Oh my god, what a wonderful episode, considering that we’re only three episodes in, and we barely even scratched the surface of the real potential for this series. Seeing Porfy and his sister finally reunite with their father was such a heart-warming scene. The creators really know what they’re doing.
The key to this episode was really to make the viewer wait along with Porfy and Mina, for the bus that was supposed to be carrying him. Here the two of them were in a town they hardly knew, waiting for a bus that had quite a bit of delays. Of course you’d start to feel anxious whether or not the guy would come. I also loved how Mina suddenly disappeared when Porfy got distracted by yet another car, and it’s clear now that she really likes it when her brother pays attention to her. That moment showed how this can get out of hand, because Porfy himself really wants to protect his sister, despite how he can get distracted really easily.
I also like how the creators used the story of Orpheus in this episode. For those who don’t know: Orpheus’s wife died, and he couldn’t forget about her. Hades then promised that he could take her from the underworld, on the condition that he wouldn’t look behind. When he nearly reached the exit of the underworld, his curiosity and doubts about Hades’s intentions took the best of him, he looked behind and saw how his wife got sucked back into the underworld. Porfy just can’t understand that Orpheus didn’t get any reward at all for the long path that he already crossed without looking at his wife.
What I also noticed in this episode is how the World Masterpiece Theatre-series often uses dolls to symbolize the relationship between the rich and the poor. Little Princess Sara had Emily, in Les Miserables, Cosette also receives a doll that she’s been longing for from Jean and now in this episode, we get introduced to a new character who also just received a doll from her rich family in France. Just like with Les Miserables, this girl (whose name I didn’t pick up, unfortunately) uses the doll to create jealousy. It seems that she loves Zaimis, though she can’t stand how he keeps spending time with Porfy and his sister.
About the doll thing, I’m pretty sure that in both original novels for Les misérables and Pincess Sarah, the heroîne had a doll.
Don’t forget that all these were written in a time when dolls were a lot more meaningful then nowadays.
Hey there, nice to see that someone is taking a chance on blogging this. I also agree that it should at least have a crack at being subbed. If you have intermediate japanese skills though, It shouldn’t be too hard to watch raw. It’s been a long time scince I’ve seen a story like this. It’s like innocent entertainment without being smarmy. Definetly a nice way to decompress after the end of the week.
However, I gotta say half the time the score sounds either REALLY bad or horribly misused. It really needed a traditional orchestral score if only partially, (I mean One Piece managed to)
Hello sorry for intruding, do you know if it is subbed?