Studio Ghibli and the MC2

My partner adores the animated features produced by Studio Ghibli, an animation film studio based in Japan. From their deeply emotional films such as Grave of the Fireflies to it's whimsical and charming productions like Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro, it's clear to see why Studio Ghibli is so highly regarded for it's attention to character and focus on beautiful animation. It might seem an unlikely connection, but as a tribute to my wonderful partner, I'd like to do a brief posting about the time Studio Ghibli made an appearance in the MC2.

Totoro is a large cuddly forest spirit that appears in the 1988 Studio Ghibli film My Neighbor Totoro. Since his first appearance on screen, the character has become an icon, appearing on all sorts of merchandise and even being integrated into Studio Ghibli's logo and branding. The character has even been seen in the Disney Pixar film Toy Story 3 as a plush toy. But more importantly, Totoro appeared as a cameo in an issue of Spider-Girl.

Spider-Girl #51 is notable for being the only issue of the Spider-Girl not written by Tom Defalco, as it was originally a stock story commissioned in the event of a tight deadline. Written by Sean McKeever with art by Casey Jones, the story is about an unnamed student at Midtown High who has a crush on May 'Mayday' Parker and writers her a letter the day he leaves town. But more importantly, it features Totoro!

Yes, the lowly freshman student's best friend Kari carts her school books around in an adorable Totoro backpack. It's nothing earth shattering, but it's a nice little nod and seems appropriate for a teenager to tote such a cute piece of merchandise. I'm willing to bet that this was an inclusion from artist Casey Jones as it's not mentioned in dialogue. But that's just my guess.

Enjoy your time together and be good to one another, people. Love you, Sugar Plum!

Until I stop seeing pop culture within pop culture, I remain

frogoat

Number Games

On one of my many re-reads of Spider-Girl, I noticed something. Sports is an important part of May's life. Aside from her love of basketball, she also played sports growing up, along with her friend Davida Kirby. It's one of the many little things that differentiates her from her father.

As usual, I overthought things and here is the result:

May's basketball Jersey number is 34. Check it out.

 Not only do Ron Frenz and Pat Olliffe keep the numbering consistent (much as they did for May's wardrobe) but even guest artist Casey Jones was paying attention!

Davida's number is less consistent. It might have a '2' in it:

Does that '2' come from the number 20, perhaps? 

Or maybe Davida's number is '11'? In fairness this was after both May and Nancy Lu left the team. Perhaps Davida changed her number.

Speaking of Nancy Lu, her number while attending Central High was also 11:

Oddly, we never actually see Nancy play for Midtown and thus it's unknown if she retained her number or changed it upon transferring to Midtown. it all takes place off-panel. Could it be that Davida changed her number to 11 because of the falling out she and Nancy had which led to Nancy's subsequent departure from the school?

Switching sports to Football now, Brad Miller's number seems to be 12:

Maurice 'Moose' Mansfield also plays on the team and we see an assortment of football jersey's throughout the series:

                                     

Considering he wears the number during practice, I'm going to assume his number is 35. I say 'assume' because he also wears other numbers:

So...maybe he has a collection of his favorite players jerseys which include
0,00,7 and 13? He is a sports fan after all. It's worth noting we don't see Moose's sport's stuff after he returns to Midtown. I wonder if he ever rejoined the team?

And now for the one no one was wondering about. Gene Thompson:

Gene's number is 7. It's on his letterman jacket which he gives to May (and Simone...) and it's on his jersey. He's nearly always wearing his sporting apparel so it's easy to deduce.

Well, that was a lot of fun. Until I find something else to overthink, I remain

frogoat