I'm bloody howling at "Kafkaesque Kickoff Crew" nad "Surreal Punt-astic Penguins"
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@penguindrumchronicler
I'm bloody howling at "Kafkaesque Kickoff Crew" nad "Surreal Punt-astic Penguins"

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you go girls get that bread but it does give a certain vibe to tumblr
I'm so famous, all these bots are starting to follow me
the existence of utena and sarazanmai are slowly chipping away at my sanity and I will one day watch them but I'm fighting it so far
(yurikuma will take a lot more convincing tho)
Drink some of this, it will put some colour in your cheeks.
Or the point of doing the pointless
As much as a part of me considers art for the sake of it a great example of what art is, even maybe something to strive for, I can't separate my thoughts from it. I can't create for the sake of creation, my brain will remain mine. And with that come all of its issues and downsides and flaws and, and I'm afraid of saying this, draws. I can't imagine creating something for it to not forward my goals in some contrived way I'll imagine.
On one hand, as the user of the aforementioned brain, it's fucking sad. I know nobody will ever read this. All of this will just be a snapshot of some moment of thought in my head, like any other thought I can easily discard for lack of importance. What makes this one better? More memorable?
This is a struggle against my brain. And I know already that I've lost. It's not getting better. Nobody will ever read this, and I shouldn't mind. This is my equivalent of burning the letter these words are written on.
When I put it like that, it does make it somewhat easier to stomach. The cliche poetry of the act would make it a bit more bearable. Such a vicious circle.
I have too much love for all of you.

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There's nothing really stopping me from writing, isn't there? It feels weird. Like some sudden realization that yes, you do have full control of your own body, as if you ever needed anything more. I suppose as long as I have some thoughts going, they can be moved onto the screen, hopefully without much problem.
What do I want to share though?
Absolutely nothing lol. Not really having that many thoughts in the end. I'll go eat some ice cream now.
Mawaru Penguindrum (2011) unfortunately falls into the strange category that contains the likes of Shinsekai Yori (2012): anime that are mas
Slight introduction: I'm not a nuclear brain linguist, or Japanese, or acquainted with all the nuances of other works of artists mentioned here
What I wanted to write as a lengthy post turns out to have already been written down by someone much more literate and knowledgeable about this issue. I like viewing Penguindrum as a work of art dealing with Japanese national trauma, and seeing it from this perspective gives a fresh view of the story as a whole.
I can't bring myself to disagree with any of the mentioned parts, such as characters being personifications of a way of dealing with the tragedy.
One thing I really want to see asked though is - why? What is it meant to accomplish?
The closest neighbor to Penguindrum in this matter that I can think of is Murakami's Underground. And it had a very clear purpose - to revive the thought about the tragedy, to give birth to the analysis of not who did this or how, or even how to stop it. No, the primary point was *who* did that. And the results were shocking because it wasn't anything that's guaranteed to never happen again. Even more so, it's difficult to imagine the same events not happening over and over again, as loneliness spreads among the most normal, unassuming, everyday people.
I feel like Penguindrum serves as a reminder. A cautionary tale, almost - here, look what happened sixteen years ago. Have we learned anything? Have we done anything? Has anything improved?
In the final episode, the story goes on and makes a full circle. None of the characters were evil. None of them had some inherent will to destroy that made them stand out in a crowd. Ikuhara goes out of his way to portray Kenzan and Chiemi as great parents who risked their lives for their children. Sanetoshi still sends Double H Himari's scarves. We get to watch Kanba, Shoma, and Ringo grow as people, and yet everything still goes on. The attack still has to be stopped by one person's sacrifice, as if Ikuhara was giving a big middle finger to the Japanese myth of exceptionalism, and a silent nod to the unsung heroes that paid with their lives on the 25th of March 1995.
Great, Momoka stopped the attack by paying with her life. What will happen when she's gone again? Next time, there might not be anybody sacrificing themselves for the bigger good. It's like some inherent fight between good and evil, but the evil is here, it is between us, and it isn't leaving if we don't deal with it., and approaching the trauma is the way to do it, and will do more than banning trash bins in public spaces
One difference I would like to point out between the real story and anime is the omission of Asahara. I fully believe it was intentional, as in not to dilute the message. Imagine Penguindrum, but instead of trying to find the Penguindrum, you end up trying to track down this omnipresent fat-ass cultist who's plotting the downfall of the world. Yay, we stopped him! And we will all live forever... yea nah, this was very clearly not the focus.
And what brings me down the most is the realization that nothing has gone away, and nothing has changed. You can argue that Sanetoshi is no longer even a ghost, and the Takakuras have basically been reborn, but why wouldn't the Kiga group be born again?
And it will. I'm terrified because any day it could be me on the train. Or, if it were you, I don't know if I could be the hero. I shouldn't need to be.
slight plug:
Sixteen years after the tragedy, the wounds have not closed.
And yes, the image is AI-generated. It's hilarious
WHAT SHAPES MY SOUL (NASU KINOKO, ON IKUHARA KUNIHIKO)
âLetâs talk about âPenguindrumâ. You wrote your impressions of the first episode on your website âBamboo Broomâ when it aired, right?
Nasu: âPenguindrumâ 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 âloveâ. Someone who had been loved unconditionally versus someone who had not been loved unconditionallyâhe 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 âUtenaâ, 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 youâre lured into the Ikuhara world with coolness and eccentricity, and then how much further you venture in is up to youâI feel thatâs its policy.
When the PV for the new anime aired after a few years, I was excited, thinking âThis is an omen of Ikuhara-sanâs return!â, 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 Ikuharaâs works saw the Princess of the Crystalâs âSurvival Strategyâ, theyâd be caught off guard a little. But we know from âUtenaâ that this stock scene will be core to whatâs to come. The phrase âsurvival strategyâ is normal in reference to nature, but when itâs a pretty girl dressed like a penguin saying it, it sounds like some incredible magic words. In a world thatâs becoming increasingly easy to live in, she thrusts this survival strategy at two teenage boys and declares, âIf you keep living like this, you will die without ever realizing you were alive. You will never amount to anything. Butâseek something out.â The stock sequence is so cool and never gets old after seeing it dozens of times, but itâs very important too.
âThe work had â1995â 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 âThereâs no point if we donât do it before the memory fades. The scars have to remain as scars,â I had to concede defeat twice over.
âWhat did you think of the characters?
Nasu: I like every character in âPenguindrumâ 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. Heâs clearly the main antagonist, and you can tell at a glance that heâs human trash of a different sort than Akio, but heâs cool as hell. If I were still in middle school maybe Iâd have thought âsomeday I wanna dye my hair pink, put on a white coat and say âshibireru neeâ!ââŚ
Everything in the final episode was so beautiful, and I still cry my eyes out when I rewatch it on Christmas. âPenguindrumâ is the story of the protagonists who werenât 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. Heâs a parallel to (Oginome) Momoka-chan, who loved everyone unconditionally. The two did meet, but Momoka said âBut Iâm going nowâ and went off somewhere, leaving Sanetoshi-sensei behind. He should have cast away his pride and said âIâm coming too!â, allowing himself to be loved. But being unloved for years was the only thing he had pride in, so he couldnât 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. Itâs a very harsh and heavy story, told in a catchy way with penguins and strong keywords. Itâs 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 âUtenaâ was.
âWhat do you think of the Princess of the Crystalâs line, âYou lowlifes who will never amount to anythingâ? 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 âYouâll end as a viewer and never become a creatorâ. Iâm 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 âIf you canât obtain true love, everythingâs just for show. If youâre never loved and cannot love another, youâll never amount to anything.â
Creators sometimes choose their own work over love. Just like Sanetoshi-sensei, you might destroy with your own hands the person who might have shared the apple of fate with you, or eat the apple by yourself. That might be what it means to live for your hobbies or your work, but if you look only at yourself youâll never amount to anythingâthatâs how I interpreted it. Itâs a harsh message.
what is the Princess of the Crystal?
this seems like it should be an important question to answer, but Iâve never been able to articulate anything about it. I was really thrown off by Momokaâs relationship to the Princessâis the Princess supposed to be Momoka? Iâve seen fan analysis claim that thatâs the case, but the Princessâs personality is so opposed to the way sheâs portrayed in the flashback scenes. why would there be such a dramatic shift?
Iâve 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.Â
then there is the Princessâs 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.Â
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 parentsâ crimes and her illness kept her from being a part of Triple H. she might die without achieving anything.
something Iâve wondered is if the âsurvival strategyâ is partially motivated by Himariâs own desire not to die. even if she seems resigned to her fate at times, sheâs still a person, and she did, after all, want to be chosen. her final âseizon senrykuâ is done as herself, which has led me to wonder if part of her will is involved in the Princessâs actions.
whatever the case, the conclusion I have come to at this point is that the Princess of the Crystal represents the collective spirits of those children whose futures never came. she wears Himariâs Triple H outfit, an embodiment of a lost possibility. and although she calls the characters lowlives who will never amount to anything, she demands that they reach the destination of their fate. returning to the meta elements, her character also challenges the audience directly: will you amount to something?
Kunihiko Ikuhara had one job and he got it right
Iâve 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.Â
They did.Â
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 Iâd never considerd but which fit the story, holy hell, and all but predicting a relationship that at that point still hadnât been made clear to the audience.Â
And I need to stress: this was not because Iâm a particularly great teacher. Itâs because Ikuhara makes it blatantly clear that these things arenât incidental, that weâll only find meaning in his work by interpreting them, and he knew what chords to hit well enough for the correct resonnance to sound with an audience thirty years his junior, on the opposit side of the globe.

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my mother, walking past my screen: oh, those little magical penguins are so cute! whatâs this anime about?
me, taking a deep breath: um well. okay. uhhh. do you remember the 1995 tokyo subway sarin gas attack�