Hearing that they would NOT be limiting it to people of his own kingdom, something about being an open kingdom and the prince maintaining ties to his roots, the reaction worldwide was something unexpected to many of those in power of one kind or another and something completely predictable to those who knew young girls.
Many countries found themselves flooded with requests to represent their country. Some refused out of racial purity or political/philosophical considerations and any number of similar philosophies. Others dove wholehearted into the concept due to the desire to prove that they were more civilized than the Japanese and to get access to this other world's capabilities.
The young girls themselves were interested due to monetary considerations, the overall romantic concept, or a fascination with the fantasy aspect.
Women's groups, far "religious right" groups, far "anti-religious left" groups, extremists, and those who felt the whole concept got their moments in the public eye denouncing the whole thing. People with no real evidence to back up their point of view at all made things up or tried to tie in obscure references in order to make any number of increasingly bizarre points. Celebrities from films and television, often without even the slightest credential to their name to show why they were an 'expert' to be consulted on this, trotted out their own thinly veiled political spins.
This all just in the first 24 hours. These were put about regarding the Prince, his followers, the girl who'd kicked him in a brutal fashion, the Japanese and their culture, the idea of the magical kingdom, the contest, and the likely diet of those dragons among other things.
Some were informed, some were not, and some were proof that while everyone had an opinion and an butthole - it didn't mean that you really wanted to hear either.
It wasn't until Citadel Kirby appeared that more people began ignoring all those who said it was just a publicity stunt or special effects.
The actual appearance had been preceded by communiques to various people that it would be coming in the desire not to panic anyone. Therefore the main emotion was curiosity and those who'd heard of the brief description as a mobile base were either picturing a large boat or perhaps a flying castle.
Boats had had time to go to the area and set up cameras, aircraft circled the area, and everyone watched as the time slowly clicked away to the designated moment. After the First Contact, nobody really wanted to miss this and they expected something extravagant.
They got it.
The air rippled and split, forming a vortex such as had heralded each arrival and departure so far. This one kept expanding and the center point was a little over two kilometers above the ocean. Those who had wandered away from their cameras chose this moment to dive wildly for them, cursing officials who actually showed up on time.
When it continued to expand, there were a number of people panicking for other reasons, wondering exactly how big it was going to get.
When Citadel Kirby came through, panic was at least momentarily replaced with wonder.
The citadel itself was shaped like two pyramids joined together at the base. Orbitting it at that base level was a rotating circle of yellow material, though there was speculation that this was actually an energy field of some kind from some of the reporters. The Citadel itself was pure white like alabaster, except for the pyramid caps at the very top and bottom which were a sort of olive-green.
It was also over a kilometer from point to point and hovering in midair without visible propulsion system.
It moved slowly but gracefully through the air, apparently ignoring the small vehicles darting around it.
This lasted until:
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Tue, 24 Feb 2004 11:38)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.