Popolocrois (anime)

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Popolocrois


caption =
ja_name = ポポロクロイス物語
ja_name_trans = Poporokuroisu Monogatari
genre = Action, FantasyInfobox animanga/Anime
title =
director = Koichi Mashimo
studio = Bee Train, Production I.G
network = TV Tokyo
first = October 4 1998
last = March 28 1999
episodes = 25Infobox animanga/Anime
title =
director =
studio = Tokyo Movie Shinsha
network = TV Tokyo
first = October 5 2003
last = March 28 2004
episodes = 26

The first anime series of "Popolocrois Story" was released in 1998, and the story is based immediately after the first PS1 game "Popolocrois Monogatari" and before the ¨Poporogue¨ game. There has been two different series, the first series is about the adventure after the defeat of the Ice Demon: a Girl named "Hyuu" came to Popolocrois, and second series is 15 years after Maira's defeat. The second anime series features brand new character, along with some of the old ones.

The main character for the second series is "Pinon", who is the son of Pietro and Narcia, so he has the blood of the humans, the dragons, and the sprites flowing through his body. The second series is perfectly based on the 4th PlayStation 2 game in Japan "PoPoLoCrois: Adventure of Beginnings (Japanese title: "Popolocrois Hajimari no Bouken", official English Title: Popolocrois: A New Departure)", and the 5th "Popolocrois: Law of the Moon Adventure (Japanese title: "Popolocrois Tsuki no Okite no Bouken", official English title: "Popolocrois enchanted lunar tale")".

Also in the anime, some colors are different. Pietro's hair is Blonde rather than Brown (but in the game, it says he's blonde), White Knight's cape and helmet feather are red instead of blue. (In the 1st edition game, they were red. They became blue after "Popolocrois Monogatari II", the 3rd PlayStation game in Japan. In the PSP edition, the graphics of II is used.) Narcia's eyes are green instead of blue, and there some another minor coloring details in some of the secondary characters (Queen Sania, King Paulo and Guilda).

*Note: the Second Animation was produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha.

Anime Characters

First Series

Pietro PakaPuka

(Voiced by Ai Orikasa)

The Main Character in the First series. He is the son of the King of Popolocrois- King Paulo; and Sania - one of the daughters of the Ryu clan (which are dragons). He has blond hair, and unlike the game, he wears the clothes that he had in the first two PSX Popolocrois games, at the beginning of Popolocrois Monogatari II and in the beginning of the PSP game (no cape, no crown). It seems like Pietro is still 10 years old rather than 12 because of his childish personality, but he cares deeply about the kingdom. Pietro is the one in the middle who looks like Link from The Legend of Zelda.

Narcia

(Voiced by Yuri Shiratori)

The Main Character in the First series. She is able to fly without a broom and has a crush on Pietro, and she has less childish personality than Pietro in the beginning. Narcia is able to turn into Kai with her Golden Key, but even though they are the same person, they have split personality. Narcia turns into Kai when she is deeply shy or when she is too scared in some situation, but most of the time she prefers to be just herself.

Kai

(Voiced by Yuri Shiratori)

Kai is a human form that Narcia takes thanks to the help of the Golden Key. Kai shows up in the beginning of the first episode as "Tobikera", which is the stripped dragon form that it's shown from Kai's attack in the game "Dino". She has a complete personality change, it's very weird because she also refers herself as Narcia, so she speaks about all the things that Narcia knows in a different way.

hirokishi

(Voiced by Masashi Ebara)

Shirokishi literally translates to ¨White Knight¨. Shirokishi is first shown as he is traveling to find the "King Knight Sword". Shirokishi speaks in an old-samurai dialect and shows great respect toward Pietro and Narcia. He is extremely skilled in swordsmanship despite his appearance, and also he's very kind and likes to help others (this was the main reason to help everyone he finds in trouble).

Hyuu

(Voiced by Miyajima Eri)

The Main Character in the First series. She mysteriously appeared in Flornel Forest after GamiGami Maou (Japanese name for "GamiGami Devil") had failed to transfer his castle with Popolocrois castle, causing a mysterious beam to strike Flornel Forest which opened a way for Hyuu, Sanda, and Ston to come to Popolocrois. She has a blue hair with a pony tails on each side and one in the back, she has the mysterious "Wind-kind" crest in her chest. Hyuu is selfish and always state that wind-kinds should be alone and free, but she shows that she wants affection. She is "loved" by GamiGami due to the fact that he is under a love spell toward Hyuu, but she actually wants to be with Pietro and actually wants to stay with him forever.

anda

(Voiced by Takeshi Nagasako)

The Side Character in the First Series. Sanda is a little, fat pink monster that follows Hyuu, he seems to be fascinated by the new world he came into, especially by the food. Both Sanda and Ston are able to transform into giants, Sanda turns into a fat, outgoing giant that wears red Chinese clothes, and is able to create thunders just by the friction of his fingers and control them. Sanda also has the mysterious "Wind-kind" emblem. Sanda is supposed to be the Japanese pronunciation of "Thunder".

ton

(Voiced by Uchida Takeshi)

The Side Character in the First Series. Ston is a yellow, narrow monster that follows Hyuu, Ston always refers Hyuu as a "selfish little girl" but still follows her. Both Sanda and Ston are able to transform into giants, Ston turns into a tall, very pale giant that wears blue clothes, Ston is able to create Gusts by just blowing, and also he can create windstorms. Ston also has the mysterious "Wind-kind" emblem. Ston is supposed to be the Japanese pronunciation of "Storm".

GamiGami Maou

(Voiced by Furuta Arata)

(GamiGami Devil) - The same arrogant character from the game series. He lives in a swamp with in his "junk castle", also with his humanlike robots. Gami Gami is supposedly the main antagonist of the series, as he tries to take over the Popolocrois kingdom (which he actually does later in the series), but Pietro and Narcia see GamiGami as a minor threat because of their previous adventures.

econd Series

Pinon PakaPuka

The main character in the Second series. He has short vanilla white hair, wears a white shirt, pants, vest, with the PakaPuka Emblem, also carries around King Paulo's sword (later, he carries the dragon sword). He is the son of Pietro and Narcia and the new prince of Popolocrois, he is very passive in the beginning of the series and just want to read books and study in the castle rather than practice swordplay, go to school, and make friends. He is often compared by his father, Pietro, because they all expect him to be as great as Pietro when he was young, but Pinon hates the fact everyone is expecting too much from him. Later, Pinon becomes courageous and starts to stand up for himself, but gets a little discouraged in tough situations. Pinon uses the power of the Wind Seirei to use a tornado attack (or an attack that resembles the "Wind Cutter"/"Kaze no Yaiba" tech) with his sword.

Luna

The main character in the Second series. She has a long aqua blue hair, wears a white dress along with a white bandana, and the Golden Key as her necklace. She was first shown when Pinon tried to save Papuu when it was stuck on a little island just off shore, Luna saved Pinon when he almost drowned. Luna seems to know about Pinon but Pinon has no idea why. Later on in the series, Luna reveals her true form when Pinon was once again drowning in the sea, a Mermaid-like Water Sprite. Luna is suppose to be the Princess of the Ocean Sprites but got into a fight with her mother, running away to the Popolocrois beach.

Marco

The main character in the Second series. He wears a brown armless shirt, and has tanned skin with three white stripes on his face, a pony tailed hair pointing up, and carries a little axe. He is the son of Leona and quite possibly of the White Knight, he lives in the Flornel Forest, away from Takinen Village with his mother. He is not quite intelligent but still has guts to do something. Marco uses the power of the Fire Seirei to use a fire attack with his axe.

King Pietro

Now the once crowned prince of Popolocrois has become the new king of the kingdom. Pietro has the same brown hair along with beards, he wears the crown of wisdom that was passed down to the kingdom, a dark olive robe with white outlines, with the Pakapuka emblem. Pietro is a strong and wise king like his father, and still the skilled swordman he was.Now he live with Narcia in the Kingdom.

eirei

Seirei is compromised in kanji of "sei"(holy) + "rei"(spirit). There are 4 different elements: fire, water, earth and wind. One by one they all are threatened by the spirit of darkness (Yasm), but Pinon saves them from being sealed; they repay him by becoming weird animals and accompanying him. There is "Hirarin", the green "Cat-Bat", (Wind); "Bobo", the red "Pig-Bird" (Fire); and "Chappi", the blue creature (Water). After the first arc, the seirei just disappear and appear out of nowhere...

Yasm

The Main antagonist of the first arc of the second series. Yasm is the Spirit of Darkness; he devised a plan to destroy the balance of the world by capturing the seirei and sealing their powers. He is first defeated by Pinon with the power of the moon from Papuu. He immediately returned to the human world as a sand dragon, but was again destroyed by Luna's Golden key. There is a mystery behind Yasm, because all the elementals had no human names to begin with, so there is a chance that another was controlling Yasm's plan.

Elena Pakapuka

Introduced in the second arc. She is King Pietoro's little sister, and Pinon's aunt. This is the same Elena from the game series, the 3-year old child that admired Pietoro and Narcia. Now she is 18-years old and now is the boss of her own ship, The Dakart, and she travels around the world for fun. She is an excellent swordman (skilled enough to do the same technique that Pietro uses, "Wind Cutter"/"Kaze no Yaiba") and very commanding, but kind and gentle toward the trio (Pinon, Luna, and Marco) and cares for them, she doesn't like Pinon calling her "obasan" (Aunt) because calling an 18-year old girl an aunt isn't really flattering, so she perfers Pinon calling her "Oneesan" (Big Sister).

Music

First Series

The soundtrack of the first series was composed by the talented Outani Kou, who has composed the soundtracks of many other excellent anime series.

* Opening Theme: 夏気球/Natsu Kikyuu (Summer Balloon) by Ootsuka Rie (大塚利恵)

* Ending Themes:

1. 風の魔法/Kaze no Mahou (Magic of the Wind) by Ootou Fumi (大藤史) Eps: 1-24

2. 風の魔法 (ヒュウヴァージョン)/Kaze no Mahou (Magic of the Wind) Hyuu Version by Miyajima Eri (宮島依里) Ep: 25

* Insert Songs:

シークレット・カーニバル/Secret Carnival by Kitamura Takako (北村岳子) Ep: 4

The 男のロマン/The Otoko no Roman (Man´s Romance) by Furuta Arata (古田新太) Eps: 7, 8, 11, 16

わたしぼっち/Watashi-bocchi (By Myself) by Miyajima Eri (宮島依里) Ep: 8

君がいてくれる/Kimi ga Ite Kureru (You´ll Be There for Me) by Orikasa Ai (折笠愛) Ep: 11

空を見上げて/Sora wo Miagete (Look Up to the Sky) by Dounowaki Kyoko (堂ノ脇恭子) Ep: 15

econd Series

Opening Themes:

1. トロイメライ/Toroimerai (Träumerei) by Rurutia (ルルティア) Eps: 1 - 13

2. ともだちの歌/Tomodachi no Uta (Song of Friends) by CORE OF SOUL Eps: 14 - 26

Ending Themes:

1. 月千一夜/Tsuki Sen'ichi-ya (1001 Nights in the Moon) by Rurutia (ルルティア) Eps: 1 -13

2. 桜見丘/Sakuramioka (Hill for Watching Cherry Blossoms) by Local Bus Eps: 14 - 26?

External links

* [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=1792 Popolocrois Monogatari (Anime News Network)]
* [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2957 PoPoLoCrois (TV) (Anime News Network)]