Category: Popolocrois 2003

And Gamigami has returned. I still have to get used to the fact that his character has changed. He’s now eccentric in a totally different way. Previously, he was just a crazy genius who only cared about Narcia and later Hyuu, but now he’s more like a father. Having kids surely changed him. Still, I liked the old Gamigami better.

This episode was mostly meant for a bit of character development from Momba. The previous two episodes showed that he didn’t really like his new companions, and he still bears grudges against them. This episode, he takes Pinon to a ghost ship, for a test of courage. His arrogance made him suspect that Pinon would come running towards him after a few seconds, begging to take him back, but Pinon’s courage proves otherwise.

In the end, the ship actually appears haunted and a huge monster comes out. When Pinon defeats it, Momba acknowledges him. The fight actually was pretty interesting, mostly due to the character design of this monster. He looked scarier than anything we’ve seen so far in Popolocrois 2003. Still, most of this episode just remained average. But what was Zephys doing behind Luna’s mother?

A very interesting view on the life at sea. I haven’t really seen the concept of the entire crew being one big family before. Overall, it was interesting. The creators spent a lot of details on the different roles of the different crew members. The crew of a ship no longer consists out of captain, cook and random people. I like this touch.

This episode was mostly light-hearted, meant to introduce the eleven new characters and the life aboard the Dakart. A short story about a baby kraken-like thingy also was inserted. I liked that one, as it actually featured our three main characters making their own choices, and taking responsibility for them afterwards. Still, even this was very light-hearted. But there was one point at which the subject reverted back to Pietoro’s and Marco’s parents, being turned to stone. That was a surprisingly heavy part. Pinon wakes up after having a nightmare regarding his parents, and after he sees that Marco’s crying in his sleep for his mother, he suddenly starts crying. That was such a good scene.

Anyway, it seems that the current arc will mostly play on the Dakart. This means that we’ll probably get to know the crew over the course of the episodes. A quick rundown on the different members:

Boss: I’m ashamed to say that I couldn’t remember her name. I knew I should’ve written it down somewhere. In any case, she’s Pietoro’s sister, and Pinon’s aunt. She’s indeed someone you’d expect to be the daughter of Paolo. Does she happen to posses any dragon powers as well, by the way?

Donovan: the captain of the Dakart. He probably handles everything concerning the Dakart as a ship. He looks quite experienced.

Gooley: the boatswain of the Dakart. He’s indeed quite cute with his small tail. He seems to be skilled with bow and arrow.

Billy: One of the deck mates (or however you call them). He likes to get annoyed fast.

Toad: One of the deck mates (or however you call them). He’s got a strange talent which can tell whenever there’s a storm coming. He doesn’t like to talk much, though, and when he does, he does it in an almost inaudible way.

Momba: The strange lizard we saw already in the previous episode. He probably has the lowest rank on the Dakert, working even under Billy and Toad, though he does take initiative in everything, making his character stand out a lot. He also doesn’t like people thinking bad of him. ^^;

Edgar: he’s the helmsman. I’m a bit worried about the fact that while he’s supposed to be steering a ship, he likes drinking and dancing… He also talks in a very polite, old-fashioned way.

Curtis: the operations officer. He seems quite the lady-man, though he does have a laid-back attitude. He’s got an interesting personality.

Lambert: the ship’s doctor. One of the few sane people on the ship. Therefore, the most likely one to commit suicide, betray Pinon or get paranoid, if we have to follow the rules of common anime.

Dike: he’s a wandering merchant, though I’m not exactly sure about his role on the Dakart. He seems to be a geeky-type.

Gaston: takes care of the ship’s engine. He seems very experienced, he’s a huge cat with one eye missing. I like him. ^^;

Aina: takes care of the Seirei stone and the food for the crew. She seems to have an eye on Marco. Perhaps because she finally saw someone of her own age again. She’s Gaston’s granddaughter. It seems that the guy either married a human, or had a son or daughter who married a human.

Wait! Wait! Wait!

Since when did this series become so much better? It suddenly feels that the new arc has brought a sudden increase in awesomeness. It just suddenly feels like this series has technically become a lot better. The pacing was great in this episode. Lots of things happened, though things remained clear and understandable at the same time. Not to mention that Pinon’s and Marco’s reaction to their parents being petrified worked out great. This really showed their care towards their parents.

Sure, the first half of the series was entertaining and all, but it wasn’t really anything special. If we are to believe the translator’s notes, the current half will turn out to be awesome. I’d love to find out. A good start has already been made. Hilda’s back, and more awesome than ever (her singing is as good as usual ^^), and the newly introduced characters work out great. ^^

Recap. Luna reflects what happened in the past episodes (with a bit of help of Punpun and Kotarou). You could say that this episode marks the ending of the first half, and the beginning of the second half.

Ever since the previous episode, Luna has been unable to return to her human form. Pinon has been busy with his homework and Marco has been busy with mother, I think. That’s why she’s getting kindof lonely. Then, Pinon asks Ulala (who was as funny as usual this episode) to deliver her the message that he’ll be seeing her again. During the end of the episode, they have a happy reunion.

Still, this episode did contain a few bits of new information. Luna lived in some kind of castle, but she had a fight with her mother and ran away. It also seems that she couldn’t go ashore at all costs. Otherwise she’d meet the same fate as when Narcia goes to the sea.

Still, the most interesting moment happened right before the end of the episode, in which Luna reveals quite some interesting things. She wished to be human again, to have a second golden key. Though she shouldn’t have wished that, as the Law of the Moon would be broken by this.

What exactly is going to happen in the next episodes?

Haha! The best episode so far. Papu finally reveals his reasons for coming, the Seirei of Darkness is beaten and Luna comes with a very nice twist in the end. It’s like this: Papu really is the Seirei of the Moon. He’s the Seirei, overseeing all other Seirei. This explains why the Wind and Fire Seirei got so startled when they saw him. It’s always scary to see a superior coming without notice.

In any case, Pinon uses the power of the moon, combined with his own power in order to beat Yasm in Phantonesia. By doing this, however, Papu is forced to return to the moon while he transports Pinon, Luna and Marco to the normal world again, giving Luna the tip that her pendant is made from the power of the moon, thus able to defeat the darkness. The catch: it breaks. This makes Luna unable to retain her human form.

That is a very interesting development indeed. For the latter half of the series, we’ll be seeing Luna in her true, beautiful though different form. I’m not sure whether Papu comes back. At the end of the episode, we see him return to the temple, but I’m not sure whether that is a dream or not. I guess I’ll have to wait till the next episode to find out.

The second half of the episode shows quite a few very funny moments. The most memorable definitely was the Jankenpon. Punpun and Kotoro were funnier than ever during this episode. It’s indeed quite pitiful to be playing Jankenpon with a robot who only can do scissors. Kotoro also began to look more and more like his father a bit later in the episode, in which he has *cough* “trouble” while fixing his giant-crab-machine-thing. Punpun, meanwhile, shows that she accepted that Pinon has an eye for Luna, by helping the two get closer to each other. An interesting development, at this stage of the series.

Other funny moments include when we see the cook bake eggs in a very quirky way, with Pinon noticing the results afterwards and Lulu who messes up with her magic once more, turning Pinon in a very cute kitten. ^^;

Last big revelation: we get to see the one who named Yasm. The real bad guy in this series. Or bad girl in our case. It seems to be some kind of demon, sealed away and hoping that Yasm would free her.

Interesting. Someone actually named the Seirei of Darkness. The name was Yasm, though it’s unknown who it was that named it. But then again, it does make sense. After all, Yasm is about to be defeated and we still have 15 episodes to go. Something has to be driving the latter half of the anime.

In any case, this episode was pretty straightforward. Pinon and the others are in the Holy (holy?) Precincts of Darkness, head to Yasm’s castle, battle a bunch of monsters, Pinon slays Yasm, the power of darkness grows weaker and Yasm transforms into a huge owl-like monster.

There was one interesting part about his episode. The darkness was making people uneasy, and the group got separated. They then began seeing illusions of others, talking behind their back, portraying their worries. Pinon began to fear whether Luna, Marco and Papu were really on his side, because of some jokes Marco made earlier. Marco believed that Pinon and Luna just saw him as a nuisance, while Luna still worries whether Pinon and Marco accept her.

Popolocrois continues its story about the adventures of Pinon and his friends, but it does seem to be missing something. I’m hoping for the second part of this anime to redeem it. It’s not like this anime is bad, or anything, but it just crumbles if you compare it to its predecessor, Popolocrois Story 1998.

This show is really getting more excited by the minute. Now that all of the Seirei are present, the story moves forward with huge leaps. Ever since the previous episode, the world has been engulfed by darkness. It’s interesting to see what happens when it does. I like the fact that this anime actually tries to make its magic system believable. Darkness is taking over, making light from both the sun and the moon stop reaching the surface. This means that only man-made light sources can provide a bit of visibility, and even these are restricted. This darkness makes people feel uneasy and worried. This actually is the first anime ever to associate darkness with a feeling of uneasiness and worry.

Luna was great in her worries. The fansubbers also provided an some interesting fact about general Japanese citizens. They’re extremely xenophobic. They just can’t stand anyone who stands out, mostly foreigners. Luna feels the same. She thinks that nobody would accept her if they knew her true form, that’s why she tried to hide it, while she in fact, like Pinon mentioned, looks beautiful.

Narcia also comes with a huge revelation: she’s a forest SPRITE instead of a forest WITCH. With this, Popolocrois Story 1998 also becomes a lot clearer. I always wondered why she was able to fly. It also explains why she has her two-point hat. It’d be perfect to hide her two antennas. She seems to be the daughter of the queen of the forest sprites. It’s also very ironic for Luna to think that Pinon would be totally different from her. After all, he’s 25% human, 25% dragon and 50% forest sprite himself. ^^

At the beginning of the episode, Pinon also admits that he’s scared of the darkness. Marco then begins yelling at him, as a real man should never admit to be scared. Still, he’s shaking while he says this. It’s interesting to see that both of them react differently to the sudden events. Pinon’s more of a honest person. Too honest, perhaps. That’s why he’s so quick to admit he’s scared. Marco, on the meanwhile, has been raised by his mother. No wonder that he’d like to look cool in situations like these. ^^

Also, I like the small detail the creators put in the Water-Seirei’s eyes. As it’s the Seirei of water, its eyes are very quick to get watery, making it cry over absolutely nothing. Very creative. Pinon’s character development also became evident during this episode. He actually proposed to go along with Pietoro on his own. He seems to have gained a lot of courage.

Still, overall, at the same point, Popolocrois Story 1998 as featuring an insane Gamigami who was having difficulties stealing Paolo’s crown. Even though Popolocrois 2003 has been amusing, it has yet to reach the level of amazingness its predecessor did. Unfortunately.

Now I understand why Marco got his Seirei before Luna did, even though he was introduced later than she was. Marco’s purpose in the story isn’t focused on mystery. What we have here is a nice, unique guy. His element lies more in his background and personality, and the way he interacts with others. Luna’s purposes are to let Pinon have the first tastes of friendship, and her mysterious side.

We get our first major clue to this mystery during this episode. Luna has always been silent about where she came from, and Pinon never asked her about it. Indeed, she’s not a normal human. She’s some kind of water spirit. Quite possibly the water-version of Narcia, the forest witch. For some reason, if she uses Narcia’s key, she can transform to this form. She considers fish as dear friends, therefore, it’s hard for her to see her friends locked up in ice like that. If you also combine this with the fact that we saw her swimming with full freedom at the beginning of the show, it must mean that she either was able to transform, long before she got the key, or she’s always been free in water, without having the need to breath. I’m suspecting the latter, though I’m curious why she would need Narcia’s key to change back to her true form. After all, Narcia did it in order to hide her true form from the ocean, not backwards. Maybe Luna has fallen under some kind of spell?

In any case, I think that we’ve left the lightest of the episodes behind us, and they’ll actually be continuing to get darker and darker as they progress. The Seirei of Darkness only proves this, when it seems that he successfully managed to exploit Pinon’s weakness: his constitution. He distracts Pinon by summoning the usual guardian, in order to break the seal of darkness. You’d wonder why he needed Pinon to be in the neighbourhood in order to do this, couldn’t he just have done it without Pinon ever noticing? In any case, he seems quite happy, as nobody’s able to stop him now. Narcia indeed begins to notice a suspicious darkness coming from Popolocrois Forest.

Marco was quite funny during this episode. I especially like his spontaneous reaction to everything happening around him, and that he isn’t afraid to show his surprise when something doesn’t appear to be what he expected. He’s also got quite a big role in this episode, despite it being focused at Luna. It’s the same with the Fire-Seirei. Even though it was supposed to be Marco’s turn to shine, the episode actually featured Pinon, learning to trust and count on others. Same here, Marco gets some development as well when he finally steps out of Pinon’s shadow by getting helped by Bobo. It seems that he got quite annoying of Pinon, who kept standing in the spotlight. He was even making sarcastic jokes about this.

Interesting detail: Papu remained quiet when Chappii (the Water-Seirei’s name) appeared. We also see no scenes at which Chappii gets scared of him. He also remained suspiciously silent near the Fountain of Truth.

There’s also one thing I like about Kotoro: each and every one of his inventions has at least one major flaw. It’s also the thing in which he differs from his father. When Gamigami makes a mistake like that, his machine still ends up doing what its supposed to do. That’s what makes him a genius. Kotoro’s mistakes, meanwhile, are much more disastrous. And so he ends up with an drill, in which the passenger’s seat ends up spinning alongside the drill, causing the driver to get quite nauseous. Punpun has been getting rather dull these times. She should just use violence, grab Pinon and run off to somewhere unknown with him. She needs to get a bit more into the action, rather than fangirling over Pinon.

I love the huge contrast between the serious scenes and the laid-back scenes in this anime. The Seirei of Darkness really works as a bad guy, which turns the scenes in which he is featured quite dark indeed. However, Pinon, Luna, Marco and all of the others are just little kids, having fun. The times at which they’re playing with each other really have a very light overall mood. When you combine these two opposites with each other, the result turns out quite interesting indeed. 🙂

This episode was quite interesting. The Seirei of Darkness comes into action again, he wonders how a little brat called Pinon could have defeated his minions. He therefore makes a plan in order to spy on him. Pinon, meanwhile, is playing with Ulala, Luna, Papuu, Hirarin and Bobo at the ocean. General Gon, who’s supposed to be guarding them looked quite sad in the huge heat in his uniform. The subject of conversation then gets brought to the school. In the end, Luna wants to go to school, and Pinon has to go with her. Something he doesn’t really like.

That evening, the Seirei of Darkness takes an innocent monster over, in order to do something. The next day, Pinon tries to stop Papu, Bobo and Hirarin from going along with them to school, as pets aren’t allowed. Then he and Luna head to school. It seems a small tournament is going to be hosted that afternoon. What follows is just an ordinary day at school, full of detentions as three certain “pets” have been following Pinon into school.

The three annoying classmates also became a bit less annoying during this episode, as they actually played a very major part in it. It starts when they end up cleaning for detention, along with Pinon and Luna. It seems that they indeed were just curious, though Pinon runs away every time they bother him with it. But yeah, I guess he doesn’t like the attention on him. After all, people begin to immediately compare him to Pietoro.

Then, the Seirei of Darkness carries out his plan: create a huge barrier around the school, infest that barrier with monsters and see how Pietoro reacts. Marco, who was supposed to be attending the tournament, also arrives, and meets up with Papu, Bobo and Hirarin. Inside the barrier, General Don managed to turn everything into a tournament: five monsters versus Pinon, Luna and the three annoying classmates, in one-on-one duels.

Meanwhile, it seems that I was wrong on assuming that the third and final Seirei was to be the Water-Seirei. In fact, it’s an Ice-Seirei, as suddenly, the entire ocean has frozen over. Marco, meanwhile, has found a way to go under the barrier through a corridor Pietoro often used to run away from school. Papu, Bobo and Hirarin join him.

In any case, the tournament was predictable, but fun. Luna starts first, after which the three classmates have to fight and Pinon will be last. his indeed meant that one of the classmates had to win against a monster, though the way the creators solved this actually was pretty creative. Thanks to Pinon, for giving them some advice on fighting. In any case:
– Luna has to fight against a Bird of Paradise. These mainly use sound waves which put people to sleep. A couple of earplugs and Luna’s magic were enough to overcome this.
– Second is the first of the classmates (I wish they’d give them some actual names) against a Pitcher, or a squirrel who throws with walnuts. In the end, it turns into a baseball game, in which the classmate attempts to hit the walnut right back at the pitcher, and overpowering it in the confusion. Good plan, though he misses, the walnut bounces back from a tree and knocks the poor guy out.
– The second classmate (Lorris, thank god this one does have a name) doesn’t do much better when he suddenly runs off for a bathroom visit. It seems quite random at first, though surprisingly, the sneak route Marco’s using actually leads to the bathroom. And so, the two of them end up making the school monster-free.
– The third classmate wins in a very amusing way, when the monster, a weak version of a humanoid bull, trips and lands out of the ring.
– Pinon then has to win against the last monster, who was overpowered by the Seirei of Darkness. Bobo, Hirarin and Papu attempt to help him, though Pinon thankfully declines, as everyone has been fighting on their own accord. In the end, Pinon doesn’t win because of his dragon powers, but making the enemy trip as well. This time, though, it wasn’t an accident. ^^;

Still, the Seirei of Darkness exits with the message that he’s found Pinon’s weakness. I wonder what it might be. And I wonder if it’s something Hirarin and Bobo aren’t able to fix. In any case, Luna’s quite upset when she finds out about the ocean being frozen over. Next episode, it’ll be time for the Ice Seirei!

The three classmates were very interesting. It’s clear that they aren’t skilled in fighting at all, though in the end, all of them ended up fighting. Okay, some weren’t as successful, but Lorris actually helped Marco, and saved him, and the other actually won because he wasn’t scared to run away.

It’s strange. You would expect the episodes to turn darker as the series progresses, but so far, the episodes have become lighter. The bad guy also hasn’t shown imself in quite a while either. In any case, this is probably the lightest episode of Popolocrois 2003 yet. It was a bit awkward at times, as it mostly centered around Pinon, Luna and Marco having fun at a festival, though the conclusion was surprisingly touching.

The episode is centered around Marco. He and Leona are collecting a few strawberries in order to make some jam. When they get home, Leona realizes that she doesn’t have enough strawberries in order to make her jam, so she sends Marco out on an errand, to go to the city in order to buy some strawberries for her. At the same time, there’s a huge festival going on, which Pinon and Luna are, of course, attending.

Marco then meets up with the two of them, and basically ends up having so much fun that he spends the money, originally meant for the strawberries. The rest of the episode is spent with him, Pinon and Luna trying to earn enough money in order to buy the strawberries, or goldenberries, which seem to be even better than the strawberries. Three attempts are shown.

Attempt # 1: a Donut-Eating Contest. Pinon’s annoying classmates notify the threesome about a donut-eating contest. They’ll be attending themselves as well. As Marco loves to eat, he basically should be able to win the prize money. Still, another kid is the winner. I like the fact that the creators managed to choose the person you’d least expect to win.

Attempt # 2: imitating the Straw Millionare Story. The story goes as follows, we have a poor guy, who finds a piece of straw. He then manages to trade the straw for something better. He then kept doing this until he ended up as a millionare. In our case, it’s a pencil, which gets traded for a pair of sweets, which gets traded for a piece of cloth. I like the way that the creators didn’t make this extend to the obvious, as after they’ve found the cloth, Attempt # 2 gets cut off, in order to make place for Attempt # 3.

Attempt # 3: An egg-racing contest. Basically, you have a start and a finish, and whoever can get from the start to the finish in the shortest time, is the winner. The catch is that each contestant carries an egg, and you’re disqualified if the egg breaks. The grand prize is one gold coin, which is more than enough to buy the goldenberries, and plenty of other nice things. Still, there’s one problem. Pinon, Marco and Luna are basically the only contestants who aren’t big, strong guys. Therefore, they plan to win with the help of smart tricks, teamwork and the Seirei.

Marco first leads them through a shortcut, even though he does get lost a bit. Then, everyone’s supposed to travel by boat to a distant island, though Marco was smart enough to bring them to a shore without a beach. Instead, it has huge cliffs rising up the sea. Pinon then gets the idea of using some discarded wooden boxes and the piece of cloth from before to make a hot air ballon, driven by the two seirei. While this didn’t make sense at all, and this plan obviously wouldn’t work in real life, even with seirei, it does show Pinon’s insight. In any case, these factors make the threesome get the lead, only to end up getting tricked by Punpun and Kotaro who are looking for attention again. Their role is small, though they do make sure that Pinon, Marco and Luna end up last. The nice thing is that their attempts were appreciated by everyone, and they get a special prize for this: a basket full of goldenberries.

Even though these events were amusing to watch, it wasn’t what this episode was about. It’s about the tight bond between Marco and Leona, his mother. It was already known that Marco is very scared of the thought of getting his mother angry. He keeps telling himself that this is because she’ll punish him severely if he makes a mistake, though I think he’s trying to fool himself. During this episode, he tells Pinon and Luna that he likes eating so much because it makes Leona smile, and he likes to see her smile. I think he just tells himself that his mother will get extremely scared when he messes up, because he’s very afraid to make her sad.

Some interesting question also arose, regarding the characters while watching this episode. For example, Luna gets really angry when both Marco and Pinon complain about their parents. I think she’s trying to subtly say that they should be glad that they have parents. What exactly has happened to her own parents, if she says something like that? Did she run away from them, did they disappear, or did they even die? Also, why did Leona decide to live in the forest, instead of the town? She could have lots of reasons for this, most are just apparent. But what was the major factor for her to decide to stay there? And I’m still debating whether Shirokishi is Marco’s real father or not. I would guess that he actually is, as Leona seems to have a picture of him on the wall.

I also liked the good use of symbols, references and storywriting. For example, take the balloon. Marco gets it at the beginning of the episode, and it kindof tags along with the episode. When characters also run aound in high grass, it serves as a good way for the player to tell where they are at that moment, and in the end, it serves as inspiration in order to make the hot air balloon. Still, I think that it didn’t survive the episode. Poor balloon. Or the cloth, they aquired at Attempt # 2. At first, it’s forgotten about again, only until it serves as the balloon-part of the hot-air balloon. And the animals who appear at the beginning of the episode, and even the bushes full of strawberries. The fact that there are a huge number of them, suggests that Marco and Leona have been living very peacefully along with the forest.

Also, I like Narcia how she keeps annoying Pietoro. Pietoro has the habit that he only talks about the good things he did in his past. Narcia cleverly uses this when Pietoro gets annoyed with Pinon, and starts acting as a huge hypocrite. ^^

Still, I’m wondering what that bad guy is up to. He’s probably the seirei of darkness. Then there should be a seirei of light as well… In any case, the fact that he hasn’t shown himself must mean something. I’m also wondering when the water-seirei will arrive. Ah well, we know it will once it starts to rain like crazy.

Overall, a fairly light episode. A bit boring, but the way it ended was very touching. So what if most of the events didn’t make any sense at all? ^^

Memorable moment: Narcia’s sarcastic remarks. 😉