A kid loses his father, watches his mother disappear into mystery, and the only thing he has is a pendant that doesn't come with instructions. He finds companions in a forest that's actively hiding something from him. The show builds its world through discovery, not exposition, which means you're as lost and determined as Popo is. Nothing here is handed to you, not the rules of the pendant, not why the forest is breaking, not what his father actually knew. By the time you understand what's happening, you've already stopped asking if Popo will find his mother and started asking what he'll have to become to save her.

Popo lives with his mother in a remote corner of a forest full of mantises, ladybugs, beetles and other insects. His father, known as the Guardian of the Forest, left home years ago and gave Popo a pendant with magical powers. One day a strange mist covers the woods, a sinister figure named Passer denounces Popo's father as an enemy of the forest people, and Popo returns home to find his mother turned into a half-plant, half-human being. Believing only his father can restore her, Popo sets out toward the east with new companions. The villain Adder and his henchmen send giant beetles against him, but Mushiking, the King of Beetles, keeps arriving to save him, and a small beetle called Chibi King joins his journey. A fantasy adventure based on the game.