Kanchomé and Parco Folgore

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Kanchomé (left) and Parco Folgore (right)

Kanchomé and Parco Folgore are two fictional characters and protagonists of the manga and anime series Zatch Bell!.

Kanchomé

Kanchomé is a mamodo about Zatch's age who wears a blanket sleeper, has an unusual cone-shaped hairstyle, has bug eyes, and sports a duck bill. His sleeper contains an endless pocket filled with candy. His personality tends toward childish and abrasive, often crying and whining like a baby to get whatever he wants; however, he has also shown great determination to protect his friends.

His weakness is candy; despite having a pocket full of it, he cannot resist trying to grab candy that is laying around. He once got on a truck containing candy and a result ended up in Spain as part of a travelling circus; after being rescued by Folgore, he once again is fooled by a ship with candy heading to Antarctica and spends a considerable amount of time there before being found by Doctor Riddles. Despite this he is unusually perceptive at times. The best example is when he is the first one to realise that Faudo tower looks like a gigantic prison to hold in a giant Mamodo.

Kanchomé is voiced by Masami Kikuchi in the original version. In the English version, he is initially voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz, but is replaced by Jeff Nimoy during the Zofis Arc.

Kanchomé ranked 5th in the first Konjiki no Gash Bell popularity contest and 8th in the second.

Parco Folgore

Parco Folgore is a superstar and film hero from Milan, Italy. He normally spends his time touring the world, giving concerts, and meeting his fans - especially the ladies, who love him. However, he and Kanchomé have come to Japan for a special purpose - to defeat Zatch Bell and Kiyo Takamine. They are defeated rather easily and leave, but Zatch and Kiyo meet them again in England, where Kiyo discovers Folgore singing for a group of sick children in the hospital. They become friends after that, although Kiyo still dislikes Folgore's womanizing ways. A running gag with Folgore is that in almost every battle he's fought in he's generally the one who gets hit by the brunt of the enemy's spells while Kanchome remains unscathed until later battles.

Folgore has two hit songs, "Chichi wo Moge" (translates to "Groping Breasts"; changed to "Hey Hey Let's Dance All Day" in English versions), and "Muteki Folgore" ("Invincible Folgore" in English), the latter of which has the unusual ability to revive him if it's sung by Kanchomé. He also frequently plays an "invincible super spy", 00F, in his films; this character has his own theme song as well, "00F's Theme".

Recently, more about Folgore's background has been revealed. In his youth, he desired to be a "lion", a powerful and strong person in body and spirit. However, he soon lost track of who he was and fought against anyone in his way, whether good or bad. His violent ways didn't change anyone around him and even got him kicked out of his parent's home. Just after he left home, he saw an image on television of a bird standing on top of the tooth of a hippopotamus. Seeing the peaceful, yet powerful creature coexisting with the bird became a new inspiration for Folgore, making him choose the path that would lead to his stardom. However, the scars of his past were not completely removed: even now, his parents still hate him and refuse to even see him due to his former life.

Parco Folgore is voiced by Hiroki Takahashi in the original version and by Dave Wittenberg in the English version.

Folgore ranked 8th in the first popularity contest and 12th in the second. Raiku said that Folgore is his favorite character.

Kanchomé and Folgore as a team

Kanchomé and Folgore rarely actually fight; they focus on deception and confusion with the help of Kanchomé's shape shifting abilities. They're amusingly inept at holding their own. However, there is more to this duo than comic relief. Folgore's endurance and speed seem to borderline on superhuman, shown how most of the fights he and Kanchomé been in have been mostly running away and him getting severely hurt, and Folgore even has a serious side to him; when Kanchomé is getting hurt he always tries to protect Kanchomé even to the extent that he risks his life.

When the duo fight alongside other demon teams such as Zatch and Kiyo, Kanchomé's abilities are valuable. He often morphs into his teammates or even his opponents in order to misdirect their attacks and create openings, and when all else fails Kanchomé can shapeshift into large objects for his teammates to hide behind. His illusion spell is also used to effectively buy time for others. However, Kanchomé and Folgore have won fights on their own, often thanks to Kanchomé's shrinking spell which lets him get close enough to burn spellbooks with a match. Kanchomé often feels weak when fighting alongside his demon friends, especially during the Ancient Mamodo arc when he and Kido were fighting Belgim EO. Kanchomé blames himself for Kido's book being burned by Belgim EO as result of his weak powers.

Kanchomé and Folgore lasted long enough to make it into the 'King Tournament', the battle between the remaining ten mamodo to determine the new king. After a surprising visit from Dufort, Kanchomé and Folgore received special training to help Kanchomé awaken his hidden power. The results of this training is later shown when Kanchomé beats Zatch in a practice match (a very 'one-sided' match). Later, Kanchomé and Folgore team up to battle against Mir and Gomu after the two track down and attack the demon Purio and bookkeeper Lupa, who were in Milan to recruit Folgore to help them with a show to raise money for a hiding shelter (suggesting they changed their ways after the Faudo arc.) Kanchomé demonstrates not only a newfound confidence, but a startling increase in power as he easily dominates his seemingly stronger opponent. However, there is a massive drawback to Kanchomé's newfound power: in gaining what he wanted, he becomes something horrible and monstrous in the process, losing all sight of the battle and descending into madness until Folgore is forced to stand up to him to turn him back to normal. However, after calming down Gomu by creating a more pleasant "Shin Poruku" experience, they are discovered by the baby bookkeeper Vino, who recites a spell that allows the evil Clear Note to sent two blasts to destroy everyone on the battlefield. With little time to react, Folgore grabs Lupa's book and throws it and his own into the sky, blocking the attack and sending both Purio and Kanchomé back to the mamodo world. Gomu regretted his violent actions towards Purio and Lupa and mourned Kanchome's being sent back. However, because of Gomu's friendliness towards Kanchomé and Purio, Mir decided to let Zatch burn Gomu's book after a failed attempt at taking out Clear, thus reducing the number of mamodo to five.

List of spells

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Kanchomé's first spell, "Poruk".

• Poruk/Poruku: This is Kanchomé's transformation spell. He can change his body into whatever form is needed, however he only takes their form and not any special ability. He can't transform into other people very well, often bearing some obvious deformity such as a long nose or tall forehead. Despite this, he often manages to fool opponents long enough to create an opening. Oddly, in the anime, when Kanchomé uses this spell to turn into something mechanical, such as a car or rocket, he is able to operate as the object normally would. (Transformation)

• Koporuk/Koporuku: Kanchomé shrinks into a mini-Kanchomé. He often inexplicably gains a match to burn books with as well. This is how many of their fights are won. Gained in episode 11. (Transformation)

• Dika Poruk/Deika Poruku: At first appearance it appears to have the opposite affect of Koporuk (i.e makes Kanchome a giant) but in reality creates the illusion of a gigantic Kanchomé; the real Kanchomé is his original size and strength. Whenever enemy spells hit the illusory giant, it actually just passes right through it, but clouds of smoke emerge from the hit spot, causing it to seem as though the spell connected but had no effect on "Kanchomé", however attacks such as tornadoes will distort the image. Like Poruk, this spell manages to fool opponents for as long as required, especially because of the illusory Kanchomé's seeming invulnerability. During its first use, even Kanchome is fooled into believing that he has grown and is horrified by an oncoming fire attack that misses by over 40 feet. Gained in episode 41. (Assist)

• Dima Buruk/Dima Buruku: Spell which creates numerous strengthened copies of Kanchomé but when Kanchome feels strong and positive emotions (such as courage) they grow even stronger, which is characterised when they glow with a bright yellow aura. They each have about the same strength as a Rauzaruk-supported Zatch and their first "useful" spell as well as their most dynamic spell. This spell is powerful enough that just five copies are strong enough to deflect a "Gigano" class spell and endure an onslaught from a "Dioga" class spell for an extended period of time. Gained in episode 129. (Attack/Defence/Assist)

• Fo Suporuk: Kanchomé clasps his hands together with his index fingers extended and a glow is emitted from his hands. Using this spell, Kanchomé can fool his opponent into believing their attack has failed causing them to cancel the spell. (Defense)

• Miriarar Poruku: Kanchomé creates an attack that fools his opponent into believing he's using one of their spells against them. Since the opponent believes they are seeing their own attack being sent at them, their brains are fooled into inflicting damage to their own bodies equal to the damage the real attack would cause. This spell can only mimic spells Kanchomé has already seen and can only be used against the mamodo who uses that spell. (Assist/Attack)

• Shin Poruku: Kanchomé traps his opponents in an illusionary world where he can completely control their hearts and minds into believing anything he wants. This control is so complete that even if the opponent knows it's an illusion they can't break free from it. (Assist/immobilization)

Spellbooks they burned

• Bago, at a shoreside cave in Europe (episode 41, by throwing his book into a fire he himself started)
• Ganz, in the Devolo Ruins (episode 61)
• Mukaron, in the Devolo Ruins (episode 69)

Conception and development

Raiku said that Folgore had no "actual model" and that he used the "Invincible Italian Man" as the basic concept.

Chichi Wo Moge/Hey, Hey, Let's Dance All Day

Although Parco Folgore is known for several of his songs, his most infamous is his hit record Chichi wo Moge, which literally means in English Groping Breasts. The song is accompanied by a frantic dance sequence which includes a motion of the hands similar to the subject of the song. Both the song and dance were created by Makoto Raiku and depicted in the third volume of the original Konjiki no Gash Bell! manga. The song and dance was also depicted several times in the anime rendition of the series, and was even released as a single in Japan. When Viz Media imported the series from Japan to the United States and Canada, the company altered the song to fit American standards of children's television. The song was transformed into Hey, Hey, Let's Dance All Day, a much more innocent song about Folgore's love of dancing. While the lyrics were changed, Viz kept both the original music and the dance in the anime and manga renditions. In the Viz manga release of Zatch Bell, when Folgore performed the entire song for the Ancient Mamodo Belgim E.O., the word "grope" was replaced with "boogie", but the rest of the original lyrics were kept.

Kanchomé's transformations

• Kiyo (with a strange longer nose) (episode 11)
• Cannon (without ammo) (episode 11)
• Car (episode 19)
• Bull-demon (episode 40)
• Fredo (with an enormous forehead) (episode 40)
• Wheel (episode 59)
• Grappling hook (episode 59)
• Dead-end wall (episode 59)
• Wall (episode 60, 69, 128)
• Floor (episode 61, 77, 80)
• Victoreem's body (episode 63)
• Bao Zakeruga (episode 63)
• Victoreem's book (episode 63)
• Hang-glider (episode 70, video game)
• Kido (episode 73, 92)
• Broken pillar (episode 78-83)
• Zatch (episode 84)
• Catapult truck (episode 86)
• Heavyweight (episode 100)
• Nicholas (episode 100)
• parachute (episode 138)
• Planet Earth (chapter 319)
• Rocket (movie 1)
• Giant fan (movie 2, video game)
• Various electric fans (movie 2)
• Touge (video game)