Yet again a flawless episode for this series, and this one has a good chance of being the best episode of Porfy no Nagai Tabi yet. World Masterpiece Theatre seriously rocks!
The episode starts with Porfy, watching the cars drive past, and recognizing them instantly. The fact that his father gets very few customers is still very much on his mind, as Christopher turns down yet another customer who hopes to get some gasoline. Zaimis then arrives with great news: he’s going to have a little brother or sister. Zaimis is thrilled now that he know this, and its clear that he’s always been jealous of Porfy because he has Mina. He also asks Porfy what it takes to be a good brother. After all, Mina follows him everywhere. Porfy’s reply? Keep looking important, because if you look important then your sibling will follow you everywhere.
Mina, meanwhile, is still thinking about the movie, and actually replays the biggest scenes when she things she’s alone. At one point, Porfy catches her doing it, and she starts yelling at him. Porfy later complains about this to Aneke, and she just assures him that Mina hasn’t changed at all, her mind is just occupied with a wonderful meeting (aka, the movie). That evening, Zaimis tries to take Porfy’s words a bit too literally, and starts to patronize his mother’s belly. That was too cute.
Porfy meanwhile tells his parents about how Zaimis is about to get a new sibling. In response, Mina asks Aneke for a new sister as well, as she’d love to have one too. Porfy then changes the subject by asking how many customers came to the station that day, and it turns out that only one of them showed up, and in Porfy’s mind, this is just way too little.
The next day, Zaimis’s father and Christopher talk a bit about their son’s antics, while Porfy is still thinking of a way to increase the amount of customers for the station along with Zaimis. Zaimis doesn’t understand why Porfy wants to change, because things are running fine as they are. Porfy then gets an idea and leaves. He goes home and looks for some money. He hardly has any so he asks Mina for her savings, with the excuse that it’s for the well-being of the car repair shop.
It turns out that he uses this money to buy a bag of nails. In other words: his plan is to destroy the tires of random cars, so that they’ll be forced to come to Christopher. When he tells his plan to Zaimis, he really thinks high of himself, like he’s some kind of genius. Zaimis of course disagrees, so Porfy leaves, though he tells Zaimis not to say anything about it.
Later that afternoon, Zaimis is clearly struggling not to say anything about Porfy’s plan. After all, with such a dangerous stunt, Porfy is bound to get punished a lot when this is found out. Then, Mina arrives with the souvenir she bought last episode, after which Zaimis tells her about Porfy’s intentions. Mina then rushes home and discovers the bag of nails. She then begs her brother to stop. What if an accident happens? Porfy however replies that he’s doing it for his mother and father, and how he wants to help her after seeing the reaction on that old friend of hers. He also mentions how Mina has been distracted lately (because of the movie and all), and Mina suddenly apologizes for this, and starts crying.
That evening, it’s very silent at the table during dinner. Christopher tries to lighten the mood by proposing another car-trip, but Porfy and Mina are still mad at each other. Late at night, when the others are all asleep, Porfy leaves the house and finds a good road to drop the nails on. Apollo goes along with him. He doesn’t really try to stop him directly, but it’s clear that the doubts Porfy already had only get amplified more and more. He sees a shooting star, and wishes for lots of customers to come to the repair station.
He then drops the nails at a road and returns home, thinking how tomorrow will be a busy day, and how he’s going to have to help his father too. However, when he returns home, he’s too scared to enter it, and spends a little while, sitting on the doorstep. It’s there when e regrets his decision, and runs back to where he dropped the nails, and goes to pick them up. Meanwhile, Mina wakes up as well, and notices how Porfy is missing. As Porfy is nearly done, a car comes from out of nowhere into his direction, hits the breaks, and the episode ends.
I don’t think that there’s much else to say about this episode. It was a wonderful one, and we’ve hardly even scratched the surface of the real potential of this series.
