I primarily watched because the same director that did Revolutionary Girl Utena , Ikuhara Kunihiko, wrote and directed Penguindrum. I loved RGU, so I had very high expectations for this anime, but not a single one of them were met.
Ok, so Penguindrum initially focuses on Himari's waning life span and her two brother's mission to help her stay alive. If you watched RGU, then you will see a lot of similarities between the two shows, beginning with the magical girl-esque transformation accompanied by some catchy ass music that transfers you from the already metaphor drenched reality the story takes place in to an even more meta dimension where some really weird shit ends up happening. However, while this is the main focus of the story for about 16 episodes, once episode 17 hits the story takes a hard left and it's almost like half of the plot points in the first 16 episodes have little bearing upon how the show closes up. I'm thinking its to mimic one of the themes of the show--transferring to a different fate/destiny--but while you think Himari is the focal point of the plot, she's actually not? It changes so many times between episodes 17 to 24 that you unknowingly end up on a rollercoaster of crazy metaphor and symbolism that you're just begging to end.
To further comment on the pacing of the story, after watching RGU, I patiently waited and waited and waited for all the pieces of the puzzle to fall together nicely. They did in a sense, but it wasn't smooth nor as masterful as a lot of these reviews and the overall rating would make you think it would be. For a 24 ep anime, you have to wait SO LONG to understand what the fuck is even going on. RGU was similar, but that was what, 34 ep total? So 17 ep of confusion of that was at least only half way through.
As for the themes covered, some were done well and others felt out of place/unnecessary. You have one message thats centered around family: feeling accepted, feeling loved, being abused by parents, being fucked up by parents, abandonment. Those tied into the overall message of the story. But then theres also the recurring theme of being abandoned by society...being unchosen vs being chosen. Grooming yourself to fit into a mold. I didn't quite get how this tied into family and cult membership (I told you there's a lot going on. I'll mention the cult later). We also have recurring sexual abuse that is omnipresent in the story...literally one female character is raped by another female character but IT IS NEVER REALLY MENTIONED AGAIN. LIKE WHAT. So obviously, your next thought is, it's probably a metaphor. Which is was, but why even have that part? It didn't do anything for the story. It was just weird and kind of uncomfortable to watch because the character is literally drugged and raped and you witness the whole thing (no nudity though). There are probably other themes I'm missing but so much happened I can't remember it all and I literally finished watching 20 minutes ago. Oh, I just remembered death is mentioned a lot. It was tied in well in the beginning (first 16 episodes) but then.....I don't even know.
Going back to my mention of cult membership...yea. That's a huge part of the story. Feeling overwhelmed? Me too. Ikuhara is clearly referencing the 1995 subway gas attack (the reason why there are literally no public trash cans in Tokyo. Trust me on this, I was there in June and it was impossible to find a trash can) which was executed by a Japanese cult group. However, the reason for having this cult group in the show wasn't entirely clear to me. Yes, they want to change society, yes they want to create a new world, but the reasoning was never clear to me. Shou mentioned the Child Dump (lord I cannot remember the name of it for the life of me right now) and his father was just like "oh yea thats where the unchosen children go. sucks right? we have to change it." but again this is after episode 16 where shit is spiraling out of control and your face will look like the ?? ?? meme with the black dude looking hella confused.
IN ADDITION to all of this, there's a diary. For so many episodes, everyone and their momma is trying to get this diary. It has the secret to finding the penguindrum. What is that? I couldn't even tell you exactly. I have an idea but that would probably be a spoiler if I say it. Then suddenly, the diary's importance diminishes A LOT but then it comes back within the last episode but then it's not needed anymore !!!! It held the key to solving everything apparently but when it came time for one of the characters to save the day, they didn't even need the diary to do it! LOL WHAT.
Oh my gosh, how could I forget the most important theme? Fate/destiny. Do you know how many times it was mentioned per episode? Probably 20. This is a huge theme that is reinforced through a lot of symbolism. This somehow ties it (albeit messily) with apples. The story of Adam and Eve is alluded to several times but then randomly towards the end they also quickly reference the greek myth of the Three Golden Apples.
Ok, there's just too much to comment on. I couldn't do it in one review. I feel like my train of thought is so messy, but honestly this show was messy and it would be nearly impossible to neatly comment on everything I want to in this review. So basically, watch at your own risk. This is meta level 9000, greater than NGE, greater than RGU, greater than Murakami books. You will be confused for almost 70% of the time you spend watching and you will end the anime feeling extraordinarily confused about what the fuck you just watched.
