I thought some of you other bishounen fans might 
enjoy this story, it cracked me up when it 
happened.  Yes, it is cel related.

The inevitable happened, I started talking with 
my father about my cel collection. (Who since I 
took up the hobby I have been desperately 
avoiding the subject with lest he find out just 
how much money I spend on it, and frugal person 
that he is, flip out.)  But now that he knows I'm 
working with Celga, I finally couldn't keep 
ducking the questions, since as good parent he is 
legitimately interested in knowing what I'm doing 
with my time. (Seriously both my parents are 
great parents all in all.)

Anyway, after a long talk about cel prices and 
collectors, telling him what I know about the 
production process, and the collectors, I showed 
him some of the cels.  He was very impressed by 
the escaflowne set up, he thought the multiple 
backgrounds were really cool. He remarked on the 
detailing and shading, and I went on to say yes, 
thats one of the things I like about japanese 
animation as opposed to american animation is in 
general anime is more detailed.  Especially when 
talking about american TV shows.  Then I showed 
him the Yue close up cel. I was talking about the 
character and why a close up cel of him goes for 
more than one of Touya, when I first used the 
pronoun "he."  My dad goes.. "wait a minute, 
that's a HE?"  I grinned and nodded, at which 
point he protested about the hair, and the 
earring, to which I only giggled and assured him 
Yue was a he. (though I suppose that's a point 
under debate with some fans.)   My Dad finally 
said "but he's -pretty!-"  At this point I got 
the fun of telling him a lot of the most popular 
male characters are, that that's the point, and 
introduced him to the word bishounen. 

Then I gleefully proceeded to flip through my 
collection and show off Hotohori, and  *cackle* 
Zoicite. Now my Dad is 45, and spent the first 18 
years of his life in the rural North Carolina 
town he was born in, where my grandmother would 
actually say "Ya'all come back now, y'hear?" when 
we left after visiting. 

Keep in mind all his reactions (well after the 
initial "that's a guy??") were half in jest 
picking at me because he knows I like these 
characters.  
He didn't say anything that I would dub 
offensive, but this idea that men who look like 
girls are popular among women was really news to 
him.  And given what a bishounen fan his daughter 
is.. I found it quite amusing.  

The funniest parts of the story come after this 
point, but in the interest of not wanting to even 
RISK offending ANYONE (because you just never 
know what even remotely politically incorrect 
thing might set someone off), I'm not going to 
post the rest here. If you'd like to hear the 
rest of the details, just drop me an email.

But at any rate, I know a lot of people here 
(related to the thread about so many of us being 
under 30) live with our parents or have had 
issues with parents thinking it was a waste of 
money, and if it encourages anyone, my father was 
surprisingly supportive of my hobby.  I guess it 
just goes to show you never can tell.  Of 
course.. showing him my naked Sara pan cel 
probably didn't hurt. *giggle*