![[Nutbladder]_Mawaru_Penguindrum_-_07v2_[08D72AD4].mkv_snapshot_23.39_[2011.08.26_20.02.07]](http://www.shamefulotakusecret.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Nutbladder_Mawaru_Penguindrum_-_07v2_08D72AD4.mkv_snapshot_23.39_2011.08.26_20.02.07.jpg)
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s superbly done. However, I feel like this show has reached the masturbatory heights of Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, not quite a bad thing given how much I love that show, but something’s not clicking with me. I mean, on paper it should absolutely floor me about the kind of balls it takes to make the protagonist of the majority of the first 8 episodes a disgusting, warped-in-the-head stalker. Balls, I tell you.
But I already knew that about Ikuhara. This show has become for me about how he’s back, how he’s up to his old tricks only new, less sparkly, and now darker. When the creator has overtaken the narrative, I know something’s not working for me. Again don’t get me wrong – I love Ikuhara and his merry band that was Be Papas. But I’m here to enjoy anime, not creator mythology.
So what do I get? Apart from an intriguing game of interpretation and chasing herrings of different colors, I get to see the unraveling of Ringo and the utter helplessness of Shouma in the face of things. The cool bro barely gets screen time and doesn’t even get to bone any of the hawt tail being thrown his way. All that incestual kiss did was to raise controversy.Like it’s playfulness with all the panty non-shots, the show is a tease.
Maybe project M leads to actual action instead of aggravatingly deviant, yet harmless behavior. I need something meaty to sink my teeth in this show. One cannot live on remembering love alone – for that in itself is just another kind of fanservice.
What I want to see (I don’t mind surprises, but I’ve been surprised for 7 episodes straight so I don’t mind not going for an eight):
Actual consequences: death, sex, pregnancy, etc.
- Kanba doing stuff: killing, sexing, knocking girls up, etc.
- No Shoma.
- Dark Himari doing stuff: killing, sexing, getting knocked up, etc.
- Ringo getting stuff done and not just relentlessly frustrated: getting killed, getting sexed, getting knocked up, etc.
/rant
The way I look at it, Ringo’s not unlike one of the Student Council characters in Utena. They each had their obsessions and troubles and whatnot, but we had several such characters to bounce between, so we saw numerous stories unfolding at the same time. With Penguindrum it feels like we’ve been watching Nanami’s story arc for the last 7 episodes without diverging off into Juri, Touga, Miki, or Saionji’s stories. If the story was cycling through several characters the way Utena did, I think the series’ roundabout nature wouldn’t be as frustrating.
I accept this. Ringo’s just after “that thing which shines,” or something “eternal,” the “power to cause miracles” etc etc.
It’s not even a nitpick, but it’s Nanami who was never after any of these things really. Even during the Tale of the Rose shadow play here sihlouette was the only one missing… and it shows in how the Adolescence of Utena film treated her (my favorite character).
But this isn’t your point. I agree completely that by having multiple characters to bounce off with, and having a variation of the theme in general serves Utena so well and is something Penguindrum can’t take advantage of.
While I am enjoying the show as much as I can every week (I am utterly infatuated with Ringo after all), I do think about the others who aren’t into her. What about the Princess of the Crystal? Is she doomed to provide the obligatory Survival Strategy scene, and just that?
There’s also the question of where all this deal with Ringo is heading to, which is still out in the open.
I don’t think I’m ever going to drop this show, but at some point it will feel like I’m only watching because I can’t bear not seeing what happens next.
Call me wind because I am absloutely blown away.
…and this is why I didn’t write a post for the episode.
I almost feel as if Ikuhara is doing the show for a particular audience , an audience I am not a part of. So I get to sit on the side and appreciate the fireworks but…
But who? I can’t wrap my head an audience so particular to enjoy this show exactly the way it’s done… no I am not counting all the bloggers who are writing about this show and get caught up with the speculation of both plot and the different colored herrings.
I don’t know the answer to this. We’ll see when the 2ch popularity polls begin to come out I guess.
I think it’s me, but I might be wrong (I have to catch up).
From what I’ve heard from those familiar with novel spoilers episode 8 will be the climax of Ringo’s arc and after that the focus shifts
At any rate next ep will be “shit gets real: the episode”
I’ve enjoyed penguindrum a lot through and through and think it’s brilliant. Honestly, I’ve enjoyed this more than Utena’s first arc (though not as much as later three)
I look forward to this. But ugh, I did not enjoy this anywhere as much as I wanted to.
I thought Ringo’s arc would last 2, 3 episodes tops. She would be a ‘normal’ character that introduces us to the world of Penguindrum whose story links all the major players, but passes on the MacGuffin to more powerful hands, used and forgotten once the ball got rolling. I appreciate the attempt to subvert my expectations, but she looks and acts exactly the part of the bit player, except her story has stretched to nearly 1/3rd of the full length of the series! In short, I can’t figure out what this series is doing either.
Sigh, yes. But of course I will hold on and be prepared to radically change my opinion. I warned myself about this (here on this blog)!
Mawaru Penguindrum is tricky.
On one hand, it’s almost frustratingly obtuse–the focus of the first few episodes is a deranged stalker, the plot abruptly stops just as it appears to start, and key members of the cast remain frustratingly vague seven episodes in. There are moments that are pretty damn electrifying–the climax of episode five, for one–but then there are episodes like four and seven that are almost like throwaways.
Were the director anyone else but Ikuhara, I’d be pretty convinced that the show had no idea what it was doing. But there are so many little hints, so much visual detail in each scene and globs of foreshadowing that I’m pretty damn sure that Ikuhara and co. do know exactly what they are doing–the various company signals, the symbolism, key lines of dialogue interlaced throughout fit together too well to be coincidence. But knowing that Ikuhara and co. are capable, and have a plan, then what’s up with the pacing? What the hell is going on???
Reminded of some of the critical reactions to Gene Wolfe’s insane science-fantasy-allegory-travelogue-mindscrew The Book of the New Sun. On one hand, Algis Budrys says:
“I am in the presence of a practitioner whose moves I cannot follow; I see only the same illusions that are seen by those outside the guild [of writers]. I know the cards are up the sleeves somewhere, but there are clearly extra arms to this person.”
On the other hand, though, as Baird Searles says:
“Mannered it certainly is, and stylish; [but] under all that glittering edifice of surprising words and more surprising events and characters, is there a story or a concept of any stature?”
At any rate, I’ll be relieved when it’s all over, simply because by that point it would be possible to watch the whole thing through and judge whether it’s a very interesting failure or a dense, inaccessible but perpetually surprising success. Or something in between, because these things usually are.
(On the other hand, it could be that Ikuhara is simply a lot better at writing episodic rather than linear storylines–both Sailor Moon and Utena are more of the former, while I’d venture that Penguindrum is the latter. But I don’t want to take up any more space so I’ll just leave off on that note)
Interesting point on episodic vs. linear. I’ll have to chew on that for a while. Thank you for your thoughts. Trust that the people in this discussion (so far) including myself, have a very healthy respect for Ikuhara.
One more thing: Wabisabi of Iwa ni Hana’s started up a blog specifically devoted to dissecting Mawaru Penguindrum. The author wrote up a an analysis of the first six episodes that was frankly pretty brilliant, so it might be worth checking over occasionally for intellectual stimulation?
http://iwanihana.info/mawaru/
Probably the most interesting thing so far–the analysis of the scene in Episode 4 where the penguin appears to be trying to save Ringo but turns out to be going for a fish instead. Innocent gag, or crucial take on survival strategy dropped in what to all intents and purposes appears to be an obnoxious filler episode?
I’ve read all that, which is why I mentioned “Apart from an intriguing game of interpretation and chasing herrings of different colors” on the post. She’s very good.
An offhand conversation with a friend about Penguindrum this past week resulted in pretty much the same sentiments you express here, with the term “Fuuko Syndrome” being coined (after the first story arc of CLANNAD).
I think what’s frustrating is that we already have an interesting main cast in terms of the three siblings. While Ringo is endearing, she’s not the protagonist that was promised and her increasingly large role just seems to crowd out the tight symmetry of the three original protagonists. Having her around for 8 episodes would be fine in a much longer series (for example… Utena…) but here she just eats up too much time.
These eps didn’t happen. I just saw ep two a few hours ago and it was GREAT.
Hey Shamefulotakusecret,
This question may be a little off-topic, Crack, Twist, Heat, Then Stretch, Electrify and Knead
Wishes