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* BalefulPolymorph: Nagoya Willow is transformed into a bat after accidentally ingesting a potion he meant to give to Shintaro, and spends the rest of the series stuck as one. [[spoiler: He undergoes an UnexplainedRecovery at the end of the manga in time to serve as MrExposition for the final fate of the residents of Papuwa Island.]]
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* ForcedTransformation: Nagoya Willow is transformed into a bat after accidentally ingesting a potion he meant to give to Shintaro, and spends the rest of the series stuck as one. [[spoiler: He undergoes an UnexplainedRecovery at the end of the manga in time to serve as MrExposition for the final fate of the residents of Papuwa Island.]]
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** Numerous gags relating to regional references about various places in Japan and [[IncrediblyLamePun incredibly lame wordplay puns]].
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** Numerous gags relating to regional references about various places in Japan and [[IncrediblyLamePun [[{{Pun}} incredibly lame wordplay puns]].
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* CreepyCrossdresser: While Itou is explicitly a hermaphrodite, Tanno is a male fish who wears lipstick and [[IncrediblyLamePun fishnets]] and acts like just as much of an obsessive stalker towards Shintaro.
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* CreepyCrossdresser: While Itou is explicitly a hermaphrodite, Tanno is a male fish who wears lipstick and [[IncrediblyLamePun [[{{Pun}} fishnets]] and acts like just as much of an obsessive stalker towards Shintaro.
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* {{Foil}}: Kuri is essentially Papuwa's [[IncrediblyLamePun polar]] opposite. While he's a young boy from a tropical southern island, she's a young girl from the North Pole.
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* {{Foil}}: Kuri is essentially Papuwa's [[IncrediblyLamePun [[{{Pun}} polar]] opposite. While he's a young boy from a tropical southern island, she's a young girl from the North Pole.
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* SecondaryCharacterTitle: While Papuwa is the title character, it's Shintaro whose the protagonist. While they share the spotlight fairly evenly throughout the anime and the first half of the manga, Papuwa falls out of focus during the second half while Shintaro's backstory is explored in-depth.
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[[caption-width-right:350:''Nba nbababa nbabaaa!'']]
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* OnlySaneByComparison: While Shintaro's a miserly grouch with a worrying obsession with his younger brother, he is by far the most rational character in the cast and serves as the long-suffering voice of reason to wacky humans and animals in equal measure.
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* TheSmurfettePrincipal: Kuri is the only humanoid female character to appear in the manga's entire run. Lessen somewhat in the anime, where human women occasionally appear in newly added [[ImagineSpot Imagine Spots]].
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* TheSmurfettePrincipal: TheSmurfettePrinciple: Kuri is the only humanoid female character to appear in the manga's entire run. Lessen somewhat in the anime, where human women occasionally appear in newly added [[ImagineSpot Imagine Spots]].
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general clarification on works content
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[[caption-width-right:350:''Nba-nbababa-nn-ba-baaa!'']]
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* ArchnemesisDad: Shintaro's father Magic is the leader of the Ganma Army and preeminent BigBad of the series. While Shintaro naturally hates him, he is actually a DotingParent who is downright
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* ArchnemesisDad: Shintaro's father Magic is the leader of the Ganma Army and preeminent BigBad of the series. While Shintaro naturally hates him, he is actually a DotingParent who is downrightwhose love for his son borders on romantic attraction.
* ComicallyInvincibleHero: Papuwa is effortlessly stronger than every single one of the Gunma Army's assassins and disposes of each of them quickly whenever he's finally pushed into engaging them in combat. This serves as a major reason for him falling OutOfFocus after the story undergoes CerebusSyndrome and begins placing more emphasis on fights -- [[StoryBreakerPower it's hard for there to be any dramatic tension with him around]].
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* DotingParent: Magic obsesses over Shintaro just as much as Shintaro does to Kotaro
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* DotingParent: Magic obsesses over Shintaro just as much as Shintaro does Kotaro.
* DullSurprise: Papuwa is completely unflappable, and reacts toKotaroliterally everything with the same wall-eyed expression regardless of the emotion he's ostensibly expressing. Further exaggerated in the manga, where he's never even shown ''opening his mouth'' on screen [[spoiler: until he bids Shintaro farewell in the final chapter]].
* DullSurprise: Papuwa is completely unflappable, and reacts to
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* TheFriendNobodyLikes:
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* {{Foil}}: Kuri is essentially Papuwa's [[IncrediblyLamePun polar]] opposite. While he's a young boy from a tropical southern island, she's a young girl from the North Pole.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Even after becoming allies, Shintaro, Miyagi, and Tottori are all more often than not annoyed by [[DesperatelyCravesAffection Arashiyama's]] clinginess.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Even after becoming allies, Shintaro, Miyagi, and Tottori are all more often than not annoyed by [[DesperatelyCravesAffection Arashiyama's]] clinginess.
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* ParentalIncest: A relatively G-rated example. Magic has a shrine dedicated to Shintaro in his quarters, sleeps with a handmade Shintaro plushie, and gets a nosebleed at the thought of being called Papa by him.
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* ManChild: While most of the Ganma Army's assassins could qualify as this to an extent, Gunma takes the cake. He's a grown man in his twenties who still writes in a diary, cries like a baby when he doesn't get his way, and needs his attendant Dr. Takamatsu to do virtually everything for him.
* OutOfFocus: Despite being the title character, Papuwa (and by extension Chappy) is mostly pushed into the background after the series undergoes CerebusSyndrome and begins focusing more on the characters affiliated with the Gunma Army. While he still has some importance as TheHeart who inspires kindness in the other characters, he contributes virtually nothing directly to the story throughout the entire second half.
* ParentalIncest: A relatively G-rated example. Magic has a shrine dedicated to Shintaro in his quarters, sleeps with a handmade Shintaro plushie, and gets a nosebleed at the thought of being called Papa byhim.him.
* ShesAllGrownUp: [[spoiler: The manga's final chapter ends in a flash forward to Papuwa and Kuri as adults, with the former having grown into a strapping {{Hunk}} resembling Shintaro and the latter becoming a beautiful woman.]]
* TheSmurfettePrincipal: Kuri is the only humanoid female character to appear in the manga's entire run. Lessen somewhat in the anime, where human women occasionally appear in newly added [[ImagineSpot Imagine Spots]].
* OutOfFocus: Despite being the title character, Papuwa (and by extension Chappy) is mostly pushed into the background after the series undergoes CerebusSyndrome and begins focusing more on the characters affiliated with the Gunma Army. While he still has some importance as TheHeart who inspires kindness in the other characters, he contributes virtually nothing directly to the story throughout the entire second half.
* ParentalIncest: A relatively G-rated example. Magic has a shrine dedicated to Shintaro in his quarters, sleeps with a handmade Shintaro plushie, and gets a nosebleed at the thought of being called Papa by
* ShesAllGrownUp: [[spoiler: The manga's final chapter ends in a flash forward to Papuwa and Kuri as adults, with the former having grown into a strapping {{Hunk}} resembling Shintaro and the latter becoming a beautiful woman.]]
* TheSmurfettePrincipal: Kuri is the only humanoid female character to appear in the manga's entire run. Lessen somewhat in the anime, where human women occasionally appear in newly added [[ImagineSpot Imagine Spots]].
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A sequel series, simply titled ''{{Anime/PAPUWA}}'', ran in Monthly Shonen Gangan from 2002 to 2008.
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A sequel series, simply titled ''{{Anime/PAPUWA}}'', ran in Monthly Shonen Gangan from 2002 to 2008.
2008. It received an anime adaptation which ran from 2003 to 2004.
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trope no longer exists
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* AerithAndBob: The series' human cast includes character with relatively ordinary Japanese names like Shintaro and Kotaro, uncommon but still not particularly eyebrow-raising ones like Miyagi, Tottori and Arashiyami, and downright bizarre GratuitousEnglish ones like Magic, Service, Harem, Liquid, and Loser. The two that take the cake are [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Magic's two subordinates]]: [[FoodThemeNaming Tiramisu and Chocolate Romance]].
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* AerithAndBob: The series' human cast includes character with relatively ordinary Japanese names like Shintaro and Kotaro, uncommon but still not particularly eyebrow-raising ones like Miyagi, Tottori and Arashiyami, and downright bizarre GratuitousEnglish ones like Magic, Service, Harem, Liquid, and Loser. The two that take the cake are [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Magic's two subordinates]]: subordinates: [[FoodThemeNaming Tiramisu and Chocolate Romance]].
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* AerithAndBob: The series' human cast includes character with relatively ordinary Japanese names like Shintaro and Kotaro, uncommon but still not particularly eyebrow-raising ones like Miyagi, Tottori and Arashiyami, and downright bizarre GratuitousEnglish ones like Magic, Service, Harem, Liquid, and Loser. The two that take the cake are [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Magic's two subordinates]]: [[FoodThemeNaming Tiramisu and Chocolate Love]].
to:
* AerithAndBob: The series' human cast includes character with relatively ordinary Japanese names like Shintaro and Kotaro, uncommon but still not particularly eyebrow-raising ones like Miyagi, Tottori and Arashiyami, and downright bizarre GratuitousEnglish ones like Magic, Service, Harem, Liquid, and Loser. The two that take the cake are [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Magic's two subordinates]]: [[FoodThemeNaming Tiramisu and Chocolate Love]].Romance]].
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* {{Cloudcuckooland}}: Papuwa Island is home to hundreds of FunnyAnimals both mundane and fantastical, all of whom can talk and almost all of whom are total weirdos. While the soldiers of the Ganma Army are nearly as weird, [[spoiler: it's eventually revealed that they were created by the same force that made the isalnd]].
to:
* {{Cloudcuckooland}}: Papuwa Island is home to hundreds of FunnyAnimals both mundane and fantastical, all of whom can talk and almost all of whom are total weirdos. While the soldiers of the Ganma Army are nearly as weird, [[spoiler: it's eventually revealed that they were created by the same force that made the isalnd]].island]].
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* CaptainEthnic: A variant. All of the assassins from the Gunma Army outside of Shintaro are named after various locations around Japan, speak with accents associated with those locations, and have special abilities derived from customs affiliated with them.
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* CaptainEthnic: A variant. All of the assassins from the Gunma Army outside of Shintaro are named after various locations around Japan, speak with accents associated with those locations, and have special abilities derived from customs affiliated with them.connected to those locations.
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* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: With the exceptions of Papuwa, Kotaro, Kuriko, and Tsugaru Joker, all of whom are children, every single humanoid character is a strikingly handsome man. While the early chapters make it so that these characters rarely appear at the same time, the story's second half pushes the FunnyAnimal cast OutOfFocus and
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* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: With the exceptions of Papuwa, Kotaro, Kuriko, and Tsugaru Joker, all of whom are children, every single humanoid character is a strikingly handsome man. While the early chapters make it so that these characters rarely appear at the same time, the story's second half pushes the FunnyAnimal cast OutOfFocus andin favor of being filled with handsome men.
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* CaptainEthnic: A variant. All of the assassins
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* CaptainEthnic: A variant. All of the assassinsassassins from the Gunma Army outside of Shintaro are named after various locations around Japan, speak with accents associated with those locations, and have special abilities derived from customs affiliated with them.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/papuwa_cast.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''Nba-nbababa-nn-ba-baaa!'']]
''Nangoku Shonen Papuwa-kun'' (南国少年パプワくん; literally ''Papuwa the Tropical Boy'') is manga GagSeries written and illustrated by Creator/AmiShibata that was serialized in Monthly Shonen Gangan from April 1991 to June 1995.
The series begins with Shintaro, the top-ranked member of [[MurderInc the world's most powerful assassination organization the Ganma Army]], deserting from the group after stealing the [[SphereofPower Blue Hiseki]], a priceless ArtifactOfPower, in the hope of selling it on the black market and living off the riches with his younger brother Kotaro. While escaping from the Ganma Army along the southern seas, his boat is destroyed and he ends up stranded on Papuwa Island, a strange and mysterious tropical paradise inhabited by a host of [[TalkingAnimal Talking Animals]]. His unconscious body is found by [[WildChild Papuwa]], a young boy and the island's sole human inhabitant, who takes the Blue Hiseki from his possession and uses it as an ornament on the collar of his pet dog [[CanineCompanion Chappy]]. When Shintaro comes to, he attempts to reclaim the Blue Hiseki only to find himself completely outmatched by [[PintsizedPowerhouse the improbably strong Papuwa]].
With no clear means of escape, Shintaro is [[MadeASlave forced to become Papuwa's servant]] and wait on him hand and foot until he can find a way to take back the Blue Hiseki for himself. Along with having to deal with Papuwa, Chappy, and the myriad of other weird creatures on Papuwa Island, Shintaro must fight off various assassins sent by the Ganma Army to dispose of him.
An AnimatedAdaptation was broadcast on TV Asahi from October 1992 to October 1993 over 42 episodes. The anime series adapts all of the manga's first half, with the addition of a few original stories.
A sequel series, simply titled ''{{Anime/PAPUWA}}'', ran in Monthly Shonen Gangan from 2002 to 2008.
!!Tropes Featured
* AbhorrentAdmirer: Shintaro is relentlessly hounded by Itou the hermaphroditic snail and Tanno the crossdressing fish soon after arriving on Papuwa Island. Along with being [[InterspeciesRomance non-human]], the two are also [[{{Gonk}} quite hideous]] and ''very'' aggressive in their pursuit of him.
* AdaptationExpansion: While the manga begins with Shintaro already at sea with the Blue Hiseki in his possession, the anime includes a brief action sequence showing him fighting off various members of the Ganma Army before making his escape. Miyagi, Tottori, and Arashiyama are also incorporated into several plots that they weren't featured in in the manga.
* AerithAndBob: The series' human cast includes character with relatively ordinary Japanese names like Shintaro and Kotaro, uncommon but still not particularly eyebrow-raising ones like Miyagi, Tottori and Arashiyami, and downright bizarre GratuitousEnglish ones like Magic, Service, Harem, Liquid, and Loser. The two that take the cake are [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Magic's two subordinates]]: [[FoodThemeNaming Tiramisu and Chocolate Love]].
* AlmightyJanitor: Shintaro is the world's greatest assassin, but is forced to work as Papuwa's maid upon being shipwrecked on Papuwa Island.
* ArchnemesisDad: Shintaro's father Magic is the leader of the Ganma Army and preeminent BigBad of the series. While Shintaro naturally hates him, he is actually a DotingParent who is downright
* ArtEvolution: The first two chapters of the manga feature a ''much'' more simplistic and flatter style before shifting to a more detailed one. It undergoes a second one at around its halfway point; becoming even more detailed and less Creator/AkiraToriyama-like.
* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler: It is eventually revealed that the Red and Blue Hiseki can create human life spontaneously, with both Magic and Papuwa's ancestors descending from them. Besides them, they also created Shintaro, Jan, and Us to serve as their guardians and heralds.]]
* AssassinOutclassin: Shintaro is the best assassin in the world's most powerful assassination organization, yet he is utterly outclassed by Papuwa in a fight. The other assassins sent by the Ganma Army fare little better against him.
* AuthorAppeal: As Ami Shibata's debut manga, this series features several qualities that would go on to become her trademarks, including:
** Numerous gags relating to regional references about various places in Japan and [[IncrediblyLamePun incredibly lame wordplay puns]].
** A cast populated by [[CastFullofPrettyBoys handsome, muscular men]], FunnyAnimals, [[ChromosomeCasting and virtually no women]].
** Near-constant jokes about homosexuality, either through HomoeroticSubtext or outright acknowledgement.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Service's dead best friend Jan is revived from the dead in a new body by the Red Hiseki, which Shintaro's spirit later fuses with to return to life himself. By the epilogue, the Red Hiseki has created a new body for Jan so that both can go back to living independently of each other.]]
* BalefulPolymorph: Nagoya Willow is transformed into a bat after accidentally ingesting a potion he meant to give to Shintaro, and spends the rest of the series stuck as one. [[spoiler: He undergoes an UnexplainedRecovery at the end of the manga in time to serve as MrExposition for the final fate of the residents of Papuwa Island.]]
* BigBad: Magic, Shintaro's father and the leader of the Ganma Army, serves as this throughout the first half of manga and all of the anime. By the time of the HalfwayPlotSwitch, he begins to lose ground and the title is passed around between him, [[spoiler: White Shintaro, and Us]].
* BigBrotherAttraction: Inverted; Shintaro is positively ''obsessed'' with his younger brother Kotaro, to the point of getting a {{Nosebleed}} when admiring a picture of him. The other characters regularly mock him for his blatant brother complex.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Shintaro's primary motivation throughout the series is to take his younger brother away from the violent Gunma Army and live in peace together with him.
* BrokenPedestal:
** PlayedForLaughs after [[spoiler: Jan is revealed to be alive. After several chapters of both Service and Takamatsu repeatedly praising him for his character, with the former's backstory even hinging on his guilt at being involved in his death, neither is enthused by just how stupid he ends up being. Service at one point chooses to ''pretend like Jan is still dead right in front of him'' [[ThatManIsDead because he refuses to acknowledge that his beloved friend could be such an idiot]].]]
** Played more seriously in the case of [[spoiler: Luzar, whom both Service and Takamatsu admired as a loving BigBrotherMentor but is eventually revealed to have been much more ruthless than either realized and the ''actual'' person responsible for Jan's death.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: The Ganma Army seems to be made up entirely of men with extremely bizarre and eccentric personalities but genuine ability. Many of them also utilize fighting techniques that are just as weird as they are, including magical calligraphy pens and weather-predicting geta.
* ButtMonkey: Primarily Shintaro, [[OnlySaneMan who is forced to constantly put up with the antics of the rest of the cast]], but virtually every human character that sets foot on Papuwa Island is bound to undergo repeated humiliations.
* CanineCompanion: Chappy is Papuwa's dog and inseparable companion. The two always appear together and Papuwa insists that he is his friend, not his master.
* CaptainErsatz: Papuwa is identical to ''[[VideoGame/DragonQuestIII Dragon Quest III's]]'' Hero as depicted by Ami Shibata in her ''Dragon Quest 4koma Theater'' except wearing a grass skirt.
* CaptainEthnic: A variant. All of the assassins
* CastFullOfGay: Along with the CreepyCrossdresser duo of Ittou and Tanno's mutual obsession with Shintaro, nearly every single character affiliated with the Gunma Army has overt HomoeroticSubtext with at least one other character, and [[CrushBlush blushing]] and [[{{Nosebleed}} nosebleeds]] run abound when they're all together during the manga's second half.
* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: With the exceptions of Papuwa, Kotaro, Kuriko, and Tsugaru Joker, all of whom are children, every single humanoid character is a strikingly handsome man. While the early chapters make it so that these characters rarely appear at the same time, the story's second half pushes the FunnyAnimal cast OutOfFocus and
* CerebusRollercoaster: The gags never let up even as the story becomes more serious, meaning very dramatic scenes are often buttoned by humor and vice versa.
* CerebusSyndrome: While remaining a GagSeries throughout, the story becomes more serialized and plot-driven from the introduction of Service onward, taking on more and more qualities of a FightingSeries as it continues.
* ChromosomeCasting: The series' cast is almost entirely male, [[TheSmurfettePrinciple with the only humanoid female that ever shows up being Kuriko]]. Even including the various animal characters, the number of explicitly female characters that aren't suggested to actually be [[CreepyCrossdresser crossdressing men]] can be counted on one hand.
* {{Cloudcuckooland}}: Papuwa Island is home to hundreds of FunnyAnimals both mundane and fantastical, all of whom can talk and almost all of whom are total weirdos. While the soldiers of the Ganma Army are nearly as weird, [[spoiler: it's eventually revealed that they were created by the same force that made the isalnd]].
* CreepyCrossdresser: While Itou is explicitly a hermaphrodite, Tanno is a male fish who wears lipstick and [[IncrediblyLamePun fishnets]] and acts like just as much of an obsessive stalker towards Shintaro.
* DotingParent: Magic obsesses over Shintaro just as much as Shintaro does to Kotaro
* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference:
** Shintaro has less hair loose from his ponytail during the first two chapters of the manga than he does for the rest of the series.
** Miyagi wears an army jacket during his debut, whereas he wears a tanktop in all of his following appearances.
** Arashiyama wears ''Anime/SaintSeiya''-esque armor during his debut before switching to a cloak and fighting gi in all of his later appearances. Unlike the above two, this is actually acknowledged in-universe by him finding the tropical heat of Papuwa island too much for him to bear while wearing the armor.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In addition to PlayingWithFire, Arashiyama fights by throwing [[ImprobableWeaponUser otabe]] at his enemies during his first appearance. He never does this again in any of his following ones.
* EnemyMine: Upon learning that [[TheDreaded his uncle Service]] is on Papuwa Island, Shintaro recruits the aid of Arashiyama, Miyagi and Tottori in the hope that their combined powers will stand a chance at defeating him. [[CurbstompBattle They don't]], but it leads to a domino effect that causes the other three to perform a true HeelFaceTurn after [[spoiler: Shintaro dies]].
* EnemyWithout: [[spoiler: Inverted. It's eventually revealed that Shintaro began life as a fake personality created by Us, the guardian of the Blue Hiseki, as part of a plot to destroy the Red Clan. By the end of the manga, Shintaro has gained enough will of his own to force Us out of his body and act as a separate entity.]]
* {{Flanderization}}:
** Gunma is established as a GadgeteerGenius whose talents are mired by his immature personality during his debut appearance. In all of his future appearances, his intelligence is more or less completely forgotten about and he is instead depicted as a idiotic {{Manchild}} who is utterly helpless without Takamatsu's assistance.
** The anime heightens Miyagi, Tottori, and Arashiyama's GoldfishPoopGang status by including them as antagonists in many more plots than they are in the manga.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes:
* GagLips: Both Itou and Tanno possess enormous, detailed lips to denote them as [[CreepyCrossdresser Creepy Crossdressers]]. The former also has an OverlyLongTongue as a ShoutOut to Music/TheRollingStones.
* GagSeries: Ami Shibata got her start as a {{Yonkoma}} artist, and the series remains heavily gag-driven even as it becomes more serious. Slapstick, puns, and nonsequiturs appear constantly from beginning to end.
* GenreShift: The manga goes from a GagSeries with elements of a FightingSeries to being both in equal parts by its end, becoming less episodic and focusing more on drama between its human characters rather than antics with its animal ones.
* GoldfishPoopGang: After their initial defeats, Miyagi, Tottori, and Arashiyama reappear occasionally to attempt to take revenge against Shintaro, only to inevitably do even worse than before. The anime emphasizes their status as this even moreso, with the former two regularly appearing in episodes based on plots they did not feature in at all in the manga.
* HappyDance: Papuwa and Chappy engage in a Shittorotto dance when excited.
* ParentalIncest: A relatively G-rated example. Magic has a shrine dedicated to Shintaro in his quarters, sleeps with a handmade Shintaro plushie, and gets a nosebleed at the thought of being called Papa by him.
[[caption-width-right:350:''Nba-nbababa-nn-ba-baaa!'']]
''Nangoku Shonen Papuwa-kun'' (南国少年パプワくん; literally ''Papuwa the Tropical Boy'') is manga GagSeries written and illustrated by Creator/AmiShibata that was serialized in Monthly Shonen Gangan from April 1991 to June 1995.
The series begins with Shintaro, the top-ranked member of [[MurderInc the world's most powerful assassination organization the Ganma Army]], deserting from the group after stealing the [[SphereofPower Blue Hiseki]], a priceless ArtifactOfPower, in the hope of selling it on the black market and living off the riches with his younger brother Kotaro. While escaping from the Ganma Army along the southern seas, his boat is destroyed and he ends up stranded on Papuwa Island, a strange and mysterious tropical paradise inhabited by a host of [[TalkingAnimal Talking Animals]]. His unconscious body is found by [[WildChild Papuwa]], a young boy and the island's sole human inhabitant, who takes the Blue Hiseki from his possession and uses it as an ornament on the collar of his pet dog [[CanineCompanion Chappy]]. When Shintaro comes to, he attempts to reclaim the Blue Hiseki only to find himself completely outmatched by [[PintsizedPowerhouse the improbably strong Papuwa]].
With no clear means of escape, Shintaro is [[MadeASlave forced to become Papuwa's servant]] and wait on him hand and foot until he can find a way to take back the Blue Hiseki for himself. Along with having to deal with Papuwa, Chappy, and the myriad of other weird creatures on Papuwa Island, Shintaro must fight off various assassins sent by the Ganma Army to dispose of him.
An AnimatedAdaptation was broadcast on TV Asahi from October 1992 to October 1993 over 42 episodes. The anime series adapts all of the manga's first half, with the addition of a few original stories.
A sequel series, simply titled ''{{Anime/PAPUWA}}'', ran in Monthly Shonen Gangan from 2002 to 2008.
!!Tropes Featured
* AbhorrentAdmirer: Shintaro is relentlessly hounded by Itou the hermaphroditic snail and Tanno the crossdressing fish soon after arriving on Papuwa Island. Along with being [[InterspeciesRomance non-human]], the two are also [[{{Gonk}} quite hideous]] and ''very'' aggressive in their pursuit of him.
* AdaptationExpansion: While the manga begins with Shintaro already at sea with the Blue Hiseki in his possession, the anime includes a brief action sequence showing him fighting off various members of the Ganma Army before making his escape. Miyagi, Tottori, and Arashiyama are also incorporated into several plots that they weren't featured in in the manga.
* AerithAndBob: The series' human cast includes character with relatively ordinary Japanese names like Shintaro and Kotaro, uncommon but still not particularly eyebrow-raising ones like Miyagi, Tottori and Arashiyami, and downright bizarre GratuitousEnglish ones like Magic, Service, Harem, Liquid, and Loser. The two that take the cake are [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Magic's two subordinates]]: [[FoodThemeNaming Tiramisu and Chocolate Love]].
* AlmightyJanitor: Shintaro is the world's greatest assassin, but is forced to work as Papuwa's maid upon being shipwrecked on Papuwa Island.
* ArchnemesisDad: Shintaro's father Magic is the leader of the Ganma Army and preeminent BigBad of the series. While Shintaro naturally hates him, he is actually a DotingParent who is downright
* ArtEvolution: The first two chapters of the manga feature a ''much'' more simplistic and flatter style before shifting to a more detailed one. It undergoes a second one at around its halfway point; becoming even more detailed and less Creator/AkiraToriyama-like.
* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler: It is eventually revealed that the Red and Blue Hiseki can create human life spontaneously, with both Magic and Papuwa's ancestors descending from them. Besides them, they also created Shintaro, Jan, and Us to serve as their guardians and heralds.]]
* AssassinOutclassin: Shintaro is the best assassin in the world's most powerful assassination organization, yet he is utterly outclassed by Papuwa in a fight. The other assassins sent by the Ganma Army fare little better against him.
* AuthorAppeal: As Ami Shibata's debut manga, this series features several qualities that would go on to become her trademarks, including:
** Numerous gags relating to regional references about various places in Japan and [[IncrediblyLamePun incredibly lame wordplay puns]].
** A cast populated by [[CastFullofPrettyBoys handsome, muscular men]], FunnyAnimals, [[ChromosomeCasting and virtually no women]].
** Near-constant jokes about homosexuality, either through HomoeroticSubtext or outright acknowledgement.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Service's dead best friend Jan is revived from the dead in a new body by the Red Hiseki, which Shintaro's spirit later fuses with to return to life himself. By the epilogue, the Red Hiseki has created a new body for Jan so that both can go back to living independently of each other.]]
* BalefulPolymorph: Nagoya Willow is transformed into a bat after accidentally ingesting a potion he meant to give to Shintaro, and spends the rest of the series stuck as one. [[spoiler: He undergoes an UnexplainedRecovery at the end of the manga in time to serve as MrExposition for the final fate of the residents of Papuwa Island.]]
* BigBad: Magic, Shintaro's father and the leader of the Ganma Army, serves as this throughout the first half of manga and all of the anime. By the time of the HalfwayPlotSwitch, he begins to lose ground and the title is passed around between him, [[spoiler: White Shintaro, and Us]].
* BigBrotherAttraction: Inverted; Shintaro is positively ''obsessed'' with his younger brother Kotaro, to the point of getting a {{Nosebleed}} when admiring a picture of him. The other characters regularly mock him for his blatant brother complex.
* BigBrotherInstinct: Shintaro's primary motivation throughout the series is to take his younger brother away from the violent Gunma Army and live in peace together with him.
* BrokenPedestal:
** PlayedForLaughs after [[spoiler: Jan is revealed to be alive. After several chapters of both Service and Takamatsu repeatedly praising him for his character, with the former's backstory even hinging on his guilt at being involved in his death, neither is enthused by just how stupid he ends up being. Service at one point chooses to ''pretend like Jan is still dead right in front of him'' [[ThatManIsDead because he refuses to acknowledge that his beloved friend could be such an idiot]].]]
** Played more seriously in the case of [[spoiler: Luzar, whom both Service and Takamatsu admired as a loving BigBrotherMentor but is eventually revealed to have been much more ruthless than either realized and the ''actual'' person responsible for Jan's death.]]
* BunnyEarsLawyer: The Ganma Army seems to be made up entirely of men with extremely bizarre and eccentric personalities but genuine ability. Many of them also utilize fighting techniques that are just as weird as they are, including magical calligraphy pens and weather-predicting geta.
* ButtMonkey: Primarily Shintaro, [[OnlySaneMan who is forced to constantly put up with the antics of the rest of the cast]], but virtually every human character that sets foot on Papuwa Island is bound to undergo repeated humiliations.
* CanineCompanion: Chappy is Papuwa's dog and inseparable companion. The two always appear together and Papuwa insists that he is his friend, not his master.
* CaptainErsatz: Papuwa is identical to ''[[VideoGame/DragonQuestIII Dragon Quest III's]]'' Hero as depicted by Ami Shibata in her ''Dragon Quest 4koma Theater'' except wearing a grass skirt.
* CaptainEthnic: A variant. All of the assassins
* CastFullOfGay: Along with the CreepyCrossdresser duo of Ittou and Tanno's mutual obsession with Shintaro, nearly every single character affiliated with the Gunma Army has overt HomoeroticSubtext with at least one other character, and [[CrushBlush blushing]] and [[{{Nosebleed}} nosebleeds]] run abound when they're all together during the manga's second half.
* CastFullOfPrettyBoys: With the exceptions of Papuwa, Kotaro, Kuriko, and Tsugaru Joker, all of whom are children, every single humanoid character is a strikingly handsome man. While the early chapters make it so that these characters rarely appear at the same time, the story's second half pushes the FunnyAnimal cast OutOfFocus and
* CerebusRollercoaster: The gags never let up even as the story becomes more serious, meaning very dramatic scenes are often buttoned by humor and vice versa.
* CerebusSyndrome: While remaining a GagSeries throughout, the story becomes more serialized and plot-driven from the introduction of Service onward, taking on more and more qualities of a FightingSeries as it continues.
* ChromosomeCasting: The series' cast is almost entirely male, [[TheSmurfettePrinciple with the only humanoid female that ever shows up being Kuriko]]. Even including the various animal characters, the number of explicitly female characters that aren't suggested to actually be [[CreepyCrossdresser crossdressing men]] can be counted on one hand.
* {{Cloudcuckooland}}: Papuwa Island is home to hundreds of FunnyAnimals both mundane and fantastical, all of whom can talk and almost all of whom are total weirdos. While the soldiers of the Ganma Army are nearly as weird, [[spoiler: it's eventually revealed that they were created by the same force that made the isalnd]].
* CreepyCrossdresser: While Itou is explicitly a hermaphrodite, Tanno is a male fish who wears lipstick and [[IncrediblyLamePun fishnets]] and acts like just as much of an obsessive stalker towards Shintaro.
* DotingParent: Magic obsesses over Shintaro just as much as Shintaro does to Kotaro
* EarlyInstallmentCharacterDesignDifference:
** Shintaro has less hair loose from his ponytail during the first two chapters of the manga than he does for the rest of the series.
** Miyagi wears an army jacket during his debut, whereas he wears a tanktop in all of his following appearances.
** Arashiyama wears ''Anime/SaintSeiya''-esque armor during his debut before switching to a cloak and fighting gi in all of his later appearances. Unlike the above two, this is actually acknowledged in-universe by him finding the tropical heat of Papuwa island too much for him to bear while wearing the armor.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: In addition to PlayingWithFire, Arashiyama fights by throwing [[ImprobableWeaponUser otabe]] at his enemies during his first appearance. He never does this again in any of his following ones.
* EnemyMine: Upon learning that [[TheDreaded his uncle Service]] is on Papuwa Island, Shintaro recruits the aid of Arashiyama, Miyagi and Tottori in the hope that their combined powers will stand a chance at defeating him. [[CurbstompBattle They don't]], but it leads to a domino effect that causes the other three to perform a true HeelFaceTurn after [[spoiler: Shintaro dies]].
* EnemyWithout: [[spoiler: Inverted. It's eventually revealed that Shintaro began life as a fake personality created by Us, the guardian of the Blue Hiseki, as part of a plot to destroy the Red Clan. By the end of the manga, Shintaro has gained enough will of his own to force Us out of his body and act as a separate entity.]]
* {{Flanderization}}:
** Gunma is established as a GadgeteerGenius whose talents are mired by his immature personality during his debut appearance. In all of his future appearances, his intelligence is more or less completely forgotten about and he is instead depicted as a idiotic {{Manchild}} who is utterly helpless without Takamatsu's assistance.
** The anime heightens Miyagi, Tottori, and Arashiyama's GoldfishPoopGang status by including them as antagonists in many more plots than they are in the manga.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes:
* GagLips: Both Itou and Tanno possess enormous, detailed lips to denote them as [[CreepyCrossdresser Creepy Crossdressers]]. The former also has an OverlyLongTongue as a ShoutOut to Music/TheRollingStones.
* GagSeries: Ami Shibata got her start as a {{Yonkoma}} artist, and the series remains heavily gag-driven even as it becomes more serious. Slapstick, puns, and nonsequiturs appear constantly from beginning to end.
* GenreShift: The manga goes from a GagSeries with elements of a FightingSeries to being both in equal parts by its end, becoming less episodic and focusing more on drama between its human characters rather than antics with its animal ones.
* GoldfishPoopGang: After their initial defeats, Miyagi, Tottori, and Arashiyama reappear occasionally to attempt to take revenge against Shintaro, only to inevitably do even worse than before. The anime emphasizes their status as this even moreso, with the former two regularly appearing in episodes based on plots they did not feature in at all in the manga.
* HappyDance: Papuwa and Chappy engage in a Shittorotto dance when excited.
* ParentalIncest: A relatively G-rated example. Magic has a shrine dedicated to Shintaro in his quarters, sleeps with a handmade Shintaro plushie, and gets a nosebleed at the thought of being called Papa by him.
