Raphael loves playing peek-a-boo!

"When Raphael and Mikael fight, Raph gets sent to the clothesline instead of the couch."


Free Raphael! Free Raphael! Woo hoooo!!! I'd seen several cels from this sequence pop up lately but I'd never thought I'd have one of my own. Despite this coming from my beloved episode 20, I'm not so crazy about this particular scene for a couple of reasons. First of all, I love Raphael the most when he's sweet and serious and... umm.. let's just say he's not depicted at his most serious in this scene. It seems that waking Raph up in the middle of the night is the equivalent of shooting him up with pure pixie dust-- he goes bouncing all over the walls! And secondly-- and more importantly-- what the heck was Raphael doing sleeping on that clothesline?! A couple of episodes earlier he and Mikael were lying in bed together, holding hands, and looking as naked as newborn babes (okay, I didn't peep under the covers, so I can't be quite certain, but Mikael sure looked to be in his birthday suit as he was rushing about the room looking for his clothes!) So what happened? Did Raph fall asleep waiting up for Mika? Did they have a tiff and Mikael kicked him out of the bed? But anyway-- back to the most important part-- free Raphael cel!!! WOO HOO!!!!

Some more backstory to this cel. It comes from the very beginning of episode 20. Mikael is studying late into the night(or had woken up really early) about angels, trying to figure out how he can best help Noelle. Raphael, who had been sleeping on a clothesline stretched across the room for some unfathonable reason, wakes up and asks what the heck Mikael is doing so early in the morning. After some discussion Raphael starts hanging upside down from the clothesline muttering how awesome Mikael is. (Awww... ) Mikael tells him to go back to sleep and that he doesn't need to get up. (Awws, again.) And then Raphael goes swinging around the clothesline by his toes asking what Mikael will do once he becomes an angel. Here's a screengrab of the scene. Unfortunately, Raphael covers his head as he goes zipping around the clothesline, so we can't really see his face in the cel. But beggars can't be choosers, ne?

Raphael does his possum impression.

And after this Raphael gives Mikael a pop-quiz that has to be answered in haiku form-- and then the episode gets really interesting! So what are you doing standing around gaping at me? Go watch the episode! Shoo! *waves arms around*

This cel came as a freebie with the lot that included my bet cel, my Yuusuke climbing the stairway to heaven, and Eros standing over Silky-sama's drawer. The first thing I saw when opening this package was my much-anticipated bet cel (tinted green as all the cels had been stored inside a plastic sleeve-- only one cel bag for the entire lot, alas, but overall I really like the Yahoo Japan sellers ) Flipping the sleeve over to try and pry it out of the celbag and I see a sketch from the vulture Raph scene in the bag. My friend said he looked like a pigeon in this scene I... *cough*... was reminded of another type of bird...

See? There's no reason for you to be so shy when you were running around naked-- Charmed, I'm sure.

I was not naked! *choking on laughter*

You were clothing-impaired? It takes a cuckoo to recognize a vulture!

Now, now, boys, play nice.

Or you were practicing for the lead in 'The Emperors New Clothes'? Aww, what's the fun in that?

Raphael-sama! *eyetwitch* Do you want to sleep on the clothesline again? I want a new co-host for these pages.

You should have told me! I can think of other plays we can re-enact... Oh, you know you like it...


There had *really* better be no one reading these alt tags! Don't start up with that again!

You know, secret messages are usually used for love or war-- so what are we at? Shall I turn off the light? *grinning wickedly to himself, he pulls on a cord hanging out of the air and the two of them disappear into the darkness*

Eh heh...

I can read the alt tags! Night-vision lens! *flourishes camera and disappears off stage*

Umm, as I was saying, I was trying not to get too excited over the Raphael sketch since the matching cel might not have been included. But it was included! Wai! Free Raphael cel!

The cel is C-22 key. I'm not exactly sure what the other layer elements would be-- shadows perhaps? Unfortunately the pixelation is particularly bad in this scan.

Included is the matching sketch where you can see much more detail then in the darker cel.

Who says you need symmetry for balance?

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig...