Category: Porfy no Nagai Tabi

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.

Just like expected. For second episode of this season, I’ve found something to nitpick about, but not Porfy. This series has been building-up perfectly for the past two episodes. I like series that don’t play all of their cards on the table, right from the start, which is probably also why I like Ghost Hound and other mystery-series.

In this episode, we learn more about Porfy’s mother. It seems that she grew up in a rich household in some kind of city, her mother died when she was young and she doesn’t know what happened to her father, though when she married Porfy’s father, the two just didn’t have enough money so she moved back to the countryside. The only thing that she took with her was a fancy-looking watch. A letter from Porfy’s father also arrives in this episode, and he get back in about a week. Probably for Mina’s birthday, which is about to happen. He also sends two books along: one about cars for Porfy and one about the Greek gods for Mina. He probably guessed what they wanted from what they wrote in their letters to him. ^^;

Zaimis also gets fleshed out a bit more in this episode, as it seems that he often hangs out with the two siblings. It’s quite funny when the two of them have completely different interests, and he has to pay attention to both of them at the same time. It’s obvious right from the start that he likes Mina’s interests more than Porfy’s. The second half of the episode is about an owl that settles into Porfy and Mina’s bedroom. They name him Apollo, after one of the Greek gods from Mina’s book.

The thing I like most about this series is how genuine the relationship between Porfy and Mina feels so far. You can really see that they’re brother and sister, and not moeblob and geek, like you see in way too many series. Mina likes to follow Porfy around as well, even though she’s often angry with him, and Porfy in his turn is often distracted, but he does show signs that he watches out over his sister.

So far, there has been no earthquake. Judging by other world-masterpiece-series, I’d guess that it’ll happen around episode 12 or 13, though the end of the episode was a classic foreshadowing-scene, with a clear sky making way for a bunch of thick thunderclouds. Seriously, this needs to be watched. I’m still not sure why people find the length of 52 episodes too much of a commitment, and yet you never hear the same complaint about series like Gundam 00, Code Geass and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.