This cel has quite a story behind it. I'd never even considered buying an animation cel before a certain friend began to point out various sites and cels that she was considering. And then at Celmart I stumbled across this-- a cel of Prince Darien (did I even know he was really called Endymion back then?) and some unknown guy in white robes. (Gomen, Helios. I even considered seperating the cel layers so the white-robed guy would stop detracting from Endymion )

I believe the cel was $120 total including shipping back then and I wishy-washed over it for quite awhile. We'd figured out that the cel came from the SS season, which neither of us had actually seen yet but-- it! was! prince! darien!!! So after getting into a big fuss with my mother-- who obviously didn't approve of my blowing $100 on a piece of plastic back then... actually I don't think she approved of my blowing $100 on anything back then-- I finally ordered it! And then my computer was struck by lightning. And that was just the beginning.

I went to the local post office who insisted that they didn't have any money orders for Japan and that we would have to drive down to the main post office in the city. Right. The main post office insisted that the only type of money order going to Japan would need to be sent through St. Louis(?!) first and would take 6 weeks to process. I had two weeks to pay. (Note that now I run down to my local post office for international money orders far too often. They've tried to pull the "A money order going to Japan needs to go through St. Louis" trick on me a few times since, but I know better now.)

Meanwhile, my friend(who I'd managed to e-mail via stolen time on the library computer at my school. I got caught doing it too. ) was in contact with Celmart assuring them that I was intending to pay. Celmart agreed to accept cash if I couldn't get a money order in any reasonable time but my mother absolutely refused to send $120 in cash to Japan, registered mail or no. (Side note: Kiddies, it's grand to be an adult! Grand! ) So in the end I sent $120 to my friend who then bought a money order at her local post office and then sent it to Celmart. And finally my lovely Endy-poo cel arrived!

It's from episode 165 'Crystal no Kagayaku Toki Utsukushiki Yume no Chikara' the second to last episode of the SS season. (Sorry, I don't remember its dub name.) Helios has brought the ailing Mamoru into a dream to show him The Golden Kingdom.(Is this Elysian/Illusion? Or the kingdom of the past Earth?) Mamoru transforms into Prince Endymion (woo hoo!) and babbles on about fighting for your dreams and Helios kneels to him. Oddly, during the scene Helios and Endymion are never in focus at the same time, Endymion going blurry when the camera pans to Helios and vice versa. The cel is comprised of two layers, A-1 being Helios and C-2 being Endymion. I wonder what the B layer was? Perhaps it was a fog layer or shadows? Background is actually my mousepad which I scanned behind the cel. ^^; (Anyone know of a sweatdropping emoticon?) The scan for this cel is actually pretty good, all considering. The blues & greens are still off, but it's nowhere near as bad as some of my other scans.

My first cel also came with my first freebie-- a cel from YAT Space Explorers.