ข้อมูลอนิเมะGokudo

Enter our (for lack of a better word) 'hero'. We find Gokudo in some random medieval dive, trying hard to brush off an old foretuneteller who's warning him that the Magic King is out to kill him. To really set the tone for the series, we watch him: 1, con a free meal out of her; 2, nick her coinpurse; and 3, make good his escape by way of a vile burst of flatulence on his way out the front door. The joke's on him, though... not only does her purse turn out to contain a rock (instead of the gold or gems he was more or less hoping for), but when he throws it against the nearest wall a genie (not so imaginatively named Djinn) pops out. Gokudo promptly wishes for fame, gold, and 'hot babes', which only results in the genie launching into a moral lecture about the human condition and why the former shouldn't squander his wishes on such base desires. And that's just the first few minutes of the episode. To give you a better feel for the blitzkrieg pace of the show, we then proceed quickly th

We learn that his cellmates include Rubette (a bona fide princess who's a lot more interested in a good swordfight than in waiting for Prince Charming to show up), Asuga (that landlord's daughter he was paid to rescue, but blew off instead) and Mora (a mysterious 'hot babe' with a preternatural awareness of magical traps). While searching for some way of out of the Magic King's parlous castle, they run across Seigi, your typical 'Prince Valiant' style caricature... handsome, gallant, charming, noble, and bland. While Asuga swoons, Gokudo's ready to vomit, and it's only through further manipulation by Mora (mainly by appealing to his endless greed for gold) that he agrees to help the others kill the King. Oh, yeah, and Gokudo's actually a 'prince' himself. Well, sorta. Fortunately for him, this revelation is made by someone in a position also to revert him back to his male self.

In the final episode of this three-part arc, our heroes converge on the throne room (only after contending with a hall of enchanted mirrors and Gokudo's abortive attempt to throw in with their enemies). The Magic King apparently didn't get the memo that Gokudo's rotten to the core, though, because he attacks the party with a knockout gas that only affects people with 'a good heart'. While his mates fall into a drugged stupor, Gokudo merely laughs and cuts loose with his very own 'gas attack', which, erm, 'revives' the lot of them. (I did warn you this wasn't an intellectual programme, right?) In the end, this whole epic combat turns out to be a marital spat between the Magic King and his 'lovely' wife... the same wrinkled crone that Gokudo ripped off two episodes back, who's also the genie's boss.

Starting off a new adventure (and ditching Seigi and Asuga, thankfully), this episode has the rare distinction of killing Gokudo in the first few minutes, as he gets accidentally shoved off a cliff by Rubette, who had been dogging his steps since he escaped from the Eschallato empire. (For the curious, he used his last wish to get Djinn to turn him back into a commoner after a frightening bout with the strictures of royal life.) But he's still interested in getting filthy rich, so it's not hard for one of the three princesses of Parmette - after resurrecting him, natürlich - to convince him to sign up for something called 'the King's Race'. Not that Gokudo has a clue what he's getting himself into. Highlights include a confrontation with the 'Dumpling King', a restaurateur-cum-martial-artist whom Gokudo (unsurprisingly) gipped out of a sizable meal at some point in the past.

Here's another good example of what's endearing about Gokudo. Take your basic fantasy premise (Parmette is a land awash with magic, but something has gone terribly wrong with the natural order of things), focus on a ridiculous consequence of same (the mythical beasts of the region have lately been metamorphosing into preposterous hybrid monsters, like the 'fearsome' sand parrot), and then do an anachronistic take on the situation (the kingdom derives most of its revenue from tourism, with people travelling thousands of miles to gawk at Parmette's weird creatures... which are now so silly-looking that no one wants to see them and the royal coffers are dangerously close to emptying). Of course, this episode also manages to work in a wisecracking unicorn, a Sphinx that gets so annoyed at Gokudo that she demands a 'moon drop' instead of asking a proper riddle, and a little demon masquerading as a monk of wisdom called Ikkyu, who is so taken with how evil Gokudo himself is that he actually

As those of you who read my review of the first volume may recall, when we last left our – ahem – 'heroes', Gokudo had somehow stumbled into a three-man race with the prize being the Parmettian Empire. Summoning Princess Coco to help him solve the riddle of the Sphinx, it soon becomes obvious (even to someone as thick as Gokudo) that she knows more than she's letting on. She finally spills that Parmette, whose biggest tourist pull and source of income is its wealth of exotic monsters, is in serious trouble ever since the kingdom's magical energy mysteriously started draining away. Apparently the Goddess has disappeared, and the way Coco tells it, Gokudo's destined to be the one that brings her back and saves the empire. As you might imagine, both the audience and Gokudo himself have cause to be sceptical in the light of such an outrageous claim... but when the demon Ikkyu returns just in time with moondrop demanded by the Sphinx, the entire party is granted permission to enter the roya

Well, the title pretty much sums this episode up, but this wouldn't be much of a summary without a few details, so here we go... in that dumb-luck way of his, Gokudo manages to chance upon the sacred relic first, but is more than a little intimidated when he discovers it's guarded by a huge dragon! Fortunately for him, this is merely another of the alternate forms of Djinn, who has been moonlighting as a security guard to make a little extra dosh on the side. (In another of the show's trademark schticks, the core characters of Gokudo sometimes seem to vanish for a little while, but they always tend to return at a dramatic moment in an alternate guise. Funny, that.) Rubette and her unicorn arrive on the scene and after a brief reunion between her and Djinn, it's revealed that the reason Gokudo can't summon his magic sword is because it's been sealed up in the sanctuary with all of the other royal treasures... so it's only natural that our 'man of action' will want to go get back what's

And so the show gains yet another recurring character... the handsome rogue, Prince Niari, who's defining trait is his womanising nature. Apparently tempted to the mortal plane as he was bored with the girls in the Magic World, he swans into the Parmettian palace, kidnaps all three Princesses, and lays waste to the place after smashing the royal relic that everyone had spent so much time hunting. (Yes, just as the DVD case advertises, Niari is 'tall, dark, and evil ta boot'.) But all is not lost for Gokudo and Company! They manage to find the Goddess after all (who is typically small, cute, and fairie-like), but unfortunately she seems to have forgotten everything, including the fact that she's a goddess. While at first it seems the only way she can regain her powers is if a foreign hero sacrifices his flesh for her, Gokudo's having none of that, so the gang end up chasing after a different solution (and get a snazzy new form of transportation – Pegasus – into the bargain). While they'

And so we begin the third story arc of Gokudo. Frustrated at having come out of his desert race with no more than a dusty old box, he pops it open and is instantly turned into an old man. Niari works out that the box is the property of the Princess Otto, related to the Dragon God and therefore (alas for Gokudo) immune to both his and the Djinn's magic. Though Niari seems keen to dump Gokudo altogether, Djinn cajoles him into accompanying them to the island of Inaho (where the Dragon God is worshipped)... primarily by mentioning how beautiful the princess is alleged to be. On the way there, Djinn explains that the Magic World and the realm of the gods are mortal enemies, so he, Prince Niari, and Pegasus will have to camouflage themselves as humans during their visit. (So for a while at least, Djinn will assume his pretty-girl guise again and Pegasus will take the form of a rather scrawny looking guy.) Of course, getting to Inaho proves a real hassle, especially when you factor in the ap