Mawaru Penguindrum: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''Because, ever since that day, none of us had a future. The only thing we knew was that we would never amount to anything. ''|'''The opening narration of the first episode'''}}

 

 

 

At the same time, they receive three mysterious penguins who are [[Invisible to Normals]] and understand the orders of the Takakura siblings. The only clue given to them by the penguin hat is to follow one Ringo Oginome, a girl the same age as the boys who has a huge obsession with their teacher and tries daily to win his love by acting out the next entry of her oddly accurate diary...

Yeah. This show is ''weird''.

 

* [[All Love Is Unrequited]]: Masako loves Kanba, who loves Himari who cares for Kanba but doesn't show any sign of reciprocating (although the Princess of the Crystal does). Ringo starts out loving Tabuki, who is an engaged adult ''and'' her [[Big Brother Mentor]] and naturally doesn't reciprocate. She eventually moves on to Shoma, but Shoma is too guilty about {{spoiler|how his parents killed her older sister Momoka}} to let himself love her back. Tabuki's fiancee, Yuri, {{spoiler|would like to stay together to form a fake family that would eventually in her eyes be real,}} a hope that Tabuki abandons, and {{spoiler|her true love was their common friend Momoka... who either died or disappeared from this world}}. Shoma's friend Yamashita is revealed in a audio drama to be {{spoiler|in love with him}}. Later, it turns out that {{spoiler|Himari sees Shoma as her soulmate, with episode 20 showing the two having sweet moments together as children that could be seen as familiar or romantic. The last episode (and the second novel) also shows that Shoma returns his feelings for Ringo, but he has to let her go. }}

* [[Alternate Timeline]]: The {{spoiler|terrorist attack within the series was carried out by Penguin Force using bombs, whereas the real attacks were done by Aum Shinrikyo with nerve gas}}.

** Momoka's diary {{spoiler|can be used to create alternate timelines}}.

* [[Animal Motifs]]: The "dark bunnies", who in Shoma's fairy tale are an actual pair of black rabbits. In the real world, they appear to simply be black-haired [[Creepy Twins]]. In episode 23, they are revealed to be {{spoiler|the containers that sealed Sanetoshi away 16 years ago, which have been reunited and allowed Sanetoshi to manifest in reality}}.

** Similarly, penguins. The three penguins are representative of the owner's personality, and the penguin hat is revealed in episode 23 to be {{spoiler|one-half of the containers which sealed Momoka, courtesy of Sanetoshi}}.

** Also episode 21.

* [[Arc Number]]: 95, as seen in both the logo and OP sequence. It refers to the {{spoiler|series of subway bombings in 1995 that resulted in Momoka Oginome's death}}.

** Three distinct variations of the penguin symbol have been revealed so far, standing for Penguin Force, Pingroup and Kiga Group. {{spoiler|At least two of them are one and the same organization trying to confuse authorities with the new name.}}

* [[Arc Words]]: "Survival Strategy" and the "Destination of Fate".

** The final few episodes seem to make "Let's share the fruit of fate" into these.

* [[Attempted Rape]]: {{spoiler|In episode 8, Ringo serves Tabuki a drugged montblanc and attempts to rape him so she can bear his kid and finish her Project M. Shoma's interference and Yuri showing up at home stop her, however.}}

** And in episode 11, {{spoiler|Ringo drugs Tabuki with a [[Love Potion]] that makes him lust for her, but when she backs off she ''barely'' escapes being in the receiving end of this at the hands of a Tabuki who is '''very''' much [[Not Himself]].}}

** In episode 14 {{spoiler|Yuri attempts to rape a drugged Ringo because she looks a lot like her lost love, Ringo's dead sister Momoka. It is ambiguous if Shouma got there in time to stop it; her lines at first implies that he didn't, but later she contradicts it.}}.

* [[Bed Trick]]: {{spoiler|During Ringo's [[Attempted Rape]] of Tabuki, she disguises herself as Yuri.}}

* [[Big Eater]]: #2 is quite the glutton.

* [[Book Ends]]: At the start of the first episode, two random kids walk by the Takakura house while discussing Miyazawa's ''Night on the Galactic Railroad''. The series ends with {{spoiler|the spirits of Kanba and Shouma walking by the house discussing Miyazawa's ''Night on the Galactic Railroad''.}}

* [[Borrowed Catchphrase]]: When he appears to the Takakura brothers in the hospital, Sanetoshi uses the Princess of the Crystal's "Shall we initiate the Survival Strategy?" However, the {{spoiler|existence of other Survival Strategies along with other "princesses" like Himari would imply that this particular catchphrase [[Share Phrase|isn't very exclusive in the first place]]}}.

* [[Butt Monkey]]: #2 gets into some of the most painful and humiliating situations of all the penguins, either through no fault of his own or sheer derp.

** Shouma, very much so.

* [[Cassandra Truth]]: Shouma tries to tell Himari's doctor and later Ringo about the powers of the penguin hat, with no success {{spoiler|until Ringo sees that Himari's life really does rely on the hat's presence}}.

* [[Casting Couch]]: What Ringo suspects about Yuri in her [[Yandere|jealousy-fueled]] [[Imagine Spot]] in ep. 7.

* [[Color Failure]]: Kanba briefly suffers this in episode 10 after realizing that he unintentionally insulted Himari by saying that he doesn't like homemade sweaters... while she's knitting him a scarf.

* [[Conspicuous CG]]

* [[Credits Jukebox]]: 10 ending themes for 26 episodes.

* [[Curtains Match the Window]]: The Oginome sisters.

* [[Deliberately Monochrome]]: Episode 21 is occasionally desaturated to reflect the characters' moods. Also, {{spoiler|a dying Himari}} in episode 24 is similarly desaturated.

* [[Deranged Animation]]: Initiated when Himari shouts "Survival strategy!"

* [[Dissonant Serenity]]: The activation of the Child Broiler, {{spoiler|which entails the grinding-up of unwanted children and reforming them as identical, invisible nobodies}}, and the {{spoiler|torching of Momoka's hand}} in the same scene are announced with generic cheerfulness by a factory floor foreman.

* [[Distress Ball]]: Caught by {{spoiler|Shouma}} in episode 10, then by {{spoiler|Ringo}} in episodes 14/15, and last by {{spoiler|Himari}} in episodes 18 and 19. (With {{spoiler|Ringo}} also included in the first one).

* [[Disney Death]]: Himari, halfway through the first episode.

** The ending themes from the second half of the series are songs from the band ARB done by Triple H.

* [[Dress Hits Floor]]: {{spoiler|Ringo}} at the beginning of episode 8.

* [[Dying Declaration of Love]]: In the final episode, {{spoiler|Shouma gives this to Ringo before succumbing to his [[Heroic Sacrifice]].}}

* [[Dysfunction Junction]]: Everybody has issues.

** Apparently Ikuhara couldn't think of any way to quantify his vision of the series to the staff at first besides saying, "Well, it has penguins in it!"

* [[Expy]]: The red and blue-haired girls look like [[Heartcatch Pretty Cure|Tsubomi Hanasaki and Erika Kurumi]] untransformed.

* [[Faceless Masses]]: They're big, unmoving, bathroom sign-style figures.

* [[Fairy Tale Motifs]]

** The Destiny Diary has an [https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Urashima_Tarō Urashima Taro] design motif.

** The tribulations of the Takakura siblings apparently fit the storyline of an in-universe fairy tale.

** In episode 12's flashback, Kenzan calls Chiemi at the hospital and hears that {{spoiler|"the baby" is okay}}, even though Shouma said {{spoiler|both he and Kanba were born on that day. They were . . . but not to the same parents}}.

** In episode 9's flashback, Chiemi shields Himari from a falling mirror and her face is permanently scarred in the process. {{spoiler|When we see Kanba talking with her at the noodle shop, her face is unblemished . . . because she's just a hallucination.}}

* [[Funny Background Event]]: This show is ''absolutely made'' of this trope. The three penguins are responsible for it.

** [[Shoo Out the Clowns]]: The penguins don't disappear out of the story [[Cerebus Syndrome|as it becomes darker]], but they're notoriously less seen and interact less with their humans.

* [[Girls Love Stuffed Animals]]: Himari certainly does.

* [[Gory Discretion Shot]]: In episode 21, when {{spoiler|Tabuki gets stabbed by Yuri's jilted lover.}}

* [[Gratuitous English]]: Ringo's "Destiny" stamp. As she uses it, she also says "Destiny" aloud.

** Tons of it in Episode 16 during a flashback sequence, as well. To [[Memetic Mutation]] levels.

** {{spoiler|Tabuki}} has some of this going on as well, specially in episodes 6 and 12. {{spoiler|And then both 17 and 18 came along... OH WOW.}}

* [[Honest Axe]]: Or rather, an Honest Erotic Novel in episode 17's [[The Stinger|stinger]].

* [[Hope Spot]]: {{spoiler|The Episode 13 ending is one for Ringo as she resolves herself to stop trying to be Momoka and be her own person instead, then Episode 14 have her get rejected by Shouma [[It Got Worse|and then]] [[Attempted Rape|almost raped by Yuri]].}}

** {{spoiler|In episode 22, Ringo recieves half of Momoka's diary from Yuri, only to have it burned to pieces in episode 23. And then she's left to die in the flames. Oh, and Kanba burns the other half aswell.}}

** Ringo's name also translates to "apple".

** Sanetoshi appears in episode 12 carrying an apple emblazoned with an icon resembling one of his medicine ampules.

* [[It Only Works Once]]: {{spoiler|The life-transferring scene}} from Episode 1, as revealed by the Princess of the Crystal in Episode 12.

** To be more accurate, it {{spoiler|only works once per person}}. As revealed by episode 20, {{spoiler|Shouma shared half of his life (or if you will, apple) with Himari years before episode 1}}. [[Fridge Brilliance|This is why]] {{spoiler|[[Fridge Brilliance|the Princess never has Shouma transfer part of his life to Himari]] - ''he already has''}}.

* [[Jerkass Gods]]: The goddess in Shoma's fairy tale only revived the Himari!sheep so that the characters' [[Hope Spot|suffering can continue]].

* [[Library of Babel]]

* [[Lovable Sex Maniac]]: #1 has a... more extreme version of his owner's love of the ladies.

* [[Meaningful Echo]]: The opening narration in the first episode is narrated once more by Sanetoshi in Episode 12, and again by Shouma in Episode 13.

* [[Meaningful Name]]: Sanetoshi Watase's first name means (if the kanji are anything to go by, Sane = truth/reality (present in the buddhist word "shingon" for "mantra", "words of truth"), toshi = clever/shrewd/crafty/cunning/guile...) something like Cunning Truth-teller. Kind of appropriate, one would say.

* [[Mind Screw]]:

** Similarly, in episode 15, Momoka and Yuri meet on a grassy hill to discuss how {{spoiler|Momoka can change Yuri's miserable fate}}. In the next shot, they're sitting in chairs on concrete or asphalt painted with subway maps.

** Anything related to the {{spoiler|Child Broiler}}

* [[Mood Whiplash]]: This show is ''very'' fond of turning comedic situations on their heads.

* [[More Hero Than Thou]]: The final episode is the equivalent of a ten-car pileup. {{spoiler|Himari has been trying to convince Kanba to give up on her so that he won't be killed, Kanba refuses point-blank out of his own feelings of love and obligation and insists on martyring himself, Ringo comes charging in declaring that she'll finish transferring fate despite the life-threatening consequences, Shouma coughs up his half of the Scorpion's Soul-slash-Penguindrum by tearing it out of his heart, Kanba dies saving Himari anyway, and finally, Shouma transfers the Destiny Diary's curse from Ringo to himself and dies declaring his love for her. Himari and Ringo survive.}} Whoof.

* [[Nice Hat]]: Himari has one. It seems to facilitate possession by whatever entity is offering to extend her life.

** {{spoiler|Mario also has another.}}

* [[No Name Given]]: Sanetoshi's [[Creepy Twins]] haven't been named in the show yet. The credits call them Shirase and Souya.

* [[Not Blood Siblings]]: In episode 19 we learn that {{spoiler|Himari is actually ''not'' Kanba and Shouma's blood sister, but a little girl rescued from the Child Broiler and adopted into the Takakura family. The next episode reveals that Kanba is likewise adopted, with episode 21 explaining exactly ''where'' he comes from.}}

* [[Odango Hair]]: Himari's hairstyle in episodes 3, 8 and 11.

* [[Offscreen Teleportation]]: The hat usually gets on Himari's head this way.

** Episode 10 has some very... bizarre-looking faces.

** Episode 19 gives us Himari and Masako's horribly ''huge'' heads, disrupting the drama of their meeting.

* [[Overly Long Gag]]: Anytime the Princess of the Crystal does her "Survival Strategy" intro.

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: Mr. and Mrs. Takakura are missing. The siblings' uncle saying he doesn't think they'll come back would imply that they're alive. By episode 12, it is revealed that {{spoiler|they are on the run from authorities pursuing them for the bombings 16 years ago}}, and episode 21 reveals that {{spoiler|they were [[Dead All Along]], and Kanba meeting up with them in previous episodes was just a hallucination}}.

** Prior to this, though, Kenzan and Chiemi were [[Good Parents]]. Episode 5 has a flashback in which [[Papa Wolf]] Kenzan takes a ''very'' ill tiny!Himari (alongside little Kanba) to the nearest hospital in the middle of a ''typhoon'' since there are no ambulances avaliable. And Kenzan does it ''by foot'', carrying little!Himari on his back and with little!Kanba next to him, and he also shields tiny!Kanba from a falling lamp. And in episode 9, Chiemi suffers serious cuts on her face and arms to shield little!Himari from a falling mirror, and must be hospitalized due to her injuries.

* [[Perpetual Poverty]]: The Takakura house is very run-down, and there's the possibility that the siblings will be separated and taken in by others. Their concerned uncle is trying to get them to sell their old house so they can live a little more comfortably in a smaller place, but Kanba will have nothing of it. {{spoiler|He ''does'' receive an apparently large sum of money in episode 5, and we later learn that it comes from the KIGA group, Kenzan's faction. Kanba is apparently not only still in contact with them, but can order them around, including fetching him large sums of money, as seen in his deals with Sanetoshi.}}

* [[Prophecy Twist]]: Happens over and over again with Ringo's diary, but as long as everything technically works out she isn't too bothered.

** {{spoiler|[[The Bus Came Back]]: Dr. Washizuka actually returns around episode 21... the one where we learn that Sanetoshi is [[Dead All Along]].}}

** And in episode 11 {{spoiler|Ringo practically finds herself at the receiving end, when she hesitates into having sex with a Tabuki who's just been slipped a [[Love Potion]] and he won't back off due to the effect. Again, it's portrayed as rather screwed up.}}

* [[Red String of Fate]]: Appears in both ending credits sequences.

** In episode 10, Masako makes Kanba wear an unfinished sweater that's trailing a long piece of red yarn. This might symbolize the state of their relationship, but then again 1 ends up entangled with the loose end, so maybe it's hinting at [[Squick|a potential romantic angle there, eh eh]].

* [[Rescue Romance]]: Ringo invokes it when she decides to pretend she's drowning so Tabuki will save her. {{spoiler|It fails ''spectacularly'' and she almost drowns for real, so Shoma saves her instead.}} Later played rather straighter between {{spoiler|Shoma and Ringo}}, in an incident involving a speeding car, an inconveniently-timed [[Heroic BSOD]], and a [[Diving Save]].

** Also, if you ship {{spoiler|Momoka/Tabuki and Shouma/Himari}}, their scenes in {{spoiler|the Child Broiler}} count as this.

** Also, what happens in the {{spoiler|Child Broiler.}}

** This is what happens to {{spoiler|''Kanba and Shouma''}} in the end.

** {{spoiler|Masako-disguised-as-a-nurse}} refers to Ringo as Shoma's girlfriend in episode 10, and he denies it again.

** And {{spoiler|Yuri}} asks Ringo ''again'' if Shoma is her boyfriend in episode 11, which she also denies.

* [[Shirtless Scene]]: Shoma provides this in episodes 4 and 7.

* [[Sick Episode]]: Episode 6 starts with Ringo catching a fever...

* [[Sins of Our Fathers]]: Most of the Takakura siblings trouble is due to this.

* [[Slapstick Knows No Gender]]: The extended sequence in episode 3 that ends with Ringo covered in curry counts.

* [[Slipping a Mickey]]: Several times.

** And then in episode 10, {{spoiler|Shouma has this happen to him ''again'' when Natsume feeds him a drugged dessert so she can kidnap him}}.

** And then in episode 14 {{spoiler|Ringo}} has it done to her by {{spoiler|Yuri}}, who spiked her drink so {{spoiler|she can tie up and rape her}}.

* [[Spoiler Opening]]: It's taken over halfway into the series for anything to be revealed as a spoiler, but things alluded to in the openings (the endings are way too spoileriffic to bother listing items) include:

** Ringo's flame motif: {{spoiler|Momoka's payment to save Yuri from her abusive father was [[Spontaneous Human Combustion]].}} In episodes 23 and 24, {{spoiler|Ringo nearly burns to death, the former due to Kanba's and Sanetoshi's attempt to burn the diary, and the latter due to her using the diary to transfer fate just like Momoka did. Ultimately, it's Shouma who suffers this fate}}.

** The siblings running: {{spoiler|Kanba runs in a different direction, symbolizing how Shouma and Himari are soulmates... but ''even more so'', his upcoming [[Face Heel Turn]] and abandonement of the Takakura family.}}

** Masako's [[Asskicking Pose]] in the first OP: {{spoiler|It is the last stance, or stand she makes while she acts as sacrificial bait to get a heavily injured Kanba away from the police.}}

**** What's more, Himari actually does say {{spoiler|"come back to me" to Kanba. Since the title can also be translated "Boy (singular), Come Back to Me," the song may have been named for that very moment.}}

* [[The Stinger]]: They're always of the penguins doing something while a [[Cryptic Conversation]] regarding the next episode plays over.

** In episode 22, {{spoiler|young Shouma is seen in a cage with a penguin logo that is ''not'' from KIGA.}}

* [[Stock Footage]]: Starts up once possessed!Himari shouts her "Survival strategy!". {{spoiler|Except for episode 11.}}

* [[Strong Family Resemblance]]: The Takakura siblings resemble their parents quite a bit, particularly Himari to their mother Chiemi and Kanba to their father Kenzan. {{spoiler|Rather curious, considering Himari was ''adopted'' by the Takakuras after being rescued from the Child Broiler, and Kanba himself was a member of the Natsume clan also taken in by the family.}}

* [[Talking to Herself]]: Finally happens in Episode 22 when {{spoiler|Ringo talks with Double-H, since she and one of the Double-H girls are voiced by Marie Miyake}}.

* [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics]]: #3 has a pink bow and long eyelashes, but is otherwise identical to the other two penguins. {{spoiler|The other girl penguin, Esmeralda, has longer eyelashes and darker coat.}}

* [[Theme Naming]]: "Triple H" stands for the first names of its three members. Then there's Ringo (apple) and Momoka (peach blossom). Strangely there doesn't seem to be a theme to the twins, Shouma and Kanba. {{spoiler|Although that's to be expected, considering Kanba was adopted.}}

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: There's a girl who breaks into the crawlspace under a man's house every night while plotting to rape him in his sleep, because her dead sister's diary told her to. She's the most sane character in the series.

* [[Through His Stomach]]: Ringo reads a magazine at a bookshop that suggests this in episode two. She goes on to try it in episode three, musing as she prepares it that curry must've been the first cooked meal and served this purpose to boot. {{spoiler|Too bad Yuri was also making curry for him...}}

** Invoked again in episode 17, since Shouma and Kanba's ''takoyaki'' is so good that not even {{spoiler|''the Princess of the Crystal''}} can resist their taste.

* [[Through the Eyes of Madness]]: {{spoiler|The cafe where Kanba meets his parents as revealed in episode 21. It's actually abandoned, has been for a while, and Kenzan and Chiemi's lifeless and rotten bodies are under a table.}}

* [[Tomboy and Girly Girl]]: Ringo (though she's not ''that'' tomboyish) and Himari.

** [[Light Feminine and Dark Feminine]]: Himari and either the Princess or {{spoiler|Masako}}.

* [[Transformation Sequence]]: One that's more than one minute long. Accompanied by a bubbly Jpop version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jUgDe9lSvo of a stadium rock anthem http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsa1ZyrFGj0

* [[Trolling Creator]]: It's '''[[Kunihiko Ikuhara]]''', is it not?

* [[Visual Pun]]: In the third episode, after seeing Yuri at Tabuki's place, Ringo flips out when a cat carrying a fish in its mouth walks in front of her. She then imagines Yuri holding a fish with Tabuki's face on it in her mouth. This is because in Japanese the phrase "dorobou neko" ("thieving cat") refers to a woman who steals someone else's man, roughly analogous to the English term "homewrecker".

** '''Episode 12'''. {{spoiler|Himari dies ''again'', seemingly for real this time, since even the Penguin hat stops working. And the Takakura parents are part of the group which organized the 1995 bombings on the subway. And then the legend of Black Bunnies and Sanetoshi's appearance in the end.}} Hooo leee sheeeeet.

** '''Episode 19'''. {{spoiler|Himari is ''not'' a born Takakura, but a Child Broiler prospect victim. Shouma is revealed to be Himari's fated person, specifically because ''he'' rescued her from it.}} [[Trolling Creator|Ikuhara's]] trolling [[Serial Escalation|knows no limits.]]

** Episode 21. '''All of it.''' {{spoiler|Kanba has a tabloid writer killed [[He Knows Too Much|for digging in way too much]]. Somebody is stabbed, and it's either Tabuki or Yuri. Kenzan Takakura is revealed to be already dead as well as Chiemi. Sanetoshi is also revealed to have been involved in the 1995 bombings on the subway, and despite being dead, has every intention to succeed at destroying the world this time around. Shouma finally confronts Kanba. Kanba and Shoma fight. Kanba leaves the family. Himari declares her love for Shoma, but she then leaves him. Himari is still gonna die, so she joins Kanba -- to save him. '''And''' we see how Kanba, a member of the Natsume clan, was brought into the Takakura family.}} This is a '''heavy''' episode.

* [[Widget Series]]: Oh dear ''Lord'', yes.

* [[World of Symbolism]]: Unsurprising considering [[Revolutionary Girl Utena|the director]]. It's uncertain if some things, particularly the Child Broiler ({{spoiler|a factory where unwanted children are sent to be forgotten about--i.e., crushed down and reconstructed into generic nobodies}}), are actual phenomena or are simply some kind of strange representation of something else. The Child Broiler has evidence for being a real place, but at the same time it's such a bizarre concept that it's difficult to suspend such disbelief.

* [[Yamato Nadeshiko]]: Shoma counts. He's a [[Supreme Chef]] and does most of the household chores. In fact, one episode has Kanba and Himari calling him the perfect [[Housewife]].

* [[Yandere]]: Ringo has shades of this after meeting Tabuki's girlfriend. [[Played for Laughs]] almost completely, {{spoiler|until we see that she has [[Freudian Excuse|reasons]] for it, and until we see the ''[[Attempted Rape|extremes]]'' she'll reach.}}

** {{spoiler|Masako}} also seems to be this... for Kanba. It's specially shown via {{spoiler|erasing the memories of Kanba's ex girlfriends (after apparently pushing one of them down a stair!)}} and later {{spoiler|staging a whole [[Hostage Situation]] both to get Ringo's half of the Diary... and to steal a kiss from him.}} Though she seems to be less... unstable and more calculating than the standard [[Yandere]], {{spoiler|and she also has other motives aside of him (re: Mario).}}

** {{spoiler|''Tabuki'' is shown to have some whiffs of this as well, as of the end of episode 17 and the whole of episode 18 -- he actually ''tries to kill Himari'' to punish the Takakura family for the death of Momoka. Again, he has an extreme [[Freudian Excuse]].}}

* [[You Are Number Six]]: For the sake of convenience, Kanba labels the penguins with a permanent marker. 1. is his, 2. is Shouma's, and 3. is Himari's.

[[Category:Anime of the 2010s]]

[[Category:Anime]]

[[Category:Mawaru Penguindrum]]