Swamp dragon! Okay, maybe not, but Jing (Yuushi's pet baby dragon) reminds me a bit
of the swamp dragons, from Discworld. (They're also cute little miniatures, not BIG how you normally think of dragons
being.) Here, in a shot from the first scene of the show, she feeds him some...whatever those are. They look like
meatballs to me... Our dynamic duo! Ladies and gentlebeings, I present:
the two principal characters of the show: Yuushi and her butler/sidekick, Cube!
(recorded applause) And yes, for those of you who have played Princess Maker 2,
that IS the same "Cube". Okay, so his design's been tweaked quite a lot
(darker skin colour, completely different eyes, different outfit) but he's still
a good-guy demon butler who works for the great hero who saved the kingdom from
evil forces and his (the hero's) adopted daughter...and he still has that odd
hairstyle with the wavy piece that is much longer than the rest of it, in front. :P "ERK!" Yuushi is trying to sneak out of the house,
and Cube was talking to "the Master" in order to make a distraction...and she
almost ruins things by falling out of the tree (with a hilarious off-screen "WAK!").
Cube's expression here is from right after hearing the scream-and-thump outside... "No, it would never work as a child!" Yuushi
tries to imagine herself as an elegant lady, being asked to dance with the Prince...
and then reality intrudes itself upon her fantasy and the dream-Yuushi falls on the ground,
right in front of everybody. You see, due to a weird spell, she can't age past 10 years
old...but she's actually 17. Anyway, here she's talking to the old dragon (and I just GOTTA ask
the same thing KitKat did here: "Is he a _dirty_ old dragon?" :P Sorry, in-joke from the
games...) The Putter-um...Onner! This was just a throw-away shot, sorry..it's
nobody important. But this bit with the wizard chick (or "witch", I guess, would be the correct
title) turning on all the lamps one by one by MAGIC was _so_ like something out of Harry Potter,
I _had_ to get a screenshot of it. :) "Please! It's calling me!" Yuushi has "sensed" the Eternal Tiara sparkling at her from a tower at
the castle, and now, desperate to get in, she's trying to _force_ Cube to help her get up there...whether he wants to or not.
According to the old dragon, you see, the Eternal Tiara can grant any wish...and Yuushi wants it so she can finally become
an adult. (And for some reason, this "I can just...SENSE it!" thing reminded me of Kagome and the Shikon Jewel/shards, but
maybe it's just me.) That voodoo that you do SO well... As you can see, she got him to agree to help
her...with magic! As mystical as this shot looks, Cube's variety of magic is actually more or less the
occult equivalent of a _vending machine_--he has to toss MONEY into the pentagram or else the Spirits from Beyond
(or whatever they are; since they're never named I'm going to refer to them as the Spirits from Beyond) won't give
him what he asked for, and when he gets the item, it's just unceremoniously tossed at him by some gloved cartoon-style
hands. Cube appears to have no magical powers of his own; he has to rely upon this "service" method. (I have come to
refer to this as "civillian magic", 'cos anybody can do it, as an occasional convenience...as compared to REAL magic,
which is inborn/learned through heavy training (which costs a lot of money), and is inside of you, and can be used any
time _without_ money. Which is the type for you?--depends on whether you think you're going to be using magic a LOT
or just sometimes, I guess.)
Cube also can't do any other kinds of spells; he can't do fireballs, lightning, change the weather, do a shield spell,
illusions, sense evil, read people's minds...nope, _just_ this "getting objects" thing. I guess that makes him a
Conjuror/Summoner specialist, in D&D terms.
I just love the practical, businesslike attitude towards magic in this cartoon, it's _so_refreshing...and
funny. :) I wanna fly high, so I can reach the highest of all of the heavens... Er, wait, sorry, that's
a quote from Tails' theme song. :P Anyway, what they got to help get to the tower was "swallow-winged
shoes"...although only ONE pair, as that's all Cube could afford. ("Aw, come on, I've had a bad month, please!" :P)
Now, the anime version of Cube doesn't appear to have wings, as his "Princess Maker 2" self did (otherwise, why bother
with the spell--he could just _grab_ Yuushi and FLY her up to the tower!), but it's interesting to note that in this
scene, he's _still_ totally calm and collected about flying, not the least bit worried about the height or having
ANY difficulty steering; in fact, he's _so_ poised and confident that he has his hands behind his BACK rather than out
to the sides for balance. Pardon the fangirlishness here but, as Olive sometimes says, "I think Cube is really cool". ;)
Meanwhile, "the young mistress" floundered all over the place, and eventually he had to carry her! Carrying/steering
her while they're both wearing one swallow-winged shoe each is about as close to the "winged rescues" of the original
game as you're going to see in this show. "Darnit! Guess I gotta save her..." The subtitle on this picture may be a little
confusing...it makes it sound as if he's saying he runs away from any and all danger. :P That's not true; in
actuality, what's going on here is that Yuushi has just been seen by the guards and is about to be caught, and Cube,
who thinks they shouldn't be doing this, WAS going to just leave her behind, but when he found out that she was in danger,
"Sigh...I just can't do it" and he has to turn around to save her. The translation on the line is a little awkward,
I think.
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