Kaze Makase Tsukikage Ran

Lady Matsuzaka: We can't keep things mild forever, now can we, Beninosuke? ...
I suppose we shall clear away all the nuisances in one stroke.

Beninosuke. Or as I became used to calling him, Benisato. A rose by any other name would look as beautiful, and Benisato definitely looks VERY nice... especially compared to the other male samuari in the show. Pretty much all the others look like they fell into at least one "ugly pond" on the way to casting. Many apparently were caught in the "ugly rainstorm". This is one of the gems of my Tsukikage Ran collection. He's a scarce character to find, and having a matching background is no small feat. Most backgrounds with Tsukikage Ran cels, although from the show, are non-matching. This background came from a colletor who got it with one of her Tsukikage Ran cels of a non-matching sequence. Thank you, ix! ^_^ (Original production background.)

Ran's look-alike. Usually, I don't like close up cels, and only pick them up if they kind of fall into my lap. But the expression and emotion in this cel was too much to resist! I actually had to fight harder than expected for this one. I almost didn't because the seller's scan was so dark I couldn't see much of the detail, but the cel is beautiful and the matching sketch is worth mention also.		Ran's look-alike. This is the type of cel I was thinking of when I first started looking for cels of this character. Incidentally, it isn't laziness keeping me from looking up her name... they never give her one. This one was one of my favorite episodes and this character only appears at the very end. Between her and Benisato, I'm not sure who gets less airtime.

Beninosuke and Lady Matsuzaka. Another gem! This is Benisato talking to the lady of the house for which he works. Benisato speaks his *only* two lines while this is on the screen, one of which is: "Good idea." The other line is even shorter. ^_^;   This cel is shown on the screen in an interesting way. They make it look as if the viewer is watching the room through a partially open door, leaning one way to see Lady Matsuzaka and leaning the other way to see Benisato. This "sneaky feeling" technique is very effective for the mood of the scene! But because the viewer is supposedly seeing the two from a distance, the image on the cel is actually fairly small, although the cel itself is oversized. For the scan, I have overcropped the large background to better show the painted portion of the cel. (Original production background.)

Oharu and Sanji. We only get to see one tiny sequence of Sanji alive at the beginning of the episode. Later, we learn from Oharu, his love, that he was trying to set right some wrongs for which he had been responsible. He doesn't get a chance to do that... which serves as a lesson to at least one other character in the episode. Ran will have to be the one to set things right.		Oyu. Another cel with fantastic emotion. This is the mother of the missing baby that Lady Matsuzaka has sent Benisato to find. Unfortunately for the baby, Benisato's instructions are not to be gentle, should he ever find the infant. In this scene, Oyu has just been told by a guilt-wracked servant that her baby, first born male child in the Matsuzaka house, is still alive.

?? The whole reason I hunted out Tsukikage Ran was because I thought the cels were beautiful. In particular, there was a gorgeous cel of this lady for sale at an online site. I thought about buying it anyway, even though I hadn't seen the show. I wish I had bought it, because it's gone now. Since she was much of the reason I hunted down and watched the show in the first place, I would love to have a very nice cel of her.		Mai. This is one of the few episodes missing from my digisubs. This show was translated by real fansubbers who discontinue licenced anime. However, being someone who planned to buy the domestic DVDs anyway, I hated having to wait for the release. ^_^; But this episode, both touching and sad, was worth the wait... We meet Mai, Miao's best childhood friend. Here, Mai has to attend to business, and leaves dinner with Miao.

Water guy. I knew this nameless extra right away despite that his role is so small you might miss it by sneezing. Miao found an abandoned baby, and Ran intends to use markings on its blankets to find its real mother. When questioned, this passerby in the street identifies the family crest as that of the Matsuzaka House. By the way, even he gets more speaking lines than Benisato.		Bonsai Clan Brothers. In episode one, the first we see of her, Ran is enjoying a morning nap. These three brothers interrupt that, and when they won't leave, she displays her disapproval by displaying their undergarments for them. Although she chases them off here, she winds up helping them before moving on to the next town. (Lazer copy background, believed matching.)

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