Okay. It’s time for answers. Finally the plot is coming together!
This episode really had me at the edge of my seat. It’s not just the plot that revealed some huge secrets: the characters themselves are also getting pushed on the main stage, and the drama around them is worthy of a finale so far. The big twist came right at the beginning of the episode: the bad guy of this series has pretty much been a dead guy. The rabbits were actually what he turned into. The two penguin hats? They’re part of Momoka.
Momoka actually tried to stop Sanetoshi from fully blowing up the world, although she failed partially. Somewhere in this half-spell, both parties got the abilities to play with the dead: My guess is very much that Mario would also be dead if it wasn’t for that hat of his, or at least that would explain why Natsume is so worried about him. The thing is however, that Sanetoshi’s healing powers are surprisingly long-lived, compared to what the Penguin hat could do. Heck, I’m very much inclined to say that Sanetoshi is currently deceiving Kanba, with the few healing powers that he still has left.
Penultimate episodes do have this tendency to focus too much on plot and too little on characters. This show actually didn’t! In this episode, Shouma was sorting out his own feelings, Himari tried her best to get Shouma and Kanba back together, Kanba got really sinister in the part where he cold-heartedly shot Shouma. And holy crap Ringo and that fire scene! Her role had already changed completely in the second half of this series, but this really brought her character to a different level.
Now, the ending of this series will definitely be the type of ending where the creators will try to put as much as possible into one episode. For these types of endings, the most important thing to remember is balance. There is no doubt that at this point, the creators have more than enough ideas to fill that last episode with. It’s bound to be awesome. but what would rally make it this series’ crowning moment of awesome is if every one of those ideas get just enough time to play out, while still making everything flow well into each other. Let’s really hope that the creators can pull this off, because this show deserves it.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
We finally got to know the meaning behind Ringo turning into a fireball in the opening
History repeats itself?
Also just some random thought. Sanetoshi split into two black bunnies, but those two black bunnies are together the whole time and Sanetoshi exists as a ghost (according to himself). I believe the hats were always kept seperate, so what if those hats were combined? Would that bring back Momoka (as a ghost)?
The scene with Ringo burning on fire was for me the biggest shock of the episode.
I think most people guessed that Momoka was the Penguin Hat (although not that she was split in two). And Sanetoshi revealed he was a ghost previously (although not that he was the black bunnies).
However with the Ringo scene everyone guessed that she would burn to using the diary or that it was symbolic of her being born again like a Phoenix no longer under the influence of the diary. I didn’t see anyone guessing that the burning scene would be so literal.
Can someone tell me what is so good about Penguin Drum? I have heard good things about it from both my friend and this site so I tried to watch it. The first few episodes weren’t to bad, and their were a few good parts up to what I have seen (up to episode 13), but I just can’t see why this show is getting so much praise. While there are a few good parts, there is also a lot of parts that just aren’t that good.
You said Kanba coldheartedly shot Shouma, but wasn’t the bullet that he shot a memory bullet like Natsume’s? Maybe he was trying to help him forget something.
I’m expecting that this show will wrap up nicely. There’s only a 25% chance of a screw-up. Or plot hole left. If there is, we’ll have to rewatch, all the way from the beginning^^
Valth, this show is an example of a show that started out fine derailing itself to the point where it is content just being random. To me, the first 12 episodes were pretty entertaining television and I recommend watching them only to stop there. The latter half is very different from the first, and that’s in a lot of ways. The original values and aspects of the show are forgotten, characters start being inconsistent, plot holes start to appear, the faux symbolism starts to stack up… It’s a waste, since it could have been great.
I will keep wondering here why the hat so suddenly changed its character to that of Momoka. Nothing has changed for the hat, it could have revealed the plot at any time. This is called bad writing.
The tonal shift and faux symbolism ruined this show for me.
Besides the fact that I don’t see plot holes or what characters are being inconsistent…
“Nothing has changed for the hat”….except that Sanetoshi has gotten the diary burned (so obviously she can’t tell him to do exactly the same thing as she had been when the diary existed), and Sanetoshi is about to do the thing that Momoka wanted to stop, with Kanba’s help no less (due to Sanetoshi’s influence)….who had always seemed to be on the hat’s side before….Sounds like things have changed for the hat to me…, unless the hat has the ability to see into the future, which I’m pretty sure it doesn’t…
“Revealed the plot?” Not sure what you mean by that…Sanetoshi is doing things that the hat seems to be reacting to… Again, since I don’t think the hat could see into the future, I’m not sure how it would’ve known that.
Also Shoma has a tendency to stand and argue with the hat when the hat ordered him around before. Momoka needed him to do something with a time limit of NOW… so wouldn’t it make more sense to not get into the normal argument, to get him to go immediately?
It is possible to have more than one type of personality given the situation involved. Real people do.
Besides, we’ve already seen this personality before, when The hat was with Shoma and Ringo and Shoma told Ringo that he is to blame. Also, when the hat spoke to Kanba before, who unfortunately is now on Sanetoshi’s side ie not listening to the hat anymore.
It reminds me of how I don’t understand why people get mad at some politicians for gaining information and making a new informed decision using that information and call it “flip flopping”….Are you saying that the hat flip flopped its personality?
Geez, I don’t think I have enough breadcrumbs to make it back home anymore.
I just wonder if I’ve missed why Sanetoshi is even in this story, or whether they’re holding his motivations back for the finale. Either way, it’s really making me question what the point of all of this is/was.
I’m really hoping the last episode puts things into some real perspective, because there are a LOT of dangling minor threads that could be put to use in making it even more dense and confusing.
One of the few things that bothers me about this show is the lack of attention given to Mario. We know that he wears a penguin hat too, and we know that BOTH of them are important, so what’s his deal? Why does he need it? I guess the episode about Masako might have gone into it a little but I didn’t get anything out of it really…
Sanetoshi seems weak to me too. I get his motivations of I hate the world and everything, but the “I am a curse I’m not real” is awkward to me. Like that’s his whole justification and like… Why do the rabbits have personifications if he IS the rabbits?
I agree with Commenter about the faux symbolism too. What the heck is that globe thing that Sanetoshi got? What was with all those symbols in the first ending that were linking up with a few characters? This show has been pretty good and I’ve enjoyed it once it picked up steam but there are still things that keep it from being great.
And I mean the teddy bears! Why are the bombs in teddy bears, and why are they in the survival strategy world? I hope that gets answered in the next episode because I’ve been wondering about those bears ever since I saw the OP of the first episode.
But if you’re going to say why bears, then you also have to ask… why penguins?
if I was to think up an answer.. then um, the whole reason they’re terrorists is because they disagree with the child broilers, and teddies are associated with children, so umm object of childhood innocence used to create death = ironic juxtoposition?
my god this show is good.
and loool talk about over analysis ^^^^