I adore these characters.  I have great respect 
for some, admiration for others... some make me 
laugh and others make me blink back tears... some 
are so evil or driven that thinking about them 
gives me the willies... more than a few just seem 
like ordinary folks doing the best they can in 
extraordinary situations...

...but as long as they're only stories and images 
on a screen, they don't really exist.  
Anime is a filmed depiction of these characters' 
adventures, trials, romances, and betrayals... 
just as TV coverage of a marathon or a concert is 
only pictures of the people who are running or 
singing with all their hearts.  When the cameras 
are packed away and the TV is off, the musicians 
and athletes go home.  And once the DVD credits 
roll or the movie theater lights come back up, 
what's left of anime is the cels.

Each cel is one instant out of the only true life 
a favorite character has -- one crystallized 
fraction of a second in which fantasy becomes 
reality.

Slivers of a soul.  ^_^

And personally, I think that's a pretty damn cool 
thing to own.

Here's the moment in which Gourry first reveals 
his true emotion for Lina.  This is it, the 
real thing, I'm holding it in my hands and calling 
it mine.  And that makes me happy.