Since this cel was being auctioned off at the same time as the naked Mika cels and the bet cel I decided to put in a cheapy why-the-heck-not bid in since-- hey, it's Raphael! Slight spoilers ahead-- or was it? I didn't immediately recognize the scene this came from and the coloring & the shape of the collar made me wonder if it was Fuyuki instead. And I ended up winning it for a mere 3900 yen. (about the equivalent of $32.50 at the time) I guess no one was really interested in him since his eyes were closed and there were quite a few primo Raph cels that were also being auctioned at the same time. (And I tried for some of those primo cels too, but alas, always the bridesmaid never the bride. Or rather, always second highest bidder. )

Call me weird, but I really liked his lips in this cel, which was probably the main reason I even bothered to bid on it. (Another reason was how his hair hangs over his eyes-- I'm a sucker for that.) Now that I have the cel in my hands, I also really love the colors in it! Much prettier then what I saw in my fansubs. And despite the poor resolution in the scan, the pic is pretty true to the actual colors of the cel.

This cel comes from episode 16. Noelle's family has managed to hoodwink Mikael into becoming a temporary tutor for Yuusuke and Noelle. Mikael is hesitant but Raphael tells him to go ahead since helping Noelle study shouldn't count as interference. After all, Raphael has never heard of an angel that was held back a grade. And the annoyed Mikael replies that he's never heard of an angel exercising in front of the TV-- which Raph has been doing during the entire scene.

*light comes on* A body like this takes work to maintain! *pirouettes elegantly and flexes muscles* Ne, Mikael?

No comment. *reaches up and turns light off*

After their exchange Mikael stalks out the door and tells Raphael to turn the electricity off when he is done. Raphael turns around (we have my cel) and calls Mikael a cheapskate to the closed door. I didn't recognize this cel at first since I'd been passing up cels from the exercise scene-- over all, it didn't look all that well animated to me. However this cel is quite well drawn, so I'll have to look over the scene again. Below is a screengrab.