The summary is going to be rather short this time, as I’m a bit busy with other things right now. Still, this episode was everything a travelling-anime should be: exploration, anxiousness, openness, making mistakes, meeting different people and places, trust and betrayal. It’s amazing how much the creators can stuff into one single episodes, especially considering how slow the pacing is in this series, and how there still are plenty of episodes left for this series to explore.
Porfy is ready to eave Leon, who gives him a bit of advice for the train journey he’s about to make. “First take care of yourself, then God will take care of you”. When Leon says how Porfy can return anytime, the train arrives and Porfy needs to rush to be able to get it. Apollo needs to spend the journey inside Porfy’s backpack, and of course he has a bit of trouble remaining quiet in there. ^^;
Porfy’s obviously fascinated by the huge train, and is surprised at how smooth it rides. He talks a bit to himself while doing so. A bit later, a pregnant woman enters the cabin, and Porfy offers her a seat opposed to him. Very soon a middle-aged man joins in too, and the three easily have a nice conversation. It then turns out, however, that the train is going west, instead of the North where Porfy was planning to head to. In his haste, Porfy gets off at the nearest stop, but this turns out to be right in the middle of nowhere.
Porfy looks around, and sees a nearby city. The dogs in the area are ferocious and will do anything for a meal, which already suggests that the area Porfy’s in is really suffering from poverty. When he reaches the city, however, it turns out to be nearly abandoned, and he only runs into one kid, who immediately runs away. As the evening falls, Porfy tries to leave, though he gets lost and can’t find the exit. He ends up falling asleep at one of the houses, which turns out to be occupied by a middle-aged woman.
She’s first angry at Porfy, though she becomes nicer when she finds out that Porfy has been travelling to Greece. She gives him a bit of candy to eat, and she tells him why the city ended up abandoned. It was basically during the war, the Italian government offered the residents a better place to live, probably so that they could be drafted more easily. Only a few people remained in the city, and that’s why the children aren’t used to seeing outsiders.
Porfy then falls asleep, the woman runs off with his backpack, laughs like an evil witch and the episode ends.
After the previous episode, I considered Porfy to be very lucky when compared to Perrine (from Perrine Monogatari, another World Masterpiece series): he didn’t have to take care of his mother, and whenever he tells how he lost his parents in an earthquake, people all try to be nice to him. This episode shows how much of a double-edged sword this is. The nice people will be really nice to the guy, but this also makes him really vulnerable and easily deceived. These are all lessons that Porfy needs to learn the hard way. Oh, how I’d love to see his character in twenty episodes.
And really, that random chatter in the train with random people: more anime should do this. It’s really fun. ^^;
