Medium Mode for me. My choice would be
this rough genga of Sei Sato from Maria sama ga miteru, which is significant in that it is the only sketch i've encountered that shows her with semi-long hair, and one of the very few sketches from the first season to have survived. In fact, the small set of season 1 Marimite rough sketches i own is the only one i have ever seen come up for sale that wasn't from season 4. Rough though it is, this sketch also impressed me in still effectively showing off much of her personality (intelligent and caring, but with a cheeky, playful side) through her facial expression.
JWR wrote:Ok why this image?
Simply there are a few reasons of which a few must be placed under the spoiler screen in case one has never seen the Nadesico Movie or the series that proceeded it.
First off there has not been very many cels ever surface from the Nadesico Movie "The Prince of Darkness" so that in it's self makes it rare.
The fact that when it first appeared on YJ it had a starting price off 150K yen caught my eye and I watched it list, disappear and then relist over a 3 year period until it finally dropped in price that I was willing to spend.
The image it's self seems fairly normal. A girl is lying awake watching a fish floating overhead.
What is actually going on
| Ruri who is now the captain of the Nadesico is the girl in this cel. In the original series even though she was the youngest crew member, she seemed to be the most adult one in the original series. In this scene she has worked up the guts to ask a boy who is a crew member she likes to spend the night in her cabin on board the ship. He being the same age as her is dense and falls asleep leaving Ruri to lat awake imagining a vision of a glowing fish as it swims accross the ceiling. This is a "throwback" to the original series where in an episode Ruri is shown living in a forced learning center in which she had a fish mobile in her room but also she heard salmon like fish jumping in a river outside of the school so fish are a source of comfort to her. Good thing cause in this scene she is definatly frustraighted that the boy can not figure out that her invite was for more than a slumber party |
I hesitate to do this, considering your fondness for this scene, but as Beta's resident Ruri fanboy i feel it wouldn't be right not to mention it. This scene is certainly significant, but it does not portray what you think it does. You've misinterpreted both the meaning of the scene and Ruri's motivations. I urge you to rewatch ep.18 of Nadesico and the movie immediately afterwards, and to pay attention to the following:
The main purpose of ep.18 of Nadesico is to show Ruri's quest to find out about her family and past. In this episode, Fish are symbolic of Ruri's desire to discover people she can call family and a place that she can call home (one of her earliest memories is the sound of fish splashing). She finds out the identity of both her biological parents and the 'orphanage' (genetical research facility) that raised her, only to discover that neither qualifies as anything resembling a true family. At the orphanage, she again hears the sound of fish splashing and, with Akito's help, rushes outside to see many hundreds of fish swimming through the stream. It is at that precise moment that she realizes that her true family is the one she's been a part of ever since she joined the Nadesico: Yurika, Akito, Minato, Megumi, Ryoko and the rest of the ship's crew.
This realization is also key to many of her scenes in the movie. It is important to note that Hari has a very similar background to that of Ruri. He is also a genetic engineering guinneapig who never had the luxury of a normal upbringing, which in his case had the effect of making him overly susceptable to emotional outbursts. This time, it is Ruri who plays the role of big sister/foster parent and takes it upon herself to provide Hari with the same sort of support that she herself received from the Nadesico crew. Hari's obvious crush on Ruri is also similar to Ruri's crush on Akito in that the object of his affections is not interested in him romantically, but instead becomes his 'family', providing him with emotional support, which is something that he in reality needs even more, even if he himself doesn't realize that yet. In fact, his actions in the movie make it clear that he still hasn't quite grasped the importance of family, as shown by his jealousy and repeated objections to Ruri bringing the old Nadesico crew back together.
The other major point of importance is the fact that in the timeframe between the TV series and the movie, Ruri had been adopted by Akito and Yurika, and the three of them had lived together as a genuine family prior to the disappearance of Yurika and Akito. Their supposed death hit Ruri extremely hard, and as she learns that they are actually still alive, it becomes quite clear that this realization is the main thing occupying her mind. The scene that your cel is from and the preceding train and bathhouse scenes in fact show this quite clearly, with Ruri's mind still focussed on Akito, after having spotted him on a train.
Putting these observations together, what this cel tells us is as follows: Ruri stares at the fish, signifying her desire to reunite with her missing familymembers Akito and Yurika, after the sudden discovery that they are still alive. At the same time, the concept of family is reinforced by Ruri playing the part of foster parent for Hari, giving him needed support after his emotional outburst earlier that day. Finally, there's the irony of Ruri's crush on Akito, while she is herself oblivious to Hari's crush on her. |
