Sailor Neptune's Mirror in Real Life

I regard the above mirror as a family heirloom.  It's not that old, yet it is very special.  My Mom found it in 1987 at a French flea market in Paris.  I was five when she brought this back, so it's part of my childhood.  Often I would go into my Mom's room just to look at it, and because I loved it so much she gave it to me.

Fast forward to the year 2000.  My last semester of High School was when I was first introduced to anime through Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.  Escaflowne and Card Captors were running on Fox, though I don't think the English versions ever finished their run.  Then there was Cartoon Network with their Toonami lineup.  Thanks to Toonami I was introduced to my favorite--and still overall favorite anime--Gundam Wing.  But Toonami was also responsible for introducing American audiences to Sailor Moon.

Of course I got obsessed, which included getting the manga (Japanese comics) as well.  While reading I discovered something quite extraordinary: Sailor Neptune had my Mom's mirror!  The details are so close that Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi had to have had one of her own, which she modeled Neptune's mirror on.

It's fun to think that a 1987 treasure from France was imitated in a famous anime/manga.  While searching for pictures I found the below image, which is the first time since 2000 I found someone else with the mirror, so I'm not the only person who thinks this!      

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Overly silly, I know, but I've always found this quite fun.  BTW, Sailor Moon is behind one of the worst mistakes I made in college.  There is a live-action version of the show called Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.  I found it during the first week of one of my college semesters, and I managed to watch all 49 episodes in 4 days.  -_-;; I went to class, but got behind in my class work.  It was sadly addicting.  

On another note my niece LE learned a very sad truth on New Years Eve: Manga are not coloring books.

Sarah