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Natsumi's Red Shoes
The following essay was written by Cat Who site: www.catwho.net And is reprinted here with her permission.
The color red is a symbol for many things in animation, but it's primary symbolic purpose is for love, for passion,
for desire. For instance, Touga from Utena's image color is red, because he is the personification of the sin of
self-love (Shoujo Kakumei Utena: This is Animation Artbook 40.) In Tenshi ni Narumon, when Disperu uses
Natsumi in an attempt to break up Yuusuke and Noelle, he sends several demons to convince her to turn back
time. Even before the demons, however, Natsumi has visions of a pair of red shoes. These shoes are a symbol of
her innocent love for Fuyuki, her brother, that was lost when he died.
Why shoes? First of all, Natsumi's a very practical person. Her love needs to be symbolized by something
practical, and a pair of children's shoes -- western style -- fit the bill. In Japan, red shoes have several different
meanings. "The Girl with Red Shoes" of the doya song by Noguchi Ujo is one of the most common. It is very
interesting that Natsumi's red shoes are in the same mary jane style as the Yokohama statue of the Girl. There
can be no doubt: Natsumi's red shoes are a direct allusion to the legend of the Girl with Red Shoes.
According to the legend, the little girl, Kimi, was born to an unwed mother, who, in order to give her child a
better life, gave her to a foreign couple. The couple was called back away to the United States, but they put
Kimi with the red shoes into an orphanage because she was sick, where she died crying for the mother who had
given her away. Natsumi is not an orphan, but she felt abandoned by her brother, just as Kimi felt abandoned by
both her mother and her adopted parents.
In a flashback, Fuyuuke tells Natsumi that he "can always find her by her red shoes" (Tenshi ni Narumon, Step 9).
But after Fuyuuki dies, he'll never be able to find Natsumi again, no matter what. Although Natsumi probably
outgrew those shoes long before he died, they were still her closest association to him. When Fuyuuki died,
Natsumi never really recovered from the shock of losing him, and she pulled Kai into the void to replace him (Step
11.) Kai says that Natsumi "hasn't made any progress" since then (assuming Natsumi is 15 like Yuusuke and
Noelle, then that was two years earlier.)
Once Kai and Natsumi break up, she is left once again in a void, which Disperu cunningly exploits by sending
demons after her. Natsumi, confused and alone, keeps seeing visions of her red shoes -- her innocent love for
Fuyuuke -- everywhere: in her locker, on the feet of schoolchildren, in her memories. The head demon hands her
the shoes and tells her that she can turn back time so that her brother can find her again. The demon magic
turns Natsumi into a very small child, who represents the mental pain and anguish that the older Natsumi felt
when she lost Fuyuuki.
Disperu's plan is to make Yuusuke and Natsumi grow closer. His plan fails, however, because once Natsumi sees
her brother, she has filled the very void that Disperu had planned to exploit on her own. Natsumi no longer needs
a brother figure, because Fuyuuke came to her as they were falling (despite what he later says.*) The ending of
Step 13 reflects this change in the relationship between Yuusuke and Natsumi -- they have grown closer, but it
is more of an understanding love than a passionate love.
Once Natsumi-chan grows up again, her red shoes are gone, and she never thinks of them again. Following the
Blake pattern, we can say that Natsumi has graduated from innocence to experience. In the context of the Girl
with the Red Shoes, Natsumi has overcome the disease that left her inprisoned, and she is no longer crying out in
fear for someone who is gone.
-- Cat Who, ©2001
* In order to avoid spoilers beyond Step 13, I will not say exactly when he says what he says