Mawaru Penguindrum

Title:Mawaru Penguindrum
輪るピングドラム (Japanese)
Overall:Buy
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: Animation - Brains Base
HORIE Yui
Three siblings, twins Kanba and Shouma, and the in-and-out-of-the-hospital Himari who's in poor health, live together at the Takakura home. One day, when the siblings are out on a trip to the aquarium, Himari collapses. The doctors state that nothing can be done for her anymore, but then, a miracle occurs...
(Summary Courtesy of MyAnimeList.net)


Started airing on July 7, 2011.
Scheduled to air for 24 episodes.
Animated by Brain's Base
1:34min OP video - YouTube Video
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Buy 9 8 8 8 10 10 Ggultra2764 [series:2460#1552]
Directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara, the same mind responsible for the surreal and complex symbolism portrayed in 90s anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, Mawaru Penguindrum is just as surreal and complicated in its exploration of the issues faced by the Takakura siblings as Kanba and Shouma try to find the means necessary to save the life of their younger sister Himari as she is living on borrowed time from a strange entity known as the Princess of the Crystal. As one should expect from Penguindrum if they've seen Utena, not all is what it seems on the surface with the many characters and elements we come to encounter throughout the series. Characters that seem hostile or friendly have ulterior motives for their actions and their personal beliefs may or may not be as just as one would think. Not to mention that while the series does start off seemingly light-hearted as we see the family life of the Takakuras in earlier episodes while tailing the obsessive stalker with a crush Ringo, there are hints to a darker side yet to come and this darker side comes full force by the time the second half of the show comes about as we learn of the true motivations and realities behind the show's characters and elements, a good amount of which proved to be quite shocking to this reviewer yet made sense considering the good amount of foreshadowing the series provided in earlier episodes to prove that something else was up.

Penguindrum is quite psychological and symbolic in its developments focused around its exploration of existentialism, or fate to the characters in the series. The series explores the mental states of its characters as we learn more about their backgrounds and developments as they are connected to other characters and elements. It also makes use of surrealism and philosophical elements in its exploration of a number of touchy social issues connected to the backgrounds of its characters such as child abuse, abandonment, cult activity, social status and sexuality; as well as examining character beliefs regarding existentialism from their tragic pasts. The show's more mystic elements such as the diary carried around by Ringo and the strange penguin companions that accompany each of the Takakura siblings, outside of their relevant roles at adding aspects to Penguindrum's plot, also help at exploring aspects to the characters beyond their outward appearance as this is a series that definitely shows everything on the surface is not as it seems.

In terms of presentation, the visuals to Penguindrum are used to full effect in the series to contribute to its surreal and symbolic elements with its plot and characters. The extraordinary places that characters enter such as the world of the Princess of the Crystal and Train of Fate help create otherworldly elements to the series much like the Rose Duels and the Gates to Revolution did in Utena that serve to enhance the surreal feel that this series gives off. The show also has a penchant for using seemingly irrelevant objects and details like apples, subway route signs and penguins prominently which play a much bigger symbolic role than one would assume. It has a lively presentation with bright, vivid colors and a great amount of visual detail used in its settings and characters. For the show's soundtrack, it has a fairly diverse soundtracks as many episodes in the series come with their own ED songs. The OP and ED musical choices are J-Pop (with some occasional use as insert tracks), yet the moods are either fairly upbeat or slow-paced to reflect on the events that took place within an episode that they fit well at every point they were used.

With its complex symbolism and characterization, Mawaru Penguindrum isn't my personal favorite anime of 2011 for nothing. There hasn't been a TV anime title this elaborate in the execution of its plot/ character development and symbolism that I've seen of anime titles made in recent years. It reminds me of titles like Serial Experiments Lain and Utena that require you to think about what message the series is trying to convey to its audience and keep you wondering what will become of the characters as they come to know more about the world they are diving into. Whether you like deep-thinking titles or any title with a well-thought out plot and characters, you should definitely give Mawaru Penguindrum a shot.

Last updated Friday, December 23 2011. Created Friday, December 23 2011.
Rent Stretch [series:2460#628]
(Rent- or Watch+)

(All episodes watched):

Mawaru Penguindrum was a show which seemed at first like a silly, outlandish show (which I originally mentally categorized with Usagi Drop). It leapt to 'favorite' status with me at the very beginning, but slowly slid in popularity with me afterwards as it became increasingly clear that it would not be the show which I had thought.

My first impression was that for all its absurdity, this show makes more sense than a number of others that didn't have nearly as much weirdness to them and which were trying to make themselves clear all along. The craziness worked; MP offered a fun, silly, philosophic take on life (and I had thought it would be a children's show). Seriously, penguins offer a sort of link to the divine: the Goddess of Penguins has some sort of 'Survival Strategy' in mind for the three siblings. A number of crazy plot twists were served up, but there's a method to this madness, and I more-or-less understood what was going on and was eager to see where it would go from here. If it's handled skillfully and rendered plausible, there's nothing like an 'impossible' twist to grab my interest. I guessed that the secret to this show was that something absurd is crammed into the character's lives, and they have no choice but to adapt to it and make the best of it. They do this in a clever, believable, and humorous manner, which makes them likeable and the show great fun.This seemed like the way more new shows ought to be.

After the amusing 'stalking' arc came to an end, this show began getting more and more bizarre, with a supernatural library, 'Black Bunnies', deals regarding who lives and who dies, and who knows what else coming up. I became uncomfortable with my feeling that all of these confusing elements might never come together and make sense at the end. What do I need to remember, and what is just a joke or parable? I can't remember everything. The tone around the halfway mark seemed less wacky and more far-out. Is it all a philosophical muse on the existence or nonexistence of 'destiny'? I wish I knew. Numerous people express their opinions on the matter, one in each episode. I found myself feeling that I was increasingly losing touch with the story and consequently having a harder time maintaining interest. Mawaru Penguindrum was looking to be a show which I would have to watch twice in order to understand everything, and I don't like it when that happens.

Let me see if I can do a better job of putting my problems with Mawaru into words: The bits and pieces are great, but I can't say whether the story as a whole is going anywhere. It seems that it continues to expand, adding more and more plot threads, when it ought to be contracting as it nears a conclusion. Is this about terrorism, or divine intervention in life, or both, or neither? And what happened to the Penguin Goddess? She had gone missing for several episodes. I am frustrated that right from the start a crazy idea is pitched to us--there's a Penguin Goddess out there somewhere--but no explanation is forthcoming. You can't just start a series off with a Goddess appearing and then forget about her afterwards. Another problem with this show is that there's a lot of stylized language, and you can never be sure that what somebody says is what they really mean. As we near the end we know about as much about whether this woman really is a Goddess, and why there's a Goddess devoted to penguins, as we did after episode two. Likewise, the Goddess demanded the 'Penguindrum' right at the start of the series, and we still know nothing about what exactly it is or why she wants it. Instead of answering the tantalizing questions it had raised, the series lets them fizzle out as it shifts its attention to different topics. I'd much rather know the truth about the Goddess than the truth about Kan and Shoma's parents. Maybe the conclusion will answer some of my fundamental questions, but maybe not--it might just be surreal artsy stuff which is supposed to please us but leaves me in particular beating my head against a wall.

Ah, the old 'It was all a dream!' ploy. I guess I should have seen that coming. If you can't get your story to make sense, you can always go surreal. No doubt many people were delighted with this conclusion, and it made plenty of stylized, symbolic sense, but I felt it was a cop-out. What is the meaning behind apples? Garden of Eden? Did Kan explode, or something? Were Himari, Momoko, and the Penguin Goddess all the same person? Why was there a Penguin Goddess to begin with? Does 'fate' exist or not? Ggultra2764 mentioned that Mawaru had the same director as Revolutionary Girl Utena; that may be why the conclusion made about as much sense as the Utena movie. I say that in order to be 'moving' a story has got to make some sense; confusion isn't moving. Penguindrum was a show which morphed from a whimsical and funny one to a dark one that was concerned with evil and cruelty. An interesting show, but not one that makes complete sense or was what I had hoped it would be.

Last updated Monday, May 28 2012. Created Thursday, July 14 2011.

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Official Japanese Series Web Site http://penguindrum.jp/

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