What happens if you look at it from the command line BTW?
From the Windows command line, the new folders I create look "mostly" right. The accent over the "a" in "Pulsação" doesn't show up, so it reads "Pulsaçao" - but I can cd to them properly. Seems like a display limitation/quirk of the command line, while the filesystem has the correct information.
The original problem folder however, shows up as "Pulsac,ao" and I can't figure out how to cd to it at all.