Autessa is here to stay!

In honor of Valentine's Day (so soon? It feels like February just started...), I thought I'd post a little bit about my favorite couple that no one's ever heard of (very few, anyway): Auraa and Altessa from Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime (Twin Princesses of the Mysterious Star), aka Autessa. BTW, their official name romanizations are Auler and Altezza, but they weren't released until very late in the first series, so I don't generally use them.

Now, I loved Altessa from the first moment I saw her character design on the original website, and when she showed up in the series and was the token "girl we're not supposed to like because she's mean," I just liked her even more. And then when Auraa showed up and was revealed to not only be adorkable, but head-over-heels for Altessa, I fell in love with him, too. At first, it was a very one-sided relationship, with Auraa declaring his love for Altessa, but her either ignoring him or outright hating him for being the brother of the princess of nonsequiters, Sophie (and to fair, he shares a bit of personality with his sister).

Their relationship didn't really get beyond this until the second half of the series, during the Dark Bright arc, when it took a massive turn to the positive in episodes 44 and 45, where Altessa finally started to return Auraa's feelings (possibly influenced by the crushing realization that her brother was completely entrenched by the dark side after all), and they became a canon couple after he saved her from one of Dark*Bright's traps. You know, I didn't think of this at the time, but reexaming the scenerios, it seems that Altessa really only started liking Aura after he showed off the traits that she admired in her brother. Which makes sense for her character, but makes me feel a little bad for Auraa. But if he ever found out, I'm sure he wouldn't mind, so it's all good.

You know, a lot of people don't like a pairing once it becomes canon, but I think that this one works better as an official couple, because Altessa can still be her usual self to him, but there's an underlying sweetness to it that wouldn't be there if they were a "will they, won't they" couple. I guess what I'm really saying is that their dynamic works well whether they're close or fighting. I didn't keep up with the second series (Fushiboshi no Futago Hime Gyu!), but I saw enough of it to see that Autessa was still canon, so I'm satisfied.