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Magic Knight Rayearth: 4 Others


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Princess Emeraude in captivity: A10 cel
Source: TV
Layers: 1
Sketches: 1
Cel Number: A10
Standard size
Opening Cel

No Background

Added 11/12/2005
Updated 3/16/2017
Episode 19, cut 4. After the image in the A2 genga, Emeraude turns to the left with a world-weary, glamorous look, muttering “At this rate … Cephiro will be destroyed …” Sequence number: A10.



This cel is nearly but not completely painted over, and since the studio photographed this against a pure white background (the petals of the lotus in which she’s trapped), I’ve done the same.

Sadly, this cel has suffered heavy line fading. This is most obvious in the hair lines below the princess's left eye, where this area was repainted on the front of the cel, the trace lines then reinforced, a little crudely, in ink. I'd assumed this was the result of inexpert curating, and it was something of a surprise when I got around to screencapping this image. Then I discovered that the line fading and the sloppy reinforcing of the trace lines were both already present when the cel went under the camera.

One can only assume that the damage occurred between the painting of the cel and its delivery to the studio. Perhaps the stack of cels sat in a hot truck or delivery container for a long time, allowing the plasticizers in the trace lines to react with the paint. I and other curators have observed that paints in the yellow-orange-brown spectrum are more likely to react with trace lines than others, but it is unusual to see this happen before the cel is in fact filmed.

But then the first season of MKR betrays haste and sloppiness in many ways. You can actually see dust specks caught between the layers dance around when certain characters are speaking, and even in the OP Hikaru visibly "flutters" at the edge of a cliff, because the studio photographers were not careful to keep the images in exact registration.

It is still a beautiful image, a tribute to the faith the artists had in this landmark series, and the Princess is happy to be rejoined with the gengas for the rest of this memorable scene.


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Curator: 60something-sensei
Gallery Created: 8/3/2002
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