#rainbow fish

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister by Mast3r-Rainb0w

Ariana from The Little Flying Bears is a young, intelligent purple spider with visible ears who sports a green bow. Her uniquely anthropomorphic, almost humanoid design mirrors bug characters like Innit from the retro video game Spin Jam. Both are excellent examples of insect-based anthropomorphic animal designs.

In cartoons, bugs often break the rules of biology, which makes for very memorable characters.

In the real world, insects don't have ears on the sides of their heads like we do. Instead, they "hear" using other parts of their bodies—for instance, crickets and katydids have their "ears" on their front legs, while butterflies and moths hear using tiny structures on their wings. 

When it comes to characters like Ariana the Spider from The Little Flying Bears or Innit the Butterfly from Spin Jam, animators give them prominent, visible ears to make them look more expressive, relatable, and anthropomorphic. Because these bugs are designed to walk, talk, and show emotion like human beings, they get distinct, human-style ears! 

Innit is a secret, hidden playable butterfly girl character in the 2000 PlayStation 1 puzzle game Spin Jam. She shares the classic archetype of a highly stylized, anthropomorphic insect or bug alongside characters like June Bugg from Stephen Cosgrove's Bugg Books, Fly Girl from The Wacky World of Tex Avery in Rich Meets Poe, and humanoid bug heroines like Madame Butterfly from Terrytoons in Yokohama Yankee. 

Innit from Spin Jam, Sophia from The Raccoons, and Sea Filly from Rainbow Fish are all unique female, non-standard, anthropomorphic animal designs. While they all deviate from typical cartoon character models, Innit is entirely distinct and not the sole character sharing these design traits across all media. 

Innit (Spin Jam): A humanoid, anime-styled butterfly schoolgirl from the PlayStation 1 puzzle game. Unlike traditional insect characters, she features human ears, a schoolgirl outfit, and human-like facial proportions.

Sophia Tutu (The Raccoons): An anthropomorphic, humanoid aardvark with human-like features, feet, and hands. She has a very different character model compared to the other quadrupedal, animalistic residents of the Evergreen Forest. 

Day 26: Shel Silverstein

“And so the boy cut down her trunk and made a boat and sailed away.” ~The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

The boy eventually joined a pirate crew, and dismissed his the boat from his tree’s trunk (just like how he dismissed everything else she had given him after he became a man) to be a mere lifeboat at best.

One night, a spark from a broken lantern caused the ship to catch fire, and the boy had to escape using the lifeboat from his tree.

Among the crashing waves, his eyes caught the spark of faded rainbow scales mixed with blotches like scars. A head poked through the surfaced, and the boy was greeted by a mermaid who grabbed onto his boat and looked at him with a stern expression.

“You’re not the one I’m here to rescue,” she told him. “You just benefit from her suffering.”

The boy looked around with shocked puzzlement. “But there’s no one else here.”

The mermaid sighed, and began to tell him her story, pushing the lifeboat to safety as she spoke…

“I once had a vibrant tail that shined with every color of the rainbow. However, the other creatures of the sea were jealous of my beauty, and wouldn’t include me in anything unless I shared my scales with them.

I eventually obliged, ripping off my scales so that others could wear them on their own tails and allow me to join them. But they still left me behind, with nothing but scars to show, all because they one day decided that everyone wearing my scales was just a one time thing!

I was able to sense the sorrow of your boat’s tree, and it reminded me of my own pain.

I am not here for you. I’m only doing this for her.”

By the time they had reached dry land, the mermaid was almost shriveled to a husk, for she had been out of the water for too long.

Still clinging to the edge of the boat for dear life, she pleaded to its passenger with a hoarse whisper, “Do not… take her… for granted… Do not… let her… end up… like… meeeee!”

With that final screech, the mermaid collapsed in the sand and shriveled into iridescent seaweed.

Sparked by the mermaid’s last words, the boy gently placed her seaweed inside the boat of his tree’s trunk and buried them on the beach, marking their spot with “Rainbow + Tree” inside a drawn heart.

Additional Prompts Used

Pirate x Mermaid (@largefound)

Drying Up (@the-sunshine-dragon)

Lifeboat (@thateldribitch)

Fire (@sunnidayy)

Spark (@monthlywritingchallenges)