Papi

Papi
Character Information
Name	Papi
Kanji	パピィ (Papie)
Age	Unknown
Gender	Male(?)
Birthday	August 21st
Race	Human
Occupation	Senior Clown
Family	Popee (Son), Marifa (Daughter), Unknown wife
First Appearance	Season 2, Episode 14, 「GREAT MAGIC」
Last Appearance	Popee the Performer Countdown Special

Not to be confused with Popee.

Papi (パピィ) is the tritagonist of the series. He is a senior clown and the leader of Wolf Circus, a travelling performer and the Father of Popee and Marifa. His age is unknown.

Appearance

Papi has a muscular body and wears a yellow and orange skin-tight harlequin outfit with a purple fringe and fancy white gloves. He also sports a removable sun-shaped headpiece (which "puffs" up when very mad, and it also can be used as a weapon of sorts, like a shuriken) and an impressive, emotive mustache. Papi had hair when he was younger, but he may be bald now. He is a flamboyant individual, opposite to his son.

Personality

Unlike his son, Papi seems to genuinely care about both Popee and Kedamono. Papi is quite expressive. Papi is dedicated to improving Popee's clowning performances, though his lessons are often extreme and unorthodox.

Papi was thought up as a character with both paternal and maternal qualities. Ryuji Masuda explained on twitter that the difference between the two is that maternity is the power to "produce and affirm", and is characterized by unconditional love. On the other hand, paternity, according to Masuda, is the power to "choose and move", and is characterized by weighing the negatives and positives and then making a decision, or judgement. Papi accepts both the negatives and positives of those he loves, which is why his son, Popee, doesn't shy away from jealousy or envy (or other negative feelings), which typically leads to destruction. With his paternal side, Papi believes Popee has a long way to go...but with his maternal side, he also thinks that Popee's very cute.

In the episode「SLEEP」, when Kedamono winds a music box to help Popee sleep, Papi's maternal instincts kick in as he tries to feed Popee with a bottle. He becomes very upset when Popee proceeds to smack the bottle from his hands, shattering it when it hits the ground.

Papi is very dedicated to and takes good care of his elephant car, Paola, and becomes vengeful whenever Popee defaces her. Papi also seems to have a good relationship with Alien, interacting with them casually where Popee and Kedamono are more wary to.

Wakako Masuda referenced Sigmund Freud's personality theory while addressing questions about Papi. She refers to Papi as a portrayal of the super-ego: the rigid, controlling part of one's identity that represses desires in order to conform to expectations. His conflicts with Popee can be further explained by the way the super-ego naturally clashes with the mediator ego.

The manga describes him as "Always wandering about, doing things at his own pace." and that he loves himself to the point of squirming in agony.

Trivia

• Papi has died 11 times throughout the entire series.
• Papi is the strongest character in the series, as he is able to send the moon down onto the Earth, causing the end of the world.
• In episode 28, Papi has the ability to shoot lasers out of his eyes. He uses his eye lasers ability to summon Alien.
• Papi is Popee's biological father, but may have had a Nanny raise them due to his being a wandering performer. It is "unknown" if Marifa is Papi's biological daughter, but in the spin-off, Chinchikurin, Marifa is Papi's biological child—she simply has a different mother than her brother.
• Somehow, Papi is unable to identify his wife and sometimes thinks Popee and Marifa's nursery school teacher is his wife.
• Papi is Popee's real father, but Popee believes his real Father is elsewhere.
• Papi's birthday is August 21st.
• Papi may possibly be intersex. This seems to be supported further by the fact that Wakako Masuda retweeted fanart depicting him with the intersex pride flag.
• Papi is a real person. However, his actions as seen in the show and status at the Wolf Zurkus are implied to have been distorted by Popee's vision. They have a negative relationship.
• Papi's surname may be Paraphone, since he is Popee's father and Paraphone is Popee's surname. "Paraphone" is a real english word meaning "communication with the paranormal."
• Papi always misses his family when he's away from them.
• Papi's greatest fear is an absence of love and passion (?).
• Papi's favourite color is gold.
• Papi may have siblings, though their whereabouts are unknown.
• In leading the circus, Papi owns some of the assets of it.
• Papi is roughly 165cm (5'4), the same height as Popee.
• Papi met Alien in the cafeteria of Kyoto University. This suggests they may have attended the same college.
• Papi has a "frog juice" allergy.
• Papi plays the drums, the trumpet, and the accordion.
• Papi's sexuality is "everything in this world".
• In response to a question asking "What was Papi's life before he became a dad?", Wakako Masuda said "More than half of [his] life was in trouble, and the rest was [getting] over it."
• If Papi had a voice actor, it would be Fujio Tokita. He passed away in 2018.
• Papi's hobby is yoga.
• The bumper stickers on Paola's body are from Kunashir Island, Iturup island, the Habomai Islands, and Shikotan island—all places Papi has been to on his travels.