Happy Leap Year-Day... err... 29th of February?

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Heck, it's a day that comes only once every four years, it deserves to be celebrated, no? And it gives me an excuse to do one of these image heavy posts than having to wrack my brains out typing out a serious one At any rate, if celebrating this 29th of February for the sake of celebrating it isn't your thing, then you can join me in commemorating the rare birthdays of one rose bride and one CLAMP bishounen.


So here's wishing a once in four years Happy Birthday to Himemiya Anthy, the Rose Bride from that wonderfully enigmatic yet strangely absorbing series which was Revolutionary Girl Utena. It's a series with an interesting mix of unconventional imagery and original story-telling which makes it an instant classic, and one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the show is the that of the Rose Bride Anthy - what sinister secrets does her complacent doormat-ish veneer really hide...?

Those who have watched the series should remember the somewhat artificial innocence which surrounds Anthy's persona, whereas those who've seen her in the Adolescence Apocalypse movie (which is a compelte retelling of the series, mind you) will see her as more feisty flirty creature... But to those who aren't familiar with either, Anthy is still famed for being a classic Yuri icon in anime together with the 'princely' Utena, if you're at all into that sort of thing ^^


Anthy and ChuuChuu at the end of the series. I have to say that the ending of Utena felt very inconclusive yet extremely satisfactory at the same time. *Spoiler: Watching Himemiya finally breaking free from her brother's shackles and walking out of the school to search for Utena (wherever she may be) while Rose & Release played in the background (which is basically Masami Okui ~La la la~ing to the OP song - a must listen) turned out to be one of the most strangely satisfying and fitting endings to an anime I've ever had the chance to watch. *

Indeed, Himemiya Anthy is not-so-innocent as she first seems... The biggest mystery that comes to mind when I see her though is how she manages all that hair whenever she appears in public!

Also celebrating his hard to come by birthday is Kinomoto Touya from Cardcaptor Sakura. おたんじょうび　おめでとう! Touya's claim to fame as Sakura's teasing brother comes from being part job-hopping sister-stalking siscon, and part sister's-crush-stealing BL icon. (Hmm, this post is turning out to be more yuri/yaoi-centric than I expected) And of course, how can I not mention that he's voiced by awesome Seki Tomokazu ^^?

Touya is the typical older sibling who enjoys tormenting his younger sister (being an older sibling myself, I'll just say it's one of those unwritten rules of family life =P) while 'secretly' looking out for her in the not-very-rare case that the Cardcaptor gets into a pinch. This he does while working at his 101 (and perhaps more) part-time jobs :S Talk about industriousness. Sakura of course, being the oblivious little moe magical girl that she is never really notices this (and many other things throughout the course of the series) as she's too busy capturing stray Clow cards while hiding the magical aspect of her life from her onii-chan.

There's snow! And bunnies! How could I resist??? ^^

Those who've watched Cardcaptor Sakura can fully attest to the legitimacy of the Touya X Yukito pairing which for once is not just the product of collective fangirls' imagination, unless you're willing to turn a big blind eye towards the proceedings in the later episodes. Spoiler: Yukito openly turns down poor Sakura for her brother, lol. No surprise really, CCS being a CLAMP work after all, slash inevitably works its way in like it or not =P

Well, to these two classic characters, here's wishing you a Happy Leap Year-Day Birthday from Tondemo Nothing!

(And if anyone gives a hoot about me using images I obviously wantonly took from the net, feel free to voice yourself and I will most graciously remove the offending image and replace it with some other image I borrowed from some other source which I've failed to credit)