Porfy no Nagai Tabi – 19

Travelling-anime with random stories usually come in two categories: the saviour and the observer. The first one is by far the most common one: the protagonist arrives at a place where there’s some kind of problem, and at the end of the episode he or she has solved it. Examples of this are El Cazador, Mushishi, Mermaid’s Forest, Otogi Juushi Akazukin, et cetera. The second category is much rarer, and in there, the protagonist basically arrives, but his or her actions have no major influence on the places he/she visits. The only examples I can think of right now are Kaiba, Kino no Tabi and Perrine Monogatari.

And here Porfy comes and creates a totally different category: in this show, Porfy doesn’t save the people he meets: the people he meets save him. Such a young boy all alone on a journey obviously has a lot to learn, and thank goodness that Porfy manages to run into kind people who wish to help him further.

Porfy exits the ship on one of the trucks, and he gets dropped off at a local square as the truck driver mentions how hot the females are, although Porfy’s probably too young for that. He looks around a but, sees a bunch of punks and suddenly realizes that he hasn’t eaten anything since that morning. He runs towards a local fried-potato stand, after which a guy named Leon arrives as well. The stand owner comments on how he’s slacking off again, but as it turns out, Leon’s boss ordered him to get a bag of fried potatoes.

The woman at the stand then hands Porfy his potatoes, though she asks to be paid in Lire (Italy’s money before the Euro). Porfy gets all worked up when all he has is Greek money. A middle-aged man who happened to be passing by offers him to exchange Porfy’s money at the local bank, and Porfy does so, gullibly. While the man is away, exchanging the money and putting half of it in his own pocket, Porfy asks around for Mina.

The man returns and hands Porfy half of his money, though Leon quickly notices that the money he received is far too little and gets the remaining money out of the guy. The stand woman then tries to beat up the man, saying how he should be ashamed of himself to deceive such a young boy, as Leon walks away. Porfy quickly notices and runs after him, asking to return his money.

As it turns out, the punks were still there, and they had their eyes on Porfy’s large amount of money. Leon helps Porfy escape and the two exchange money and potatoes (which Porfy was holding when Leon confronted the old man). Leon warns Porfy, and asks if he has any plans of where to go next Porfy obviously hasn’t any, so he takes him along to his shop for now.

The shop turns out to be a car repair shop. The owner is a bit pissed off since he can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong with the car of one of his clients (and his potatoes that Leon was supposed to get were delayed), though this changes when he hears Porfy’s story. Unfortunately, neither he nor his wife has seen Mina. Porfy then prepares to leave, saying how he needs to find Mina. Leon however, says that he’ll get into big trouble if he just continues to search for Mina, his money will run out very quickly. Porfy says that he’ll manage somehow.

The store owner then offers him to work for money for a bit, since Porfy told how his father was teaching him to be a car mechanic. Leon mentions all of the dangers involved in travelling alone (he says this very bluntly, otherwise it just wouldn’t get through Porfy’s head). When Porfy has eaten a bit, the store manager gets a bit angry at how Porfy’s confidence in car mechanics. That’s why he brings Porfy to the car he himself was having trouble with.

Obviously, Porfy has a lot of trouble figuring out what’s wrong, with Leon watching from the side-lines. After a long while, Leon decides to subtly help him by suggesting that something might be up with the transmission. This is where Porfy breaks down, however, saying how his father didn’t teach him yet about that. What follows is a very touching scene, where Porfy gives up the strong impression eh tried to set up and starts crying, saying how he needs to find Mina. Leon assures him then that Mina is alive. The town they’re in is a small one, and a girl without anyone to take care of her will quickly be noticed.

Now that Porfy is cheered up a bit, Leon decides to help him some more by directing the problem to the battery, which turns out to be the culprit. When the owner of the car then comes to pick it up, he’s really glad for the work Porfy did, and gives him a little tip. Porfy then cleans up, and that night Leon takes a look at Porfy’s toolkit and gives him some pointers: it misses a few essential tools, while others will hardly be used at all.

Porfy then mentions the past World War. If I remember correctly, Greece never played a big role in it, though Italy was a major party there. As it turns out: Leon lost his family in that war. He hopes for Porfy to quickly find Mina. If she isn’t in this city, then he suggests Porfy where she might have gone to. He then gives Porfy a compass, in case he gets lost, and says that he ever gets lost, that he should use his brains, and the episode ends.

This was a really interesting episode, because for the first time Porfy came into contact with guys who were out to harm him. Porfy has never really been deceived by any stranger, so he had no reason to doubt the old man’s actions. This was really an episode, meant to make Porfy see the reality of his decision to start travelling. Sure, it sounds nice, but you have to take many things into account.

This is also why the store manager and Leon were so harsh to him at times. Porfy said full of confidence that he could fix any car, and so the store manager puts him on a problem which he knows he can’t fix, in order to teach Porfy to just say what he can do and what he can’t do. Porfy has been trying so much to be strong for his own and Mina’s sake that he started to ask the impossible from himself.

I must say that, when comparing the first nineteen episodes of Porfy to the first nineteen episodes of Les Miserables, then Porfy no Nagai Tabi so far has been better. But that’s only logical: Les Miserables only really started shining once it hit its second half, while Porfy’s height seems to have been the arc around episodes 13 to 17. Still, I’m interested in what the creators have in store for the rest of this series. Will it stay away from tragedy and instead focus on Porfy as he tries to find Mina, or do they still have some trumps left on their sleeve? Either way, it’s going to be awesome.