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Dec. 23rd, 2011 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsSo ![[personal profile]](https://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shati and I watched the first couple episodes of Mawaru Penguindrum together this summer, and ever since then, Shati has been periodically asking me whether she should catch up.
For the first few episodes, my answer was: "I don't know! There is a lot of stalking! But I'm still watching?"
For the five or six episodes after that, my answer was: "I don't know! There's a lot of attempted date rape and also someone made a frog spawn on somebody else's back and it was really disturbing! But I can't seem to stop watching . . .?"
For the five or six episodes after that, my answer was: "I don't know! There's a lot of child abuse! But I think it's actually going somewhere really interesting, and . . . I seem to have feelings . . . about everyone?"
And now the last episode has gone by, and all I can say is ;ajlsdk;fkjds;HOW IS MY HEART BREAKING FOR THIS SHOW I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW I LIKED UNTIL HALFWAY THROUGH.
So: Mawaru Penguin Drum! It's about a girl who is dying, and her brothers who are sort of obsessed with her, and the magical penguins that come to save the day, except it isn't, actually, at all.
This is Himari! She is my favorite, because she's super adorable, but also because it would be so easy for her to just be the saintly dying damsel -- but she's a real person, she's got a bizarre and quirky sense of humor, and a surprising strength of will, and dreams and ambitions and backstory of her own that have nothing to do with her brothers. I LOVE HER. HIMARI DAY FOREVER.
For example, this is Himari playing dress-up with her symbolic penguin! BUT MORE ON THIS LATER.
Anyway, Himari is saved by a magical PENGUIN HAT that she gets at the aquarium. It can save her life! But when she wears it, it also possesses her and turns her into an overbearing penguin magical girl princess uttering cryptic commands:
Needless to say, her brothers, Kanba and Shoma, are a little confused by this.
But they'll do whatever they have to to save Himari! Kanba is the red-headed one, who is forceful and a playboy and also more inclined to do disturbing things like meeting sinister eople on the train, stalking lingerie shops, and kissing his sister. Until I learned his name, I called him Touga.
Shoma, meanwhile, is the nervous and socially awkward one who for several episodes I called Miki. As Kanba's activities to save Himari grow shadier and shadier, shy Shoma is stuck with trying to fill out the penguin princess' commands by following around a girl called Ringo, who just might have the MacGuffin the penguin princess is looking for.
Ringo . . . man, what can I say about Ringo. When we first meet her, she is a DEDICATED STALKER whose only wish in life is to marry her teacher and is willing to go to any lengths to do it. She is possibly the most strong-willed person in the show, for all the wrong reasons, and for the first several episodes she TERRIFIED me.
It is very safe to say that Ringo is an extremely messed-up little girl, but she goes through character development like nobody's business and now . . . I love her desperately . . .? AND I DON'T KNOW HOW THIS HAPPENED.
This is Tabuki, the teacher in question. He's very sweet.
This is his fiancee, Yuri. She's a takurazuka singer and is FABULOUS.
Both of them are much more complicated than they seem on the surface. TO PUT IT MILDLY.
This is Masako. She pops up a couple episodes in to stalk Kanba, and spends most of her time running around and shooting people with bizarre memory weaponry. She is basically like if Juri and Nanami had a lovechild, terrifying as that sounds.
I forgot to mention that along with Himari's life, the Princess also gives them pet penguins. Their job is to get into lulzy-yet-symbolic antics.
And for the first six or seven episodes, it seems like that is that! Himari is cheerful, the penguins are lulzy, Ringo is increasingly disturbing, the boys are increasingly in over their head . . .
And then it turns out that, hey, the show is not actually about ANY OF THAT.
The show is about families, and about parents, and siblings, both real and found. It's about fate, and punishment, and whether you can escape it. It's about damaged people and whether rescuing them is enough to make them whole.
It's about the Child Broiler, and what happens to the children nobody wants:
And also there comes along this guy, who first appears in an elevator, in an episode of psychological deconstruction, and shows up with increasing frequency to manipulate everyone around him and refer to himself as a ghost.
(Also, he has evil pet rabbits who double as creepy children in his soul. I'm not really sure what that's about.
)
And somewhere around the time that Ringo was learning about being herself, and Kanba and Himari and Shoma were trying desperately to keep their family together, and the show was asking increasingly difficult questions about kids who don't have a place, and Yuri and Masako were having EPIC MEMORY BALL SLINGSHOT WARS, I went from WHAT THE HELL IS THIS to THIS IS MY HEART, PLEASE COME STOMP ON IT, and now there is no going back.
. . . . this is the most incoherent write-up of a show ever. I blame Ikuhara. But, yes! If you're easily triggered: BEWARE, because this show hits just about every trigger you can name, from attempted date rape to incest to severe child abuse. But if you're not, and you like Ikuhara's style, and you're interested in stories about families and damaged kids trying to figure out how to save themselves . . . then, yeah. It's worth it.
(PS: If you are like 'but it's an Ikuhara show! Where are the lesbians?' then -- well, there are not as many lesbians as in Utena, but . . . Yuri's name is not irrelevant. Nor is the ending song with Himari in. AND THAT'S ALL I'M GONNA SAY.)
shati and I watched the first couple episodes of Mawaru Penguindrum together this summer, and ever since then, Shati has been periodically asking me whether she should catch up.For the first few episodes, my answer was: "I don't know! There is a lot of stalking! But I'm still watching?"
For the five or six episodes after that, my answer was: "I don't know! There's a lot of attempted date rape and also someone made a frog spawn on somebody else's back and it was really disturbing! But I can't seem to stop watching . . .?"
For the five or six episodes after that, my answer was: "I don't know! There's a lot of child abuse! But I think it's actually going somewhere really interesting, and . . . I seem to have feelings . . . about everyone?"
And now the last episode has gone by, and all I can say is ;ajlsdk;fkjds;HOW IS MY HEART BREAKING FOR THIS SHOW I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW I LIKED UNTIL HALFWAY THROUGH.
So: Mawaru Penguin Drum! It's about a girl who is dying, and her brothers who are sort of obsessed with her, and the magical penguins that come to save the day, except it isn't, actually, at all.
This is Himari! She is my favorite, because she's super adorable, but also because it would be so easy for her to just be the saintly dying damsel -- but she's a real person, she's got a bizarre and quirky sense of humor, and a surprising strength of will, and dreams and ambitions and backstory of her own that have nothing to do with her brothers. I LOVE HER. HIMARI DAY FOREVER.
For example, this is Himari playing dress-up with her symbolic penguin! BUT MORE ON THIS LATER.
Anyway, Himari is saved by a magical PENGUIN HAT that she gets at the aquarium. It can save her life! But when she wears it, it also possesses her and turns her into an overbearing penguin magical girl princess uttering cryptic commands:
Needless to say, her brothers, Kanba and Shoma, are a little confused by this.
But they'll do whatever they have to to save Himari! Kanba is the red-headed one, who is forceful and a playboy and also more inclined to do disturbing things like meeting sinister eople on the train, stalking lingerie shops, and kissing his sister. Until I learned his name, I called him Touga.
Shoma, meanwhile, is the nervous and socially awkward one who for several episodes I called Miki. As Kanba's activities to save Himari grow shadier and shadier, shy Shoma is stuck with trying to fill out the penguin princess' commands by following around a girl called Ringo, who just might have the MacGuffin the penguin princess is looking for.
Ringo . . . man, what can I say about Ringo. When we first meet her, she is a DEDICATED STALKER whose only wish in life is to marry her teacher and is willing to go to any lengths to do it. She is possibly the most strong-willed person in the show, for all the wrong reasons, and for the first several episodes she TERRIFIED me.
It is very safe to say that Ringo is an extremely messed-up little girl, but she goes through character development like nobody's business and now . . . I love her desperately . . .? AND I DON'T KNOW HOW THIS HAPPENED.
This is Tabuki, the teacher in question. He's very sweet.
This is his fiancee, Yuri. She's a takurazuka singer and is FABULOUS.
Both of them are much more complicated than they seem on the surface. TO PUT IT MILDLY.
This is Masako. She pops up a couple episodes in to stalk Kanba, and spends most of her time running around and shooting people with bizarre memory weaponry. She is basically like if Juri and Nanami had a lovechild, terrifying as that sounds.
I forgot to mention that along with Himari's life, the Princess also gives them pet penguins. Their job is to get into lulzy-yet-symbolic antics.
And for the first six or seven episodes, it seems like that is that! Himari is cheerful, the penguins are lulzy, Ringo is increasingly disturbing, the boys are increasingly in over their head . . .
And then it turns out that, hey, the show is not actually about ANY OF THAT.
The show is about families, and about parents, and siblings, both real and found. It's about fate, and punishment, and whether you can escape it. It's about damaged people and whether rescuing them is enough to make them whole.
It's about the Child Broiler, and what happens to the children nobody wants:
And also there comes along this guy, who first appears in an elevator, in an episode of psychological deconstruction, and shows up with increasing frequency to manipulate everyone around him and refer to himself as a ghost.
(Also, he has evil pet rabbits who double as creepy children in his soul. I'm not really sure what that's about.
)And somewhere around the time that Ringo was learning about being herself, and Kanba and Himari and Shoma were trying desperately to keep their family together, and the show was asking increasingly difficult questions about kids who don't have a place, and Yuri and Masako were having EPIC MEMORY BALL SLINGSHOT WARS, I went from WHAT THE HELL IS THIS to THIS IS MY HEART, PLEASE COME STOMP ON IT, and now there is no going back.
. . . . this is the most incoherent write-up of a show ever. I blame Ikuhara. But, yes! If you're easily triggered: BEWARE, because this show hits just about every trigger you can name, from attempted date rape to incest to severe child abuse. But if you're not, and you like Ikuhara's style, and you're interested in stories about families and damaged kids trying to figure out how to save themselves . . . then, yeah. It's worth it.
(PS: If you are like 'but it's an Ikuhara show! Where are the lesbians?' then -- well, there are not as many lesbians as in Utena, but . . . Yuri's name is not irrelevant. Nor is the ending song with Himari in. AND THAT'S ALL I'M GONNA SAY.)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-23 11:14 pm (UTC)I am still afraid of Ringo though. @_@
no subject
Date: 2011-12-24 02:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-23 11:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-24 03:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-24 08:40 pm (UTC)THAT IS AWESOME.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-24 03:04 am (UTC)JOHNRINGO NO" moments there are in the first half of the series. But - oh, Ringo I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. And I love this cracky, terrifying, disturbing show. ;o;Ahhhh, Sanetoshi, why are you Mikage and Akio's fabulous ghostly lovechild. D:
I don't know if I love this show as much as I love Utena yet, but then, Utena took a couple of complete watch-throughs for me to completely fall in love, so - I think it could happen. Or at least come close (especially if Himari/Ringo takes off as a fandom ship).
... I cried about three times, and the most during the last episode. ;o; MY HEART, IKUHARA, YOU HAVE RUTHLESSLY STOMPED UPON IT and if there's an official American release I will pay for the privilege of you doing it again.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-24 03:26 am (UTC)I think Utena is pretty much just all around a better-constructed and more coherent show, and it also says a lot of things that are close to my heart. And I can't recommend Mawaru Penguindrum unreservedly, for so many reasons, but . . . man, I do love it. I JUST HAVE TO ACCEPT THIS. (And hahaha, man, I HOPE IT DOES. I mean, by the end I did ship Shoma/Ringo sort of embarrassingly, but how much do I love that the very end is LADIES TOGETHER HANGIN' OUT? So much do I love this!)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-24 11:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-24 11:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-25 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-26 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-26 10:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-26 11:26 pm (UTC)Also, seeing your beautiful Penguindrum icons makes me want to get myself some!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-26 11:33 pm (UTC)Hee! I decided I wanted to make this post and then hastily went diving in the penguindrum LJ comm, because a Himari icon was clearly a necessity. And . . . then I couldn't stop . . .
no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 12:14 am (UTC)But oh, Himari, I love her so much. She's not your normal damsel in distress.
Man, I should go pick me up some of those Himari icons myself. XD ...And maybe pay for an account to... get more spaces... >>
no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 03:35 am (UTC)SHE IS SO WONDERFUL. I would happily have watched the "Himari role-plays with her vegetables and forces her brothers to do sea lion impressions!" show for twenty-four weeks, although obviously I'm also happy with what we got . . .
no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 09:00 am (UTC)Yes, I REALLY want to rewatch it. I'm glad it wasn't just me who was confused though. And I do think that with a rewatch, and knowing the things that I know now, a lot more of it will make sense and I'll be able to pick up on hidden symbolism that eluded me before.
SHE'S AMAZING. And so was her voice actress. I mean, she had the "adorably sweet angel that is impossible to hate, can chastise you and still remain the cutest thing in the world while doing so" voice down pat. That's pretty miraculous if you ask me.
...Umm, so, do you mind if I subscribe to you? I am enjoying this conversation greatly, and even if our interests are completely different outside of Penguindrum, you seem like a pretty awesome person. :)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 07:40 pm (UTC)AND RIGHT? From the very first episode, I knew she was going to be my favorite. Her voice actress was genius. (There was a lot of excellent voice acting, admittedly.)
And hee, please feel free, and I will subscribe back! I am enjoying this conversation as well. :D
no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 11:13 pm (UTC)The voice acting really, really was beyond the beyond. I read somewhere that the voice actors for all the Takakura children also voiced the penguins too. I never would have known. (Then again, all they did was 'kyuu' a lot, haha.)
Yay, I have done so! Looking forward to future conversations!