And finally, the Tutu Scrapbook

[wmchichiri.livejournal.com]

Tutu Scrapbook

As previously mentioned in this community, I undertook the monumental task of coordinating, and making a Princess Tutu scrapbook that was given to Ikuko Itoh (the creator of Princess Tutu) during the Tutu Cast Party that occurred at Ushiko’s Block Party in Austin, Texas from 5pm-8pm CST on January 27, 2007.

An Investment of Time & Money

While I did about 85% of the scrapbook layout (and didn’t finish it until 4:30am Friday, January 26th after a month of work on it, and averaging around 4 hours of sleep a night for nearly 2 weeks straight to get it all done), I did have some assistance from 3 other people, including fennelwink & only_seimei. On average, each scrapbook page represents about 3 hours of work for layout, cutting, preparing and using proper adhesives to connect it to the page. That doesn’t include any of the time spent on it by the contributors.

The scrapbook represents a $431.13 investment of materials on my part (archival quality materials are expensive), which does not include gift-wrap supplies/packaging. Nor does it represent materials donated to the cause, or additionally purchased by others. Frankly, I got shafted. Between those from the PrincessTutu LJ community, Deviant Art, and a couple of other folks who had found out about this and had contacted me, I purchased materials based on the 43 people who said they were “ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY sending stuff in” come hell or high water, and who ultimately flaked out and failed to do so. Of those, only one of the arts was actually sent, and was lost in the mail. This does not count the 17 people who said they might be sending something in.

Of that $400+ debt, I only recouped $63 from donations, I told the 2 international contributors (since working out monetary donations was more difficult) not to worry about it. I had one person who donated $20 and another $15, but several of the contributors failed to send in any money whatsoever. -_-

I had 19 contributors + several of the folks from Ushicon/Ushiko’s Block Party who sent in photos from when they met up with Itoh-sensei & co. in Japan a few months ago. One of the contributors, didn’t submit any materials for the scrapbook itself, but did submit goodies for all of the announced guests.

Donations will still be accepted. You can either send funds via paypal or by mail. For my mailing address and paypal instructions please e-mail me at: wmchichiri at yahoo dot com. Please mark the subject line as “TUTU”

Despite feeling shafted, knowing what the money was for, knowing also that those who did contribute, many of them put so much of their love for the show into it... it makes me feel better.

Itoh’s Reaction to the Scrapbook

Unfortunately, as I was running the event I was unable to take pictures myself of the moment when the scrapbook was given to Itoh-sensei. Did anyone get those pictures? Can you share them with us please?

It was hard for me to judge Itoh’s reaction when she received it. I definitely got the impression she thought it was pretty. But as I was the “moderator” we had to speed things along, and so she only got to see a couple of the pages before we moved onto the Q & A. (I’ll do a more thorough post later on the Event itself).

What I later found out, is when the guests were taking a break after the Q & A, (while I was running trivia) and before the autographs began, that Katoh-san (the Japanese voice actress for Ahiru) came in, took the scrapbook, and she and Itoh-sensei were pouring over it during the break.

Sunday evening as we dropped off the guests for the night at the hotel, Itoh said she wanted to thank me for my hard work, and what would I like for it. I’m not sure if she meant for helping to run the event, the scrapbook, or both, I think it was both. I asked for original artwork of Fakir & Ahiru in color from her on shikishi (autograph board). Monday evening, when we said our goodbyes (as I wouldn’t see her the next day as she had a red-eye flight to catch) she gave this shikishi to me.

When puppyfuu went to pick up one of the entourage for a red-eye flight early A.M. Monday, he found Itoh-sensei and this other person going over the scrapbook. When I met up with Itoh-sensei and a new translator later that Monday morning at IHOP for breakfast, she had brought the scrapbook with her, and thanked me for it. While we waited for food, she and I discussed it via the translator, who also translated the English letters that were in there for her. Unfortunately we weren’t able to go through the entire book before the food arrived, and had no time afterwards to discuss the remainder.
At one point during the day I was speaking with one of my friends on Ushicon staff. he told me that when they meet up with Itoh-sensei in Japan, that during one of the tours (I believe in this case of Studio HAL) that she pulled out a fanmade replica of Kinkan Town (Golden Crown Town). He said he suspected that the scrapbook would end up being similarily enshrined and cherished.

But throughout the rest of the day, as we shopped and went to dinner, that book was always carried with her. Even after we returned her to the hotel, and later re-picked her up at the hotel, that book was still with her when it would have been far more convenient to leave it behind in her hotel room. While she may not have had (to my mind) an outwardly effusive reaction, I personally interpret the sheer fact that it was quietly, almost always by her side since she received it as a very good, and positive sign that she not only liked it, but was deeply touched by it.

Images

Since, I used real names for labeling purposes in the scrapbook, I have blurred out all names and addresses to protect the privacy of the contributors, so that affect is intentional on the following photographs of the scrapbook pages. For photographing purposes, some pictures I had to take without a flash (these are typically more yellowed in appearance than others) as there was too much glare when the flash was used. Also due to the nature of some of the materials, some glare was unavoidable when taking the photographs.

All scrapbook pages were eventually placed inside of clear sheets, but due to glare, I took pictures BEFORE I placed them in the sheets. In some cases I did have to trim down, cut around, or overlap pieces of art (or decorative embellishments) for placement. I did my utmost to keep this to a minimum, and make sure that key portions of the image weren’t lost in the process.

You can view the photos of the scrapbook here.

Images are arranged in order, and I tried very hard to get both visible pages to coordinate with one another when the scrapbook is open.


I’ll post some photos and info about the Tutu Cast Party itself, within the next few days. Stay tuned.

Edited: Mikayla provided a link to the photos she took of the event, including photos of Itoh-sensei receiving the scrapbook.

Corinn also provided her image gallery.