Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 49

Short Synopsis: Rose takes Porfy on a date while Natalie goes out shopping with Mina.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Haha! It has begun! It has finally begun! But first: summary!

The episode starts as Porfy and Rose are sitting in a room, after Rose has just taken a shower and is drinking some wine. Porfy thinks that she shouldn’t drink so much alcohol, but Rose says that alcohol is necessary for an adult like her. When Porfy says that he’s also an adult, she notes that that’s what still makes him a child. He sneezes a bit, due to the rain of the previous episode (foreshadowing?!), and then asks again about the story between Rose and Tiffany.

When they first met, they both tried to be actresses. Tiffany first looked like a typical rich girl, but she had a surprising amount of will power. At one point, Rose successfully auditioned for a role for a certain movie, though behind the scenes, Tiffany seemed to have ordered a change at the last minute, making Rose lose her role. This had such a large impact on Rose that she quit acting, and never talked to Tiffany again.

In order to change the subject, Rose then suddenly proposes to go out on a date with Porfy. Porfy is a bit startled, but Rose assures him that she’ll explain him all about the basics of dating. Tiffany meanwhile proposes to Mina that she should go out once in a while, and she can buy whatever toy she’d like.

A bit later, we see Porfy waiting in front of a famous fountain whose name I forgot. He complements Rose on her beauty when she arrives (probably scripted by Rose beforehand), he wonders why they should go out on a date like this when they live together, but Rose convinces him that it’s a rare chance for the two of them to get together.

Porfy is obviously easily distracted by one of the cars that drives by, and Rose instructs him that during a date, your attention shouldn’t drift away from the person you’re dating. Mina meanwhile doesn’t really have anywhere to go, so they just sit on a random couch. A guy then arrives who tries to hit on Natalie, but she quickly sends him away (experience?). When the poor bugger has left, she asks Mina to simply call her by her name, instead of putting the “-san” behind everything.

Meanwhile in a cafe, Rose instructs Porfy to spoon feed her some of the treats. In a shop, she makes him buy one of the gifts, and she makes him pin on a brooch, which clearly makes Porfy uncomfortable a bit. Meanwhile, Mina doesn’t want to buy anything, although she does stop by a doll, just like the one Corrina used to have.

Later in a park, Rose reveals that she hates the winter, as it seems to reflect the coldness in her hands. They then see a young boy, being caught for stealing (but don’t do anything to help him). Rose then starts to envy him, and his eyes that always point straight forward. She herself grew up in a small village in Southern France, and left to Paris at her fifteenth, hoping to become an actress. Now that that failed, ten years later, she’s pretty much a nobody without dreams or friends.

Porfy then notes that he could have just become like that boy earlier, and then comforts Rose that she also was one of the reasons why he didn’t become like that: because he received support from various people. Natalie meanwhile tells Mina that she’s been with Tiffany for a year. Mina envies Natalie, because she’s got a certain future and knows what she wants, while she herself is without a brother and family, and doesn’t even know what’s going to happen next. Natalie then comforts her a bit, and Mina asks in her turn for Natalie to stop putting the “-sama” after Mina’s name.

Rose meanwhile runs into an old friend, who was probably an old boyfriend of her. When he enthusiastically recalls the time they spent, but she just brushes it off as something from the past. The guy then gets angry and starts insulting her, after which Porfy starts yelling at him, telling him to apologize, but he quickly gets pushed aside. Rose then urges Porfy to stop before he lashes out to the guy even more. Later Rose says that normally, she would have gotten angry at the guy as well, but she was surprisingly cal this time.

When they reach Rose’s home, Rose then says that all dates end with a kiss, so Porfy kisses her on the cheek. The two of them say goodbye, Rose closes her door, and the role play ends as Rose opens the door again.

The rest of the episode shows us what happens I guess a few days later. Tiffany actually drives into Rose while she’s without Porfy. She’s clearly never knew what she did to her, and she’s actually glad to see Rose again. She gives her her number, in an attempt to keep in touch again, though Rose throws it away, I guess.

Next up, Porfy plans to go out to buy dinner, but is surprised by Rose’s cat who decides to run off. It’s where he catches the animal when he finally notices: the poster for Tiffany’s upcoming movie.

Yes! It’s finally time. Like Anne of Green Gables, the climax of this series is really surprisingly small for a series that’s taken up 52 episodes: only three episodes left, and then everything’s freaking over! Right now, Porfy KNOWS that Mina is with Tiffany. It’s going to probably take one more episode for him to collect the actual facts of what the heck is going on, and then the question is going to be whether the creators want the final episode to be an aftermath (Alecia!!), or whether they really plan to save the big event for the final episode.

And I must say that I really like it how real Rose’s grudges to Tiffany feel. It’s probably just one huge misunderstanding, judging from Tiffany’s reactions, but yet she remains someone who puts a lot of value on her past experiences, and when these experiences are bad, they have an even bigger impact on her, up to the point where the memories of this cause her to have a very negative image of herself. But the big question is going to be whether the creators can keep it real when the two of them meet up, and realize that it was all one big misunderstanding. It would be bad for the two of them to just become best friends again, because you can’t simply forget a ten year old grudge, even with all logic against you. That’s one thing that I see in man anime: large grudges simply become forgotten a bit too quickly. What I want to see is for Porfy to heal Rose, not so that she suddenly starts making tons of friends, but instead starts trying to make new friends.