Meaning Around the Penguindrum, Mawaru Penguindrum is a story about two brothers, saving their terminally ill sister. She dies, to be revived by a mysterious hat from an aquarium souvenir shop, and demands some thing called a PenguinDrum, in return, which the brothers desperately sought after, with the help of totally whacked out penguins.
The art and colorfulness of it is simply beautiful, something close to Puella Magi's art, and on occasions have a Bakemonogatari feeling to it. The character's expressions are simply HILARIOUS, and the penguins are adorable. The use of the universal symbol, which looks exactly like the ones you find on public potty's door, which they use for pedestrians, is creative and feels like it fits in the anime, focusing more on the main characters. It does feel like the animators were lazy, but since this anime's characters move around by trains, it fits. I will speculate abit here, but unlike cars, whose the passenger's destination is determined solely on themselves, the train's destinations are not. They take you to a general place, and there on, you're on your on. For the majority of your... journey, the trains decide that, and you don't get much choice. It is like "fate determines what happens to you ultimately, but the little things along the way are mostly your choice. The episodes, are not like "In the next episode", but they say the "next station". There are also occasions where the characters look like paper cut outs (Pretty well cut outs), which are just hilarious. Also, the brothers are pretty hot in my opinion. (Aaahhhh the bishies!)
The music isn't spectacular or anything, but it suits the mood. It builds on to the mood it tries to portray, and there isn't music playing in every single scene, which is a good balance. The OP, Nornir, is pretty good, but it ain't Supercell or anything. Like most people, when I watch anime, I don't go looking at the music. Of course if the music is just crap, then it gives an impression that the studio has either, decided to focus on another part of the anime, or that they have a tight budget.
The characters are believable. They are not perfect characters, and have flaws like everybody in the world. The brothers are polar opposites, despite being twins, and have their quirks and downfalls, and, did I mention that they are cute? (Hehe...) The best characters in this anime, if they count as characters, have got to be without a doubt, the penguins. The trio of moronic and adorable penguins that never fail to make me laugh. They are designed to match their owners in personality, only much more exaggerated, and scenes with the penguins are somethings among others that I look forward to every week.
Animes like this just makes me cry with joy. Some thing that is cliche, and hasn't been done before, but Mawaru PenguinDrum is something that will always be unique, and what ever was Ikuhara was on when he made this must've been some good stuff.
