PENGUINS!!! (Reviewing Mawaru Penguindrum)

Hello you beautiful people, isn't life just a weird little thing? Everyone has their ups and their downs and then their rights and their lefts, including me (weird, right?).

This week alone has had a lot of downs from simply me just over-thinking and wallowing in a cage of my own creation. There also has been a lot of ups: I've received some encouragement regarding my art (shameless self advertising here) from a Miss Ellie Scull, a friend whose artwork is absolutely amazing beyond belief (check out her stuff out here ), I rediscovered my love of Pokémon and strategy games in the form of Pokémon Conquest, and I got to sit in front of my laptop for extended periods of time to watch anime while eating Pocky (how very weeaboo-like of me...).

Oh! I also got my AS Level results back. I'm pretty chuffed except for one, but I've tweeted senselessly about it already.

Enough of that. Let's talk about Mawaru Penguindrum!

Himari Takakura, a terminally ill girl, suddenly collapses and dies on a day out to the zoo with her brothers, Kanba and Shoma. As Kanba and Shoma mourn her, Himari suddenly rises from her death bed and comes back into existence through the aid of a mysterious being that resides in a penguin hat. This however come at a cost: the mysterious being possesses Himari and orders her brothers to seek an item known as the Penguin Drum. This arduous quest is filled with family strife, the inevitability of fate, and, of course, penguins.

Little advice (I should really listen to myself sometimes), read the genre tags before you watch any anime. I was expecting a cute little comedy filled with cute little penguins. WRONG!. I was so not prepared at all for Penguindrum. I would compare this anime to the likes of an oncoming storm. At first the breeze is light and cool. Suddenly, it becomes heavier and you are launched into the air. It eventually peters out, and your feet are back firmly on reality, having just experienced the full brunt of the impact. I still have goosebumps and it has only been 4 hours from when I finished the last episode to the me writing up this blog post review thingy.

And why did I feel that way about Mawaru Penguindrum, I'll tell you now.

Ringo's stalker death stare

Out of the animes I have watched so far for this blog, I particularly enjoyed the character development of this anime, especially Ringo Oginome. She turns from oddball, to oddball who turns out to be a stalker, to stalker, who has a troubling back story involving her late older sister and bringing her family back together, to stalker of a new target, to a no-longer-stalking oddball, to caring individual who would do anything for her friends. Ringo was such an annoyance at the start, but she turned into a character I grew very fond of.

Trust me, it gets really intense really quickly.

I love anime that make me think deeply about things, and Penguindrum fitted that category very well. The basis of the story revolves around the idea of fate and questions if things are the way they are because they are meant to be, or are we able to change this so called fate and possibly rescue those around us who we love. The entire base of Penguindrum revolves around the tragedy of Himari's consistently foretold eventuality that she will die as Kanba and Shoma do everything they can to stop that happening at any cost in some incidences.This makes for even gripping emotions as each little arc of the series unveils itself.

*Eyes sparkle*

The art style of Penguindrum was fascinating: being able to hold such a deep and sometimes dark story line yet still be so vibrant and colourful. This is probably the third or forth time I have had to pause just to look at the detail of some of the character designs and scenery. Truth be told, I was so confused in the first episode: I thought Shoma was a girl because of how pretty his eyes were. (lol)

Moving on to the dislikes...

This is the face of the being that will rip out
my soul for disrespecting their presence
in the anime, Mawaru Penguindrum.

My favourite animal in the whole of the animal kingdom right now is... the owl. I bet you thought I was going to say penguin. Well, penguins are in the top five at the least (4th to be exact, just after foxes and cats.)... And I really hate to say it, but the penguins involved in Mawaru Penguindrum became a bit of a nuisance. They were so cute at first, and continue to be cute throughout. However I felt they were a little bit distracting from the drama filled scenes. They did ease the tension slightly by being comedy relief, but I do not fully understand whether their presence was at all needed. Heck, I am still not so sure on what exactly a Penguin Drum is...

My head hurts so much that I want to hide in a bin too.

This is an anime filled with deepness and symbolisms and metaphors. If you are not paying attention, the next following sequence will probably be confusing and you will get lost. I found myself often having to take a short break after each episode just to realise what I had just watches. And if you enjoy burning through anime, like me, then you will find it very difficult if you want to fully experience Penguindrum. This dislike is probably only due my personal preference...


To sum it up, I'm adding Mwaru Penguindrum to my personal list of anime that I have dubbed as "Masterpieces", joining the likes of Gurren Lagann, The World God Only Knows and Clannad (both original and After Story). It had almost everything I look for in an anime: great art, good sound track, fulfilling story, compelling character development and cute animals. There were some holes I would like to fill story wise (like who/what exactly is the being who occasionally possesses Himari, and what is their connection, if any, to penguins?), but I will let that slide due to my overall enjoyment.

I give Mawaru Penguindrum a rating of 8.9/10 cute blue penguins hiding in bins.
Seems awfully cruel to chop 0.1 parts off a penguin, but it kept looking at me like I was crazy or something... I had to do something to show it that I was not...
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If you've stuck around till the end, thank you for reading my thoughts and opinions.
In my next installment I will be watching then reviewing Angel Beats. I've heard that it is going to be emotional, so I best prepare as best I can.
After that, I am going to be watching Free... I have no idea how to feel about it, but it was a request from a close friend of mine in exchange for them to read my blog.

Question time:
What is your favourite animal?

Leave your answer and any possible recommendations of what I should next in a comment down below.