Ponzo and Friends ★

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Slice of Life

"Ponzo and Friends" follows 3 Wish Pets, Ponzo, Zipper and Muffins, who start living together with their new human companions, Rana Hopkins and Penn Gwynne. Not used to the complexities of adulthood, these Wish Pets learn to help their friends handle relationships, gender and mental struggles.

Worldbuilding

"Ponzo and Friends" is set in present day Singapore where most of the hijinks take place. Closest to the Earth is Planet Petsy, the home of all Wish Pets.
Some Wish Pets choose to volunteer helping out the children of Earth with their troubles, and follow a strict set of rules set by the Wishing Association.

Ranks

A measurement system determining the strength of a Wish Pet. The higher the rank, the stronger the Wish Pet's magic.

Z-Rank

Most controversial rank for Wish Pets. These types of wishes have consequences to how they are granted, such as the Monkey’s Paw, and are not officially recognised under the association.

S-Rank

The highest rank for Wish Pets. These pets have less limits to what they can grant and can form their own wishing rules as long as they abide by the existing rules set by the association.

A-Rank

Second-highest rank for Wish Pets. These pets can grant wishes for everyday life but are limited by physical factors.

B-Rank

Third-highest rank for Wish Pets. These pets can only grant wishes in specific circumstances (shooting stars, 11:11 wishes) or on special occasions like birthdays or New Year’s.

C-Rank

Lowest rank for Wish Pets. These pets can only grant wishes in very specific conditions, like wishing wells or fountains. Wish bones and blowing on dandelions are also included.
(Aspirational wishes are based on probability and not guaranteed to come true.)

Characters

Click on the icons to learn about each character!!

Ponzo Fuzzleball

He/She | A billion years old | Wish Pet

An S-Rank pet who uses his chewy star-shaped candies to grant almost any wish 3 times a week. Unfortunately he is a huge buttface so your wish has to be good enough for him to consider granting it.

Fun Facts

  • Her design was based off my redesign of Nabnab from Garten of Banban.

  • Since coming down to Earth, his favourite hobby is to ragebait and scam people. There's probably a few commentary videos of her on Youtube.

  • He bugs Zipper about giving him video game consoles or gift cards, knowing she can't give them to him.

Zipper Pupperoni

He/She | A billion years old | Wish Pet

An A-Rank pet who stores presents in his tummy, Zipper is limited to gifting material items instead of more abstract or transformative concepts. However, her gifts cannot be expensive luxury items 98% of the time as the value of an item can drain her energy.

Fun Facts

  • His wish quirk is based off of Dibo the Gift Dragon.

  • She enjoys romantic comedies and always wants to watch them when she visits Penn's house!!

  • Gets really into Mister Maker crafts and starts making all sorts of knickknacks in her free time.

Banana Muffin Bonanza Fonnanza Cakerton III

He/They | A billion years old | Wish Pet

A B-Rank birthday pet who carries special candles that only grants wishes if they aren't said out loud. If wishes aren't done on a birthday, it can have half-baked side effects.

Fun Facts

  • His favourite singer is Kasane Teto, with songs like “BIRDBRAIN” and “Kasane Territory”.

  • They find shredding ASMR to be scary and has nightmares of being stuck in one of those machines. Same with hydraulic presses.

  • Sometimes Ponzo runs him over with a steamroller just for fun. However, the two of them both share a common interest in Roblox obbies and tycoon games, so it's not that bad.

Rana Hopkins

She/Her | 20 years old | Italian-Korean American

A confident and spunky college student and part-time smoothie barista, Rana is always looking to bead many colourful bracelets and find weird-looking frog trinkets she can add to her ita bag.

Stressed out with overflowing schoolwork and difficult friendships, Rana learns to prioritise her own feelings over being obligated to appeal to others.

Fun Facts

  • Her birthday is 30th June, and her MBTI is ENFP.

  • She’s thought about owning a Tamagotchi but has a track record of neglecting virtual pets… Maybe she'll get a decorative charm.

  • She really wants to be a zookeeper someday so she can feed all the cute frogs and reptiles.

Penn Gwynne

He/Him | 20 years old | Chinese-Thai Singaporean

A reserved college student and part-time library assistant, Penn comes off scary to some, but he's a lot more bubbly when you get to know him. He’s always ready to geek out about anime or penguins when given the opportunity.

Battling with depression, social anxiety and gender dysphoria as a closeted trans man, Penn tries his best to be comfortable in his own body and to be more confident in himself.

Fun Facts

  • His birthday is 7th August, and his MBTI is INFJ.

  • He has aspirations of being either an animator or comic book artist to pursue the many projects in his head.

  • He has a small collection of plastic shurikens and kunai, which freaked out the Wish Pets when they first met.

Background

Taking inspiration from The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish, Doraemon, Mob Psycho 100, as well as my own school life, "Ponzo and Friends" is a series that balances comedic moments and heartfelt conversations with its characters navigating the realities of adulting and the magic of childlike wonder.
I've always enjoyed cartoons with funny looking animals and imagined many kinds of stories of characters stumbling into colourful imaginative worlds.

I came up with the idea of "Ponzo and Friends" mostly on the fly. Initially called "Ponzo and Zipper", I didn't have much story for these characters aside from "weird wishing pets roaming Earth" until I decided to revisit an old unused character from 2020 (who's now become Rana) to be one of their companions did I decide to expand upon their personalities and dynamics.
Their story is far from complete but I hope to one day make "Ponzo and Friends" a project that resonates with children and young adults who feel weird or out of place in the world like me.

artwork by Robin (whimsifolly)!! ⋆˙⟡

About the Creator

Heya! My name's Mad and I do a bunch of cool stuff!! You can find more of that on my carrd!!

Gallery

Click to enlarge images!!