Mawaru Penguindrum: Genius or Trainwreck?

From Wiki:

Penguindrum (輪るピングドラム Mawaru Pingudoramu^?) is a 2011 Japanese anime series produced by Brain’s Base. The series is directed and co-written by Kunihiko Ikuhara and was broadcast in Japan from July 8, 2011 through December 23, 2011.^[2]Sentai Filmworks has licensed the series for North America, while Kazé UK has licensed the series in the United Kingdom and Siren Visual has licensed the series in Australia and New Zealand.

A terminally ill girl named Himari Takakura is miraculously saved from death by a strange spirit who resides in a penguin-shaped hat. However, in exchange for extending her life, the spirit tasks Himari’s brothers, Kanba and Shouma, to seek out an item known as the Penguin Drum with assistance from a trio of strange penguins.

This review is not an entirely favorable one. So if you’re an MP fan and dislike anyone saying anything bad about it, please don’t continue reading. :)

cons:

heavy handed symbolism causing viewers to overthink or look for something that isn’t there
 
Glaring plot-holes - M***** is a bitch in the hat, Natsume clan episodes unnecessary, 

Mario in hat unexplained, Child Broiler real or not?, Natsume kisses Kanba, her biological brother! « this is just plain irresponsible storytelling.

 ( I won’t go too much into detail because I don’t want to spoil)

irregular pacing - 24 episodes repeating the same things over and over. We get it, ok?

Let me say this straight off the bat - I enjoyed the art/animation all the way to the end, but I did not enjoy the story past the first few episodes. I always had this niggling feeling as I plowed through the rest of the show that they were wasting valuable air time with repetitive scenes to show symbolism that had already been shown.

Meaningless, insignificant scenes unimportant to the overall message of the show are given too much spotlight or importance, leading viewers on a wild goose chase.

Hi! I’m the Bitch Queen. When you get to the ending episodes, you’ll realize that my whole 80’s act was NOT PART OF THE STORY. At the end I also suddenly change personalities and then you go “ohhhhhh so you really WERE ——-“. You could have realized who I really was right from the start, but that’s no fun!

‘Sup, I’m Mario. What I stand for is really important, but you’ll only see me about 3 times in the entire series. TROLLFACE.JPG

The Child Broiler - real or not? Interpret meeeeeeeee

Hi Kanba! I’m Natsume! I’m your biological sister! Welcome to MY family!

What this does is desensitize the viewer to what is meaningful in the show and what isn’t. It’s exactly like the Takakura house, cluttered and full of clashing colors. I love how the house looks, I hate what it stands for.

It could just as easily have been possible to create this show with the same visuals and even the same heavy handed symbolism, but to have picked out what was important and what wasn’t instead of making every little thing stand out, drowning important details in chaos.

Not everything is nonsense though, and I do appreciate some refreshing visual aids used here. For example, the penguins are not unnecessary and are amazing plot devices. Especially when two characters face off, their penguins (who are like daemons in The Golden Compass) are a barometer of the character’s feelings, motives, intent, or thoughts.

What happens to the penguins happens to the owner, and vice versa. These trash bins are in Episode 1, but the words (recyclable, flammable, non-recyclable) relate to something that happens to their owners in Episode 24 (Kanba turns to glass - recyclable, Shoma burns (flammable), Himari remains (non-recyclable)! I wish this kind of beautiful symbolism was more consistent in the show, because when it makes sense, it’s so awesome.

A little discernment and a bit of directorial compassion, maybe, for less mature/knowledgeable audiences would have made a world of difference and improved the storytelling drastically.

I mean, Watchmen wasn’t something younger comic fans would have gotten, but the recent adaptation made it accessible to them, which is an amazing feat. I don’t particularly love Watchmen, but I admire how the movie was executed because it had finesse and it had that self-awareness. Therefore, it is possible to cram years/decades of meaning and implication into 3 hours without completely ruining it.

Back to MPD. Because this is done in true Ikuhara style, viewers have to expect non-classical interpretations of classical themes like fate, love, rebirth, death and even family. By non classical I mean that what we define fate, love, rebirth and death as -  are are not necessarily the same definitions used for this show.

Suddenly, naked

DEFINITELY NOT THE TRADITIONAL DEFINITION OF FAMILY. “Hi, I’m Himari. I been yer sister for many years. BOOYAH! Loss of innocence! Gonna kiss summady!

Bet you weren’t expecting that one! Welcome to my family!”

From the onset, the premises are skewed, so there is a constant feeling of being unbalanced, the inability to level the plot line and decode the message. Formalistic and nonsensical are the closest words  I can use to describe this. When I say nonsensical, I mean in a literary sense - there is a category for Nonsense Literature popularized by the likes of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, where nonsense is defined as both the lack of sense and an excess of sense - which I assume applies more to this show - an overflow of meaning. 

Formalist is defined as a method of aesthetic analysis that emphasizes structural elements and artistic techniques rather than content. That doesn’t mean I’m into it. 

Suddenly, vaginal canals

Plot twists aplenty negate any sort of logic created by the show, halting progression and impeding development. Promising developments in a previous episode are negated in the next, causing the story to become stagnant and illogical. Foreshadowing exists, but the hints point to a plot line that eventually gets shot down in a plot twist, making you wonder why they did the foreshadowing in the first place.

Trolly Sanetrollshi is trolly. “I think I’ll fake foreshadow something today!”

All in all you get the sinking feeling that the writers suddenly didn’t know how to handle a story that got out of control somewhere in the middle episodes, and instead just stuffed it to the fabulous max with more symbolism.

Suddenly, boxes

Some viewers are worshipping this show, saying it made them think, and that’s why it’s brilliant. To me, however, there is a difference between a show that makes you think and afterwards gain insight, and a show that makes you think purposelessly. My main complaint is that this show has no restraint, turning what could have been a stroke of genius into an intellectual mishmash.

Suddenly, more naked with a different brother

Interpretation free-for-all, y’all!

How do I know viewers are thinking about this show but not really gaining any insight? Because their reviews always start with: “I didn’t really understand this show all that much but….”

I don’t believe in that sort of elitist direction, especially in animated productions. The audience SHOULD be able to access the show’s message (even if they have to work for weeks decoding it), and the message I got from Mawaru Penguindrum (aside from “fate =/= love + punishment) was: “You may try to understand me, but I’m beautiful and hard to comprehend and that’s all the reason I need to exist. So don’t even try to understand me because that’s not the point. It’s the journey not the destination.” 

The moment an anime is self-admittedly inacessible, that’s when it becomes unappealing to me.

Don’t get me wrong, I pretty much got the whole plot-line and I do agree that it seems complex. However, in reality it’s one-sided, flat and self-contradictory despite the attempt to make it seem karmic, all-encompassing and cyclical.

Circles. Karma. 1995. Trains. Apples. Adam and Eve. Pairs. Halves. Fate. Fatefatefatefatefaaaaaaaaaaate. OK ALREADY!

I feel responsible toward anything I watch, so I have a pretty good background on Ikuhara, the relevant real-life incidents/shows/bands/tropes/movies referenced in this show, as well taking the actual time to analyze the mind boggling amount of symbolism in both the art and high-context language.

Also, watching the end is strangely parallel to the ending of Lost - great hype, crappy payoff.

pros:

heavy handed symbolism (yes, I typed it twice intentionally. In the episodes where it was done right, the symbolism was beautiful and compelling.)

beautiful art and animation 

deviates from mainstream storytelling (causing discussion and debate, which is a good thing)

I spent a good amount of time researching just because I don’t review any show without giving it my best shot, and at the end of the day, despite its flaws, 

Mawaru Penguindrum an amazingly animated, ridiculously detailed show that is worth watching for those things alone.

I think I can say that this is one of the most beautiful animes I have ever seen, in my whole life.

The composition of the scenes are absolutely brilliant.

Just look at that.

This kitchen shot blew my mind. You don’t see this kind of composition and framing in many animes.

In conclusion:

It is by no means a cheap piece of fluff, but I don’t believe it’s the genius show everyone is claiming it is. What it is, is DIFFERENT.

 Watch this with a grain of salt, don’t be swayed by the rabid fans and forum posts, and keep your head on your shoulders, lol.

(A funny thing occurred to me: Can you imagine making the people who hated Prometheus watch this show? If they thought that movie had tons of unanswered questions, boy oh boy are they in for a reckoning with Penguindrum!)

I stick with my philosophy that watching anything, anime, movies, cartoons, indie films - should allow the viewer to derive a modicum of satisfaction or enjoyment from the exercise.

 I suggest people don’t overanalyze Mawaru Penguindrum and just sit back and not expect too much out of it, and it will literally open up new worlds to you. 

Whether you like what you see or not is entirely up to you!

Anime reviews coming up:
Steins;Gate, Fate/Zero, Madoka Magica, Sakamichi no Apollon!

All amazing shows that deserve reviews and I’m pretty daunted about writing about them all. haha.
Ja ne!
My other blogs: 
Davao Food, Places, and General Awesomeness : Davao-Review.blogspot.com
Books, Comics, Movies and Art : Culture-Popp.blogspot.com
Alternative Beauty Reviews: Beautyandthebleep.blogspot.com