u/RenjinGN-003

To explain what exactly is the reference here.

There was a Disgaea 1 anime adaptation released on 2006. The opinion of this anime adaptation is... Not that good, from what I heard about. The story took a lot of creative liberties that lean more towards comedy and random "Event of the week" plotlines. (Not helped how its a really short series. Only 12 episodes. Not a lot of time to actually show the main story when there are no random shenanigans.) What is also odd is that there was also a trailer that looked completely different, and the original early version of this adaptation was supposed to be a lot more faithful to the games.

Anyways, one of the random one off plotlines of the Disgaea 1 anime adaptation is this story about a mysterious girl with purple hair called Maharl who is always carrying with her a odd-looking green doll. This girl is supposedly the sister of Laharl. (This story existed way before Sicily even existed.). ...And then its revealed that Maharl is not connected to the Krichevskoy family and all of that was just a false story. And then its revealed that the girl with purple hair was just a decoy, and that the actual Maharl was the odd green doll! I guess I can mention that the design of the decoy humanoid Maharl was originally supposed to be a character design for the original Disgaea 1, that was never used on the actual game and was used for the odd anime adaptation. (I think the odd doll was also on the original design too, however. I am not sure if that twist of "The doll is the actual person while the humanoid is just a decoy" was a idea that even existed on the original version of her character, or if it was a idea original to the anime adaptation.)

I thought that there was no reference to this odd anime adaptation because of how it looks like it was not that good, so it was kinda funny how one of the items on Prinny 2 is a purple doll that looks very similar to Maharl's doll form.

(As always comments are far more appreciated than upvotes.)

I know I am probably taking things way too seriously here, and before anyone says "its not that deep" or a similar dismissive comment. These fiction-related discussions are deep to me!

Anyways, continuing on. I always thought that even though the prequel Axel Mode sidestory from the later versions of Disgaea 2 (starting with the PSP version) always had this sort of underlying feeling of sadness even when it was more focused on comedy than the main story.

Even while the story attempts to play things more for comedy by showing things in a very over-the-top way, I still cannot help but to look at the living conditions of Axel and his family from a serious point of view. How they are not able to pay the rent of their home for thousands of years, how Axel's father is just gone with no explanation other than if I remember correctly this absolutely awful cliche of the stereotypical neglectful father that uses the excuse of going to buy something then running away leaving his family. (I really prefer something along the lines of a far more proper reason of why he is gone not relying on that stupid cliche that I am not fond of.)

And, seriously! One of Axel's siblings is named "Axident"! I know that is supposed to be part of the joke of Axel's not good living conditions of his family however I am not even able to laugh at that!

And this is without mentioning the song that is unique to the overworld theme of Axel Mode. While Axel's normal theme song "White Tiger" is more based on his "Dark Hero"-stage persona."The Axel Blues". The song that plays on the Axel Mode overworld... Is a really melancholic song that shows how Axel has a lot of hidden emotional bagagge that he hides with his smile and his "too cool for school" way of acting.

And the way that this mode ends, with Axel being completely alone is incredibly sour while his false friends get all of the fame... On a sidenote connected to that, I was going to mention how its kinda odd how when Evil Ranger Pink suddenly returns on Disgaea 4, if I remember correctly. She is all of a sudden by Axel's side in a non ironic way which is kind of sudden...?

I am really not fond of how this more serious part of Axel's character is either only mentioned in passing or completely forgotten in the later games after Disgaea 2...

(As always, comments are far more appreciated than upvotes.)

Its kinda funny how one of the items on Prinny 2 is a reference to the Disgaea 1 anime