#Yeloli time princess

[1c3d-choco]

I unboxed a Yeloli blind-box and I got Time princess! The best blind box I ever seen.

[heckyeahponyscans]

Yeloli Watch Party time!

So it turns out the first episode WAS on Youtube, on a different channel and with Portuguese subtitles!  That was great, since I was able to use Google Translate + the subtitles to figure out the dialogue.

True story, I downloaded the video and painstakingly added English subtitles, but DailyMotion refused to upload it because the file was too big, lol.

Instead, here’s a Google Doc with the script: English Translation S01E01

Okay, on to the plot.

Season 1, Episode 1: The Magic Begins

Our story begins with narration explaining that Yeloli, the land of the fairies, is ruled by an evil queen who wants to enslave all humans.  The only thing standing in her way is a group of good Yeloli fairies who want to protect humans.

Currently evil Queen Pandora and leader of the good fairies, Evelyn, are having an anime magic battle.  (Nice Dutch angle!)  Evelyn fights Pandora, giving the other good fairies time to flee through a portal to Earth.

Evelyn casts a spell on Pandora, preventing Pandora and her army from entering the human world.

Pandora’s like, “Oh yeah? Watch this,” and performs a curse that will cause any Yeloli fairy who enters the human world to turn into a lifeless doll.

Evelyn flees to Earh, shouting, “CLOSE THE PORTAL!” But it’s too late; all the fairies shrink and turn into dolls.

(They do a good job giving the dolls a dead-eyed stare compared to the living characters.)

Evelyn casts a spell to alter the curse, so that if the dolls find an owner who truly loves them, they will regain their original size / powers.  Evelyn vows to care for the dolls in the meantime.

Cut to Mary, a fifth grader who, she tells us through narration, is bad at school and sports.  There’s something very depressing about the matter-of-fact way she tells us she’s “not talented.”  Like she’s not even mad or sad about it; she just takes it as fact.

Mary is minding her own business when a bunch of cherry blossoms magically swirl around her and lead her to a narrow alley with a mysterious glow at the end.  For some reason the first shot of the cherry blossoms is just . . . video of real cherry blossoms.  I dunno why, everything else is CGI.

Naturally Mary follows the glow and at the end of it she finds a little cul-de-sac with . . . a doll store!

Mary is entranced by the doll in the window, and if I was a little kid looking at that window display, I would be too.

She goes inside, of course, and admires the dolls, which Evelyn has hilariously posed to look bored.  I mean, I’m assuming the dolls can’t move on their own.  Or is this a Toy Story situation?

^ Also WHERE IS THIS DOLL’S LEGS?

Mary hears a voice and finds Evelyn casting a spell on a doll. My favorite part is Mary sees this lady levitating a doll and wonders, “Is this magic?”  Mary, please.

Evelyn then implants something that looks a lot like a spark (Transformers soul) from Beast Wars into the doll . . . and it comes to life!

Wow!  I’ve only known this doll for five seconds, but it seems evil!

The doll notices Mary, who backs out of the room which, fair.

Mary apologizes for intruding and Evelyn is like, “That’s okay.  Want a DOLL?”

Mary says she doesn’t have any money.  Evelyn is like, “Well, you can still play with them, they love visitors. Pick one you like.”

Mary picks the doll from the window--her name is Loli.  Magical light surrounds them both, indicating that Loli has chosen Mary to be her owner.

I was expecting Mary to gradually learn the doll’s backstory, but Evelyn straightout tells her that Loli is a princess who was cursed to be a doll, who needs love to break the curse.  She says many children have looked at Loli, but the doll rejected them all . . . until Mary came along.

tfw no one is good enough for your doll

So you’d  expect this would be the point where Mary gets the doll, but no, things take a very weird turn. Evelyn says Mary can have the doll . . . if she signs the Yeloli Contract.  What is the Yeoli Contract? WELL, it says the doll is your responsibility forever and you can’t give her away.  

You sign it via fingerprint.

That’s weird, right?  It seems like a mystical trap, right?  But the first half of the story frames Evelyn as heroic, so I dunno.  Just, if I had only seen the last half of the episode I would 100% think Evelyn was a villain trying to steal Mary’s soul or something.

Anyway, Mary signs, Evelyn boxes up the Loli, and Mary leaves, promising to take good care of Loli.  

Mary heads home . . . until a mysterious voice says, “Little girl . . . Little girl, GIVE ME YOUR DOLL.”

DUN DUN DUUUUUN, cliffhanger!

Some thoughts:

- Is Evelyn a fairy?  Or is she an Earth woman who knows magic? Why wasn’t she transformed into a doll with the rest of them?

- She brought Red-Eyes-Evil-Doll to life...  Is that doll a fairy, or can Evelyn bring regular dolls to life?  Red-Eyes could move / speak on her own, so maybe the fairy dolls DO all move when kids aren’t looking?

- Even though the CGI is older, the storyboarding, facial expressions, and movement are quite good, which is the key to being able to suspend disbelief. (Same reason I think Beast Wars made better use of their CGI than Siege, even though Siege is better in a technical sense... BW REALLY put effort into their facial & movement animations, while Siege was pretty lazy about it.)

- I like the shamelessness of the marketing. This is beyond “Cartoon shows character to get you to buy toy” . . . The ACTUAL DOLLS are magic and they need a child’s love to save them.  Amazing.

[heckyeahponyscans]

Okay, so.  I found the first year of Yeloli (2013) on Youtube.  Welcome to the start of my Yeloli Watch Party, feel free to watch along with me!

Youtube didn’t have the first episode, but from what I can extrapolate:

The main character, a little girl named Mary (Portuguese dub name) lacks confidence in herself because she’s not good at schoolwork or sports.  She finds a magic shop run by a mysterious woman who gives her a doll.

EPISODE 2:  “I Am a Princess”

(Keep in mind I don’t speak Chinese so I am having to sort of guess the plot.)

Mary is happily returning home with her new MIB doll when she encounters an mysterious and definitely evil lady in an alley.

Evil Lady offers to buy the doll off Mary.  When that doesn’t work, she summons magic gems which will give Mary a new doll, a new fancy house, and will make her great at schoolwork.

Mary declines and tries to leave, but Evil Lady summons magic jackals(?) to attack her.  

At this point the doll comes to life to defend Mary.

I think the doll’s dub name is Loli.  Loli repels the fire jackals a few times, but Evil Lady just keeps summoning more.

Loli then gives Mary the magical girl power to transform . . .

. . . into an adult.

Adult Mary’s first move is . . . to try to run away.  

Like, fair.  But then Mary taps into her magical girl energy and destroys the jackals by Care Bear Staring heart attacks at them; Evil Lady retreats into the shadows, displeased.

Mary transforms back into a little girl and continues walking home . . . only to discover three boys who I assume are the neighborhood bullies, based on their designs.

Man, those are some ugly CGI kids.

And they are tormenting an equally ugly toy.

My favorite part is when they gather around and start kicking it, like it’s the printer from Office Space.

Mary is not amused by their antics and the episode ends on this amazing still of her face.