I love this show! Before, it already was really well executed, dynamic, fresh and heaps of fun to watch. Now, it also throws in character development. And this character development is the kind that hits hard. This episode was awesome in the way in which it evolved Ringo’s storyline. And it just kept on going!
I mean, the love potion working was already hilarious and an excellent plot twist: Ringo’s story really was at the point where it had gotten enough time to build up, but the way in which things were, there was no way in which she’d really get further with Tabuki. The love potion was a great little twist that gave meaning to Ringo’s earlier attempts to hit on him, and it also made her finally reach her goal, and finally able to look past that. My one point of complaint is that she indeed did end up falling in love with Shouma, but then again: just about every episode had been building up for that.
And heck, I’m intrigued by the end of this episode: how could a birth have killed someone? This show is very sneaky: you’d think that we knew just as much about the plot as the main characters. Instead, everyone keeps just talking about this thing that happened 16 years ago, which caused Ringo’s sister to die, Natsume to bear a huge grudge while being just a baby. “One word changes everything”? How does that all tie together?
The artistic direction in this series also still rocks because of everything that’s going on in the background. The penguins are of course one thing (the microwave in particular was hilarious) , but also how this show makes its backgrounds dynamic is very interesting. That tiger head at the beginning of the episode for example was very nicely placed.
What’s more about Penguin Drum is how different its two halves are: Kanba’s arc is completely different from Shouma’s arc, even though they seem to have more and more in common. Natsume’s arc is dark, while Ringo’s arc is much more whimsical. Now that this series has started to mesh the two together, this works quite well.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Those penguins are awesomely hilarious~
I heard that Ringo’s birthday is March 20, the same date of the sarin gas attack in Tokyo subway. Assuming this series takes place in 2011, it would be the same day. Some people say No.2’s antic in the train might be a reference to the gas attack. Coincidence?
You have to ask yourself where this is all going and how they are going to tie in the Sarin incidents given what Souma said about it being him and Kanba’s fault.
The peguins are AWESOME. Felt kind of bad for #1 as he was stripped of his armour pretty easily by the black peguin.
I really love this show and am hoping for 26 episodes.
I found this episode to be pretty good, it was better than last week’s episode anyway, which I simply could not get into all that much.
I just wish this series focused more on Himari, who I like far more as a character, then on Ringo who has all of the horribly bad qualities of a Tsundere (towards Sho, does she *really* need to beat him to a pulp? It’s not funny.) and a Yandere (towards Tabuki). I find absolutely nothing about her likable or even all that sympathetic. The indecisiveness that she showed in this week’s episode was horrid too! Ugh.
If I have to fault this series for one thing it is that it has way too much Ringo in it. She is a character that should be sparsely used, not the main character in practically every episode…
Putting aside Ringo and her characterization however, I did honestly enjoy the scenes between Natsume and Kanba, the ones between Sho and Himari, as well as the ending, when they were discussing the events surrounding Momoka’s death. Those were all interesting and/or enjoyable parts of the episode for me.
Of course, the symbolism and the use of the penguins in the background was consistently good as it has been throughout the entirety of this series. I just hope that the upcoming episodes can get just as intriguing and good as episode 9 was. Since, for me, that was the best episode so far (outside of the first).
Just finish Blood C and now this also ends with cliff hanger, can’t wait for next week.
“That tiger head at the beginning of the episode for example was very nicely placed. ”
= I got distracted to how cool the tiger was illustrated to notice where it’s placed. Haha. Cool! Poor Kanba “being eaten” xD
“What’s more about Penguin Drum is how different its two halves are: Kanba’s arc is completely different from Shouma’s arc, even though they seem to have more and more in common….Now that this series has started to mesh the two together, this works quite well.”
= Indeed. And what’s interesting for me is that the thing that made their arcs connected is their birth. *_*
I loved the fact that when Ringo finally get what she was after, Tabuki, it turned into a very dark and horrific and experience
I dig the way they move the story in ways I didn’t expect. The love potion works! LOL the frog on the face….ROFL
I wish Blood C could have seen this and taken some notes.
didn’t enjoy this as much as the latest batch of eps. And Yuri just became weirder. Who the hell reacts that way when faced with the “cheating fiance” issue?
At least it looks like we’re gonna find out everything about everything in the following ep. I still want to know how the “future”/”fate” plays out. Also, really curious if the penguins are just a stylistic choice (like 95% of everything in this show) and they exist in order to provide more “meaning”/insight or they’re actually “from the destination of fate”/”future” themselves.
@ruuruu: I don’t think it’s a coincidence, unless the appearance of the number “95” everywhere (as in 1995) during the final subway scene is also a coincidence. It’s also worthy to note that Haruki Murakami, who wrote the book Himari was looking for in Episode 9, also just so happened to publish a book on the sarin gas attacks.
From Wikipedia:
I wouldn’t be surprised if the creators were expanding on Murakami’s themes…but I’m sure we’ll find out a lot more in the next episode! 😀
This episode had just great direction,the twists their pulling are just insane top that off with some really amazing dark animation and a great sound track, the character development for this ep was great again. They managed to balance the light scenes with dark undertones of the show in a really perfect fashion. I love how it always keeps you wondering the next eps, they just pulled a seizon senryaku which got me by suprise, It definitely feels fresh in how they do everything.
This episode confirmed that Kanba was badly animated in the last episode, or at least I didn’t like it as much.
This all really was really interesting. I enjoyed it. I’m confused about the Kanba’s conversing with and what SHE said about 16 years ago, considering what we learned at the end. I mean they couldn’t have said anything or promised anything if they were just born, and so they shouldn’t be able to talk. Plus this series seems pretty realistic, so I don’t think Kanba and Souma were birthed magically, or anything weird like that. I feel like it’s going to be a sort of thing, like, obviously both the parents had to be in the hospital on the day because both were giving birth to the kids. So I feel like it’s got something to do with like, life trade offs, or getting stuck for a train, or running errands and someone dies. Like the twins’ mom had an emergency and the Oginome family were the only people around so they helped out in some way and girl ends up dying somehow.
Also, it’s weird to see Kanba and Souma as just 16. Thinking about it is really weird to me, although I suppose it’s mostly because I am older than normal anime characters now, although not by a lot, and I still feel like I’m around their age. They just seem older anyway, though.
What really concerns me about this series is the world it’s in. It’s interesting to see the types of things appear in the series, like, magic things. I mean it seems like a very realistic world, and even Kanba and Souma are surprised when they have the first seizon senryaku, so it seems like the world shouldn’t have stuff like that. But then Kanba is just not even caring about a memory erasing device, which I assume is not common weaponry, but Kanba still show it’s odd in the least. I guess maybe I’m not curious about the magic, but the technology. Cause the “pengroup” logo is on those little balls that erase memories, and so I assume they are manufacturing them. So it’s like, how wide spread are they? I don’t think it really matters, or will be covered in the story, but it’s an interesting world they live in. It’s like so slightly tweaked that it’s a little uncanny valley to me.
I agree with everything LilyGinnyBlack said, im so sick of Ringo. Hopefully shes in the background for the rest of the series.
Pafiume–yeah, what is the boundary between reality and fantasy in Penguindrum, anyway? Happenings in the first few episodes of Penguindrum are relatively realistic (give or take survival strategy, penguins, etc.) but these past few episodes have been exposing the strange dimensions underneath.
Considering Schrodinger’s Cat, reincarnation, recycling etc. imagery, I’d guess that what we’re seeing is a sort of boundary between life and death–you have Tokyo on one hand, the Library on the other and the survival strategy world that is somehow in between. Then again, the fact that the whole story is set on one train line complicates matters–how much is meant to be taken literally and how much is symbolic?
Then again, something tells me that next episode the boundary between fantasy and reality is going to be exploded. Then again, I’ve been wrong before–ESPECIALLY about Penguindrum–so we’ll just have to see!