Petite Princess Yucie: Episode 9 Commentary

Perfection? Enter the Princess of Heaven

Elimina’s home world is referred to as “Heaven” in the dub, but the Japanese is “ten kai” means “sky world”. This is not Heaven in the Christian sense, with angels and God. Rather, it is a world of sky, where people travel by winged flight, and their ruler is no different than Ercell and Glenda’s father. Elmina’s father is not God, but rather “the king of the heavens, the sky world” much as Glenda’s father is not Satan, but rather, “king of the demon world”. I can understand using “Heaven”, but find it rather misleading.

You’d think Mr. Gaga would have known Glenda long enough to know she’d rather not have her father informed of something like visitor day. Mr. Gaga probably hopes to help the two patch things up over time, leading do doing things such as informing the demon king of the school event, or sending Glenda and Yucie to the demon world.

Glenda ordered Mr. Gaga to destroy the gateway between the human and demon worlds. If he did this, couldn’t the demon king simply create a new gateway? Even Ercell and apparently Mr. Gaga are able to, so surely it’s nothing for the king of the demon world. The reply from Glenda after dropping her father into the black void, then being reminded by Mr. Gaga about the ban on magic use, was priceless. This was, after all, the utmost emergency, for her at least.

Is the demon lord a fan of Shakespeare, or does he always dress like that when he’s out?

Glenda either recognizes Elmina, or rightly assumes that a winged petite princess is the sky world’s princess, and thus a representative of the sky world’s longstanding rivalry with the demon world. If Elmina’s anything like Glenda and Yucie, this would mean she’s really 17 and Glenda would be aware that Elmina, too, is stuck in the body of a ten year old. My guess is Glenda assumed based on Elmina being a winged petite princess. This does raise a question, though: there are so many petite princess who appear to be human. Do the other worlds have kings of different regions, or does Glenda’s father rule over the entire demon world? If the sky world has multiple kings, and thus multiple princesses, Glenda could pick out any winged princess to hold as a representative of that half of the rivalry.

I can’t tell if Elmina is more spacey than Ercell, or if she purposely tries to anger Glenda by always suggesting Glenda is addressing someone else when challenging her. (My favorite? Elmina telling Cocoloo “I think that person over there would like to challenge you.” If Glenda really was addressing Cocoloo, or, in the case of the classroom, the teacher, would Elmina have pointed it out? Or did she point it out because the teacher did not react as if she was being addressed by Glenda? It’s difficult to tell whether she’s continuing the rivalry, or really doesn’t get Glenda.

The demon king is very cool-headed. He can be dropped into a black void, but doesn’t scold his daughter for what she did to him. It’s simply “that wasn’t very nice”. He also lets Glenda walk all over him. If he would just stand up to her just once, maybe he’d give her quite a scare. This lax attitude is probably precisely why his wife left him: he’s a pushover, the poor guy. How ever did Glenda’s mother marry him in the first place? Was he a tough guy before Glenda was born, only to turn soft when faced with fatherhood?

The Platinum Princess candidates have interesting stewards: two demons, a ghost, and now a giant robot. Do all the petite princesses have stewards? The teacher said stewards are not allowed in the academy, but Mr. Gaga was on campus earlier. (Maybe he pulls a Kero [Cardcaptor Sakura] and pretends to be a stuffed animal when a teacher approaches?) Chawoo also appears on campus again, but he can get away with it due to being able to be invisible to everyone other than Cocoloo, and because of his ability to his in shadows. Still, Cocoloo doesn’t seem to be one to break rules like that.

Balizan’s character should be interesting, being a robot and all. He has no concept of the work that goes into building things, as he smashed through the classroom window. He’s either very loyal or suffers from separation anxiety to barge into Elmina’s classroom. He then forced his way through the door when it was too small for him. Does the sky world not have doors that small? At least he was courteous enough to leave through the room rather than out through the window again.

In ballet class, Elmina’s quite light on her feet. In other series, winged people often have hollow bones which allows their wings to easily carry their weight. Could Elmina’s people have something similar, putting less weight on their body, and allowing them the grace to out-dance any human? Or is it because of Elmina’s upbringing as the daughter of heaven’s king that she is able to dance in this way? She suggests it’s not out of the ordinary for her for one to dance as well as she does, which suggests that the other dancers she’s seen back home are all as good as she is at ballet. Perhaps her father has had the best of the best perform ballets for his court, shaping the way Elmina sees others as being able to perform. Still, to Elmina, ballet dancing is as normal and easy as walking.

During Elmina’s conversation with Yucie, she showed suprise that someone unable to even dance would be a fellow Platinum Princess candidate. Either she’s lived a sheltered life and it’s affecting the way she sees others (expecting others to have the same skills and talents as she, without considering others may have abilities she lacks), or she’s slowly working to weaken the competition for the Eternal Tiara’s wish.

Master Gunbard really needs to consider physics, or math, or something. If the size of Yucie’s ten year old body is represented by X, and a single bag of groceries is Y, whereas Y is greater than the amount of food able to be held by X (X < Y), then why is he buying two bags of groceries (2Y)? He’s just an overcaring parent, I suppose. At least he’s not a complete space-case, as he does take notice of Elmina’s uniform as being the same as Yucie’s. The scene with Elmina and Balizan helping carry the groceries is cute, with Elmina carrying the single tomato which had rolled by. (Considering Gunbard’s height, could the tomato have really dropped to the ground and rolled to Elmina and Balizan without bruising just a little?)

When asking about Elmina’s father and what he’ll wear to the visitor’s day, was Gunbard trying to get an idea of what to wear, in hope of not embarrassing Yucie. Or was he hoping to gauge just how embarrassing (for Yucie) he can be dressed up without being out of place?

Poor Cube has little screen time these days. He still gets important jobs, such as warning Yucie about her father going shopping. Um, right. But at least he still gets to use his abilities to help out. (That is, using the strength of his two arms to carry a bag full of groceries.) He’s my favorite alongside Glenda (thanks to the cat episode), so maybe I’m biased in wishing he’d get more parts.

Upon choosing which talent to show off for visitor day, Glenda tells Elmina to compete with her in magic. Does Elmina know magic the same as Glenda does? Can Yucie use any of the magic she’s learned in class? Does Cocoloo have any magic (other than her ability to walk through walls, which is probably a quality of her people, and not necessarily magic.)

Do the wings of a sky world resident have any send of feeling? Elmina doesn’t seem to feel the door and wall in the way as she fails to pass through the doorway when her wings are out. Shouldn’t the fact she’s being pulled back each time she tries to enter be a tip-off that her wings are extended? (Where do the go when pulled in, anyway? Do they huddle at her back, hidden by her hair? [That can’t be, as they’re gone when she dances ballet, her hair pulled up.] Do they shrink down smaller? Do they vanish completely, by magic?)

While talking with Yucie, Elmina tells her that failure is not an option. Yucie’s already having trouble trying to get along with Elmina (Gunbard having told Yucie not to be so quick to judge), and how Elmina’s tearing away at any confidence Yucie may have had. Although he’s hesitant to agree with Elmina that making a mistake will disappoint her father, she’s definitely considering the possibility. Disappointing her father is the last thing Yucie wants to do. She tries her best to avoid this, even at her own sacrifices, such as during her birthday in the first episode. At that time, she was going to tell her father she doesn’t like him cooking a birthday feast for her, but couldn’t disappoint him. (Hey, maybe Gunbard was right when he told Yucie the two bags of groceries wasn’t too much for her to eat?)

We see the return of Gate! I don’t know if that’s his name, but I think it fits. He’s very dedicated, but is unsure when Glenda tries to get him to close the gate early. Is he afraid of her and her fantastic magic powers, or is he the kind of character who will typically do what’s he’s told, only to find himself conflicted between listening to Glenda and waiting for others?

Gunbard’s choice of clothing is, of course, extravagant. He must be trying to compete with how he expects the kings (the fathers of the other petite princesses) to look. This goes back to his asking Elmina what her father planned to wear. But what happened to the demon lord’s tights? Does he really feel the Tarzan look is appropriate to wear to a school of little girls? He must have decided he’d flex his pectorals to impress the other parents. He makes for a nice model, though. (Cocoloo’s artwork shows much talent.)

It seems Gunbard and the demon king (do we have a proper name for him?) might be becoming friends — or perhaps it’s just coincidence they stood beside one another at the ballet dances. The demon king did a good thing, for without him, the rest of the audience may not have followed. One person clapping alone doesn’t do anything. A second person joining in gives everyone else the confidence to join as well. And did I catch Glenda clapping? Elmina, on the other hand, doesn’t look pleased. Not in a bad way, though. More of an unsure, or uncertain way. She probably wishes her father could have been there, and been understanding of mistakes made.

One again, the demon king tells Glenda she’s a lot like her mother. This is surely true for how Glenda acts on the outside, but what about on the inside? is the demon queen a softy inside, or cold-hearted all the way through?

Cocoloo’s father didn’t make an appearance. Rather, he did, but not visibly. We don’t get to know if he’s anything like Yucie and Glenda’s fathers, only that the spirit king is so shy, even his people back home don’t always see him.

Elmina obviously wishes her relationship with father was more like Yucie and Gunbard’s relationship. Her father won’t even show up for visitor day (too busy with work?), and will not tolerate even the slightest mistake. That’s what I’ve gathered so far. She genuinely thought all fathers were like this, and tried to warn Yucie to be careful. Because not all fathers are like Elmina’s, her words came off as being dark and almost threatening, as if trying to make Yucie unable to perform well.