Pokota

Pokota (Japanese: ポコタ Romaji: pokota), full name Posel Korba Taforashia (Japanese: ポセル＝コルバ＝タフォーラシア Romaji: poseru koruba tafōrashia), is a sorcerer and prince of the kingdom of Taforashia. His nickname is derived from the first syllables of his first, middle, and last name. He is one of the main characters of Slayers REVOLUTION and EVOLUTION-R. His Japanese voice actress is Yumiko Kobayashi, and his English voice actress is Colleen O'Shaughnessey.

History
Pokota was born a human, but when he was an adolescent, the durum sickness plagued Taforashia. The king, Pokota's father, became very ill. Rezo the Red Priest, appeared and sealed the residents of Taforashia in sleeping chambers to isolate them until a cure was found. Rezo sealed Pokota's human body in a chamber, but he used a magical vase to transfer Pokota's spirit into his current form, an animal-like creature about 2 feet tall.

Near the end of the Evolution-R anime, it is shown that Pokota is a stuffed animal after his ears are blown off revealing stuffing inside his ears. In the closing credits he is shown with a girl sewing new ears on. Because Shabranigdu took over Rezo who possessed Pokota's human body at the time, his human body was destroyed by Lina Inverse's Giga Slave. Thus, Pokota will never regain his human body. In the manga version of Evolution-R, Pokota's soul is transferred to Duclis's human body, and he resolves to live as Duclis.

Because Pokota's physical development was halted when his body was put into suspended animation and his soul was transferred to his current body, Pokota's voice sounds and human body looks about 10 years younger than he actually is. Chronologically, he should actually be older than Lina by at least a few years.

Appearance
Pokota's primary physical characteristics are his large ears that function as his primary set of arms and hands, even though he has a smaller set of arms on his torso. He uses these ears to cast spells, make gestures, and glide through the air. His left ear has a gold ring near its four-fingered "hand," resembling a bracelet. In addition to flying, Pokota can also walk or run on his two short legs.

Pokota has short, beige-colored fur, a mohawk of lavender-colored hair and green fur on the ends of his ears. Beginning at his neck and ending part-way down his torso is a zipper that he opens to remove a replica Sword of Light from inside his body. He wears a red cape.

As a human, Pokota has long, lavender hair with a mohawk in the front. He has tan skin and green eyes. He wears a gold hoop in his left ear, and his clothes are for the most part green.

Skills
Pokota did not lose his abilities when Rezo transferred his spirit to his current body. He is a skilled sorcerer with magic powers comparable to Lina Inverse. He is able to easily cast the Dragon Slave, which few are able to do, in addition to being able to cast more common shamanistic and white magic spells. While he uses the arms on his torso to make the gestures necessary for casting spells, the hand-like ends of his ears release the spells themselves.

Pokota is the creator of the anti-magic tanks that Ruvinagald and Gioconda stole — their anti-magic capabilities are based on the incomplete, yet still effective, Zanaffar armor. He also created a replica of the Sword of Light, which he stores inside the zippered area of his torso. The sword is not totally reliable, though, and sometimes it fails to activate or will spontaneously die. It was able to put a crack in Duclis' Zanaffar armor, that, while incomplete, resisted damage by conventional magic.

In his current form, Pokota is very fast and is able to make a quick escape. He can also glide through the air with his ears.

Relationships
Pokota has an established relationship with Duclis, who was also once human and in Slayers REVOLUTION was a friend of the Taforashia family. It is unclear what Duclis' exact connection to the royal family is, as he is never called by any title, but he and Pokota were friends before the two were transformed and Duclis began experimenting with Zanaffar armor. After Duclis' alignment with Gioconda, he and Pokota fought. Duclis briefly turned against Gioconda to awaken a perfected Zanaffar to destroy the countries that didn't stop Gioconda from stealing aid for Taforashia, so Pokota became his enemy again.

Regarding his relationship with the Slayers protagonists, he only seems to have developed a close bond of friendship with Amelia, who was the first of the gang to speak to him on friendly terms (unlike Lina and her various attempts to attack him in the first few episodes of Revolution). On the other hand, and even though Lina and Pokota tend to argue a lot, it's a fact that their nature is very similar and both of them respect each other, so it could be said that they share an unusual kind of camaraderie. Pokota's relationship with Gourry and Zelgadis is not that close, but they seem to get along without major problems.

Pokota initially idolized Rezo, and when Zelgadis and Lina attempted to tell him of Red Priest's misdeeds and eventual death, he refused to believe either of them. Eventually, however, he had to realize that Rezo was the reason the durum sickness plagued his country to begin with. After the events of the series finale, it is unclear whether he still harbors a grudge against Rezo or has come to terms with the past events.

Appearances

 * Slayers REVOLUTION
 * Slayers EVOLUTION-R
 * Slayers REVOLUTION (manga)
 * Slayers EVOLUTION-R (manga)
 * Slayers REVOLUTION (radio drama)
 * Slayers EVOLUTION-R (radio drama)