Oooh-kaaay. Methinks Charon has been taking some loony lessons from you, dear Mikael.

If we sneak out real quietly maybe she won't notice us. *tiptoes away*

And now that I've proven my love for this cel-- or maybe my mental instability; eh, same difference-- I'll give you some of the back story. (No, don't run away! I'm not going to recap my entire Tenshi ni Narumon obsession from the front page! )

As I might have mentioned in passing , I've had my share of problems picking up TnN cels early on. While I'd managed to snag a few Raphael cels by the time I spotted this (including my bet scene cel, which I do truly love), I'd still had no luck getting a cel from the end of episode 13 where-- SPOILER-- Raphael makes his first appearance. He plays a merry tune atop the clock tower in greeting to the astonished Mikael before flying over to him. And apparently the great strain of trying to fly with only one wing overcomes poor Raph (Uh huh. ) and he begins to topple over-- and of course, Mikael rushes in to catch & steady him, then GLOMPH!-- full body hug! That's our Raph.

As I said, I'd had no luck trying to snatch a cel from this sequence that I really liked. (I'd still like a cel of Raphael hovering over Mikael, but most of the ones I've seen have either Raph or Mika twitching or grimacing or doing something equally weird. I did find a really nice one on Yahoo Japan for 8600 yen but it ended on the day that YJ instigated their new pay per month policy. Oi. ) And then, one night while I was working on my cel website I was notified that a cel dealer had updated. (Yes, I have software on my mac, Daemon, that e-mails me whenever it detects certain dealers have updated. Now if only I could find something such for my PC, Bob! Grrr!) However, I'd been picking up false alarms from Art Shop Rose the entire day so I ignored it for an entire half hour! Argh!

It turned out that Anime Tetsu had updated with a 12000 yen cel from this sequence. You might be wondering why I'm rabid over a cel that depicts the back of some guy's head with some other guy with closed eyes hanging over his shoulder-- it's certainly not A-class primo, eyes opened, perfectly centered material, ne? Well, for one, if you couldn't tell , I just adore the scene and something about the set-up to this cel really tickled my artist's eye. The sweep of the wings and especially the sweet look on Raphael's face (and how we can just imagine what look is on Mikael's face ) And, heh, I'm not alone, my friend also tried for the Tetsu cel.

Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones interested in it and someone else got it. (Didn't they realize is was my destiny to have that cel! Fate! They're meddling with fate! *holds hand melodramatically to head*) This is the only cel I've ever physically gotten sick over. (I'm sure other people must have had that sinking-in-the-pit-of-the-stomach type of disappointment before, and while I've felt disappointed before this, I've never felt disappointed, if that makes any sense.) If my legs were flexible enough, I'd have kicked myself in the head. I even went around to all the anime cel message boards and begged for the cel (offered to pay 3x its original price to boot!), all to no avail, alas. (I'd only done that once before, and only on one message board, not all three. Of course, the other cel was a Tenshi ni Narumon cel too. )

So, time passed and life went on and I did flexing excercises on my legs to get them nimble enough to reach my head. I came across other cels from this sequence, in people's private galleries, and a 5000 yen one on Yahoo Japan (but Raphael's mouth was gaping open in that one and his head wasn't resting on Mikael's shoulder, so it just further reminded me how much I wanted the other cel!), but none that I cared for as much as the Tetsu cel. And then one night I was laying in bed and I heard the 'ding' that signalled a website had updated. Usually I tend to ignore this at night (Uh oh, am I gonna be kicked out of Cel Addicts Anonymous now?) and just roll over and go back to sleep, but that particular night I slipped out of bed and saw that this cel had been uploaded for 30000 yen.

And I didn't even care about the price.

At first I mistook it for the Tetsu cel, it's that close to the first one! Mine shows a bit more of Raphael's arms and Mikael's body however. I did rather like the Tetsu cel better-- it was 18000 yen cheaper, hyuk!-- and Raphael's mouth was prettier in that one; but I quite learned my lesson about being picky to the point of stupidity, thankyouverymuch.

So the rest of the night I waited up and played games on my computer, just waiting and waiting for a jubilant confirmation e-mail or another message that would send my foot reaching for my head. (Although it really wouldn't be my fault this time-- I was at the website within 10 seconds of the update!) My cel-collecting friend awoke to quite an interesting in-box of e-mail from me the next morning. But finally, eureeka, confirmation on the cel! And never was I happier to have a credit card at that time!

With the great conversion rates the cel was only $252 including shipping, which ties it with my Evil Tamahome as the most expensive cel in my gallery. Unfortunately, it arrived with it lower left corner smashed in by the mail. *eyetwitch* However, the little damage (and I'm guessing it's little enough that no one but super-obsessive me would even notice) should be covered when I have it framed. (And this will be my first cel I'm framing. I'm still scouring through the 'Net and local places for the best materials. I'm also still looking for night sky background to complement the cel, as the one I used in the scan belongs to a poster hanging on my wall.)

The cel is oversized-- 10 6/8 x 13 6/8 (yes, very weird dimensions) and is A-21 End. I'm guessing that the Tetsu cel was the either the 20 or the 19 since it was so close to mine. Just love, love, love the expression on Raphael's face! This is my number one favorite cel in my gallery! (Shhh, yes, I know I'm not supposed to have a favorite among the children, however... )