The Audio File: Residents of Proserpina Park: Season 2

I was really impressed by season one of Residents of Proserpina Park. I took a gamble on it all the way back when it only had one episode, and it payed off big time. So, season one was fantastic, but what about season two? Oh, it more than managed to keep up the momentum. In fact, that’s what we’ll be talking about today. We’re taking a look at season two of Residents of Proserpina Park. 

When we last left our heroes, Sam had received an unexpected visit from his cousin demigod cousin Terry. Sam also wasn’t too thrilled that Alina brought other visitors to Proserpina Park without his permission. Alina has returned to the park, but Sam is nowhere to be seen. Alina and her friends will venture further into the park, but danger lurks around every corner. This time, the creatures are going to be much deadlier. Alina and company are going to need all the help they can find. Meanwhile, Mirai, the narrator of the framing segments, has traveled to Japan in search of answers of her own. Along the way, she’ll meet a mysterious bus passenger with fox ears, who may have some of the answers she searching for.

Season one of Residents of Proserpina Park was absolutely fantastic, and I was eagerly awaiting for what surprises season two would have. Season one had a somewhat episodic feel to it. That’s not to say there was no continuity, but most episodes tended to involve Alina meeting Sam and learning about some new creature. Granted, the later episodes of season one do have a stronger sense of continuity. Alina did start to explore the park on her own, often with friends in tow. However, season two becomes full-on serialized. One episode directly leads into the next. I suppose that does make sense. We’ve gotten to know the characters and the park enough by now. So, no need to hold the listeners’ hand and ease them into the setting anymore.

I really loved the new way that the stories of the creatures are recounted. Whenever a character, usually Dog, explains what the creatures are, there will be noises, music, or a bit of dialog from people or creatures within the story. Often, this will have a somewhat comical undertone to it. It was a nice additional little touch. I always appreciate it when audio drama creators add these extra little flourishes. We also have more creatures directly appear on-screen, for lack of a better way of putting it.

It was previously established that creatures can appear outside the park. However, this season brings the first appearance of a creature somewhere other than the park. Well, the first not counting Dog. One episode takes place in Alina’s apartment, and an aitvaras appears. It is a household spirit from Lithuanian Folklore that takes the form of a flaming rooster, but can also turn into a dragon. It brings fortunes good and bad, and will provide all sorts of goodies to you, which it steals from everyone else. Why did the aitvaras appear in Alina’s apartment? Perhaps, she’s become more attune to the mythological due to her time in the park. Thus, such creatures are naturally drawn to her now. Or, maybe there’s something else going on here, but let’s put a pin in that for now.

We also get a closer look at some of the less than friendly residents of the park. In season one, most of the creatures tended to be things that were cool, but fairly harmless, or at least, not directly malicious or deadly. Come season two, and we get to see the many creatures of the night who call the park their own. Though, there’s plenty of danger lurking in the day as well. I knew that we were going to encounter aswang because I saw that on the list of roles that were open for audition. Aswang is sometimes used as a catch-all term for any mythical creature from the Philippines. However, it also refers to a specific type of monster, a sort of Filipino vampire/ghoul. I was very excited that this was coming, because I had recently gotten into Filipino Mythology and Folklore . And before you ask, yes, I’ve watched Trese on Netflix, and I loved it. Can’t wait for season two. Go watch if you haven’t already. It is a really great animated urban fantasy series with lots of Filipino Mythology and Folklore.

Anyway, back to Residents of Proserpina Park. So, back when season two was in production, series creator Angela Yih asked me if I had any suggestions for creatures to feature. I made a big list of suggestions, as is on-brand for me. One of my suggestions was the manananggal, which is also from Filipino Mythology. They’re another vampire-like creature, but take the form of women who detach their upper bodies from their lower bodies, and fly around with bat-wings. Angela did mention that many of my suggestions were slated to appear, and that it was freaky how in-synch we were with each other. Apparently, that included the manananggal. I suppose it makes since, given that the Aswang were already featured.

With regards to the manananggal, Residents of Proserpina Park actually got me to think and reconsider how I approach the legend. One of my biggest dreams is to have my own serialized audio drama, which I’m tentatively calling The Calliope Brigade. It will be set in a fantasy version of America called Usonia. It will feature a colorful cast of character, many of whom are mythical creatures, who are part of a traveling carnival. I had planned on featuring manananggals as a potential one-off antagonists. But then I listened to the episodes of Resident of Proserpina Park that deals with manananggals. Alina and the gang note that the manananggal legend has some decidedly sexist undertones. The way to defeat the manananggal is to rub salt on her lower body. Yeah, the manananggal‘s lower body is literally her downfall. Oh, and they like to feed on unborn children, and this is supposedly why miscarriages happen. Most of these elements were in the original manananggal stories. However, they really got emphasized once Spain colonized the Philippines, and pushed conservative Christian values onto the Filipinos.

I knew all of this, but maybe I didn’t about it as much as I should have. So, I reconsidered my plans, and I’m going to do a more nuanced take on the manananggals when I make The Calliope Brigade. Though, I’m just going to warn all of you, that’s a ways off at this point. I’ve still got a lot of ground work to lay, and a lot of audio drama production ropes to learn. Still, my thanks to Residents of Proserpina Park for helping me refine my own work.

Now, obviously Alina and the gang need protection, if they’re going to survive the park without Sam. At one point, they consider looking for the Egyptian lion goddess Sekhmet. I suggested the gods of Egypt, because I love how many of them have animal heads. So, I can’t say with complete certainty, but I feel fairly confident that one was potentially my contribution. Of course, I could be totally wrong.

Okay, so who is this Terry person? Well, they’re Sam’s cousin, and a demigod. Specifically, a child of Hades. They’re very arrogant and haughty, but that’s par for course with demigods. And admittedly, they did have a point that Alina went behinds Sam’s back, and violated his trust. It is made clear very early on that there is a damn good reason Sam was so strict about the rules. Many residents of the park are quite dangerous even if you know what you’re doing. Alina and her friends survive more often than not by luck more than anything. There are consequences for Alina’s cavalier attitude towards safety. Also, in the part where the ahuizotl grabs Alina’s hair, did it take just a piece or the whole thing? Hmm, probably the former. None of the other characters, or Alina herself, remark on Alina being bald, or anything like that.

Let’s switch gears and talk about Mirai. I probably should have mentioned this before, but her brother Junpei is one of Alina’s friends. It’s through him that she has the recordings of Alina’s adventures. Mirai encounters a kitsune, who she names Fox Ears, while ridding a bus in Japan. Kitsune are Japanese fox spirits, and close cousins to the Chinese huli jing and the Korean gumiho. One of the biggest differences is that, while huli jing and gumiho are almost always female, kitsune can be female or male. I bring this up because I auditioned to play Fox Ears. I saw the call for auditions, and I felt I needed to start putting myself out there more, so I tried out.

I was trying for Mark Hamill’s take on The Joker from Batman: The Animated Series. Unfortunately, I kind of missed the mark. It was also hard to find the privacy to record my lines. Still, I sent what I felt was my best take, and at least I could say I tried. I got a bunch of thumbs up on Casting Call Club. Don’t know if that’s good or not, but I thought “well, maybe I actually have a shot.” There were a lot of auditions for Fox Ears, and ultimately the role went to Maddie Shallan. I remember listening to one audition, I think it might have been her’s, and I thought, “well, I can’t beat that. I’m DOA.” I thought she did an excellent job as Fox Ears; far better than I probably would have been. I look forward to seeing more of her performance as Fox Ears in coming seasons.

I also considered auditioning for the bully character who briefly appears in one episode, but I could never get any take I was satisfied with. Instead, G3, who normally plays Sam, voiced the bully. May I just say, G3 has some serious range. I didn’t even realize it was him until the credits said so. Oh well, maybe next time. And I concede that having both an actor named Sam and a character named Sam could lead to a who’s on first scenario.

Okay, now we’ve got to talk about some of the stuff that occurs at the very end of the season. As such, there will be spoilers. So, turn back now if you don’t want that.

Last chance, you sure you want to continue?

If everyone who wants out is gone, let’s get into it.

So, Terry tasks our heroes with helping them find a vetala. They’re from Hindu Mythology, and are kind of like ghouls, but they are quite knowledgeable about humans. They especially like to tell riddles that drive humans insane. So, what does the vetala ask our heroes? Why, to name the park of course. Well, that’s a no brainer, or so I thought. See, I’d never considered that the characters never refer to that park by its full name. They always just call it the park. I guess my brain subconsciously filled in the name Proserpina because of the show’s name. Throughout the seasons, our characters have been trying to find out more about who Sam is. One of the things they discover is that a woman name Jessica constantly pops up when they look into Sam. Well, she finally appears in the last episode of the season, and she’s clearly not human. There’s something mythical about her, but I’m not sure what. My temptation is to say demigod, but that might not be correct.

But speaking of speculation, let’s do a bit more. Last time, I speculated about why Sam can’t hear certain residents of the park, such as JD. Now, we’ve seen Terry doesn’t like that Alina has been getting close. What if that wasn’t just demigod arrogance? What if Terry feels responsible for Sam? But why would that be? Well, here’s where it gets speculative. What if Sam is undead? That is, he somehow died, and was revived as something not quite human. So, maybe he can’t fully perceive the park due to being outside the natural order now. Granted, he’s shown no hints of being undead. Maybe he’s an artificial creature, like a golem or a shabti, and is working in the park in hopes of becoming a real boy some day. Under this theory, Sam can’t hear the creatures because he has no soul inside of him at the moment. Again, pure speculation on my part.

Or what if I’ve got it backwards. I’ve been focusing on Sam, but it just now occurred to me that we don’t really know too much about Alina. We know about the lives of most of that other characters, but we don’t know much about Alina outside of her adventures in Proserpina Park. What if there’s a reason for that. What if Alina is some sort of mythical creature, or even a demigod or goddess, but has lost her memories? But she’s starting to awaken her true mythical nature as a result of spending time in the park. Hence, the aitvaras appearing in her apartment. That would explain why Sam was okay with Alina being in the park, but not Drew and Jun. And maybe that’s why Alina was so blasé about Cerberus when she first saw him. Perhaps, subconsciously, she recognized him as something familiar. But again, this is totally speculative on my part.

Also, it appears there are indeed other parks. There’s a Kukunochi Park in Japan, but it seems that will be a story for next season. I looked it up, and apparently Kukunochi is the kami of trees in Japanese Mythology. Though, it will probably be a bit before we get season three. 

Angela Yih is taking a much deserved rest. She’s going to need to recharge her batteries, because she’s recently become production coordinator at Realm Media. Very exciting indeed. Congratulation to you, Angela! Realm is home to a wide variety of audio dramas and podcast created by some of the top writers within the world of speculative fiction. I recently listened to Bullet Catcher, because I wanted to be supportive of Angela and the company she now works for. Think I’ll try Ninth Step Murders or maybe Marigold Breach next.

I want to wish Angela all the best in her new endeavors. I’d also like to say, if it wasn’t obvious by now, season two of Residents of Proserpina Park is absolutely fantastic. It both met and exceeded the standards set by season one. Whenever it comes out, I have full confidence that season three will be absolutely fantastic. Go and listen to season two of Residents of Proserpina Park if you have not done so already.

Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.