There She Is!!

File:Theresheis.jpg

Image of the female rabbit (Doki) and the male cat (Nabi).

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 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.

Distribution rights to the series are licensed to Gyeonggi Digital Contents Agency (GDCA).

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" (떳다! 그녀!!) by Witches (위치스).

The plot revolves around a female rabbit, Doki (도키, cf. Korean word tokki 토끼 "rabbit") chasing a male cat, Nabi (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. Nabi attempts to cure Doki's infatuation for him, but after seeing the extent of her love, he gives in and finds something he can appreciate in her.

In addition to being on the SamBakZa website, a version with English titling was published in 2004 to high acclaim. The characters names weren't disclosed until 2006 in preparation for the trilogy (parts 3-5) of sequels.

"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]

There she is!! Step 2 -- Cake Dance

File:Theresheis-step2.jpg

The second animation in the series is called There she is!! Step 2 - Cake Dance (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 manhwa style elements, but also includes considerable amounts of full-animation action. Nabi carries Doki's birthday cake across various obstacles including a team of rabbits, the Jjintta, who attempt to attack him in retaliation to him accidently running headlong into one of them (along with violating the intermarriage rule and because they believe Nabi forced Doki into the relationship).

It is also worth noting that towards the end of the animation, Doki and Nabi (as well as the rest of the party) gets banned from the cafe, from Doki showing public affection towards Nabi. The owner of the cafe clearly shows that he is against intermarriage relationships, by displaying the "anti-intermarriage" symbol on his door. This foreshadows some of the events which occur in Step 4 of the series. 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.

Easter Eggs

If one clicks on the fish in the moon during the stampede, a short comic and thanks from the creator will appear. The signs shown on the walls of the subway station after Nabi is crowded read 'Bulldog Mansion' (see above). Clicking on them will give you a link to their (now defunct) site.

There she is!! Step 3 -- Doki and Nabi

Step 3 of "There she is!!" is the first part of a more in-depth trilogy of videos. It premiered at SICAF (Seoul International Cartoon & Animation Festival) on May 21-25, 2008, and was posted online on May 30. Its soundtrack is the Korean pop song "Sam-cha Seong-jing" by T.A.COPY. (In English, the song translates to "3 sex characters")

This video portrays Doki and Nabi's first date. Nabi once again plays the unwilling recipient of Doki's love, although near the end it is shown that Nabi has indeed started to fall in love with Doki, such as trying to touch her hand while watching a movie in the cinema and proposing a second date. The theme of intermarriage is more prominent in this episode, and the reference to Japan–Korea relations seems slightly more specific. The oldest member of the Jjintta, Li-Ho, is unexpectedly wooed by Doki. The video ends with a rock being thrown through Nabi's window by someone unknown.

Easter Eggs

Clicking on the cloud on the top right of the screen before playing will trigger an alternate opening that focuses on Doki making her way to Nabi's house. Clicking on the black poster during the scene with the neighbours near the beginning (just after the spotlight disappears and the lights come back on) will open T.A.COPY's site in another window. In a single frame, there is an image of a penis in the top-left corner of the screen. After stopping to it with Play, Forward or Back from the right-click menu, clicking it would open http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/38560/.

There she is!! Step 4 -- Paradise

The fourth animation in the series is called There she is!! Step 4 - Paradise and was released August 20, 2008. Its soundtrack is the Korean rock song "Wolsik" by Tabu from the album, "A Lunar Eclipse."

The video resumes where Step 3. Some time has passed since the previous step and Doki and Nabi's relationship is now well known to the public. Step 4 is much more realistic and dark in contrast to its predecessors, which were more upbeat and colourful. The animation uses fewer colours than the previous videos, mostly black and white instead of blue and cream, creating a hostile and gloomy atmosphere.

In this step, the protagonists have to deal with the official social revolt over intermarriage. The hostile environment ultimately results into Doki's hospitalisation and her pet hedgehog's fatal injury. In fear that the anti-intermarriage activity would injure Doki further, Nabi abruptly terminates the relationship by displaying an anti-intermarriage sign on his door. Whilst nursing the hedgehog, Doki ponders about asking him to come with her to "Paradise", which might be a location that acknowledges intermarriage beyond question. She doesn't notice Li-Ho, who was spying her. He confronts the detached Nabi to literally knock some sense in him, but his action sparks an ambush by the pro-intermarriage supporters. Li-Ho tries to shun them, but couldn't because intermarriage opposers were in the way. Frustrated, he blindly punched through the crowd and hit his friend Yi-Ho by mistake. This provokes a fierce fight between the pro-intermarriage supporters. It's unclear if anti-intermarriage group joined the fight or merely watched the riot take place.

Despite Doki's care, the hedgehog did not survive its inflicted wounds. She tries to contact Nabi, who couldn't answer since he was arrested alongside Li-Ho. Assuming that he doesn’t want to have anything to do with her anymore, Doki loses all hope and decides to leave the country, even if that also meant leaving Nabi behind.

There she is!! Final Step

The final step of There she is!! will be released this December. In order to complete the production, SamBakZa have moved to the Production Support Center located in Gyeonggi-do Bucheon-si.

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.

External links

• SamBakZa
• There she is!!
• There she is!! on Newgrounds.com
• There she is!! Step 2 on Newgrounds.com
• There she is!! Step 3 on Newgrounds.com
• There she is!! Step 4 on Newgrounds.com