A bit too much into that one anime

—Let’s talk about “Penguindrum”. You wrote your impressions of the first episode on your website “Bamboo Broom” when it aired, right?

Nasu: “Penguindrum” had a high level of polish to it. Its character designs and colour scheme had more universal appeal, but it was bursting with the same Ikuhara aesthetic, and on top of that, the theme was “love”. Someone who had been loved unconditionally versus someone who had not been loved unconditionally—he did something great by fully depicting this in a story about boys and girls. It had true style, communicating abstract concepts while keeping them abstract.

But just like “Utena”, it was so advanced. Unless someone seriously sticks with the story or has a lot of knowledge, they might not understand its flavour right to the end. First you’re lured into the Ikuhara world with coolness and eccentricity, and then how much further you venture in is up to you—I feel that’s its policy.

When the PV for the new anime aired after a few years, I was excited, thinking “This is an omen of Ikuhara-san’s return!”, but I still only half believed it. Then I watched the first episode, and was moved by how much it rocked (laughs) If someone unfamiliar with Ikuhara’s works saw the Princess of the Crystal’s “Survival Strategy”, they’d be caught off guard a little. But we know from “Utena” that this stock scene will be core to what’s to come. The phrase “survival strategy” is normal in reference to nature, but when it’s a pretty girl dressed like a penguin saying it, it sounds like some incredible magic words. In a world that’s becoming increasingly easy to live in, she thrusts this survival strategy at two teenage boys and declares, “If you keep living like this, you will die without ever realizing you were alive. You will never amount to anything. But—seek something out.” The stock sequence is so cool and never gets old after seeing it dozens of times, but it’s very important too.

—The work had “1995” as a keyword, using the subway sarin attack as a motif.

Nasu: To be honest, I had my doubts about why he would be handling the sarin attack then. There were so many victims, and I felt like it was too early to use it as a basis for fiction. But when I learned that Ikuhara-san himself strongly felt “There’s no point if we don’t do it before the memory fades. The scars have to remain as scars,” I had to concede defeat twice over.

—What did you think of the characters?

Nasu: I like every character in “Penguindrum” as well, but this time instead of the protagonists I have to declare Sanetoshi-sensei (Watase Sanetoshi) the winner. Man, what an amazing character concept. Right in the opening sequence you see this pink-haired man in a white longcoat coming at you like a gale. He’s clearly the main antagonist, and you can tell at a glance that he’s human trash of a different sort than Akio, but he’s cool as hell. If I were still in middle school maybe I’d have thought “someday I wanna dye my hair pink, put on a white coat and say ‘shibireru nee’!”…

Everything in the final episode was so beautiful, and I still cry my eyes out when I rewatch it on Christmas. “Penguindrum” is the story of the protagonists who weren’t loved by the family that should have loved them unconditionally, as they band together to live their lives as fellow strays. Kanba and the others leave a bond, but Sanetoshi-sensei is left behind again.

He represents those who were never loved unconditionally. He’s a parallel to (Oginome) Momoka-chan, who loved everyone unconditionally. The two did meet, but Momoka said “But I’m going now” and went off somewhere, leaving Sanetoshi-sensei behind. He should have cast away his pride and said “I’m coming too!”, allowing himself to be loved. But being unloved for years was the only thing he had pride in, so he couldn’t yield that. Even after all that talk about love, he prioritized his self-preservation. But I see romanticism in that, and it resonated with me the strongest. It’s a very harsh and heavy story, told in a catchy way with penguins and strong keywords. It’s cute when you enter, but the further you venture inside the more it beats you down. I think it was more intent on conveying a message than “Utena” was.

—What do you think of the Princess of the Crystal’s line, “You lowlifes who will never amount to anything”? I think that phrase may have felt like a gut punch to many people aiming to become creators.

Nasu: I see, so you interpreted it as meaning “You’ll end as a viewer and never become a creator”. I’m in the position of being a writer, so I might have had a subconscious safety barrier there. But if you ask me, I took it to mean “If you can’t obtain true love, everything’s just for show. If you’re never loved and cannot love another, you’ll never amount to anything.”

this seems like it should be an important question to answer, but I’ve never been able to articulate anything about it. I was really thrown off by Momoka’s relationship to the Princess–is the Princess supposed to be Momoka? I’ve seen fan analysis claim that that’s the case, but the Princess’s personality is so opposed to the way she’s portrayed in the flashback scenes. why would there be such a dramatic shift?

I’ve been picking up little clues over time which are helping me to find an answer. first of all, like Sanetoshi, the Princess of the Crystal is a meta element of the story. she is a catalyst for the narrative; she forces the brothers to search for the Penguindrum, which is a plot device to get the characters to interact and uncover their pasts. 

then there is the Princess’s relationship to both Momoka and Himari. from my first watch, I was trying to understand what link there was between these characters. Momoka died too young; she was supposed to be the savior of humanity; she stands in for a lost future that Ringo, Yuri, and Tabuki never got to have. in turn, Himari is everything to her brothers, and she is dying. 

the crystal motif provides more insight. to be ground up into crystal is the fate of those sent to the child broiler, the ones who never amount to anything. Himari is a character threatened with this fate, both in the past and in the present. her parents’ crimes and her illness kept her from being a part of Triple H. she might die without achieving anything.

something I’ve wondered is if the “survival strategy” is partially motivated by Himari’s own desire not to die. even if she seems resigned to her fate at times, she’s still a person, and she did, after all, want to be chosen. her final “seizon senryku” is done as herself, which has led me to wonder if part of her will is involved in the Princess’s actions.

I’ve been teaching the kiddos about narrative tools in film, and asked them to analyse clips from relatively obscure and hence unknown to them sources. One lucky lot got a scene from Mawaru Penguindrum - in Japanese, no subs - with the mission to comment upon the directive choices made. 

They did. 

They also sat there theorising about the possible meanings of the scene and its dense symbolism, naming theme after theme after theme in a story none of them were familiar with in a language none of them spoke, pointing out possible allegorical meanings that I’d never considerd but which fit the story, holy hell, and all but predicting a relationship that at that point still hadn’t been made clear to the audience.