New Heroine Headshot: Félicie Le Bras from “Ballerina”

Here’s another Heroine Headshot. This time, it’s Félicie Le Bras, the heroine from Ballerina (AKA Leap), a 2016 French-Canadian 3D animated film. Ballerina is a tale about a Victorian-era orphan who goes to Paris in an attempt to fulfil her dream of joining the prestigious Paris Opera as a dancer. I’ve been aware of Ballerina for quite a while, and I thought it looked like a fun film, but when I finally saw it for the first time a few days ago, I was quite impressed. It’s a beautifully animated film, and its art style and humour reminded me quite a lot of bande dessinées (i.e. Franco-Belgian comics, such as Asterix), which I’ve always been a fan of. It does have a few modern pop songs in it, which I found a bit jarring, but that is my one and only gripe. Overall, I thought it was a great film, and Félicie, who is a bundle of cheerful energy, is simply adorable.😊

Note: there seems to be a bit of confusion about Félicie’s family name, but since she is a French character, I chose to refer to her by the name she is given in the French version.

New Heroine Headshot: Lio from “Barbarella”

Here’s another Heroine Headshot. This time, it’s a character from Barbarella, the famous French comic by the late Jean-Claude Forest. More specifically, it’s a character from the second Barbarella comic, titled Les Colères du Mange-Minutes (The Wrath of the Minute-Eater in English). Lio is one of the supporting characters in this story, who Barbarella first describes as “a girl who fancies little paintings.” She is on a mission for her father, the ruler of a city on another planet, to bring back a material vital to her city’s survival, and she relies on paintings to keep herself from falling into a state of depression. Despite this somewhat dark aspect to her nature, I found Lio to be an incredibly sweet character. And very pretty as well! 😊

News: “Night of the Werewolves” no longer available on Amazon

I’ve removed my graphic novel Night of the Werewolves from Amazon. It’s been available for free on Amazon for over a year, but in the last few months, Amazon has twice made it not free, without bothering to inform me of this. The first time this happened, I was able to have it changed it back to being free pretty quickly. However, now that it’s happened a second time, they’re dragging their feet for some reason. Anyway, I got tired of waiting for their response and decided it was just easier to unpublish it. But never fear; if you’re interested in reading Night of the Werewolves, it is available from Kobo (for free, of course).😊

New Heroine Headshot: Elfie from “Legend of the Coral Reef: Elfie of the Blue Sea”

Here’s another Heroine Headshot. This time, it’s a girl called Elfie, from a somewhat obscure animated film (at least in the West) titled Legend of the Coral Reef: Elfie of the Blue Sea (サンゴ礁伝説 青い海のエルフィ in Japanese characters). This film was produced by Nippon Animation and broadcast on Fuji Television in Japan, way back in 1986. I only found out about Elfie because I saw part of a review on it on YouTube a few weeks ago. In that review, Elfie was compared to Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and the two films certainly have similarities, not least of which is the fact that both Elfie and Nausicaa were voiced by the same voice actress, Sumi Shimamoto. As far as I’m aware, Elfie has never been released in English, but if you’re interested in seeing it in Japanese, someone has uploaded it to YouTube. I quite enjoyed it; it’s a fun, family-orientated adventure with an incredibly sweet, kindhearted heroine.😊