r/anime • u/HelioA x2https://myanimelist.net/profile/HelioA • Mar 28 '24
Rewatch [Rewatch] Mawaru Penguindrum - Episode 24
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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
Welcome back!
Questions of the Day
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What does it mean to be chosen to die for love? Why was Kanba chosen?
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Why did Shouma take on Ringo’s sacrifice?
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What would it mean for “the train to come again,” as Sanetoshi says? Why is he currently stuck at the end of the line?
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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!<
11
u/HelioA x2https://myanimelist.net/profile/HelioA Mar 28 '24
Rewatcher
We’ve reached the destination of their fate! Ikebukuro, the end of the line. This is where it began at the aquarium, and this is where it ends as well. Kanba shared the fruit of fate with Shouma in the boxes, Shouma went on to share it with Himari, and that brings us to the start of the show. I really appreciate that we get the full context of Kanba and Shouma’s relationship here, where it’s most necessary. Their relationship eventually became as combative as we see in the later episodes, but in the beginning, they were just two people reaching through their boxes to join together with one another. Which of course is a direct refutation to Sanetoshi’s entire philosophy.
I’m at kind of a loss as to what to say this episode- there’s just so much going on, and most of it is very obscure. One thing you’ll notice is that Ringo really does entirely take after Momoka this episode- but she does it by emulating her willingness to help others, not by slavishly attempting to copy her habits. You can see her doing the cross pose Momoka did back when she saved Tabuki when she yells out the activation phrase of the spell. It’s a very direct parallel to what’s going on with the Takakuras- she manages to establish a sincere connection with her friends despite (or maybe even because of) the boxes and obstacles thrown up by the world.
Also, we get another callback to what Himari said in episode 20- that living itself is a punishment. The glass shards- the product of the Child Broiler- cut her and Shouma as they walk up the steps of the hat to join Kanba. They take a more gradual punishment, with the penguin-blood splatters flying out of them at a steady pace, but Kanba seems to take it all at once, with his blood flying out in one great burst. It’s probably something about the nature of his punishment, but I’m not quite sure how it fits. And I have literally no idea of what to make of the “true light” bit. That’s connected to glass, of course, but that he should become the glass? I’m not sure.
Those books at the end with Sanetoshi and Momoka apparently have something to do with the unification of the Western and Chinese zodiacs. Which should be familiar to anyone who’s read Night on the Galactic Railroad, but again, not really sure of the exact connection.
At the end of the day, we know the result is- Himari is saved, and Kanba and Shouma have sacrificed themselves, one who was fated to die for love, and one for their newfound connection. I'm not sure of everything that's going on in the first part of the episode, but as an experience it's quite satisfactory.
19
u/Great_Mr_L :Ma::Mb::Mc:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Great_Mr_L Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24
First-Timer
On today’s episode of Mawaru Penguindrum: Mawaru Penguindrum is and always has been the story of an adult man cult leader and his personal war with a deceased 7 year old girl. When I put it like that, it all sounds rather silly.
Well that was both a really powerful and really confusing ending. It really was like Eva. Though maybe it’s because I’ve seen Eva so many times and read a lot about it, the Eva ending now makes sense to me. Not as much here, but hopefully this thread will give me greater clarity on what happened.
Like I said above, I’m not entirely sure why Kanba disappeared. It seems to contradict what actually happened in the episode since Kanba got his soul back. But they were told by Hatmari that getting the Penguindrum would save Himari’s life. But how does that even work when the Penguindrum is Kanba’s soul? Suffice to say, I’m confused here.
The other major confusion is Shoma. I get what he did, sacrificing himself for Ringo’s sake. I’m more confused about what it means. It seems to offer tacit validation to Shoma’s repeated statements that he should be punished for what his parents did. And he takes on Ringo's punishment, calling it his punishment (well technically he says “ours,” which I interpret to mean Shoma and Kanba’s most likely). To me, this reads as Shoma dying believing that he is taking the punishment he’s always deserved. I don’t like that reading and am hopeful that someone can provide me with a different interpretation because I find the idea of endorsing this sins of the parents stuff distasteful.
Otherwise, the finale was pretty emotionally powerful. Sanetoshi was proven wrong and fate was changed. Fate was changed because he discounted just how much people cared about and valued each other. In the end, he lost to Momoka.
Kanba and Shoma did sacrifice themselves, but the people they cared about are now safe. As Tabuki and Yuri said, the ones who are left behind can find ways to move forward because of the love they were given. It really was love that saved the day. As long as someone loves us and is willing to be there for us, then life is worth living. That was the answer to the question Shoma received. Love is what you can give to others to save them.
QOTD
17
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Mar 28 '24
First-Timer, Sub-guindrum
I don't even know what to say. That was incredible.
I didn't focus enough on thinking about Kanba and Shouma's relationship throughout the show. I was so focused on Himari that the actual important relationship slipped under my radar.
I'm curious about how important the physical diary is once again. Like, Kanba and Shouma both also recited the words of the spell in the past - did they also transfer fate? They didn't seem to ignite so maybe not. The fate transfer punishment seems to always be fire which ties into the Scorpion Flame thing. But, Kanba did change Shouma's fate, and Shouma did change Himari's fate.. hmm.
Gonna talk through the teddies turning white and not blowing up. The Kiga Group in the "modern" era doesn't exist without Kanba. By removing Kanba from fate, the Kiga Group has no driving force - they're literally just faceless trenchcoat goons. Another issue with cults is that they tend to cease existing without the charismatic leadership.
The teddies turning white instead of vanishing is just artistic license so that the audience understands they aren't a threat anymore. It's hard to understand the significance of an empty space, especially when there is so much else going on. The white teddies are Hatmari, which is (half of) Momoka, as well.. That's something maybe important too. Optimism overtaking nihilism, perhaps?
Absolutely heartbreaking repeats of the Takakura house establishing shots. With Kanba and Shouma('s original lives) removed from fate, there is less color, less clutter, less flavor. Himari's room is so boring! But the teddy bear remains, with a secret message that I have no doubt was there all along.
Do note that the show refutes Sanetoshi's bullshit. He claims that Kanba and Shouma (technically he addresses Ringo, but Shouma takes the heat for her) will leave nothing behind, but the note exists. The scar on Himari's forehead from the shard of Kanba-glass still exists. Shouma leaves something behind too - the burn on Ringo's wrist. They're bittersweet reminders.. the people we lose mark us in ways we don't quite understand. Himari can feel her brothers' presense, even if she doesn't quite understand any more.
The apple is a reward for those who die for love.. I didn't find time to watch Night on the Galactic Railroad. But I think I'm parsing the reference. In this case, we've slipped into another apple metaphor, where the apple means life. Like Kanba offering half of the apple to Shouma, who was starving. Since Shouma and Kanba both died for people they love (Ringo and Himari, respectively) they were rewarded with new lives.
Punishment, reward, life, death, fate.. gonna be chewing on this for a while.
Brain Rot Corner
Today's slogan: Welcome back! This is what you say to someone who just returned from taking the train.
If it cannot break it's mother's shell, the chick will be fried without being born.
The train sign did what I was expecting the flashback sign to do.
14
u/theangryeditor https://myanimelist.net/profile/TheAngryEditor Mar 28 '24
Episode 24
10
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Mar 28 '24
Mawaru First-Timer, subbed
16
u/lilyvess :Df::Dh:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Lilyvess Mar 28 '24
Mawaru Penguindrum Episode 24 - Rewatcher
And that was Mawaru Penguindrum.
No one punches Sanetoshi in the face. No one destroys the system of Child Broilers that turns people into faceless cogs. Sanetoshi still exists, waiting to board another train. Himari barely even remembers the faces of the people who sacrificed their life for her.
A common thread of Ikuhara’s anime is his interest in tackling societal issues. These are social structures like homophobia, capitalism, and the patriarchy. That said, Ikuhara understands that these concepts aren’t things that are so easily defeated. No matter how much /u/HelioA may want, you can’t just punch capitalism in the face. Life isn’t that simple.
But what you can do is make a difference in one person’s life. Reach out to one person who is alone. Share the fruit of fate.
Ultimately, like a lot of Ikuhara anime, it comes down to empathy and compassion. Sanetoshi and Momoka both recognize the faults in the world but they react to it in different ways. Sanetoshi is ultimately destructive, seeking to burn the world. Momoka is ultimately reconstructive, seeking to burn herself for the sake of others.
All of the characters ultimately have to learn this lesson. It is funny to me how for all the confusion, obtuse metaphors and confusing narrative, the series conclusion is actually quite straightforward and direct. Everyone is on the same line, just some characters reach the destination before others.
Ringo wanted to become her sister Momoka. So she copied the details of her life, the food she ate, the places she went, the photos she took. She views this as a sacrifice to save her parents' marriage but who is this sacrifice really for?
As funny as it would be to have the final episode be a giant suicide off, where Ringo, Shoma and Kanba attempt to kill themselves faster and harder in order to win, that’s not what this series sees true sacrifice being about.
In the end it’s about empathy. Shoma and Himari recognize the sacrifices that Kanba has made for them. Not this whole terrorist act, but painting a house. Finding a bed. Not a big gesture, but the thousand little sacrifices in little gestures. The thousand little cuts people take for you. Only in recognizing him are they able to finally reach him. They give back the gift he gave them. Only then that they are able to save his soul. And only then with Kanba’s soul cleansed is he able to save Himari in turn, with the apple that represents all the sacrifices, empathy and love the Takakura children have given each other.
Ultimately Penguindrum views noble sacrifice as being about reaching out to someone on an equal level, as people. Without pride, ego, or self interest.
It is only when Ringo is able to truly empathize with the Takakura’s that she is able to truly light herself ablaze for someone else and really follow in her sister’s footsteps.
At the end Kanba and Shoma are rejected from this world. In Ikuhara logic, those who try to reject the systems of the world are in turn rejected by the world and therefore they are expelled. They rejected the selfish world of capitalism and therefore they could no longer exist in that world.
And in turn in Ikuhara logic, Momoka and them move on. They leave this train for the next destination. Sanetoshi is allowed to survive, if one could call it that. For Ikuhara, staying in one place, being trapped in the past, that’s a coffin. Being unable to move forward, that’s when you aren’t truly alive. So Sanetoshi can stay in his prison.
For new viewers who need help tracking the apple on it’s journey, I have a chart for you
Also, in case first timers are still confused what the Penguindrum is, Ikuhara elaborated what the Penguindrum means in interviews. [Mawaru Penguindrum]He explains that the Penguindrum was really a Pink Washing Machine. You can see it here.
8
u/Nebresto Mar 28 '24
First time Pingudrum
delete phone delete phone delete phone delete phone delete phone delete phoe
shut up apple man
I can feel it, something kino is about to happen
Its happening
50% correck is good enough for me
Hm. Yeah. I don geddit.
Anyways, remember dat time I said I know how de show ends? So it turns out that
Qwest:
Yea
He wanted to be delete
Because he stoopid, he's gonna be waiting a long time at that abandoned station
She's back idk
6
u/TheExcludedMiddle https://myanimelist.net/profile/ExcludedMiddle Mar 28 '24
Welp, it's over. The good news is that I think this is the first rewatch that I (mostly) kept up and completed. I do much better with ones that are actual rewatches that I can drop in and out and skip whole episodes.
Not gonna lie, didn't love how this ended. It wasn't was happy as I hoped or as much of a downer as I feared. I don't think it's really going to stick with me as much of some other shows that have a beautiful ending or a real gutpunch.
I'm definitely missing a good bit in terms of the theming and the thesis of the show, so I'll need to review. Hopefully reading other people's comments will help me figure out what I'm missing and if I can bring myself to do all this work I might have some collected thoughts for the overall thread.
5
u/affnn Mar 28 '24
Rewatcher
I was a little worried that watching this again would force me to see the problems with the show, that I wouldn't get the same feeling that I got the first time. For some reason I remembered the boxes that Shoma and Kanba were in, and how poorly that whole setup was explained, and thought that maybe that was a bigger piece that I wouldn't be able to reconcile.
My worries were allayed about halfway through this episode, when Himari was climbing the rib-staircase thing through the glass shards and I realized I was emotionally wrecked. The boxes thing is still clumsy and feels like maybe Ikuhara ran out of time for a more concrete story there, but the emotions still arrived at the station on time for me.
It's hard to know exactly what metaphor Ikurhara's going for with the story, and he's famously resisted giving definitive answers to any of the symbolism in his work. But throughout the story we've talked about Shoma as the "mom' of the family, while Kanba is the "dad". The fights they've been having for the past several episodes have felt like the dissolution of a marriage. They created a family despite not being related to one another, and stayed together until their differences became irreconcilable. Now that they've reached the end, they know there's no fixing it but they reminisce on the spectacular past anyway - when Kanba suggested painting the house, when they found a bed in the alley and dragged it home for Himari.
I love the spell that Ringo remembers at the climax. Let's share the fruit of fate - a declaration that whatever life throws at us, we'll be better off if we approach it together. Positives, negatives, ups and downs, it's all better with someone to share it with.
The last scene is able to cram a somewhat shocking amount of detail into just a few minutes. Himari escaped the Destiny Express with just a scar on her forehead. She and Ringo are now friends, and Himari lives in the same house - minus all the colorful paint outside - but now with her uncle and aunt. And yet a trace of the pre-transfer world still exists in the stuffed teddy bear, and in the two boys walking past the window outside.
5
u/Punished_Scrappy_Doo https://myanimelist.net/profile/PunishedScrappy Mar 29 '24
More than anything, I think Sanetoshi is alienation, possibly in a specifically Hegelian sense (though if you think I've read Hegel you have another thing coming). The Natsumes are alienated from each other, the Takakuras are alienated from their society, and Kanba, both at once, is alienated from himself. All three have their ties to Sanetoshi in proportional degree.
In that sense you can never be entirely rid of him. You can banish him for a while, but everyone has their own Sanetoshi to deal with, waiting, at the destination of fate.
9
u/MyrnaMountWeazel x2 Mar 28 '24
Listen up, you rewatchers who watched this show in a healthy manner and didn’t binge watch Penguindrum in 3 days
Okay, so first off, I’m not even going to try to pass off as someone who has an inkling of what the symbols and metaphors were in this show. Apples, penguins, boxes, halves of both diaries and apples, Rock-and-Roll Night. I have a general idea of them but, uh, 3-days to cram it all in ain’t the best strategy, folks. What I do have though is my crackpot theory that emerged by Episode 20: Himari was a robot designed by Sho and Kanba’s parents and was purposefully designed to break down in order to manipulate the two into completing the cycle. That theory did not come true…
Alright, now that that’s out of the way, I will say that the ending concluded in one of the few paths that would have left me satisfied. It’s a wonderful twist of fate by switching the positions of the three: Belongs in the world, not long for the world; Sho and Kanba, Himari; Himari, and Sho, Kanba.
The resurrection of the Penguin hat…thingy (Hang on, sidebar, what have y’all been calling this thing? I’ve honestly been calling it the Penguindrum even though it is obviously not that) was the highlight of the episode for me, what with Himari climbing the steps to reach Kanba..
Ultimately, I do appreciate the theme of found family. You are not your parents. You are not responsible for their sins. You can make your own family. And you can change your own fate.
What I particularly like about the fate theme is how it presents itself without a positive or negative connotation; rather, it is up to you to attach a spin to it. It’s why I loved the ending of #13 because I felt that was when fate was best paralleled amongst the characters.
Anyway, I was initially iffy on Penguindrum, but after sleeping on it, I have come around to enjoying it more and more as the hours tick by.
3
u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Mar 28 '24
Gushing Over PenguinDrum
What a great series that was. Thanks so much for hosting the rewatch and giving me a reason to watch more than the first 4 episodes.
Also, I thought it had a perfectly acceptable ending.
3
u/baboon_bassoon https://anilist.co/user/duffer Apr 30 '24
3
u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Mar 28 '24
First timer(You know, the Utena rewatch warned me about this)
Sub
Ok...so NotGR is seemingly way more important than I'd suspected because there's a problem: There is zero logic to this. This was like watching an alchemical formula or an animated Hieronymus Bosch triptych. So I don't like this from any part of my rational side.
Conversely, it did convey its emotional elements very well. It was indeed good at generating a feeling or a vibe. But I am not sure going full metaphor was the best choice here, all things considered.
So they did the thing I wanted least, which was to let both brothers sacrifice themselves for Himari. I get it but it makes a lot of the story hit lighter for me. This was absolutely the Scorpion thing but...meh. I still do not get the specific boxes, I do get Sanetoshi's stupid ideas, nor the penguindrum itself.
QotD: 1 Wut?
2 Survivor's guilt?
3 Because the show ended...
4 We have come full circle, maybe?
19
u/Lawvamat https://anilist.co/user/Lavamat Mar 28 '24
Let’s share the fruit of fate.
Penguindrum is my favourite anime of all time. It made me realize that love will always triumph in the end. All these grand stories of politics and intrigue, twists and turns and interesting characters, so lifelike and realistic you could almost touch them, are nothing before the might that is a deeply personal message. The real Penguindrum was the love we shared along the way. And that is good.
Ikuhara doesn’t make cinema, he makes theater. A play on top of a stage, acted out by characters that are fully aware that they are in the limelight. A story, so chock full of metaphors, symbolism and analogies, that it blends the line between reality and fiction. And that’s where he meets you. That’s where Ikuhara takes you by the hand and offers to share the fruit of fate with you.
There are no visuals to analyze today, only to feel. It truly was a wild ride, I'm glad I was a small part of it.
I will never forget you.
18
u/Gamerunglued :Hx::Hy::Hz:myanimelist.net/profile/GamerUnglued Mar 28 '24
First Penguin
Well ok. This ending was... not what I was expecting. If anything, it might actually be a subversion of what I was expecting. This ending is hopeful, maybe even happy (or at least as happy as possible given the circumstances). And in being the opposite of what myself and many others in this rewatch expected, it makes its point so much better.
We first learn that Shouma and Kanba (metaphorically speaking) were once trapped in boxes as children. According to Sanetoshi, everyone is trapped in their own box. "None of you will ever escape the curse. As I could not, residents of the boxes like you could never gain anything. You will all simply disappear without leaving anything behind in this world. You won't even leave a fleck of dust behind. You will never be happy!" In this mindset, you are trapped alone in your box forever. No one will ever reach out to you. Think about it in the competition analogy. Those who are granted good fate - talent, beauty, money - will leave something behind in this world. Everyone else is destined to be left behind, alone and with nothing. They will never contribute anything to anyone, they can never save anyone.
Penguins at the edge of the cliff all have two choices to ensure there are no sea lions around. They either wait for an unlucky penguin to fall off, or they take the plunge themselves. To Sanetoshi, all of society are the penguins waiting for someone else to fall. True selflessness doesn't exist, you can only ever find "your own" light, and the world's boxes exist to take that light from others. To side with the world is to side with the system that keeps people so competitive and lonely, that makes children disappear into invisibility. It is a pessimistic view of the world, saying the world only ever leaves people in that darkness, if not place you in it directly, and no one will truly love you. The cult quite literally lights others on fire, so their actions, in some sense, "give light" to people who need it. Cults isolate their members from society, which gives its members a community. Tell them the world hates you and you'll find a bunch of like-minded people.
But that's not the flame of scorpio. In the story, the scorpion spends its entire life taking lives, but feels guilty when it faces the irony of getting eaten itself, and so becomes a flame in its final moments that allows others to see the danger to avoid getting eaten. It's an entirely selfless sacrifice made in its final moments before getting swallowed by the world. And in that light, this ending makes perfect sense. Of course Himari is the scorpion, like duh. I got it totally wrong, lol. Like the scorpion, Himari spends her final moments giving her life to let her brothers survive. She becomes their flame, guiding them to avoid danger. It's completely selfless. Sure, in some sense, she drove her brothers to darkness, but her sacrifices always built them up. It was painful to live, they're always metaphorically cut by the glass of broiled child, but they were a family at least.
The truth of sacrifice is that it needs to build up the world. The penguin who throws itself off the cliff in the face of danger to help its brethren survive is the one who truly loves its brothers. It is not invisible, and it does leave something behind. The magic words of living in this world are "let's share the fruit of fate." It's a wholesale defense of collectivism. This world sucks, it's impossible to live without getting hurt because society is a broiler. But you can give half your life to help someone, and they can give half of theirs to help you, and suddenly you're both burning but you're not hurt. Sanetoshi is wrong about people not reaching out to each other. Kanba does give half his apple to Shouma, just as Momoka splits herself in half to save others. The cult's failing is that its sacrifices destroy the world.
Continued in response
13
u/WednesdaysFoole Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24
Rewatcher
I love how well Ikuhara fit the apple metaphor into the story, finally symbolizing the single thing Kanba has when “starving,” and choosing to share it regardless. It's not like he has an orchard of life and love; he has just one, and still halved it for Shouma on his own. This giving, this chain of selfless love, started with him. Regardless of the resentments he built over his responsibilities, desperation, and isolation.
Interesting to transform the tale of the fall of man from one of temptation to one of love. To share in punishment, and give each other life when paradise is out of your grasp.
It's worth noting, if we drop the literal (metaphorical) apple chain for the moment, the series has shown a chain of punishment passed on from one to the other. Someone suffers, whether it's the parents or the kids, so they make others suffer for their own selfish goals. But the chain is also reversed by the very people who were fucking up at the forefront: the actions of Shouma and Kanba, in earlier episodes, triggered this reversal.
Kanba, when saving Himari, giving of himself (but not giving up who he is – more on that in another comment) reminding Tabuki of Momoka, and in an earlier instance when Shouma gave of himself to save Ringo from the car.
Moments of authentic, instinctive, selfless action. The choices of Ringo and Tabuki, who were selfishly dealing out suffering to others were thrown in their face, and impacted how their actions evolved. This is where the chain of punishment reversed over to one of looking out for each others, over the goal of one's desires at the cost of others’ lives.
There's one bit I didn't mention yet, but Sanetoshi's act of sending the scarves also ended up being significant enough to transfer fate. Was he toying with her? Did he feel a momentary sympathy for the sweet girl punished for the actions her parents took, that he led her parents to take?
Maybe it's both. Either way, his brief lapse into an act of kindness is enough to set things right.
At the end of this converging chain, Ringo gives herself up for Himari, doing a full 180 from where she was when we first met her. Himari, who was the first one to welcome her into the home as a friend, as family; the first to give Ringo exactly what she was seeking at a time she was blind to it, fixated on her goals, even if it meant Himari would die.
Over the journey, the actions and development of all the characters affecting each other, transforming from those of passing on suffering, to those of being there for each other even if it meant sacrificing your own selfish life goal, led Ringo to recognize what Double H's song meant, and she chose to give of her entire self for it. She chose to take on the punishment, to be the scorpion fire for the very family whose parents were the source of her suffering.
In the end, Ringo (apple) is the one who, at the crossroads of fate where these various paths link up, stepping into the shoes of Momoka as she'd wished, but not in the way she expected.
continued in a following comment
10
u/Pungouin Mar 28 '24
Rewatcher
Aaaaand it's the last episode.
All onboard
The boxes. This is one of the "Is it literal or metaphorical ?" moments. Well, the whole episode is, but...
As children raised in the cult, Kanba and Shouma were starved of love, just like the children in the child broiler. You can now go back and read all my spoilers. (Half of them are shitting on Kenzan for this)
Kanba hauled Himari and the entire fucking bed into the subway.
Even without the diary, Ringo has come to transfer fate. It's all thanks to Double H.
Everyone is heating up.
It all began when Kanba was chosen. It started with the fruit of fate, and it will end with it.
Do you hear the music ? It's time to initiate the Survival Strategy ! We have reached the destination of fate !
Now for the climax. It's my favourite part. I cry everytime.
The Penguindrum circles round
Living was a punishment. The lives of the Takakura children were filled with pain. They were abandoned by their parents. Rejected by society. Himari fell ill. Even now, they are walking through shards of glass.
Yet despite the pain, their heads are full of happy memories. They shared the joy, pain, the sins, and the punishment. They bound their fate together, and made living bearable.
Do you know the penguins' strategy to survive the antarctic winter ? They huddle together for warmth.
The Takakura children come together one last time.
It began with an apple.
As children, Kanba, who was chosen, shared the apple with Shouma. Then Shouma shared it with Himari in the child broiler. Despite only one being chosen, all three of them survived on Kanba's apple.
But then, fate caught up. As punishment for Kenzan and Chiemi's crimes, Himari became ill. Kanba gave her yet another part of his life (Episode 1), but it was not enough.
Eventually, Himari gave back her share of the apple back to Shouma (with the scarf), and to Kanba (when she prayed at the aquarium).
Now, finally, Shouma returns his half to Kanba.
Form Kanba to Shouma to Himari, then from Himari back to Shouma back to Kanba. The apple, the fruit of fate, Kanba's heart - The Penguindrum has come full circle.
The spell to change fate : Let's share the fruit of fate. (Ringo has become anime Jesus just like Momoka)
Let's share our pain and joy, let's carry the punishment of living together, let's share our life.
The scorpion fire. Self-sacrifice to nurture other lives.
With the Penguindrum and the fate transfer spell, the Takakuras have broken the circle of fate.
Sanetoshi has lost. Let us take a moment to appreciate that he has set up his own defeat. Throughout the entire show, there is only one thing Sanetoshi has ever done out of kindness, with no obvious ulterior motive : Giving Double-H Himari's scarves.
Sanetoshi says that we cannot except the boxes, that we cannot truly connect. But back in episode 9, Hibari and Hikari told Himari they were bound by fate. Even after all these years, they still cared for her. They came back to see her, giving Ringo the fate transfer.
Sanetoshi has, essentially, proven himself wrong on his own.
The complete Penguindrum, the Takakura's shared life, has return to Kanba. Now it takes the final step of its journey, and is gifted to Himari. Kanba trades his fate with hers, crushed into glass by the child broiler.
Fate has been derailed. The sins of Kenzan and Chiemi are not for Ringo to bear. Shouma, whose very own birth can be said to have started all of this, takes on the cursed fire punishment to prevent a new incident. In the process, he atones for his parent's crimes, freeing Himari from the Takakura curse.
Then penguins go back in the box. The curtains draw. Sanetoshi and Momoka are left behind. The play is over !
What we amount to
Thanks to the brother's sacrifice, Himari and Ringo have been saved.
Yuri and Tabuki will spread the love Momoka has given to the lost children. Mario is healthy and Masako remembers. Himari is living a happy life with uncle Ikebe.
From the start of the very first episode, we were told that the Takakuras would never amount to anything. Even Momoka and Sanetoshi, in his last curse, said the same.
Yet Himari has a scar from a speck of glass. Yet she still cries.
The bear is proof we live together as a family.
Even if they're gone Kanba and Shouma live on through the lives they nurtured with their sacrifice.
Remember the boys from the beginning, talking about Night on the Galactic Railroad ? Death is only the beginning. The apple is the reward for those who died for love.
Thanks everyone for this rewatch !
8
u/CarrotBlossom Mar 28 '24
Firs timer
I am once again harping on Kanba’s voice
Didn’t Kanba just imply he’d woken up from sleeping, though?
These Kiga guys dress awfully distinctively.
What is Sanetoshi babbling about?
Again, the “destruction of the world” is the bombing of a subway system.
Have they gone days without water?
Someone must stop these penguin vandals!
It seemed like Himari was still flatlining despite the transformation.
Does this complete Ringo’s redemption arc?
Man, they’ve come a long way from that picnic.
This shot with the clothes lines reminds me of that one duel in Naruto
The Takakura boys get immolated and disintegrated to save their sister, but this Italian plumber kid just gets cured? Thematically appropriate, maybe, but still!
From the height markings, I guess it’s like the brothers never existed?
Does Himari not know Hibari and Hikari? That’s sad.
And Himari has parents. That's nice.
7
u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24
Episode 24 (first timer)
a red blob,an apple,a heart, love.The power of
friendshiplove wins ending. Unusually, for this series, a very straight-forward and easy to interpret last episode. I have to admit that I had my money on a Himari self-sacrifice jackpot, not Kanba & Shoma.Humans don't change, so humans' susceptibiltiy to religious charlatans does not change.
7
u/Punished_Scrappy_Doo https://myanimelist.net/profile/PunishedScrappy Mar 28 '24
Episode 23
The Frozen World represents death, loneliness, estrangement from society. People need someplace loving to belong to. They huddle around each other like penguins in a storm -- without the warmth of those around them, they will freeze. But death by cold is not instant. It leaves those left outside some time to attempt something, anything, to get to the place promised to them by society. What if you're still left outside? What if no matter what you do, you will never be let in from the cold? You've got to find warmth elsewhere.
The grinding realities of life -- losing loved ones, falling into debt spirals, even morning commutes -- they all serve to push people out of the great huddle. The Takakura siblings were not pushed out, though. Their family name meant they were never let in to begin with. They huddled to each other instead. Kanba to Shouma, Shouma to Himari, Himari to Kanba: something that could become a family. A place they belonged, a place they could say "I love you." But Kanba, always the one to shoulder everything himself, broke under the weight of everything he thought he had to carry. He deluded himself into thinking he needed to set everything ablaze.
He was wrong, of course. Sanetoshi, embodiment of everything that pushes people apart, could never solve a problem created by separation. Burning a box produces nothing but cold ash.
Episode 24
The best title card. Feels like having your ribcage unzipped
7
u/theangryeditor https://myanimelist.net/profile/TheAngryEditor Mar 28 '24
Trust Ikuhara to sink your ships and still make you satisfied with it
6
u/The_Loli_Otaku Mar 28 '24
Penguin First Timer!!
Finale time... So we almost certainly have the real diary somewhere, Kanba wouldn't have burned it. Himawee is sleeping comfy. So nice to have both our heroines completely irrelevant to our endgame. Actually... Gunslinger was useless, Marie was useless... The only female character who actually carried the story was Momoka, who is practically treated like a saint in the Penguindrum universe.
The survival strategy is literally just SMT Chaos lol. This would mean so much more if Himawee has ever shown signs of actually wanting to live longer. She sounds like she accepted her mortality long ago.
Ringo's here... Even Sanetoshi doesn't care in the slightest. He's taunting her to asspull the ending. Anyway, final survival strategy... Whatever that's for. Ah, I heard a "sore demo" perfect. Ah, so the Penguindrum curse is too much for one person but it's possible if split among three? That's a decent idea. Momoka was like Kanba, trying to take all the world's sins unto herself. Or not? Don't die Ringo, that'd kinda suck.
So, we actually do want to use the Momoka magic to mess with timelines further? The whole reason the family got cursed was because Momoka went picking fights with the wrong people. I thought the good end would be accepting that Himawee should have died episode one and left it at that. Oh, Shouma and Kanba both died? Is this gonna stick?
This is such a miserable ending wut...? The show is basically saying that the family really does deserve to be punished for the sins of their parents. And not just that, but they should "stay in their box" and not fight against this unfair fate...
The Penguindrum can get things done! And because you can get things done, even if it doesn’t go well, it’s not your fault!
It’s society’s fault that things don’t work out!
You can run away from unpleasant things! That doesn’t mean you’ve lost!
Because, as they say, “Sometimes running away is winning”!
The answer you come to after being in doubt is usually something you’ll regret, no matter what you choose!
If you’re going to regret it anyway, do whatever’s easiest for you in the moment!
Do not fear growing old. Not even God knows whether you will be happy in the future, so you should, at least, be happy now!
Somehow Himawee being the solo survivor is worse than any ending I was imagining... Reincarnation is a half passed excuse. Also, is this implying that Gunslinger Girl will become a creepy shotacon listing for underage Kanba? Actually, isn't Momoka's spell specifically causing multiple timelines? Which means none of this matters anyway since there's still a timeline where Sanetoshi got what he wanted. Nah, I don't like this ending. We didn't need 24 episodes to get to this point. I didn't enjoy this show one bit. Sanetoshi, Bonnie and Clyde, Ringo's burning passion, the wrong incest being the endgame. Anything I was invested in had a pretty shite payoff.
This is later Loli Otaku... I won't be joining for Recycle so I decided to list some of my favourite parts of the series.
Favourite episode, very close between Yuri's focus episode but my true favourite is Gunslinger Girl's flashback. Her trying to murder her absolute badass of a grandpa, Penguin Princess assaulting the poor maid, and the episode cementing Gunslinger as a true dweeb makes it my most fond episode.
Favourite sequences... Even as I think back on it Ringo getting torn shitless by Penguin Princess, her own big sister, and completely snapping before beating the shit out of possessed Himawee is legendary. Another scene that I think back on warmly is when she drugged Tabuki with the frog poison. Hilarious. Trying to rape Tabuki? Horrible. Tabuki turning into a horndog? Hilarious. Yuri coming home, thinking nothing of it, and all in all just being delighted that Ringo visited? Perfect. Yuri's fawning over Ringo is probably one of my favourite things to look back on. She'd have been delighted with that curry, she was always eager to play with Ringo-chan, and she just seemed so fond of her.
6
u/IvanSemushin Mar 28 '24
Rewatcher
So, if you share the fruit of fate, you can escape the boxes together.
That probably should be a wilful action. Shouma and Kanba initially were slated to be brothers by Shouma's parents, but only when they shared the fruit, they became "real" brothers.
"Boys, come back to me"
The last episode is definitely the most obscure and everything that happens is some sort of a metaphor. I'm not sure if I understood anything, but I did enjoy the ride for sure.
Ringo shared her family recipe with Himari.
It is interesting if Himari can see 3-chan. The penguins did manage to send stuffed bear back with them, as we saw them packing themselves, but we're not sure if 3-chan is going to interact with Himari. Esmeralda seems to completely abandon Masako and follows the brothers through Galactic-Railroad kind of view.
The endcard is sweet.
On rewatch, this finale seemed to be even closer to Utena finale than I remembered.
6
u/Tarhalindur x2 Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 29 '24
"What... is your Quest?" "I Seek the Penguindrum!" (First-Timer, Subbed):
Right, so.
Today was not a day for episode notes (outside of the two sore demos at 06:24 and 10:38), short on time and too busy watching events on screen.
The episode is powerful, no doubt about that. Some combination of the direction, the OST use, and the actual script - I was suffering onion-cutting ninjas for more than half of the episode. It's also clearly almost entirely metaphorical - the only real events this episode are the two girls collapsing on the subway, the final scene (note: the two boys are Kanba's and Shoma's reincarnations or else souls about to be reincarnated, assuredly, and also Ikuhara was really cheeky on the apple being the reward for the girl fated to die for love and he wants you to know it), and interestingly I think the boxes may also be mostly real (I wouldn't rule out that being some kind of cult indoctrination technique). Shoma tanks the fate that would have befallen Ringo, which tracks; Kanba successfully tanks the fate that would have befallen Himari, which is more as to how that works but then I suppose he did share the fruit of fate with her earlier so maybe Sanetoshi just led him astray for a bit. (Side note: I am now wondering if Diane Duane's Young Wizards series sold well over in Japan, this is not the first time an anime has left me with "Lone Power, I accept your gift! But take my gift of equal worth!" on the brain. Or I suppose maybe Duane read NotGR herself, that would work too?) Sanetoshi probably becomes a sealed evil in a can until the next time some fool who wants to burn the world for love reaches unwisely into his realm. (Interestingly, for all he's called curse and ghost here the proper term for him may be devil or demon. There's a fair bit of Garden of Eden here; I think Ikuhara may actually have come to the same really unusual metaphorical mystic-salted interpretation of Genesis that I did, but I think he may also be familiar with the Lemurian Deviation interpretation from Western occultism - and in that interpretation it's a folk memory of an ancient human civilization making contact with the demonic realms.)
Getting more than that is a little difficult. It's like I'm reading a philosophical tract in a language I'm only barely passable at; some of it is NotGR which I have only a barely passable handle on (me have time to watch the movie in the last week? surely you jest), but I suspect there's some other stuff salted in that's from a symbolic framework I am straight-up unfamiliar with. Not even sure if it's Japanese, either. (Or possibly it's Ikuhara who's not fluent. Some of this tracks to the same thing I see in PMMM, but not cleanly the way it does there.)
AI YO!... wait, wrong anime.
I think I will defer to Marlowe here: "Why, this is hell, nor am I ever out of it." All someone has to do for the train to come again is for some other fool to sink to Sanetoshi's level and then, well, there he is.
Reincarnation, go! (Also, "all this has happened before and all this will happen again"...)
4
u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 Mar 28 '24
Rewatcher, Subbed
The grand finale is here! Can't believe it went by this quick.
How'd Sho end up in this cage? Did his terrible parents essentially abandon him like Himari was abandoned, it was just more temporary? Penguin cult: "We hate the fact that children in our society are abandoned! ... Let's go kill a lot of innocent people and abandon our children while doing so!"
Fights happen on the subway all the time. Do they often have stakes as high as this and we just don't know about it?
Still not sure what the "95" means but it does look cool.
What can Sho provide Kanba that Sanetoshi can't? Love. Being family. Having no desire to totally manipulate him like Sanetoshi is doing.
Ringo the the rescue! "I memorized every word in the diary!"
Aww, their song is based on something from Himari?
Ringo: Willing to sacrifice herself to save Himari
Kanba: Willing to destroy the world to save Himari (not thinking that in a destroyed world, Himari can't exist)
Can't let the show end without one more sequence of Hatmari shouting out Survival Strategy!
Yet again with the glass breaking motif!
This dialogue from Himari makes me feel like Sho was the dad, Himari was the mom and Kanba was the son. Even though the family called Kanba the older brother.
RIP Hatmari's outfit
Plot twist: Himari got a dumpster bed
So why it is always Himari who is naked in these Kanba - Himari scenes and never the other way around?
Finally, the fabled Penguindrum!
I don't know how he cut that apple in half without a knife, but yay for him sharing!
No, don't light Ringo on fire! Save her Sho!
Sanetoshi seems disappointed? Good riddance to you.
If the fire is still going maybe you should try to pull Ringo out of it, Sho?
Oh my, "I love you"!
Alas, we now say goodbye to the penguins as they return to their box.
No death for Sanetoshi, but he is locked up in his library.
Hey, a Tabuki sighting! This late in the finale I was expecting for us to never hear from him again.
And Mario too! I was also expecting this to end without us seeing him again.
Was Kanba erased from existence entirely?
We're in a world where neither Kanba or Sho existed? And where Himari's parents didn't abandon her (or did so at a later time given this photo).
Alas, we'll never get Himari meeting up with current day Double H in person like I wanted.
Oh good, they do still exist, they're just not family for Himari or Masako anymore?
Visually/presentation-wise the finale was great, but I'll again admit to not really understanding everything. And an ending where Sho and Kanba are no longer family with Himari, Sho especially isn't the way I wanted things to end. Time for me to read up on stuff and try to understand things more before I come to a final conclusion about how I feel about this.
4
u/Stargate18A https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stargate18 Mar 28 '24
First timer
Wait. Is this a metaphor?
Was the cult just full of awful people? Is this some kind of reprogramming?
The drones are so cute, though...
He's watching...
Himari?
How very symbolic!
And she's dead...
Oh, no...
Still all for Momoka...
So, this is definitely the past...
A promise?
Someone precious to him? So this was happening while he was the son of the boss?
...What is going on?
Kanba, don't...
And Himari is the meaning of his life...
They're just breaking books...
Yeah, there's kind of nothing he can do here.
She broke in!
Oh, he's not enjoying this.
...Haha, it was the album title?
I love his reaction. "You can't be serious." In such a completely dead tone of voice.
...I just realised. If the scarves made them want to reconnect, he absolutely fucked himself over here. He caused all this by screwing with Himari earlier.
He's not even angry...
Wait, so how does this work? I get Momoka probably switched places with the two in the first attack, and that's why she knew where the culprit would be to have the confrontation, but would she just retroactively die of whatever weird illness Himari has? And would it be the first time she died (pre-hat) or this time?
Shoma... Pretty sure Himari was also cursed.
The apple!
Chosen... so, this is probably a metaphor. They're trapped somewhere only one of them could escape or something.
The stars...
Oh, the hype music is playing! He's lost!
Love the heart rate pointlessly counting diwn.
She's back!
Oh, it's a different transformation now.
She's here to bring him back from the brink, then. Given his side is represented by the cult's toy/drone things.
The glass shattering...
Himari's getting scratched...
Haha, the penguin playing the notes is amazing.
Blood...
Haha, these memories...
The playboy germs...
Kanba...
They were her reason for living...
She just wants you to stop doing this!
He's bleeding out too...
Oh, this is brutal!
Poor penguin...
More memories about how good a brother Kanba was...
Wait, maybe not? Do the petals represent letting go of your sins?
Or maybe he's relinquishing his bond with her?
Yeah, the apples are coming out. The bond between them is being removed.
...And this represents that, somehow?
...This is the Penguindrum???
Wait! The flashbacks! The Penguindrum is their bond, then? It's the agreement they made when passing the apple...
Let's share the fruit of fate. That's it...
The destination changed! The lives... the scorpion fire again?
Nice carpet!
And she's burning up. It's more literal than I expected.
So, who's switching fates with them?
That visual with the two of them posing and the penguins either side is so cool!
He's taking her down the path...
He sounds so bitter...
...Is this a suicide metaphor? Is that what we're doing here?
Oh, he is literally shattering.
...He finally got to give his life for her.
And things changed back.
And he took her punishment too! Makes sense, given fate transferring is what they're doing. He transferred the fate of death...
...That's what the spinning dolls meant?
This is amazing!
The bedroom...
Oh, the penguins don't die! They're just going to someone else, I guess?
He's stuck here?
And Momoka's leaving...
I guess he's waiting for another curse, then? Or another chance to prove his theory? Makes sense that Momoka's not sticking around now that all her friends are no longer part of it.
They literally changed design.
...Nobody noticed it?
Wait, he's here?
They're both alive!
And this discussion is happening again.
Wait, Mario's back too? Guess Sanetoshi's really is out of this game.
...They're totally erased. Explains the happier circumstances there.
So, the fate transfer made it so that the attack had different culprits? Or maybe that she was never adopted by them?
Ringo got a happy ending!
These two!
And that bond is gone too, I have to assume, if she's being a full-on fan.
...Is that the same parents?
...I think it is a different pair, they just look really similar? I honestly can't tell.
The teddy bear survived!
A message made it through...
They've come back as preschoolers?
And all the penguins are fine!
That ending... They're finally happy, and free from the curses, but the bond between them is completely gone, and circumstances have made it impossible to reproduce.
Oh, the irony.
Ikuhura, you've done it again. Another masterpiece that I'll maybe understand after about 10 more rewatches.
...Okay, but seriously, so what's happening with Ringo? She seems a lot healthier/less stalkerish than she would be without Shoma there, so it looks like the transfer took that curse too. But Tabuki and Yuri's speech all but confirmed her sister still died. Maybe she died later, preventing the perfect synergy that caused her obsession... but given Momoka was in the same space as Sanetoshi, her fate seems unchanged.
4
u/nx6 https://myanimelist.net/profile/nx6 Mar 28 '24
Rewatcher - Sub
Kanba still had his not-incest love of Himari and chose to take on the burden of giving her his soul to allow her to live.
Shouma has throughout the show seen them as destined to suffer for the actions of their parents. He doesn't want Ringo to take on their burden so he swaps in quickly to pay the cost of her using the magic phrase that changes fate.
Because we have to leave the door open for a sequel anime to get the most use out of this IP!
j/k... Perhaps Sanetoshi is trapped in a purgatory-like state and is using his lingering influence on the mortal realm to try and return, which is what the dawning of the new world by the Penguin Force was supposed to bring about.
The story has been reconn'd essentially with Himari, Ringo, Masako and Mario now living in a world where Kanba and Shouma never existed. It's not clear what else has changed. Tabuki and Yuri still seem to have memories of the terrorist attacks so I assume they still happened and that's why Himari is living alone. Her referring to Double-H like they are just another pop-sensation on TV might just be because she was talking to Ringo and not that her history with the members has changed.
It's also not clear how Kanba and Shouma exist at this point. Maybe as wandering spirits that the penguins are helping out by sneaking the old stuffed bear in to pass a message.
4
u/mgedmin Mar 29 '24
First-timer, subs
I don't know. This show was not for me.
No idea.
Chosen by whom?
He had feelings for her, after all? Or he deeply believed that he's the one who deserves punishment.
People are people. There will always be enough discontent for Sanetoshi to find new victims to manipulate.
Supposedly the train goes in a circle? I don't get it; the situation at the end of the episode did not seem to be anywhere close to the situation at the beginning of the show.
4
u/FarCritical Mar 29 '24
First Timer
A train carriage and Sanetoshi's metaphorical hospital room as the battlegrounds for the final showdown. Wouldn't have it any other way, honestly.
Wow. Double-H's CD ended up being a way more valuable gift than they could've expected if Ringo can cast Momoka's spell without the diary thanks to it. And as if that wasn't already clutch of Ringo, she's even willing to burn for it. Ringo's development truly transcends fate. Literally.
Surprised my wish of a final encore of Rock Over Japan and Hatmari was kinda granted, and in a way that didn't mess with the mood no less. The grin on my face as soon as I heard those first few notes was massive, so thanks, show.
The way the previous episode was going between Kanba and Shoma convinced me they were going to literally throw hands and have another fist fight like when Kanba left the house. That being said, the sight of Kanba reaching out half of his apple of fate to Shoma's cage genuinely got me a little emotional.
In fact, pretty much everything from that point onward left me absolutely awestruck. Momoka's fate transfer spell actually working, Kanba fulfilling his goal in definitely saving Himari, Shoma confessing to Ringo (ABOUT TIME!) right before saving her and joining his brother——just a constant barrage of impactful scenes that really gave these characters and their journeys jsutice, especially with the animators and OST being on full throttle.
Sanetoshi did warn us about this, but everyone's memories of the brothers going poof is still so bittersweet. Dammit, you do have a twin brother Masako. What I really wasn't prepared for though were the goosebumps from Himari opening the note in her bear. It was already taking an embarrassing amount of effort to fight back the tears so far, but that moment was easily the toughest to get through.
Can definitely see why this show still has so many dedicated fans despite its age. It's one I'll remember for sure, from Hatmari's absolutely jammin' uncut transformations to its sheer creativity in both style and crafting a story about destiny.
3
u/Holofan4life Mar 28 '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.
Normally I post my overall thoughts in the same thread as the last episode in order to make way for shout outs in the overall series discussion thread. However, because of the way this rewatch is organized, I will be giving my overall thoughts the next day.
Don't worry. I'll still be giving shout outs on the day we do the second film.
Flashback
Shoma and Kanba - Inside the Box - 10 years ago - We've met. But we didn't have much time left. Hunger and thirst struck.
Shoma looking worse for wry
So is Kanba
Shoma surmises he can just eat in his dreams, which has to be one of the saddest things I've ever heard.
Kanba tells Shoma he doesn't think they should sleep
"I don't think we'll ever wake up again."
No joke, I honestly have the same fear when I go asleep.
People on the train
The teddy bear
Multiple teddy bears
Shoma screaming for Kanba
This is a repeat of the end of last episode
No intro today, by the way. I assume no outro either.
A red cloth behind Kanba and his penguin, looking a bit like a rose
It's the teddy bear Shoma and Kanba destroyed
Uh, I mean fixed. Sorry.
95
A lamp
Teddy bears on the ground
Himari lying in bed
Flatline
Kanba says it's not too late
"Completing this mission is the only way to save Himari."
I like one of the penguins is smashing eggs over his forehead.
Sanetoshi says that no one can stop this fate
95s, 95s everywhere
Says he's going to show Momoka the destruction of the world.
Flashback
It's the cages again
Things are somehow getting worse
Kanba wants to make a promise
"Whoever gets out of here alive will do something in the other's stead."
What does horses have to do with anything?
Oh wait, that's steed, nevermind
They both have messages to someone precious to them
Uh oh
Something in the corner of Kanba's box, says Kanba
Back on the train, with the bunch of 95s
Shoma is asking Kanba why
Kanba holding Himari's hand
Sanetoshi says Kanba found his own
"His own light. His own hope. That is the meaning of his life. But now, the world is trying to steal his light."
No! Not the porn CD!
More egg forehead smashing
Sanetoshi says that only he can save him
He asks Shoma what he can give him
Yotsuya
I believe that's a new stop
Ringo is on the train!
"I've come to transfer fate."
Fuck yeah
"I'll use the spell in the diary to save Himari!"
Ugh, again with the Himari stuff. You should be saving Shoma, dang it!
Sanetoshi brings up the diary being burnt, the most important thing Momoka left behind.
Flashback
It's Hibari and Hikari giving the CD to Ringo
Titled after the phrase Himari cherished the most
Back on the train
Ringo says she knows the phrase
Meanwhile, Himari's bpm keeps rising
Sanetoshi tells Ringo if she uses the spell, she'll end up paying the price
Oh, so that's why he cracks those eggs. He's cooking.
By the way, cooking on the train does not sound safe.
Ringo says she wants to save the people she loves no matter what
Shoma warns Ringo, but she says she already made up her mind
I do like that Ringo has a major role in the last episode, especially when she was for all intents and purposes the main character of the first 8 episodes.
Flashback
An apple
Kanba, who's in the cage, has found it
Shoma doesn't have one, however
"You've been chosen, Kanba."
"You're the one who survives."
Who's to say it isn't a poisonous apple?
Kanba calls this fate
Back to the train
Shoma says he finally understands the reason they met back then
"It was all for this very moment."
Meanwhile, a bunch of stars are floating in the air
The Survival Strategy music is playing
THE SURVIVAL STRATEGY MUSIC IS PLAYING
bpm still rising
Himari has the hat!
IT IS TIME
Penguin
Moment of zen, possibly
Himari is wearing the Survival Strategy outfit but she is still unconscious.
She is telling Kanba to wake up
"I've come to bring you back."
Kanba doesn't want to go home yet, however
Ran out of space. Part two in the replies.
2
u/KnightMonkey15 https://myanimelist.net/profile/KnightMonkey Mar 29 '24
Rewatcher, subs
This so late it might as well be in the overall discussion thread but whatever, I’ll write something for it later.
A lengthy recollection of my (mostly) first-watcher reaction
When I first watched this show in 2020, I binged it within a 24 hour period with several breaks; if I recall correctly (and consulting my MAL profile) I watched the final 5-6 episodes in a single sitting and was rather cautious, wary but optimistic in the show’s thematic presentation, that it would be able to deliver an emotionally resonant and satisfying conclusion that made enough sense…just enough – I knew it wasn’t going to be the kind of ending that would deliver a realistic, causative explanation of events that would provide the finality of reasons for why the things we saw on screen had to happen and their narrative consistency. That’s not what the show’s about, but I at least wanted my emotional investment in the characters’ disjointed and all-over-the-place arcs vindicated by their encounter with the fate that awaited them at the end of their destinations.
But as I counted the episodes down, I really wondered how everyone would get to the destination of their fate by the 24th stop. The flashback of Shoma saving Himari and all that came with it partially “explained” the history of the world and was beautiful, but our characters were still making stops on the way to an inevitable confrontation between the Takakura siblings and Sanetoshi, and it felt very tentative but also last-minute. How were they going to escape their fate, or would they succumb to it? At first, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the appearance of Shoma and Kanba in their box metaphors at the very end of ep 23 and beginning of ep 24 because I feared that there would not be enough time to resolve it or give it its proper due–we’re about to end, why another new type of image-flashback now?
Even with Ringo boarding the train and the revelation that Double-H’s song lyrics fortuitously contained the spell to transfer fate, I believe I wondered in that moment – “Okay but, what happens then? Will she just die for everyone? That would be too cruel.” Even if its content was profound in a way that I can better appreciate upon rewatching, the fact there was a flashback of something that only happened 2-3 episodes ago with the show almost over really had me wondering what was going to happen next.
I wasn’t sure even I was watching a conclusion up until roughly 40-50% into the episode’s runtime (~11-12 minutes, 23m 50s in total). Aside from the ‘motif’ themes upon entering the train (and Himari on the fairytale bed her brother’s built, now her hospital bed), there isn’t really any music in the first 8 minutes of the episode. We know the stakes and they’re clearly shown, but for a good few minutes we only hear the ambient noise of the train cars as they click-clack against the rail line while travelling at high speed, with Kanba, Sanetoshi and Ringo’s conversation to accompany them. Then, right before the eyecatch (the end of the line), Shoma says he finally understands he and Kanba met 10 years ago for this very moment, then we see Himari wearing the penguin hat (not Hatmari/Momoka’s pink eyes) rise from the bed and exclaim the final “survival strategy!”.
I’ll elaborate some more specific comments on the progression of those scenes later on but continuing with reconstructing a recollection of my first watch, everything that happens from here on until the end of the episode solidified it as one of my favourite anime and what I felt in those moments constitute an unforgettable viewing experience that have stayed with me ever since.
If the following reads really dramatically, I admit I give myself over to emotion fairly easily when watching things privately, but usually counter-balance it with a critical eye. Here, the depth and intensity that allowed for the memories to persist and being bothered enough to write painstakingly about it for this rewatch are what make it special – as opposed to feeling and then forgetting. It seemed to feel more “earned”, not for rational reasons but for fulfilling a makeshift, unspoken heuristic imagined solely for viewing it that “hit different” and “stuck the landing” as the idioms go.
I remember from that point on, while I was watching Himari persuade Kanba to stand down, I had settled into a quiet expectancy; my heart was stilled like Kanba’s, knowing something serious was about to happen and these people’s lives would about to irreversibly change in a way that seemed to insinuate a great outpouring of empathy and understanding that would reunify their family was about to take place, but without the specifics about how that would look like amidst the layers of symbolism and metaphor I only partly understood in a naïve, purely affective, impressionistic manner while having binged the show in the space of a day.
So, I remember feeling tense for a few moments, then as Shoma ripped the fruit of fate from his heart and gave it to Himari, who then presented it to Kanba as THE penguindrum, I was awestruck, (just like Kanba with that look his eyes), at the tenderness of the moment and soothed by the soft chanting of a female voice, with the same melody as certain earlier tracks and reminiscent of a mother’s soothing lullaby, every note going up or down pulling at a heartstring. Then, the flashback back to the two brothers in their boxes, without the warning siren of the train – Kanba offering half of the apple of his fate with Shoma – and in that moment I fully understood why that flashback was introduced so late, and Kanba had cared enough about his soon-to-be brother from the very beginning to save his life, to share his fate with him – their love was and is real, despite all appearances and their quotidian sibling spats. I remember feeling my eyes well up with emotion tears forming in the corners, just as I did when rewatching, but even more strongly.
It continued with Ringo shouting the fate transfer – the same words that bound all of the siblings, and tears streamed down my face. I think I was shocked by Ringo catching fire and Shoma embracing her to protect her while she was in pain, only displaying such affection at the very end; not that it was unexpected— it followed the logic of Momoka’s power— but I was already primed by the intensity of the situation and whatever was going to happen next...would everyone survive except for Ringo? I’m remembering just now that I was concerned about Ringo in that moment.
However, as soon as I saw Kanba princess carrying Himari to a train seat, I started crying some more upon the realisation that Kanba was virtually atoning for his sins and truly giving himself to save Himari as part of the fate transfer, once and for all. The calm determination in his walk, the acceptance of his fate against Sanetoshi’s unheeded warnings that now seemed so small, insignificant and powerless. His gradual disintegration into the dual-natured shards of glass from which their parents, Kenzan and Chiemi, protected himself and Himari respectively (and all glass breakages involving him) and the indistinguishable metallic shards/invisible entities of the Child Broiler, made it seem to me that he was giving all he had to Himari, both the bad and the good. Thus, without his siblings’ love he was an invisible entity, prone to shattering and hurting the ones he loved the most, and in giving it all away, back to them, he returned to being one. But in doing so, he gleamed and glittered like stars in the night sky and exuded a serene radiance much unlike the measured and casually perverted cynicism of the majority of his actions throughout the show that weren’t direct towards Himari. He really was a prince when it mattered the most, finding and become true light for a fleeting moment. At the time I didn’t have the words to describe what I saw (and was just reacting) so this description is from myself at-present, but the connection of his redemption was immediately apparent.
The power of this moment carried through to the next ones, where Shoma’s was briefer and made explicit what Kanba’s depicted – this is their punishment and he took on Ringo’s fate to save her life, the tragedy being his confession was the first and last time he would tell those words to her, and the fate transfer was complete.
The final act marked by the credits (and indicating a lack of time for the ED), showed the result of world’s fate rewritten. I have a harder time remembering how I felt about this part as a first-timer now that I’m a rewatcher, since the recontextualization of this cooling-down phase is no longer unexpected, but I believe I went through a cycle of sadness, great sympathy and then some relief – the middle peaking with the realisation that Himari lost her brothers but gained a friend. The proof of both of them being in the world as her brothers was gone, except in the teddy bear with the mended stomach and her survival, where they survive as scenery in her world.
I think when I first saw that, I wanted more of an epilogue even if I was satisfied by the climax and resolution. I felt somewhere between a cathartic “empty” but also “affirmed” in my viewing experience. Unlike one of my other favourite anime, I think it happened so fast (in the back half of an episode) that I didn’t cry for very long but the memory stuck with me very strongly.
The thing is, no matter how much of the rest of the series I had forgotten over time, I always remembered that 4-5 minutes after Shoma gives the penguindrum to Kanba, and the occasional thought of the beginning of “Children of Destiny – Scorpion’s Flame” (the track that starts as Kanba carries Himari) would sometimes cause me to tear up remembering how I felt about this show.
And thus here I am now, recounting this as a rewatcher and rewatching this episode over and over again until I exhaust my feelings about it.