Fragrant of the Banana is the 10th episode of the
Parappa the Rapper anime, written by Toshiro Nomoto and
directed by Masami Shimoda.
Parappa, PJ and Matt are currently riding their bikes to
the baseball stadium, with the, chatting about the sport as
they get closer to seeing Schimidt, a famous baseball
pitcher in their town.
Once they get to the stadium, Paula greets them, and the
trio gets to see Schmidt play. Soon, they find out that
Sunny is there too, working to serve popcorn to the guests
through a popcorn making machine, which amazes Parappa, and
the boys soon ask for some popcorn from her and eat it
immediately.
Soon after, Sunny points out to Parappa that Schimidt is
currently running through the field, which Parappa sees as
an opportunity to get his autograph.
However, he soon gets stomped by an enthusiastic crowd of
people which desperately want Schimidt to give them
autographs too, with Parappa being flattened as Schmidt
autographies the signs these fans gave him. Thankfully,
Sunny tells Parappa that not all hope is lost yet.
It is at this point in time, however, that Gaster and Groober hop onto the scenery, with the duo dressed up in baseball jerseys and ready to follow Schmidt - even if the destination is the locker room. Gaster then proceeds to drag a knocked out Groober by the feet, regardless of whether Schmidt noticed or not.
Once they are in the locker room, Groober tells Gaster
that he has a baseball stuck on his face, leading Gaster to
punch him in order to get rid of the baseball, then to
punch him again in order to make him able to see again.
Following that, the rabbit asks his friend to search for
bananas through their smell on the locker room, as he knows
that Schmidt loves bananas - and they eventually find one
inside a locker room; which ends up being a banana big
enough to knock down Groober.
But as Schmidt approaches the locker room, he finds out
about Gaster and Groober, which enrages him.
Meanwhile, Katy, who is currently one of Schmidt's assistants and telling Parappa to wait until Schmidt returns to get an autograph from him. However, once Schmidt returns he refuses to give Parappa an autograph as he's more focused on getting his banana back - which he then ends up appearing suddenly, with the baseball player proceeding to hug it - only for it to turn out to be the bait used by Gaster and Groober in order to capture Schmidt; as Katy notices. Once Schmidt is captured, he is sent into a cage full of bananas, and Gaster even forces some of them into his mouth in order to shut him up.
However, Parappa notices what was going on and immediately
goes on bicycle alongside PJ and Matt in order to rescue
Schmidt.
As they chase Gaster and Groober's zeppelin, the
trio end up getting lost for a bit, only for Matt to find
where the zeppelin is going, directing the others to its
direction - but only to end up seeing it destroy itself as
they find themselves right in front of the zeppelin.
After the zeppelin self-destructs, PJ tells Parappa that he noticed a banana peel on the floor - but it's not only one, but a trail full of them leading to a destination which they're unsure of, but follow anyways as rescuing Schmidt is the biggest priority. The boys then start following the path while riding their bicycles, with Matt also carrying the seemingly intact engines of the zeppelin alongside him. This trail then leads them into a seemingly abandoned warehourse, where Gaster and Groober plan to use Schmidt for an autographed T-shirt business.
After hearing the purple duo's plan, Parappa and his
friends sneak into the warehouse in order to seize
opportunity.
Once the trio is in, they start punching Gaster and Groboer
order to knock them out for enough time to allow them to
free Schmidt. However, when PJ sees the sleeping Schmidt,
he starts wanting to go to sleep as well.
It is at this point that the injured Gaster wakes up
again, and alongside Groober, they start chasing down the
three boys. Matt attempts to decieve Gaster by telling him
that he doesn't know anything about the Schmidt plan, but
Gaster quickly detects his claims as lies - which only
makes the situation even worse.
And ultimately, the gang finds themselves in a showdown
against Gaster on top of the warehouse's roof.
As the boys start talking about Gaster, this leads the
rabbit to try dropkicking them - only for him to end up
hitting the roof and getting himself stuck instead. The
boys take this as a chance to get out and rescue Schmidt,
but Groober appears as soon as they turn the other way.
As the troublemaker duo encircles Parappa, Matt and PJ
even more tightly, the three boys decide to jump together
instead in order to crash everyone down into the building
- which leads the warehouse to break down as the characters
fall into the floor.
However, this also frees Schmidt.
After finding out Schmidt is free now, Parappa asks him for an autograph. However, Schmidt is about to be late for his game, which leads Matt to make an impromptu jetpack for him with the engines he got from the time Gaster and Groober's zeppelin self-destructed. However, the lack of an autograph dissappoints Parappa a bit.
Hours later, a depressed Parappa goes back to the
baseball field, but he doesn't feel happy as he still
wants Schmidt's autograph.
However, hours later, Schmidt enters the field, and Parappa
immediately notices, but doesn't put his hopes up on getting
an autograph, which leads to Matt telling Sunny, who then
tells Katy, who then tells Schmidt about Parappa really
wanting to get something as a gratitude for rescuing Schmidt.
This leads Schmidt to decdicate his next ball to no one
other than Parappa himself, which surpises even him as
Schmidt hits a home run, and Parappa succesfully catches
the ball even as the rest of the crowd desperately wants
it.
The episode ends with an elated Parappa giving Schmidt thanks for the ball, which he cherishes.
