Penguindrum is the story of two brothers and their terminally ill sister who is being kept miraculously alive by a very special hat, which may or may not be an alien life form. This hat occasionally possesses her and treats us to a spectacularly goofy and over-the-top magical girl transformation sequence which has to be seen to be believed. As with Utena, Ikuhara isn't interested in a straight magical-girl story though--here expectations are subverted in that the girl doesn't really do much, other than humiliate the two brothers, cuss rather inventively, and force others to do her bidding for her. To that end, she has recruited for the two brothers (and the girl, when she is in her considerably sweeter and cuter non-possessed state) three magical penguin-esque creatures who understand perfectly the commands of the person they're bound to. These penguins cannot be seen or interacted with by other people, which makes them the perfect scouts, and even better spies. Their goal is to assist the brothers in locating a mysterious object known as, you guessed it, the 'penguindrum,' which the special hat needs for some vague reason or another. (Don't worry, it's made clearer in later episodes.) If the brothers do not locate the penguindrum, the hat implies that it will simply allow their sister to die and then move on to a new host.
In some ways Penguindrum improves upon Ikuhara's previous work in that it's considerably more compact and better paced. There's not a lot of filler here, and while there is usually repeated animation every episode (the transformation sequence), it doesn't rise to nearly the offensive heights that the repeated animation in Utena did. In Utena you either had to just roll with the stock footage and learn to amuse yourself with it, or become good friends with your fast-forward button. Here it's not a problem. (Plus, there's no way anyone could possibly get tired of the transformation sequence here, especially with the English dub: 'Survivaaaaaaaal Tactiiiiiic! Iiiiiimmaaagggiiiinnnnaattiiooon!' It's awesome, take my word for it. Alas, the transformation sequence aside, the Japanese dub is far superior.)
In other ways, it's a step back from Utena. None of the characters are as compelling as some of Utena's got to be, with the possible exception of Ringo, and only then because she might be even more of a fan-base breaker than Anthy was. Unfortunately, many of the early episodes focus on Ringo with a weird intensity--weird because it's a bit strange that an initially fun-loving show like this appears to want to spend so much time with such a creepy girl. Ringo does have a knack for getting herself into funny situations, it's true, but she is the creepy stalker to end all creepy stalkers, and spending extended periods of time with her in the early proceedings isn't a lot of fun, though once her character developments kicks in she becomes a lot more tolerable.
As with Utena, a lot of the lasting appeal and intrigue here is thanks to the mind-bending ending, the artistic direction, and the unexpected developments and themes that crop up. The ending I won't talk at all about for fear of spoiling something, but I can quickly touch on the art and the thematic developments. Art-wise this is a pretty fantastic looking show--it displays some Western influence (though nothing to the same extent as some of Gainax's crazier efforts) and may be a bit too clean looking for some, but this was obviously an expensive anime to make, and from the looks of things, it was money well spent. Some viewers are going to take issue with certain stylistic choices (the severe focus on signage imagery and icons), but the reason for these choices becomes very apparent as the show wades into darker territories.
And speaking of darker territories, Penguindrum, like Utena before it, is not afraid to challenge its viewers in ways that they may not expect, given its aesthetic and target audience. Yes, there are cute girls and cute boys and cute animals and tropes and stereotypes and girly squee moments galore, but there's also domestic terrorism, themes of parental neglect, attempted rape, statutory rape, abuse, incest (incest seems to be a favorite theme of Ikuhara's), and terminal illness. And the series has some surprisingly poignant things to say about how society ignores individuality in favor of promoting standardization--there's an institution here whose policy towards shaping children for integration into society rivals the horror of the meat-grinder from Pink Floyd's The Wall.
Like Utena, Penguindrum has its fair share of flaws, some of which are going to be too much for certain people to put up with. (Understandably so--I find that even Neon Genesis Evangelion and Serial Experiments Lain with all their flaws are easier to 'accept' than Utena or Pengindrum.) But, also like Utena, if you let those flaws just roll off you there's a lot going on here to be appreciated. I think the thing I like best about Japanese animation is how unrestrained it feels compared to its Western counterparts. Japanese animators are not afraid to use every tool at their disposal to drive home their point, even if it means totally abandoning logic, the story, or the characters to do so. Frequently this can be frustrating, but it also allows for confrontational, challenging moments that you rarely find outside of post-modern and surrealistic literature. Just as Thomas Pynchon had to turn to writing about a sentient, immortal light-bulb in Gravity's Rainbow to drive home some important points about conspiracy theory and paranoia (and don't even get me started on the works of Haruki Murakami), Penguindrum has to turn to awkward and cute penguin imagery to make its points about, well, whatever. ^^ Recommended.
