Series Premise:
People often talk of fate and what their future holds; that one theme is the basis much of Mawaru Penguindrum’s complex story linking a colorful cast of characters together in ways. The anime revolves around three main siblings Shouma, Kanba, and Himari and how their fates are linked to a mysterious item called the “Penguindrum”. After visiting the aquarium, Himari suddenly falls ill and passes away. As Shouma and Kanba turn to leave, Himari suddenly wakes up, seemingly possessed by a penguin hat bought at the aquarium. The hat then commands the two brothers to search for a this Penguindrum if they want her to keep their sister Himari alive. The series progresses as the two search for this mysterious item who they believe is in possession of a girl named Ringo who is stalking their teacher Tabuki for her own reasons dictate by “her fate.” Similarly other characters are introduced over the course of the series including Yuri, Tabuki’s fiance who’s linked to Tabuki and Ringo in unexpected ways, Masako, a mysterious young woman set on hunting down and crushing Kanba, and finally a man named Sanetoshi who seemingly bends and alters the spaces of reality. These characters all have their own conceptions of fate and what they are destined to do as their paths intertwine, all in pursuit of this mysterious item called the Penguindrum.
General Thoughts:
My initial thoughts after watching the first couple of episodes of Mawaru Penguindrum was “this show is completely random, what is going on?!” The execution of the first third to half of the anime was very comedic and had a sort of slice-of-life / school-feel to it with sprinkles of fantasy mixed in whenever the “Hat” possessed Himari and spoke of the Penguindrum. While these episodes were funny on paper, I wasn’t completely sold on them and felt very detached. In hindsight I believe a good portion of that was due to the dub work (which I will mention below), but even while watching the original subs, I felt bored by it. The first sequence focuses heavily on the two brothers following, or should I say, stalking Ringo in an attempt to take the Penguindrum from her (without knowing what this item actually is). While their grand plans and goof were funny and Ringo is an absolutely cray cray girl without giving away any spoilers, the humor got a bit stale for me as it stretched over several episodes. I was not very invested in the show at this point and considered dropping it.
However after hitting the halfway point, the anime has a very distinctive shift in tone and overall feel. From the halfway mark, I appreciated how the show focused on dwelling on to each character’s back stories and beliefs of fate. At about episode 20 the plot really starts going and I found the last sequence of episodes very engaging. Trying not to give away any spoilers, but I thought the change in a particular character was unexpected but well executed and the show did a nice job at tying up the loose ends and explaining much of the utter randomness in the first half of the series. I did feel like I missed some of the conclusion as some of the extended metaphors were quite… extended and complicated but nether less it was quite interesting regardless.
Personally I wish that Penguindrum had a slightly different pacing to it as I was very unsatisfied with the first 2/3 of the series, but enjoyed the last section. In particular I thought the early episodes focusing on Ringo and her stalking of Tabuki were stretched too long across too many episodes and did not do much to set up the transition later on in the series. I also thought that the first half was so random that when the show started adding in the various characters’ back stories and pursuits, they felt like they came out of left field. While interesting, I constantly kept thinking “oh that’s cool but where in the world did that come from???” I felt like the characters’ actions in the first half didn’t really do a sufficient job at conveying their hidden agendas. Overall I liked the anime but didn’t quite love it as the first 2/3 of the anime were very trying for me to finish and get through. If the pacing was a bit more balanced and a mix of styles rather than the distinctive funny section then serious section, I would’ve appreciated the show more.
Dub Presentation:
As I mentioned above, in hindsight a good part of my distate for the show was most likely due to Sentai’s dub work. While I have heard worse, compared to today’s typical dub quality, this one is bad. For me there were numerous problems with this dub that added up to a pretty unpleasant experience, forcing me to switch to subs which doesn’t happen very often these days. While I felt several key characters were miscast, there were still so many moments where the actors gave odd, unnatural inflections, had wooden acting, or were too over the top. I have heard some of these actors do great work in the past, but I believe the fault for this dub is on the director Steven Foster. As of late I’ve been concerned whenever he’s announced as a director, especially after his work on Clannad’s dub. But back to Penguindrum, there were so many awkward lines that I felt could’ve easily been fixed with an additional read or a slightly different approach. In particular Blake Sheperd as Souma and Illich Guardiola as Kanba suffer the worse from this problem.
Going through particular characters, Kanba in particular felt like a miscast for me as Illich sounded far too old and gruff in my opinion. While both Blake Sheperd and Monical Rial sounded older than their original Japanese counterparts, he still came off as being too mature to believably be their sibling. In addition to his tone, his natural accent was very heavy in places for a dub which I blame the director for as I haven’t really noticed his accent in his past works elsewhere. Blake Sheperd as Souma is a bit different and older than the original (which works for me after taking an ep to adjust to it), but certain phrases like his pouting lines come off very awkwardly and his overall delivery is hindered by these wooden lines every now and then. Monica Rial as Himari sounds alright, but when she is possessed by the hat, her acting falls very flat. Considering how ridiculous the Penguin lady is, her acting feels very underwhelming and has a monotonic quality that’s quite inappropriate. Emily Neeves surprised me as Ringo and was my personal favorite in the first half in terms of acting, however the overall comedy paled in comparison to the original, imo partly due to the script lacking that quicky punch this anime needed and slightly held back acting. Shelley Calene-Black as Yuri also came off oddly. I thought she did a great job at making Yuri sound hammy when needed, but the character has more depth especially in the latter half of the series and her performance came off as if the director was having her mock the role, sounding very over-the-top diva in places. In addition to the acting, the script also felt too directly translated which lost some of the humor in the beginning and the impact and emotional punch in the last couple of episodes. Small things like Shouma calling Kanba “what are you doing brother?” sound very unnatural in day to day dialogue; simple phrases that could easily be altered for a more fluid delivery.
It’s noteworthy to mention that the ADR Director changes halfway through, though it’s uncertain why. I did go back to listen to the dub in the second half of the series out of curiosity and noticed the change did improve the overall quality, though it’s still far from a strong performance. In general across the board all the actors did a much better job in their respective serious moments compared to their humorous comedic places (some of the Prince/Princess moments lost all comedic value) though the wooden acting still lingers in places. While I felt like half the cast were not necessarily the best choices for their roles, ultimately the acting (imo due to the directing) caused the dub to flounder compared to the original audio track.
It is important to note that the insert songs are not dubbed and the Penguins (which originally were voiced by their respective owners in the sub) have had their audio replaced with generic penguin noises which loses a great deal of their personality.
Recap:
While I know many people loved this anime, I admit it wasn’t quite my cup of tea. I loved the last couple of episodes and while it helped to save the series for me, the first parts were trying for me to keep watching. The dub… is just not very good. I honestly wanted to like it but it is just not up to scratch and does not do the original material any justice. Though I’m a huge dub-supporter and try to watch everything in English, this one should generally be avoided. Seeing the sheer number of anime Sentai has licensed just this past season alone, I hope they pick up their game soon.
