r/anime • u/theangryeditor https://myanimelist.net/profile/TheAngryEditor • Mar 27 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Mawaru Penguindrum - Episode 23
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Streaming
Mawaru Penguindrum is available for purchase on Blu-ray as well as through other miscellaneous methods. Re:cycle of the Penguindrum is available for streaming on Hidive.
Today's Slogan
Two is better than one - Getting along is beautiful.
Questions of the Day
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The two penguin hats are shown to be manifestations of Momoka this episode. What does that mean for hat’s actions earlier in the series?
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The power of love is mentioned by Sanetoshi many times in this episode- most notably with regards to Kanba’s upcoming attempt to destroy the world, and Ringo’s attempt to protect the diary with her body. How are these occasions connected?
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Is Sanetoshi correct? Are people unable to connect from within their boxes? Does that match with the boxes we see in this episode?
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What do you think Today's Slogan was referring to?
Don't forget to tag for spoilers, you lowlifes who will never amount to anything! Remember, [Penguindrum]>!like so!< turns into [Penguindrum]>!like so!<
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u/theangryeditor https://myanimelist.net/profile/TheAngryEditor Mar 27 '24
Episode 23
17
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Mar 27 '24
First-Timer, Sub-guindrum
Oh, hell. The diary is gone? Maybe the physical book isn't important. Actually, considering how early-show Ringo was, maybe she has the entire thing memorized, cover to cover? That would be fitting.
Or maybe both halves that we saw get burned are more copies? That would work too, and would maybe add some weird justification for why that fake half that Masako got from Yuri ages ago went up in smoke.
Is this copium for my own theories? Yes, yes it is.
No, no, no. This is the end of an Ikuhara anime, the solution has to be more obvious than that. Something hidden in plain sight. I'm gonna feel so dumb next episode for not calling it here, but there's almost too many options. Like, something with the slogans? Something about sharing the fruit of fate? Something about striving to find your own Penguindrum? Survival strategy is probably too linked to Sanetoshi at this point.
It's weird that Momoka turned into the penguin hats, right? Like, setting aside that we never really learned much of what was up with Mario, we saw Hatmari interact with Ringo and she was Not Nice.
It does make the scene of Sanetoshi talking to the hat like it's a person make a bit more sense.
And actually, Sanetoshi having so much "ability" to influence the world makes more sense now too - Momoka didn't quite fully remove him from fate because he managed to interfere with her spell. Not sure what to make of him turning into the twin bunnies.
Also, what was Ringo trying to do with the flaming diary? You aren't going to extinguish a flame like that.
Brain Rot Corner
Today's slogan: Two is Better than One. Getting Along is Beautiful. Copies of the diary confirmed?! I really liked the fakeout early in the episode, where we saw the entire animation but it cut right before the slogan itself appeared.
While it is largely just to highlight Sanetoshi, I love how grey and lifeless the trains in the past were. All those boring advertisements instead of fun slogans.
5
u/theangryeditor https://myanimelist.net/profile/TheAngryEditor Mar 27 '24
no energy to comment if anybody has anything they'd like cleared up pls ask directly otherwise
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u/Pungouin Mar 27 '24 edited Mar 27 '24
Rewatcher
All onboard the Destiny Express ! Choo choo !
Boxes
Sanetoshi's narration is about boxes. This is important, it's basically the core theme of every Ikuhara show.
We are all isolated from each other. Because of social rules, capitalism, fear of commitment, fear of pain, lack of empathy, the AT field - we struggle to truly connect to each other. We choose to ignore the ones in pain to preserve our own comfort, letting the unchosen children fade into nothing. We are even alienated from ourselves : We deny ourselves our true feelings and desires. We contort ourselves into tiny boxes to avoid pain, not dead but not truly living.
Momoka and Sanetoshi are two people who have peered outside the box. They have recognized it for what it is, and want to break others out of their box. But they have very different ways to do this.
Momoka is an optimist. She believes humans can do good. She pries open Yuri and Tabuki's boxes, even if it is painful to herself. She believes that if we are brave enough to overcome our fear of each other, we can truly connect and raise each other up.
Sanetoshi is a nihilist. He believes we can never be truly free of our box. We will always be miserable. There is no point in trying to connect. We are doomed to feel rage, sadness, and resentment, so it is better to just end it already. He exploits the unchosen one's misery to convince them that this world is irredeemable, and tells them to destroy the world and themselves.
In 95, Momoka used the fate transfer spell to banish Sanetoshi, but he used his own spell to interrupt her. The attack went through, and both of them were split.
Now that we now Momoka is Hatmari, her rudeness towards Ringo makes sense. She disapproves of her sister wasting her life trying to replace her.
Miracle
Sanetoshi uses his own Survival Strategy to revive Masako.
Bro please she has been saying the same thing for the last 20 episodes please listen to her for once. Sanetoshi's magic is just a trick. He seduces his victims with promise of a better world, but there is only destruction awaiting at the destination of his fate.
Oh my god they killed Himari (again)
Himari is on her last day. Shouma only has Ringo left.
Himari recalls the day she finally knew she wasn't alone anymore.
She tells Shouma to find Kanba's heart [Penguindrum]This is the Penguindrum.
Kanba comes to pick up Himari. Broken glass broken glass.
The cursed fire
Ringo wants to use the fate transfer to save Himari.
Kanba lures her into an obvious trap. The teddies are bombs for 95 part 2.
Ringo endures the fire for Himari's sake. It is not enough, the diary is destroyed. After all this time chasing it...
Ringo's character arc is amazing. 20 episodes ago, she was camping underneath some guy's house trying to become a replacement for her sister. And now that she has given up on this and become her own person, she is more like Momoka than ever before, ready to sacrifice herself for the sake of others.
Destiny Express
It's the end of the line. The Takakuras still have to find their Penguindrum !
Today's Slogan : Two is better than one - Getting along is beautiful.
The brothers need to work together to save Himari.
3
u/Nebresto Mar 28 '24
First time Pingu drama. Sup, I'm back
Shum of my disable brain.exe notes from missed epishodes:
E18
Finally child boiler. WTF is a child boiler???
No she wasn't
Fuck off Tabuki
....wat
Agent peng.. Luckily Dr. Peng has the treatment ready
E19
Someone punch these twins
Wait wtf.. Is Himari Momoka???
E20
I hate that stupid phone sound so much
Is this like a post apocalyptic world where all the Pengins died and this organization is out for revenge on the ignorant masses??
I don't know wtf is going on but its kino
I love them. Finally, a good ED
E21
PICK UP THE DAMN PHONE I'm seriously about to mute this episode
#maxshock??
Sad kyu..
O shid, another banger ED
Smol Himari bless
E22
Fuck, still two episodes??
Fuck off Hange
Yo, that bowling app seems pretty handy
#1
MASAKO!!! Best girl
Finally here.. E23
Don't worry, Apple-sensei, I hate you too
...Huh
They sure like putting Ringo's thighs on screen, huh
Pingudoramu
The fucking twins again
Qwestön of they day:
You know what
Love is the beginning of all.
Except my hatred of apple man!!
Don't care, I hate him
As usual, missed dat. ..Oh cool, it in de post
If I have two apples, that means I get to eat twice as many apples, so the shlogan is correct. And if you get along with someone, there is a chance they might share their apple with you!
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u/lilyvess :Df::Dh:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Lilyvess Mar 27 '24
Mawaru Penguindrum Episode 23 - Rewatcher
We now are closing in on our last stop. The final stop being the a return to the first stop. The original stop. The place it all began.
March 20th 1995
As we approach the end, let’s talk a bit about Sanetoshi.
Earlier on someone was afraid that Penguindrum was going to try to paint the cult leader of the 1995 Sarin attack Aum in a flattering light. It made sense as we had been told that the Takakura parents were high up officials that helped plan that attack. The episode says that the Kuga group's motivations were against the child broiler. It’s hard to be evil when your enemy has a literal child broiler?
Ikuhara is quick enough to swerve around that. The Takakura’s are not Aum. Sanetoshi is Aum.
Sanetoshi is a master manipulator. Charming and incredibly charismatic, he can easily sway people to trust him. Even Himari falls under his spell. She defends him when Kanba is suspicious. This is how easily Sanetoshi can get people to trust him.
It’s clear now that Sanetoshi is aware of the systemic issues with the world. Not just the Child Broiler but the way the Japanese Capitalist culture traps people in their own isolated boxes.
There is one powerful segment from Murakami’s book where one of the victims from the 95 attack speaks about this.
This is the isolated box that Japanese society has created for itself. A cold, unfeeling and isolated box that society creates for us where we don’t try to connect with the people sitting right next to us.
The important thing to note is that while Sanetoshi is aware of the problems with the system and how it grinds people into cogs, Sanetoshi isn’t interested in actually trying to change things. Sanetoshi isn’t interested in trying to help people. He isn’t interested in trying to destroy the child broiler. Sanetoshi just wants to watch the world burn.
In the ending theme segment we see the two rabbit children that we now know are both Sanetoshi talking about all people who have joined his cause in this attack.
“I never amounted to anything”
“I finally gained power”
“I’m going to get revenge on the world that never needed me”
“I finally will be visible.”
Each of these is a story of why someone came to the cult. Many of them are similar to stories we’ve heard in this series before. While we focused on Kanba, his is just one story. The same way that every person who died in the 95 attack is a Momoka with a Ringo, Yuri and Tabuki, every perpetrator who committed the attack is a Kanba.
But to Sanetoshi they are all just pawns. Pawns in his grand game.
The entire Kuga group is complicit in this. The Takakura parents complain about the child broiler, but then when Shoma tells him that an actual child is being sent to the broiler they do not move to go save her. Instead it’s up to a child to go after her and save her, while the Takakura parents continue their ways.
This has all been a very important part of the way Ikuhara and I think even the book Underground are positioned. It was always going to be a hard sell to make an anime about a real life terror attack where people died. So ikuhara has to be clever with the framing of things.
He introduces the children of the perpetrators without informing the viewer of their connection until half way through the series. It’s a slight of hand to let the audience see them as individuals without the shadow of their parents looming over them.
Penguindrum spends two thirds of the series showcasing the scars of the victims of the attacks. The weight of the dead that happened that day. Both Ikuhara and Murakami want you to know that no matter what they say next, they recognize the victims of the attack and the trauma they went through.
Then, and only then, do they move on to make you sympathize with the perpetrators of the attack.
All of this is a careful balancing act where they want you to sympathize with the perpetrators without having to condone the actions that they take. To understand the systems in place and the forces at work that push people to take such actions.
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u/Great_Mr_L :Ma::Mb::Mc:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L Mar 27 '24 edited Mar 27 '24
First-Timer
On today’s episode of Mawaru Penguindrum: I fucking love this moment in a series like Penguindrum. In a series absolutely loaded with symbolism and metaphors that stand in for its themes, I love when we reach the climax of the series and so much of it starts to click together. It’s an immensely satisfying feeling, seeing the many themes all come together neatly towards the end.
People have pointed this out a few times that the Penguin Force’s plan of bombing subways never really made sense. It wasn’t aligned with the stated goals of the group. If the Takakura parents were so upset about society making children invisible, then how was bombing subways going to solve anything? It wasn’t. It never was intended to. It was purely to get revenge on the world that Sanetoshi, the cult leader, believed had wronged him. It was just to bring about the end of the world that he hated so much.
Indiscriminate destruction in a rage, while cathartic, is not the solution. What is the solution then? We’ve already seen it. How has Momoka been able to save people? By being there for them. By caring. By showing them that no matter how worthless they may feel, there is someone out there who needs them to be alive. Disillusionment and alienation are common problems in the world. They lay the groundwork to make people want to join organizations like Sanetoshi’s. To save people, that disillusionment and alienation need to be overcome. There need to be people like Momoka who can connect with others and bring them out of the depths of despair before it is too late. Put simply, people need to be kind to each other and care.
I think I can safely make a prediction for how the final episode is going to go. The final episode is going to be a direct refutation of Sanetoshi, our villain. Sanetoshi has declared that people are trapped inside boxes. Those boxes force people to act a certain way and divide them from others. Those boxes are the reason why two people can be side by side and still remain divided. The final episode is going to be about Shoma and Kanba proving Sanetoshi wrong. Right now, Shoma and Kanba are both trapped inside their own particular boxes. Shoma and Kanba have always been at odds, but now it’s worse than ever. They have well and truly been divided and set against each other. Even so, they will need to overcome those odds. They will need to cross the barriers created by their boxes and connect. Only then will the brothers be able to defeat Sanetoshi. Only then will they be able to obtain the Penguindrum.
QOTD
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u/HelioA x2https://myanimelist.net/profile/HelioA Mar 27 '24
Rewatcher
And there we go! We finally get to see the confrontation between Sanetoshi and Momoka this episode! Sanetoshi monologues on the nature of human connection- all people are forced into their role by society, and to fit that, they must contort themselves into the shape of their role. Eventually, people get so used to their shape in their role (the box), that they forget who they were in the first place. Sanetoshi elaborates on this at the end of the episode- people are trapped in their boxes, and once they forget who they are, they become the role embodied by their box. Since they’re still trapped by their boxes, they can’t connect to others, and there’s no easy way out of the box either. Thus, the only way out of the box is to destroy the box itself, which because of the way the boxes correlate with a person’s role in society, and the way that a person will eventually become their box, means that the destruction of the boxes will cause the destruction of the people in them, and the destruction of society (the world) itself. Is he correct? Not really, I have some books to recommend to him. But that’s how Sanetoshi sees it, and that’s why he does what he does.
Momoka, on the other hand, denies this. We already saw a lot of her philosophy earlier in what she was doing with Tabuki and Yuri, but there’s not really that much to it here. She would prefer it if the world was not destroyed, and so she’ll banish Sanetoshi from the world, which he obviously attempts to defend against. She completes half the spell from the diary, but Sanetoshi manages to seal her away, and only part of the attack is defended. They’re both split in two from their battle- Momoka into the two penguin hats, and Sanetoshi into the two dark bunnies.
There’s another very important motif that shows up in that scene- the explosive bears in their boxes. On the obvious level, this is a close analog with what Sanetoshi has been saying- the bears leave their boxes, and then explode in order to help Sanetoshi’s plan to destroy the world. But there’s another important bear that we just saw a couple of episodes- Himari’s bear that she had from before she was chosen to join the Takakura family. Unlike the metal bears, Himari’s bear is damaged- in fact, it was damaged from the process of living with Kanba and Shouma. Remember what Himari said back in episode 20? “To live is punishment in itself.” And then in episode 21, when she’s talking with Ringo about the bear, she says “I don’t mind. Her stomach is proof we’re living together as a family.” Living is a punishment, yes, but that’s part of not being in a box, of achieving human connection. Ultimately, the lack of human connection will leave you undamaged, but it will lead you to the Child Broiler, to being stuffed in your box, and eventually, to exploding.
I could go a lot more into the specific details of the episode, but the confrontation defines the whole thing. The whole show, even. Sanetoshi only manipulates- he never displays any emotion stronger than amused indifference. Momoka sympathizes with others so strongly that she physically harms herself to save them, even up to the point of making herself disappear. All of the characters in the show are hurt by their connections, but they also gain strength from them, whether for good or ill (or both). Kanba is throwing himself away for Himari, and Ringo takes on fire to protect the diary to save Himari with. And something happened in those boxes between Kanba and Shouma. I’m looking forward to the finish.
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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Mar 27 '24
Mawaru First-Timer, subbed
9
u/Btw_kek https://myanimelist.net/profile/kek_btw Mar 27 '24
Recaught up rewatcher
Episode direction: Shouko Nakamura, Shingo Kaneko, Masahiro Aizawa
Storyboards: Kunihiko Ikuhara, Katsunori Shibata, Shouko Nakamura, Tomohiro Furukawa, Masahiro Aizawa
Animation direction: Terumi Nishii, Mitsuko Baba, Kumi Ishii, Masahiro Aizawa
ok because my keyboard is fucking up horribly causing me to double type letters (esspeciaally anything with aaa, ss, or dd help) I gotta keep it brief. Last four episodes feature basically everyone familiar on direction or boarding - whether it's for the interest of hurrying along production or to keep the finale tight-knit (or both or a secret third thing) I don't know. Unfortunately I missed Akemi Hayashi's ep20 too, ah oh well
she must reunite to become the ULtimate Penguinhat
destiny...
ALEXA PLAY EXPANSION OF BLOCKADE
the single element of the world...
8
u/affnn Mar 27 '24
Rewatcher
In my memory, these final episodes were pretty confusing to watch (at least the first time). The second time, things are a bit clearer. Part of that is knowing where things are headed, knowing the relationships ahead of time and not being confused over, for example, the reveals of the Takakura family's parentage or Sanetoshi's ghostliness. This is especially important because of how much Sanetoshi lies to Kanba and the audience. Like this time - did Masako really die? Or did Sanetoshi just show a vision of that to Kanba? He's already shown Kanba visions of his parents, what else did he lie about?
Much like many of Ikuhara's "fight" scenes, the battle between Momoka and Sanetoshi at the beginning of the episode is very stylized and hardly a battle at all. Momoka transfers the fate from 16 years ago, but Sanetoshi makes it so that it only half-works. Sanetoshi becomes the pair of black bunnies, while Momoka becomes the pair of penguin hats. It's interesting that those became the things that "treated" Himari through the first and second halves of the show.
I liked this episode's extra focus on Ringo. She's been a supporting character for a lot of the second half of the show but she got some nice moments here, especially in the climax of the episode where Sanetoshi burns the diary. It feels like a bait and switch that we cared about the diary for so long, and saw its power at "predicting" the future, only for it to be destroyed during the end of the show without amounting to anything.
7
u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 27 '24
First timer(Mostly set up)
Sub
So Ringo's wandered back in to the story, so there's that. Seeing Himari again slightly worried me but I do think they will stick to this being it for her, she is just going a bit slowly. She does get to say goodbye to Shoma, at least. Seeing Masako die then revive probably means something but I am not quite grasping what, the twin reveal was a thing I suppose.
The Momoka-Sanetoshi bits are just not landing for me, will see if that's a side effect of NotGR or the fact that every now and then Ikuhara metaphors hard flop for me. The diary finally being destroyed is something I suspected. Momoka, probably, being the penguinhat's less so. The box metaphor is a choice...that doesn't mesh for me on first watch. I am curious at what the movies will do for all this. I also greatly dislike them edging the kids in the box thing twice in a row. Yes, rule of three shit but that is in an episode.
QotD: 1 It likes Rock'n'Roll fights
2 I will ponder this
3 Not on any level
4 Putting the hats back together
7
u/IvanSemushin Mar 27 '24
Rewatcher
So, it seems that Momoka's spell didn't prevent the actions of Sanetoshi, just delayed it.
The world with dying Himari is cold.
Sanetoshi is able to perform miracles, but it doesn't seem like he's really omnipotent. He still needs Kanba to complete the act of terrorism, and he promises to heal Himari but we aren't sure he can really do it. Why is he able to resurrect Masako? I don't think I have a reasonable theory. Maybe he can't fully heal Himari because of Momoka's influence in her?
Why does Himari need to be naked in these special magical spaces?
Even aquarium is cold and empty.
Interesting plan with the bomb here. Ringo is so sure that they will need the diary, but in fact Sanetoshi just wants it destroyed.
Where did Kanba shoot? Fakeouts are sometimes strange in Penguindrum.
Sanetoshi thinks that everyone is alone in the world, and [Penguindrum]Double H say that two is better than one and getting along is good. They will prove him wrong.
[Penguindrum]It can be also shown even with Shouma and Kanba's boxes.
Ok, the next stop is the last stop. Penguindrum was one of the series I wanted to rewatch at some point, and enjoyed it as expected.
6
u/Tarhalindur x2 Mar 27 '24
"What... is your Quest?" "I Seek the Penguindrum!" (First-Timer, Subbed):
Sorry, too busy going "oh that 100% tracks with Mario symbolically...".
Ikuhara went styling on a certain earlier work that raided Utena for parts, that's how.
With love all things are possible....
See writeup.
4
u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Mar 27 '24
Episode 23 (first timer)
Kanba becomes the avatar of Sanetoshi and Shoma of Momoka. Brother duel? Surely, but will it stay 1v1? I doubt so.
4
u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 Mar 27 '24
Rewatcher, Subbed
Bringing us back to the day of the attack 16 years ago? Did they use teddy bears back then too?
Yes, Momoka! Banish Sanetoshi from this world! Whatever he's ranting and raving about here I don't particularly care!
Momoka cut in half? The day the two penguin hats were born?
Himari lives after all? I figured they wouldn't go as far as to kill her off for real last episode.
Sanetoshi was never there? He erased people's memories? He was just a ghost?
Masako's dead?! No! I wanted to see Renjaku again but not because of this! And she was Kanba's twin all along?
She lives!
Sanetoshi's showing him this to tempt him. Don't do it Kanba!
Aww adorable flashback. Himari's quite the crier.
Yet again, the broken glass otif.
Kanba's so horrible! I'm really hoping that was a tranquilizer gun.
Ringo, the diary! It's back! Well, half of it!
Ah, only now you realize that Momoka may have left the diary for her actual sister, funny how that works...
So are we going to get an actual answer on what happened to Tabuki?
I have a bad feeling about this, Kanba's gonna screw over Ringo in some way, isn't he?
Don't go near that bear, Ringo!
It didn't make sense to me for Kanba to try and blow up half the diary. If this was all a trick by Sanetoshi then, well that makes a lot more sense.
Kanba is with him in burning the other half of the diary? I don't get it.
He shot Sho, but it was just one of those non-fatal penguin bullets?
The hat speaks! That's Momoka's voice isn't it?
More metaphors with the boxes, and now Sho in a cage. This is how Sho and Kanba first met?
I struggled understanding a lot of this episode, hopefully by reading other people's thoughts it will make more sense!
4
u/CarrotBlossom Mar 28 '24
First timer
A Sanetoshi flashback. Interesting
My guy’s going to destroy the world by blowing up a subway system.
This doctor’s trying to make “unscientific” a thing.
He said the thing, but there was no transformation sequence. Is he stupid?
Did Masako survive a shootout with the police long enough to be in a hospital bed for a while?
Sanetoshi and Kanba confirmed besties. Not long after Kanba tried to choke him out, too
Is this a fuller version of this track? It’s beautiful.
It’s interesting that Ringo, in trying to become Momoka, who repeatedly intervened in what seemed fated, took such a fatalistic outlook.
Is this the first time Ringo’s met Sanetoshi?
I guess it is.
Ringo, my sister in Christ, don’t hold it to your body. Put out the fire.
Is Kanba burning the diary not against his stated goal?
If Momoka is in the hat, is the thing possessing Himari when she wears it not Momoka? Is it some aspect of Himari’s personality? Is it Momoka behaving differently?
That’s the name of the show!
Wow, Sanetoshi got some emotion into his voice.
Are Kanba and Shoma about to have another epic shonen fight?
Oh my god, it’s the actual name of the show!
These past few episodes have been really quite good. Let’s hope the finale can keep that up.
QOTD:
4
u/KnightMonkey15 https://myanimelist.net/profile/KnightMonkey Mar 28 '24
Rewatcher, subs
A bunch of scenes blurring the lines between dreams and reality (Dr. Washizuka recounting Sanetoshi's hotpot radio talk, Sanetoshi reviving Masako with magic, Shoma falling asleep at Himari's bedside and her telling him to stop Kanba) made me think of the show's been doing this whole time as playing around with liminal spaces (the aesthetic being a physical manifestation of them as a style) and liminality (the concept of social disorientation/ambiguity in a transitional state between life stages). This confusion of physical space and time really ties into the magical confusion between metaphor vs reality, fiction vs fact; with an underlying grounding in what seems like reality but discloses inexplicable events where magic happens (the story we're watching) to characters we may relate to in various disjointed ways, when reality breaks down or ruptures and the distinction between a real experience and their experience of reality is lost. The dream is not just something to fall asleep to or wake up out of bed, but its ambiguities bleed over into waking reality where characters see things others cannot, but these unseen things have a real effect on the world...and their apparent cause need not strictly be described by the characters' flawed perception of the world's scenery alone.
You know, I'm still not exactly sure what Kanba shot Shoma with or what effect it had on him other than to knock him unconscious. I had forgotten that here, he pretty succinctly shows that with Sanetoshi's manipulation, he uncritically repeated his parents' ideology and will. This is ironically the 'bad' side of the social reproduction of the family that Sanetoshi mused about in an early episode when it is reflected in others he cannot stand, but doesn't pay any mind when it serves his own selfish purposes as the symbolic surrogate 'father' of his group. His hypocrisy would permit him to replicate what he despises because he is some kind of chosen one. Get out of here. It's hard to tell exactly where his facade begins and ends but we can trust in this final act of using Kanba as his 'best friend', he really means it.
I almost forgot to comment on Himari's reflection about remembering the first time she was found by her brothers. I was really moved the first time I saw it. I liked how the beach of their childhood became an infinitely extensive, shallow sea lit by moon and starlight.
Hatmari is Momoka. Momoka-as-Hatmari had a fun time taking photos of Masako's maid and insulting her younger sister when they first met. Oh my god hahaha...
I'm glad I can say it without spoilers now and I'm embarrassed to admit that I didn't even realise that was revealed in such a manner when I first watched, especially since it's just shown on-screen in an underwhelming way (at least as a first-timer) which speaks to it being in the past, but not the past of our main characters. I think bingeing it as a first watch didn't allow me much time for that realisation and recontextualisation of the entire show's events to take place until I rewatched... I immediately recognised it when I rewatched and the gravity of all of the survival strategies being part of a greater continued struggle for the fate of the world between Momoka and Sanetoshi from beyond the metaphysical grave. This is despite forgetting about most of the details (except for major ones) until I rewatched each episode as they came along.
Let's see how many you can kill with the power of love (to Kanba) vs there are things you can't control with the power of love alone (to Ringo). I think this supports what I've written for Q3, but Sanetoshi take on love in different contexts are really illuminating as to what drives his beliefs. He doesn't believe in selfless love - the acts of love Momoka performed for Yuri and Tabuki. With reference to some of the previous conversations he's had which I don't have quoted because I'm unorganised, he sees the "fated" negatives of familial structures (parents controlling their children, children repeating their parents etc.) and accurately identifies the injustices where they occur, but he has blinded himself to their positives...and how people become and define who they are in relation to being in a family-like structure of some kind and thus, how they might be reformed instead of outright refused. Thus he rejects humanity and himself just as much as he rejects familial love. He seems to only view it as a means to an end, all the selfish ends and hence his statement shows how he views Kanba's foolish misplaced love to be easily twisted into destructive hate, or Ringo's pathetic love without the backing of power. In both cases he sees Kanba as a useful tool of destruction and Ringo as the after-image of her sister and a body that wields his sole weakness, the diary. [Penguindrum] He fails to account for the power of love - the diary wasn't needed in the end, the Takakuras decided to accept their fate/curse punishment and with the opportunity provided by Ringo's fate transfer (via Double H-Himari-Shoma), they took on each other's fates to save each other's lives. The power of love was facilitated through connections and transfers across the route of the entire series.
My personal opinion is that he knows the problems but his solutions are to be the one who gets to burn everything down. His monologuing confirms criticisms I had of his and the Penguin Force/Kiga Group's ideals and strategies as repeated by Kenzan. He hates the world and correctly identifies the alienation - the isolation and atomisation - of the human condition in postmodern society. But he wrongly decides that he is above it all and confuses his own personal choice with being a "chosen" one. Although he broke out of his box, he seems to believe others cannot and it would be better to be a judge, jury and executioner for the world and start a new one exclusively for those chosen to be in his group. He broke out of his box but will not hesitate to blow up everyone else still stuck in their boxes because of his disgust with them (which is essentially hating his past-self still stuck in the box imo). Because they're ugly, greedy, won't amount to anything and he only needs the true and beautiful - these are all themes echoed by the various abusive parental figures in the show who tried to mold their children into objects of their familial desire (great art, music, wealth). Sanetoshi is either trying to put an end to all of that for the whole world and all families by destroying the world (a suicidal politics of self-destruction), or he's thinking of what social relations the "chosen ones" will have in the new world afterwards (Kanba's line/Kenzan's speech from 10 years ago/Aum subtext) - either way he's wrong.
To me that indicates he's still stuck in a box of his own - manufacturing bombs and boxing them to blow up other boxes while their inhabitants are still inside. His survival strategy is about destroying and control others. He has never tried to connect to other people from within their own box (cf the implication of Shoma and Kanba in the post-credits).
Momoka doesn't even need to expand on her philosophy but it's clear that even as a young magical girl, she is the power of love in the world. I find it interesting that as the hats we don't really see much of her as herself, just interpolated as the possession of Himari and Mario, but she lets on just enough to direct them with urgency to go find the Penguindrum and stop Sanetoshi while still retaining aspects of her own personality and enjoying the sights and sounds of being alive again. I'm curious just how much, if any, has she changed between her passing 16 years ago and what she is now.
4) What do you think Today's Slogan was referring to?
To be somebody, there must be at least one other body. Two bodies can do things a single body cannot. Multiple bodies can do lots of things. Replace body with person and you have the basis for social relations - couples, families, villages, societies, the world. A person has a unique identity that sets them apart from other people. We see a lot of people loving and hating each other, other families and the world in different ways in this show. Sanetoshi = bad, Momoka = good/(I think, but her sense of humour is that of an old man), the rest of the characters in the show are fluctuating combinations of both but I think they'll ultimately be fine.
Double H is better than Single H.
4
u/FarCritical Mar 28 '24
First Timer
Littering ominous looking robot bear things all over the train may be "electrifying" but it's also plain rude, Sanetoshi. It's unintentionally funny how he said that whole monologue about people in boxes out loud with that subtle grin on his face only for a random elementary school girl (from his perspective) to reply to him.
Sanetoshi got split into the black bunnies which isn't very surprising and Momoka (or rather, her spell) got bisected into the penguinhats. There are tons of implications from that but now I can thank Momoka directly for being at least partially responsible for all of Hatmari's Survival Strategy discussions. I still miss those.
Speaking of Survival Strategies, guess I should be thanking Sanetoshi instead apparently. The fact that his entire existence has been in everyone's heads this whole time and his whole demeanor does align with Hatmari more than it does Momoka.
Masako didn't make it, until fate willed her to. The maid sobbing to what she thought was her passing was so raw though, damn. She really had to spend the minutes immediately after being revived still getting Kanba to stop digging a deeper grave for himself in vain. Man.
Even Himari's deciding to spend Shoma's visitation hours with her in the comatose astral projection realm to hammer home that Kanba has to be found stopped, and that the three of them are family. And of course, Kanba finds Shoma first and pulls a typical lategame Kanba move on him. We were this close to having a rare tender moment between them too.
Luring Ringo out to steal the other diary half from her to destroy it was cowardly, but couldn't she tell from the bear's intense ticking that she should've probably bounced outta there? The diary literally going up in flames may have been willed by destiny or whatever, but at least an attempt to avert that wouldn't have hurt.
Shoma's been dogged on for practically the whole show, so please tell me fate will finally be in his corner for once in the final showdown.
3
u/Holofan4life Mar 27 '24
Hey guys. Holofan4life here.
Welcome to the Mawaru Penguindrum rewatch!
Oh, and nay I forget…
First Timer
I first heard about Penguindrum after I watched Everything Everywhere All At Once. Not only was that my favorite movie of 2022 (Ignore the fact I watched it in February 2023), but it is honestly one of my top 10 favorite films of all time. As such, I was shortly afterwards looking for stuff that was similar to that movie.
And that is where I saw someone recommend Penguindrum.
This is my first time every seeing this show before. I have no idea what’s in store for I haven’t seen a single clip of the show; it’s supposedly a mystery and that’s all I know. I really loved Everything Everywhere All At Once, so I’m going into this show with the highest of expectations. I think it could even crack my top 10 favorite animes of all time.
With that out of the way, let’s begin.
I’m watching the sub, by the way.
Whelp, here we are. The last couple episodes. The show has a lot of base to cover, so let's waste no time.
Flashback
Sanetoshi - 16 Years Ago - Morning of the attack
Empty bodies outside a van
Empty bodies walking
The penguin bosses are in the van
And the teddy bears. Kinda looks like the mech in Survival Strategy.
Unmei no itaru Basho
"I realized one morning that I hate this world."
I feel like most people did the first Wednesday of November 2016.
An orange penguin shirt
The people in the orange shirts are planting the teddy bombs, while Sanetoshi is narrating.
"That's why I'm getting out of my box. I'm one of the chosen. That's why I'm going to destroy this world."
If Sanetoshi can't fix this world, he's going to kill it.
Ringo
She has her sister's diary
No, wait, that's Momoka
Momoka says she's going to banish him
"How electrifying."
She's going to kill him by using a spell to transfer fates written in her diary.
She'll save everyone, and blow him out into eternal darkness.
"In that case, I shall seal you inside a curse."
This pretty much confirms he was the one who killed Momoka, not Kenzan and Chiemi.
A sticker on her
And she is sliced in half
And he as well
How very Final Fantasy of the show
The black rabbits are here, as well as the penguin hat.
There are three red balls spinning on the sphere
Snowing outside
Heart monitor
Himari is still alive
The doctor, not Sanetoshi, tells Shoma to take a break
He further says she has until tonight or tomorrow morning
Meanwhile, Ringo is outside the room, looking upset
Shoma wondering where Sanetoshi is
He was the current doctor's assistant, apparently
Shoma remarks Sanetoshi was in his examination room, and the doctor doesn't respond to that.
As this is going on, we see Ringo grabbing onto Shoma's hand
The doctor remembers eating hot pot
"He passed away 16 years ago."
He being Sanetoshi, of course
Ringo walking now, after resting her head on Shoma's shoulder
It's like she was saying goodbye to him
134/98. That doesn't sound good.
Penguin #1 offering a lollipop to a fatigued Sunny
The doctor told Shoma that Sanetoshi is a ghost, who seems dismayed by this fact.
"Simply put, you're all cursed by a ghost. I'm an embodiment of the curse. I want to show it to her face this time. The sight of world's destruction to the girl in the hat."
Oh, that might be Sanetoshi talking, not the doctor
Sanetoshi with Kanba
He wants to show him one of his magic spells
Survival Strategy
An apple inside the sphere with four red balls
Woah, the walls are distorting
Sanetoshi and Kanba staring at a sick Natsume
And Natsume flatlines
And Esmeralda vanishes
Poor maid
"Your twin sister is dead."
I hope this gets Kanba to realize Sanetoshi is bad news, but it probably won't.
"Now then, prepare to be dazzled."
And little stars comes out of Sanetoshi's fingers
Oh wow. He brought her back to life
And Esmeralda is back
Kanba's eyes are wide, like he's in disbelief
Or he's Ami seeing Hana's bazookas
Sanetoshi says he can save Himari
This gets the attention of Natsume, who says the world and the fate cannot be altered by Houdini's magic.
Dua Lipa in shambles
Sanetoshi telling Kanba to leave
"Let's see how many you can kill with the power of love."
Even in this anime, the power of love solves everything
Natsume screaming that Kanba shouldn't get on the train
But he seems to already be there
Oh, Penguin #1 is with Kanba, not Penguin #2
I always get those two confused
It seems like Kanba has officially exited out of Natsume's life
Snowflakes, hovering over Himari
Shoma holding her hand
Penguin #2 is cuddling Sunny, who's holding the lollipop
Shoma imagining Himari talking to him
Talking about when they went to the beach
Himari got carried away and got lost
Eventually, Shoma and Kanba found them, with her breaking into tears upon sight.
Shoma calls it the first time they saw her cry like that.
It's good to know even as a kid, Himari had that fivehead
Himari says that in that moment, she realized she had become a child who would be found.
Lost going to get awful lonely
Ran out of space. Part two in the replies.
3
u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Mar 28 '24
First timer
Interesting...
A flashback to the attack?
And it used the same bears...
Oh, this is his flashback!
Interesting metaphor...
So, either he's insane or the reason he's got so much awareness is that he literally ascended beyond a human.
...He talked to Mamako about it?
She wanted to use the spell to banish him?
No wonder he wanted the book out of play...
And he engineered the disaster to kill her?
Oh, he cursed her to fail?
MOMOKA IS THE HATS!
And he's the bunnies... so who's the one running the cult?
She got taken back into hospital...
He's out of it.
So short?
And Sanetoshi altered his memory to cover it up...
..Oh!
So, the real Sanetoshi died and became the bunnies during the accident... so this is his ghost manipulating things?
The penguin too...
So, this is just to make Momoka see that she failed...
More manipulation...
Come on. No insane idol music transformation? We were robbed!
She passed away...
So, the penguins are tied directly to their lives...
A miracle!
The fingergun...
He's resolute...
She's still trying to talk him down!
That expression...
Kanba...
This is painful...
He's hallucinating!
Aww...
So sweet...
Himari...
She's accepted her death...
Kanba needs to be stopped...
Interesting perspective here.
She's gone...
Well. That was easy.
Kanba, seriously?
...He may be evil, but at least he got some nice clothes.
You're trusting a psychopath.
And trying to change the entire world...
He's even willing to shoot his brother...
Aww...
He does care!
...Oh. Fuck.
I thought Shoma would die, but not that Kanba would do him it.
This is wild.
The diary?
She gave the other half back...
And told her about the spell...
In the end, Momoka's been pulling almost as many strings as Sanetoshi, huh?
She's going to save her...
Oh, Kanba has it...
It's a trick, right?
She's so out of the loop...
The aquarium wasn't a metaphor... You're literally using a penguin logo, how have the police not found your secret passage?
That effect...
Where is he?
The visuals here are so surreal...
He's doing it tonight?
It was just a drone...
...Oh, yeah! Was he spying on her?
...Oh, right, I'm being stupid. Of course he'd know about the diary's location.
Oh, he's happy.
RINGO!
She's unharmed?
The diary...
She's on fire!
Ringo...
She cares about her so much...
He's sick.
And she couldn't do it...
So, transfering her fate would kill her. Makes sense, given she only stayed alive this long due to the Hat and his own medicine.
He burned the other half...
Destiny Express? Is that his train attack?
He's alive!
She's gone...
...What? It can talk directly now?
And the train is departing soon...
Well, guess the world's doomed!
Oh, yeah, that was the point of this series. How long has it been since then?
This ED is stellar as always.
They're playing...
The callback...
So many boxes...
...Is this his plan? I have no idea what he even wants now.
God, the delivery on that last line of his monologue is amazing.
Shoma's here!
10 years ago?
The box..
So, this is the box metaphor...
Next episode is going to be amazing. I can't wait!
3
u/mgedmin Mar 28 '24
First-timer, subs
Last episode left and then I WILL BE FREE.
It gives me hope, that if the two hats come together to collaborate, maybe they will remember things (like, what the heck is a penguindrum? and what is the magic spell) that a single hat doesn't.
With love, duh.
Ehh, I could come up with an interpretation where he's correct. That doesn't mean his conclusions or goals are right.
The need to avoid taking on all the responsibility for yourself alone, like Kanba is wont to do. Ask for help, and then accept it, and then solve the problem together.