There she is!!
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There she is!! (Korean: 떳다 그녀!!) is a Flash cartoon series produced by a three-person team and hosted on the Korean website SamBakZa. The cartoons became particularly popular during the Spring of 2004 when it was exposed to American and European audiences, particularly for its classic manhwa (Korean:만화) style elements and its high quality of animation, in which the characters move lively and fluidly. The first There She Is!! generated a large amount of positive feedback from its online audience, including fan art, which drove SamBakZa to produce more cartoons in the series.
At the 2004 Anima Mundi animation festival in Brazil, this video won first place in both the Web Animation - Professional Jury and Web Animation - Audience divisions, as well as winning the Special Award Anima Mundi Web. [1]
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[edit] There she is!!
The first animation in the series was released on the website on April 20, 2003. Its soundtrack is the Korean pop song "There she is" (Korean: 떳다! 그녀!!, with the extra "!") by Witches (Korean: 위치스).
The plot revolves around a female rabbit, Doki (Korean: 도키, cf. Korean word tokki 토끼 "rabbit") chasing a male cat, Nabi (Korean: 나비, cf. Korean word goyang'i 고양이, "kitty") in a world where love between the two species is socially unacceptable. The theme of the animation is that all love can be accepted and has a chance.
The two meet in front of side-by-side vending machines. Doki drops her carrot juice while spotting Nabi going for a cup of fish tea. Pink hearts appear above her head, and Nabi is horrified. He looks to the cats and the rabbits for help, and both groups look awkward and disapproving. When Doki makes it obvious she's attracted to Nabi, he runs away. Nabi is totally against any thought of being together with her. Nevertheless, Doki starts stalking him everywhere. They go through several interesting situations where Doki tries to win Nabi's heart. Usually, as part of this, she stuffs carrots in his mouth.
In the middle, Nabi sits Doki down and tries to explain (via a slide show presentation) that they are not meant to be together. Nabi tries to make her realize that there can't be anything between them -- that romance between a cat and a rabbit can only lead to heartbreak -- but Doki does not understand why and does not care why. Nabi even presents her with three more "suitable" rabbit suitors. Angry (with stars in her eyes) she walks towards them, afraid of her appearance the three try to get away, but too late, she knocks them aside as she goes and follows Nabi who is running from her again.
In the end, Nabi finally surrenders and accepts Doki as his girlfriend, after she cuts down a tree he is hiding in. When Nabi gets to know her better, he realizes that there is not so much of a difference between them. In the coda, as Nabi watches a male rabbit (referred to only as "Grey Rabbit") pursuing a female cat (Hana) with flowers, he accepts a cup of carrot juice from Doki. As he drinks it, surprised to find he likes the flavor, he sees Doki drinking a cup of fish tea -- with a clothespin on her nose. He and the viewer realize that Doki must hate fish tea, but she drinks it to please Nabi; he quickly tries to conceal the evidence of his sudden affection for her.
In addition to being on the SamBakZa website, a version with English titling was published in 2004 to high acclaim. This, along with the English-titled sequel, has given a much wider audience for SamBakZa in the western world where they now have a respectable fan base. Although the animations have no dialogue, and the characters names weren't disclosed until 2006, the webtoons are admired for their constant and well-played action, which gets laughs and "aw"s from its viewers.
"There she is!!" was nominated for both the Professional Award and the Cyber Jury Award at the Anima Mundi Web Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2004. It won both categories. [1]
[edit] There she is!! Step 2 -- Cake Dance
The second animation in the series is called There she is!! Step 2 - Cake Dance (Korean: 떳다 그녀!! step 2. - 케잌 댄스) and was released on the SamBakZa website on February 25, 2005. Its soundtrack is the Korean pop song "Happy Birthday to Me" by Bulldog Mansion.
Like its predecessor, it is carried by classic anime style elements, but also includes considerable amounts of full-animation action. That, along with the success of the original, allowed Step 2 to become popular very rapidly.
The cartoon continues the story of Nabi and Doki, but now the two are happily going steady. As before, names are not disclosed in the toon and there is no dialogue (however, character names are now available on the casting page in Amalloc's section of the SamBakZa site). It is Doki's birthday, and her family and friends are gathering for her party. Nabi is lagging behind; he is supposed to be bringing the birthday carrot cake.
The story revolves around Nabi's efforts to bring the cake to the party. It isn't easy. He has to navigate urban crowds[2], evade randomly stampeding animals[3] and various other hazards, all while struggling to keep the cake intact. Meanwhile the two families arrive at the restaurant, but Doki does not want to start the party without her boyfriend. During this point in time a rabbit does arrive with a cake, however it was actually intended for one of Nabi's feline friends (much to her friend's dismay). Doki, seemingly oblivious to this fact that the cake hadn't actually been intended for her, eats it all on the spot to conceal the evidence from Nabi; or because she thinks anything but Nabi's cake is just another present, and not an actual birthday cake.
With the restaurant in sight, Nabi runs straight into Sam-ho of the Jjintta set (gang), knocking them both down. Yi-ho (the one with the eyepatch) tells Il-ho (the gang leader) that Nabi has been bullying Doki, effectively forcing her to be with him. Then the gang tries to rough him up. Although Nabi does his best to keep the cake safe, he is pushed through the door of the restaurant, where the cake is ruined before his girlfriend's eyes.
Looking up from the ruined cake Doki has angry stars in her eyes and stares, along with the other guests, at the gang. But then Doki tries and loves the shattered cake and shows her affection for Nabi in her usual over-the-top way. The Jjintta are forced to stay, Il-ho seeming particularly irritable with Yi-ho because he's is flirting with a female cat. Il-ho throws a sideways punch to Yi-ho's head, and Doki, in the background, affectionately pounces on Nabi, and proceeds to make a scene that bans the party (and inter-special relationships whatsoever) from the restaurant. In the end, Nabi runs into a younger rabbit in the same predicament as he was in, and he offers to help her safely negotiate the streets with her cake.
[edit] There she is!! Step 3 -- Doki and Nabi
The third animation in the series is called There she is!! Step 3 - Doki and Nabi and was released May 30, 2008. Its soundtrack is the Korean pop song "Sam-cha Seong-jing" by T.A.COPY.
Like the last two, there is no dialogue between the characters, but as usual they communicate without words.
The story revolves around Doki and Nabi's first real date. The video starts off with Nabi waking up from sleep the night before. He brushes his teeth in the restroom, smashing a bug with a flyswatter as it scurries across the floor. He then begins to sharpen his claws as he watches t.v. when there's a knock on the door. He goes up to answer and as he opens the door, he is knocked down by a giant gift box with a red ribbon and a tag marked "From: Doki." He goes back inside, gets dressed then comes back up and opens the box.
Doki jumps out of the box, pom-poms in hand. She fires multiple love hearts at Nabi, who easily dodges them with a seemingly uninterested look on his face. In the next three short scenes Doki waves a giant flag saying "I love Nabi" on it while Nabi himself is tossing the hearts back into the gift box; then Doki dances around Nabi, throwing confetti around as he sweeps it up; finally they sit in front of cameras, with a banner saying "Our First Date" in the background. In all these scenes, Doki is overjoyed while Nabi seems totally uninterested in the least.
Their date finally starts and they soon pass a "No cats and rabbits love" sign. Doki notices a cat couple pass by, the female holding the males arm. She tries this with Nabi, only to have him pull away as a crowd surrounds them. As he tries to explain why he pulled back, she pulls out multiple objects to pull him closer to her. He quickly sprints away with her in quick pursuit and narrowly dodges all the objects she attempts to use, only to be hit in the head with a pokeball. As he falls to the ground, Doki passes a truck full of carrots and gets a big bag.
This soon attracts the same stampede from the previous step. Doki hands the bag to Nabi, who is then too swarmed by the animals who quickly gobble the carrots up. Nabi laughs as this happens, when he notices Doki pick up a small hedgehog and ties a green ribbon around its neck. As she picks the small animal up, Nabi continues to stare at her and is broken from his trance when he notices the animals staring at him with mocking looks. He quickly spins around and notices he has unintentionally created a gigantic heart, bigger than any of Doki's.
In the next scene, they are at the cinema sitting next to each other. Interestingly enough, Doki is not trying to get close to her boyfriend. Nabi, rather unsure of himself, constantly fidgets in his seat, finally reaching out to grab Doki's hand. As he does this, she pulls away and the lights in the theater turn on as the movie has ends; Nabi loses his chance.
The scene fades to Doki and Nabi walking down the road again. As they do this, they encounter Jjintta set. As Yi-ho glares at Nabi, Doki steps forward and pulls Il-ho into a hug, suddenly putting him into a strange submission and somewhat injuring him. Doki and Nabi then pass. Sam-ho laughs at Il-ho's embarrassment as he recovers, but is then pummeled to the ground by his leader in anger.
As the couple continue to walk along, it is obvious the date has not gone as well as initially planned. They pass an older rabbit holding another "No rabbit and cat love" sign again and they seem to be straying apart. The date ends as the sun begins to set and Nabi takes Doki home, waving good-bye to her before returning to his own home. As he walks to the front door, he notices the box Doki had used earlier as well as all the props. He thinks about it for a few seconds of then runs away from his house.
The scene switches to Doki who is on a balcony, staring out at the sunset with an unusual frown. She notices Nabi walking down the street and looks down at him. He seems hesitant at first, but finally pulls out a small banner that says "Second Date." Doki, obviously overjoyed by this, blushes as well then happily pulls out a huge flag that reads "Yes!"
The scene once again fades to later that night where Nabi who is stacking papers. He ties them together and quickly departs for a paper route. After he finishes he goes and meets Doki in an alleyway where she is playing with a ferret and the hedgehog. Nabi hands her a piece of bread and crouches next to her, getting really close in the process. Doki and Nabi are then shown as silhouettes from afar as Doki closes the small gap between them. They then share their first kiss (Despite being shadowed) in the series. It seems that their relationship is finally coming together.
The scene fades for a final time to the window of Nabi's house as the music begins to end. Suddenly, a rock flies through the window (presumably because they should not be together). As the rock comes to a stop, a caption reads "To be continued in step 4"
There is a second version intro to the video as well, which can be found on the upper right hand cloud. This second intro shows Doki carrying a large box and a rolled up flag up a great hill. She stops to fan herself sitting atop the box she carried. She jumps down and opens the box to reveal pink pompoms, confetti and hearts. She proceeds to check to make sure her pompoms are perfect fluffing them a bit and then signs a card "From Doki" she frowns a little at the slight scratch at the end of her name but shrugs and leave the card on her present. She rings the doorbell and the scene shifts to the door bell ringing for Nabi, the rest of the video proceeding as before.
[edit] Future Episodes
The third part was estimated to show up in August, 2006, but that release estimate was delayed. On July 2, 2007 Amalloc announced that Gyeonggi Digital Contents Agency (GDCA) would be given the right to distribute "There She Is!!".
On April 30, 2008 Amalloc posted in his website There She Is!! Step3 - Doki & Nabi "will be released in this May, 30. If you were in Korea, you could have seen see the off-line version at SICAF(Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival).(May 21~25.)". [4]
SamBakZa have recently announced a further two 'steps', under the working titles of 'step 4' and 'final step', all of which are still under development. In order to complete the production for GDCA, SamBakZa have moved to the Production Support Center located in Gyeonggi-do Bucheon-si. [5]
SamBakZa have also stated they may be setting up a registration system in the future on their main page, and will send emails to members when new episodes are released to public.
Amalloc states on the Author Comments of Step 3 on Newgrounds, that Step 4 will come in 2 months. [6]
[edit] References
- ^ Awards. Animemory 2004. Anima Mundi Film Festival (2004). Retrieved on 2006-09-23.
- ^ The pictures on the wall of the subway station lead to bulldogmansion.com (now defunct) if clicked.
- ^ During this scene, a fish goes across the moon. If clicked on, it will show a cartoon, translated from Korean to English, with Nabi and Doki, and a special thanks screen.
- ^ Untitled Document
- ^ Untitled Document
- ^ Untitled Document
