It's also a lot of fun! The three main characters all have penguin counterparts who are constantly goofing around, even as the story explores heavy topics like rape and incest. The soundtrack is fantastic, bouncing back and forth between stirring symphonies, oddly seductive jazz and idol-girl remixes of songs by Japanese rock band ARB. Meanwhile, Ikuhara's trademark theatrical aesthetic is in full swing. He floods the screen with visual details and elements in ways that might remind the viewer of SHAFT, except while the latter is often guilty of flooding the screen with superfluous detritus, just about every piece of imagery in Penguindrum is a small piece of the greater puzzle.
It can frequently be irritating. Many of the early episodes are devoted to Ringo, a high school girl who is polarizing at best and straight-out aggravating at worst. Some episodes appear completely pointless until their true purpose is revealed later in the series. Others walk the line between darkness and outright shock-value, sometimes unsuccessfully. The director is not above killing off a character, only to bring them back in the same episode.
What makes this especially difficult to deal with is that Penguindrum, like Utena, is a show that is devoted to confounding your expectations. Not only is every character in the show more than they appear to be, but the actual plot itself takes twists and turns that appear completely superfluous until the greater picture comes into view. Keeping track of every motif and theme and detail requires an almost obsessive level of attention, along with the ability to deal with things on a metaphorical level. Not everyone is willing to give that much to a television show, much less an anime.
But the great thing about Mawaru Penguindrum is that the more you put into it, the more it gives back. Let it wash over you and it's an outrageous and frequently confusing spectacle. Look a bit closer and everything changes. Look a bit closer and everything changes again. Mawaru Penguindrum is a battlecry, directed not just at the flagging anime industry but at society itself. Granted, Ikuhara retreads a lot of the same ground as he did in Utena; but he does so with enough style and substance that the show's myriad of imperfections appear to be totally irrelevant.
When asked to classify the show, Kunihiko Ikuhara stated that Mawaru Penguindrum was a member of the "penguin mystery" genre. It is both the show's blessing and curse that it may be the only anime ever made, and perhaps will be ever made, to occupy that genre. Mawaru Penguindrum is frustrating, obsessively self-referential, deliberately polarizing and almost certainly inferior to Utena. But there is nothing else in the medium remotely like it. What you make of it is up to you.
