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R1 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Wednesday, 24 August 2005 01:00 |
 The search for the Popotan comes to an end, as Ai, Mai
and Mii finally meet the person they're looking for and are given the
opportunity of ending their travels. They're soon to find out
that the grass is always greener on the other side, and that good has
come to all the lives they've touched along the way as well as
sadness...
9 - One More Time
The house appears in a new location, and a girl that Mai believes is
Konami comes by to see where this strange new house has come
from. It's not Konami, though - 40 years have passed in 'real'
time since the house was last at this location, so that's not
possible. There is a connection, though - her name's Mai, and
she's Konami's daughter. She knows all about 'our' Mai from her
mother, but having seen her mother pine away over the loss of her best
friend, she's decided that friends are best avoided and rebuffs all of
Mai's attempts to get close to her. Keith appears to warn Mai
that she's best not getting involved with people when she's just going
to have to leave them again - Mai pays no attention, but after finally
getting through 'new Mai's tough exterior, she finds out why...
10 - The Gift
Mai's had enough of being hurt by her travelling experiences - and
after time with her namesake, who can blame
her. Keith's told her she'd be better off having no feelings for
people, and she's beginning to believe him. Meanwhile, Mea finds out
that the house's next jump could be the last, but she's far from sure
that Ai & co are ready for the decisions they'll face at the end of
their journey, and takes steps to delay the inevitable...
11 - Farewell
The girls have reached their final
destination, and their meeting with
Shizuka, who they've been looking for all this time. She's the
one
person who can bring their travelling days to an end, and gives them
the choice between continuing to travel through time, or settling down
with the person & in the time of their choice. While Mai's
only too happy to leave the travelling life behind in exchange for time
with Konami, neither Ai nor Mii are overly sure about which path to
take...
12 - Popotan
A look at the lives of Ai, Mai & Mii
after they stopped travelling.
Far from being the happy lives the though they'd have, each is
regretting their decision in some way - Konami see Mai as somehow
different from how she knew her before, Ai's life as a schoolteacher
isn't all it's cracked up to be, and Mii's just downright unhappy
without the other two. Keith thinks they should go back
to travelling, as in his mind thre is no 'home' for people like them
(he used to be a traveller just like them), but that's not what Ai
& co are thinking. They do, however, get one last chance to choose
between travelling & their new lives - what would you choose?
I can definitely understand Mai's desire to get off the travelling path
- a lot of the situations they've run into in the series seem almost
designed to tear Mai's life apart, and she's also has experience of a
'normal' life when she was left behind for five years. Ai's need
to see Daichi again didn't quite ring right, though, and poor Mii just
got left behind by the other two's desires. A lot of the ending
is about learning tht you can never go back, and that life is lived to
be experience - and what better experience than fast-forwarding through
time in five-year jumps to see how the world and your friends have made
out? With the final scenes showing the girls again coming into
contact with Daichi's and Konami's descendants, it shows that there is
something good that comes out of their travels.
On the downside, knowing what was going to happen took a lot of the fun out of watching Popotan
- this was my second time through, and it just didn't have the same
impact as when the story was new. Bearing that in mind, this
series is probably more a 'try before you buy' than an essential
purpose, but it's definitely worth checking out.
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