't.
Rather nervous-sounding music plays in the background.
She has her head on her cheek, apparently more interested in Yuu than her lesson. This is actually a cute pose.
He starts off with an explanation of some points of the lesson. "In this case 'in front of' means 'before something'." His voice drops out, but the music continues. As the camera pans into a close up, we can see his lips still moving but no sound is heard from them. If you listen carefully just moments earlier, you can hear that Okiayu-san actually said "in front of" in English, but his accent makes it difficult to recognize the phrase.
The view swaps to a flashback of Suzu kissing Yuu at the concert. The frames seem jerky as she moves in for the kiss. Was this animated "on the fours" instead of "on the threes"?
Upon returning to the shot of her watching Yuu at her desk, Suzu begins her editorial. The tense music continues in the background for the remainder of the scene.
"He hasn't said a word about it [the kiss]-as if I didn't exist." She begins, perplexed and dissapointed.
We get another flashback, this time to the end of Episode 31, where she sees Kei-kun and Miki hugged up tight on the sidewalk.
Coming back to the scene, her eyes grow wide and her mouth opens a bit as it occurs to her that Yuu dosen't know about them hugging.
"But Yuu doesn't know about what happened!" Her tone changes a bit, suggesting that perhaps telling him about it will be helpful. She seems to have even briefly forgot about it from before, but maybe I'm just reading into it.
Moving to a wider shot showing them both, Yuu is again brought into the audio "So the translation here is--"
"Nee, Yuu-sensei?" (Say, Mr. Matsuura?) She interrupts, trying to decide whether to tell him. (By the way, he insists that she call him "Yuu-sensei", as he is older and her tutor.)
"Hmm." He replies. [This is not proper Japanese. I'm having trouble pulling the proper phonics out of the audio, the interjection is so short.]
"Aa, nande monai." (Uh, nothing, forget it!) Suzu nervously backs out of telling him, pulling her arms back in and turning back to face the lesson book. These two lines are the only ones she speaks "out loud" through the entire scene. (excluding vocal effects)
"Hmm." After a brief pause, Yuu resumes his instruction.
"The translation here is--" He resumes. Once again though, his voice is dropped in favor of hers as she continues to consider her situation. She doesn't seem the least bit interested in the lesson, does she? Doesn't she know it's rude to talk over one's teacher?
More of Suzu's editorial follows. Watch in the extreme (on-profile) close-up as her eye slides over towards him. "I could tell him, but he likely would not believe me." The visual of her is interrupted by a sequence showing Miki pulling her left eyelid down and sticking her tongue out-a very rude insult in Japan, as I understand. Miki also waves in a mocking fashion. This is apparently what's going on in Suzu's mind, and she sees the imagined insult as a taunt being directed at her. This scene seems to be animated rather roughly as well.
"Miki would probably deny it and it might look like I was lying." Suzu finishes, a scowl on he face. Don't let her rather doe-eyed look trick you, Suzu is one sharp cookie.
The imagined taunt by Miki sets her off. With a stormy expression, she grabs a mechanical pencil from the cup on her table, throwing her arm back as if to stab something with it. Rather, someone. Could it be that perhaps Suzu isn't exactly playing with a full deck? She even lets out a small grunt as she hefts the pencil, giving the impression she is going to load force into it. You can even hear a tin cup rattle as she pulls out the pen. The lifting action is more fluid that most of the animation around it.
Her antics attract Yuu's attention. We find he was explaining an example to her, only for her to have seemingly ignored him.
Yuu is just vocal enough to let us (as well as her) know that he has noticed her posed in attack mode like this. She sort of grunts again when she realizes he is scrutinizing her pose. She looks at him, closes her eyes and forces a grin. At the same time she lets out this rather strange sounding it's suppose to be a laugh, but it sounds more like a shriek. She seems to be trying to transition from the anger she was just expressing to a state of fake joking. For an incredibly small amount of time, Yuu's expression changes to a "Just what do you think you're doing?" look. Suzu's uncomfortable-sounding noises proceed into the following close-up from over Yuu's shoulder. She is caught and she knows it. Her head snaps back to her work, a sour expression on her face.
The camera switches in close to Yuu. He is shown to be a bit put out with her antics-but not overly troubled. She is just a kid after all, and that is the sort of thing silly little kids do.
He sighs rather impatiently. "Try the next example." He says.
At last we come to the cel, or rather I think was once the bottom part of it anyway. We see Suzu's hand move as she scrawls on the notebook in front of her, the camera panning upward. Notice you see her entire hands here, whereas in the cel setup above they appear to be cut mostly off the bottom. This is why I think the pan cel may have been trimmed. I wonder if Toei did it to reuse the cel setup more easily for Scene 2, which did not require the vertical pan.
Her editorial continues during the pan. "--but I can't let her get away with it. I can't tolerate this kind of thing!" Is she really writing anything down? She sure seems to be thoroughly distracted by her thoughts.
The hand motion stops as the camera reaches the top of the pan, which is the frame this cel setup is now configured to show. Suzu seems to take a mental breath at the pause. Suddenly, her eyes dart upward.
"I can't allow something like that!" By this point, she seems to almost be whispering intently to herself, but why I'm not sure. Maybe she's afraid if she thinks too loudly she'll actually say what she's thinking where Yuu can hear her. If that's the case, kudos to whoever came up with that. Excellent use of subtlety.
We will come back to Scene 1 later.
Between Scenes
At the ice cream shop, Suzu confronts Kei about the hug. He insists that he was merely steadying Miki because she was dizzy. When Suzu makes it clear she doesn't believe him, he gets irate and storms around the counter. It is important to note that his boss has left the room for some supplies.
What he is about to do would probably get him fired if caught, particularly since the shop manager was previously shown to be a big fan of Suzu. Grabbing Suzu's arm, Kei proceeds to throw her out of the shop. "If your not going to buy ice cream, go home!" (or something to that effect.) He literally pushes her out the automatic door. It could be argued she deserved this, but somehow the action doesn't win him any points-at least not with me.
In the process, he drops the medallion that properly belonged to Miki. Suzu notices him picking it up, recognizes it as the mate to one Yuu was carrying earlier, and naturally assumes foul play on Miki's part.
Even though she is popular with her fans, it seems few main characters like Suzu very much. If it is anyone's fault, it is her own.
Scene 2, in Context
As the scene starts outside her house, you can hear birds chirping in the background.
Back in her room, Suzu finally decides to tell Yuu what she saw.
"Next, try to solve this one." Yuu again begins the scene.
Her chair scrapes on the floor as she stands up.
"Yuu-sensei, I saw them!" She sounds very agitated.
"What, saw who?" This time, Yuu and Suzu actually carry on a conversation. Yuu is curious, but again unconcerned.
"Miki and that Kei guy hugging in the street!"
When they show her in profile, you can see Suzu's throat moving as she speaks, rather forcefully-she is fairly loud. This is why I gave the volume warning, along with the fact her voice is very sharp here.
Yuu throws back his head and laughs-"Wherever did you get that silly idea from?" he asks, still laughing. This prompts her to reply rather peevishly "You don't believe me?" Apparently she sat back down while he was laughing. It might not have been intentional, but my impression of Yuu's laughter in this instance is that he sounds like a jerk.
The sound of a light tap blends into the audio. You can barely see what looks like Yuu putting his hand on the table behind the back rest of his chair. It is interesting however, that Suzu's chair did not make noise this time as she moved in it.
"What's there to believe? Why them?" He challenges.
The unpleasant expression on her face changes when she remembers "the hug". Yes, we get yet another flashback. On return, Suzu is facing Yuu with a very troubled look on her face.
"I saw them clearly! They hugged in the middle of the street! Kei said it was because she felt dizzy and collapsed." Suzu pleads insistently, her intonations falling low and coming back up. Perhaps somewhere in her twisted mind she really is concerned about Yuu.
This makes him think for a moment. As he changes position, you can hear more taps. I think his feet are shifting on the floor. It must be his feet, he's still holding his book when the scene goes back to a wider view. Suzu definitely has a hard floor in her room-I want to say it's wood, but I'm not sure. I finally see it in the background it's wood as best I can tell. The floor continues to be referenced in the sound work for the remainder of the scene. Yuu's shoes are fairly hard as well. A later episode shows what look like wood slats on her floor.
Anyway, he finally says, "Come to think of it, Miki did tell me something like that." His tone clearly indicates his internal review of what Miki said.
"Don't let her fool you!" Suzu insists rather snappishly, jostling his thought pattern.
"Huh?" His eyes get wide.
"It didn't look like that at all!" Wow, she's totally lost her cool. I think Suzu is expressing both shock and anger here. For a while, I thought she might be overselling her outrage just a bit, as Kei's and Miki's supposed "illicit embrace" could be used to drive a wedge between Miki and Yuu. However, after thinking about how the scene ends a few times, I've come to the conclusion that she really is this upset, but probably about her difficulty in convincing Yuu of what she saw more than anything else.
Suzu can't stand being treated or thought of as a child. Perhaps her "feelings" have gotten the best of her-the pitch/intensity profile here suggests a severe lack of maturity.
Back to the scene-
He sighs, then chuckles lightly. "I get it. I get it." he coos-rubbing her head patronizingly, as if she were the family dog. This truly "gets her dander up", which you can both see and hear.
As Yuu sits back down, his chair can be heard moving.
The way she glares at him while he is sitting down is priceless!
As he sits down, he lowers the boom on her-"Little kids shouldn't worry about such things. Hey now, worry about this problem." He chides, pointing back at her homework. His tone is admonishing, very much like an impatient teacher insisting his (or her) charge focus on the lesson.
For her finishing move Suzu jerks her head away, deftly signalling her disgust with a quick "Hmph"! This is such a strangely cute sound for an angry girl, I can't help but like it. Masterful in tone and timing, the perfect reaction to follow up that expression. If Suzu wanted to refute his notion of her as a "little kid", I'm afraid she failed utterly and completely.
The camera swaps to a close up of her. You can see the animation preparing to come back to the cel setup above. Her head faces Yuu briefly-I think she is giving him yet another dirty look.
As she leans forward, the chair can be heard creaking with the shifting of her weight. Remember when I said it scraped on the floor as she stood up early in the scene? You can't even SEE that chair in the scene, yet its participation was registered by the scraping sound! This is consistent with the floor in Suzu's room being made of wood. When I first heard it, it took a minute to figure out what it was. The sound people took their jobs very seriously.
"I just KNEW he wouldn't believe me!" She whines to herself in bitter frustration as she goes into editorial mode again. Despite what she just said, she still comes across as being a bit surprised that he didn't take her seriously. Her head turns back toward the camera, the animation at last returning to this cel setup. Her frustration is compounded by her apparent concern that Miki will cause him pain.
"But if this keeps up Yuu will get hurt in the end!" Her eyes move upward, repeating the sequence from Scene 1. "I've got to do something!" Again, she seems to almost whisper the last portion of the line. This time however my cel setup is shown a bit longer, with Suzu talking to herself over the cel. I wish I knew why her eyes moved like this, but I don't.
Suzu's Room
Scene 2 treats us to a brief tour of Suzu's room, if we are willing to momentarily ignore the character interactions. Her walls are purplish-pink and covered with cute pictures, and even an award or two. I forgot to mention elsewhere that she enjoys photography as a hobby-she has a corkboard with what I think are supposed to be photos she has taken.
She has at least two vases of flowers, one on a chest-of-drawers and another slightly smaller on a cabinet. Various attractive knick-knacks can be seen on her other furniture. While you can't see it here, Suzu's room also features a collection of plush dolls and animals. I'm not sure what to make of the white grid on the wall near Yuu. I think they're curtains, but are they supposed to be translucent?
The pièce de résistance is the previously mentioned (and in real life very expensive) wood flooring. Well-appointed and youthfully feminine, Suzu's room is very much what you'd expect of a well-to-do cutie.
Each angle required a unique background, with careful consideration of the room's layout. The background work itself is incredible when you think about it-if I tried to go over every visible detail, that could easily be its own article, perhaps as long as this one.
I would like to have had the original matching background for this cel, but who knows where it is now. Indeed it may very well have been destroyed long ago.
No More Miss "Nice" Girl!
Toei was likely being cheap in reusing this scene, though it does serve to emphasize what's going on in Suzu's head in this episode. Her expression is both aggravated and determined. Up until this point, she has mostly focused on throwing herself at Yuu whenever she can. Here, she decides more proactive measures are in order-Miki must be dealt with. Little did I realize that this unassuming cel appears to be a major inflection point in her part of the story. Suzu's scheming manages to catch Kei up in it as well, whether he likes it or not.
Yuu Matsuura, Conveniently Clueless
For his part, Yuu tries not to acknowledge Suzu's advances as best he can. To him, her kiss is like that of a little sister. This strikes me as very shortsighted. It does not matter to him in the slightest how serious she thinks she is, and this is his biggest mistake in his dealings with her.
Maybe his insensitivity to Suzu is because she's younger. Senority is traditionally a very big deal in Japan. Arimi is his age, and if I remember correctly he treated her interest in him with a great deal more delicacy. Of course, it could just be that he just doesn't like Suzu, I'm not really sure.
She may be immature; however, she is definitely not stupid. Neither is she content to be pushed aside like this. Rather than simply trying to pretend Miki's isn't there, she becomes almost openly hostile to her. This hostility comes to a head in Episode 43, with Yuu sort of letting things roll almost the entire time.
Frankly, I'm not one of his biggest fans. He is almost always unaware of the emotional chaos around him. Often he only really begins to grasp that trouble is afoot when it smacks him in the face. Sometimes, even that isn't enough. Sadly, Miki is the one who seems to bear the brunt of many of the emotional challenges that come along to regularly threaten their future together.
Soshite Suzu-chan wa... (And As for Suzu...)
In spite of her deep-seeded early hostility, Suzu isn't entirely unlikeable after all. She has some funny moments, some really fun expressions, and of course, a super-cute, delightfully entertaining voice.
You may be wondering why I went over so much of the sound. Really, the sound-particularly the dialogue-is as much a part of these sequences as the video, and for her place in the cast Suzu gets a surprisingly large chunk of it here.
Cost Effective Animation....
I offered a video of Scene 1 without sound and subtitles to show just how little full-on animation there is.
While it's true that it was cheaper to animate Scene 1 in such a relatively simple fashion, the simplified animation also has the effect of highlighting Suzu's voice.
Consider the following--
-There is very little animation throughout this scene, and some of it is even reused. Most of the action is made up of pans and large still shots of the characters, where only parts of their faces move.
-More complete animation is largely reused from flashbacks.
-Yuu is supposedly talking her through the lesson the whole time, but her "editorial" speaking mostly cancels his voice out. He actually says very little through the whole thing.
-Suzu is at best only sort of part of the main cast. Yuu however, is BOTH series co-lead and title character. Yet, the vast majority of the dialogue in this sequence belongs to her, and she is talking to herself. While it's clear that Yuu is tutoring her in English here, they could've have made it Math if language was the driving factor in limiting his dialog.
In fact, Yuu is also supposed to be tutoring her in Math. With English being chosen as the subject for this scene, his dialogue can rather easily be glossed over and silenced without any obvious problem. Large chunks of what he said would not only be irrelevant to the intended audience, it might not even be understood. While the Japanese education system places a high value on English instruction, a relative lack of real-world experience in the language by most Japanese means it is often difficult for them to use properly in practice. This is actually referenced later in this series. Arguably this may have been more of a problem in the early-mid 90's when Marmalade Boy was made.
I'm of the opinion English was chosen for the purpose of limiting the presence of his voice without obvious consequence to the story. It would be more natural this way, since the at-home audience might not have the most firm grasp of what he was saying anyway.
...Meets Effective Voice Acting
All factors above considered, here is the takeaway-
Suzu's voice is allowed to carry the show almost entirely by itself for over a minute-with only some dramatic music, a few well placed sound effects, and minimal participation from Yuu-sensei. In fact, the entirety of Scene 1 seems to have been designed around this very intention.
In other words, the entire animation staff and sound production crew-whether intentional or not-placed the dramatic quality of Scene 1 largely on a single person-the young, relatively inexperienced seiyuu giving Suzu her voice.
The talking-to-oneself gambit can be highly effective, but you need top-shelf voice talent to make it work. When the animation itself becomes limited in the process, sound and voice become even more important in presenting the scene effectively.
I would say it worked very well here. Suzu comes across as angry, devious, and just a bit loopy. She seems to have misunderstood a number of things, and conveniently in favor of her own agenda.
My favorite reaction is near the end of Scene 2, where she fires off that "Hmph!" sound, then proceeds to whine to herself about Yuu's refusal to believe her. I can't even fully make out her phonics in the original Japanese, but all the immature frustration of a spoiled little princess not getting her way comes through loud and clear.
It bodes well for the future success of a performer if they can somehow relate a character's feelings through even part of a language barrier-it is an impressive ability.
With very little lip-synching to either obstruct or deemphasize the vocal mechanics in Scene 1, this cel is part of two scenes that together are perfect for demonstrating the ability of Suzu's seiyuu.
In the second scene, she is acting for the character. In the first, she is laying out Suzu's thought processes in-depth for the viewer, with very little outside assistance. Those thought processes continue to be effectively demonstrated with both vocals and animation whenever Suzu is shown over the course of the next several episodes. Really throughout the series. Gradually her appearances become less regular, but she is never completely taken off the show.
I've gotten so deep into the mechanics of the character vocals I haven't really said much about Suzu's voice actor, have I?
Suzu's Seiyuu
It is perhaps a bit ironic that of all the characters in Marmalade Boy, Suzu just happens to be the only celebrity. Her seiyuu, on the other hand, was not well-known in anime at the time. She would not remain so however. By the end of the 1990's, she would join the ranks of Japan's best known-and most popular-voice actors. (NOTE: Photo may require login to be visible.)
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Suzu Sakuma from Marmalade Boy is one of the earliest roles of singer and voice actor, Sakura Tange.
NOTE: I'm pretty sure the photo is from about 1996-1997. I like her pose and expression, very cute.
Among Tange-san's many credits are Yuki in Nintama Rantarou, Hitomi from Tonde Būrin, MIDI from Voogie's Angel, Princess Beryline in The Violinist of Hamelin, and Muse from Tenshi Ni Narumon (English Title: I'm Gonna Be an Angel!) . While she retired from voice acting in favor of a singing career in the early 2000's, she returned to the field around 2011.
Voice Actor Sakura
Tange-san is of course best known by far for her vocal portrayal of one of the most widely recognized anime leads from the 90's. Namely, Sakura Kinomoto in the immensely popular mahou no shoujo series, CardCaptor Sakura. Often the title is shortened to simply "CCS".
Much more recently she has reclaimed her signature role, lending Kinomoto her voice in CardCaptor Sakura: Clear Card Arc.
The fact that a really popular seiyuu shares her given name with her most recognized role is one of the strangest coincidences I have ever seen in voice acting.
As the character represented on this nearly forgotten cel, Suzu came along at a time when Tange-san was just beginning to build a career as a seiyuu. Many different roles and character types would come her way in the years between Suzu and Sakura [Kinomoto].
Coming back to Suzu, the voice is right on the money for the character. Cute and sweet one moment, stormy and unpleasant the next. Keenly intelligent, but often very childish-even occasionally a bit silly. Tange-san read this character right down the line. So adept is she at effects and expressions, Suzu's vocalizations are many times the best part of the character.
A brilliant performance, in my opinion.
My Take on CardCaptor Sakura
In saying this I'm not trying to tell anyone else what to watch, but CCS is just not the show for me.
Incidently, I haven't singled out CCS for this opinion, either. There are of course other series that wouldn't suit me, regardless of whether any particular voice actor was involved.
Beyond Kinomoto, Very Briefly
I want to talk about a couple characters I mentioned earlier.
First, Yuki from Nintama Rantarou. Tange-san took over that role from Mariko Kouda. At the time, Kouda-san was voicing Miki Koishikawa in Marmalade Boy. Suzu's seiyuu took over a lead role from Miki's seiyuu! Tange-san would keep the role until her retirement, when Kouda-san was brought back for the part.
While I'm not overly familiar with the series, Nintama Rantarou started in 1993 and is still running today, reaching it's 25th Anniversary this past April. Kouda-san has been Yuki's voice ever since stepping back into the role.
Tange-san played MIDI in Voogie's Angel to marvelous effect. One of the key elements of her effectiveness was the vulnerability she gave MIDI. Sweet and cute is fine, but vulnerability, now that is an element that can really make a good performance a great one. In my opinion vulnerability is a quality that can be extremely difficult to convey credibly.
Final Thoughts
My experiences with native-language anime go back a number of years, but not as far back as some. Of course, Marmalade Boy forms a large part of that early experience-in more ways than one. I am a bit disappointed in a way that the mean and nasty side of Suzu is shown almost exclusively here. She eventually mellows out a bit, and can be a rather sweet little girl when she wants to-even a skosh silly at times.
I did NOT form an opinion on CardCaptor Sakura without at least watching some of it. There are moments from this series among my earliest recollections in un-dubbed Japanese animation.
In any case, I'd like to think I can appreciate a highly-skilled voice actor regardless of which of his or her roles I prefer. It can be difficult to trace the history of a voice actor back this far, that also factored into the extended vocal analysis above.
I watched this cel remain available for sale long enough that I wondered if it might disappear into oblivion. True it is not in the best shape, but I certainly don't think it should have been written off. I love Suzu's expression, although I'm glad I have the setup showing her eyes at initial position. For some reason, she looks rather goofy with her eyes focused more to the top of the shot.
Perhaps I don't give it the best of care, but hopefully its fate with me is better than being left to ruin on a store shelf deep in the recesses of an old shopping mall-like complex in Tokyo. If nothing else, perhaps I have managed to show that one just never knows what stories-or whose stories-the forgotten pieces of animation have to tell.
Anyway, thank you for staying with me for such a long time. This is quite possibly my longest article to date, and I've actually trimmed it back a bit. [I may put the longer version on my RS page in the days to come. I'll try to update with the link here if I do. - DONE]
As always, comments, opinions, perspectives are appreciated.
