Mawaru Penguindrum – 08
Partying a little too hard at Tabuki’s
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WOOOH! I’ve been super excited to tag with Jrow for Penguindrum and now I finally can! This will obviously be quite the epic episode seeing as Ringo is determined to, er, progress things with poor Tabuki-sensei, who I’m beginning to realize is a bit of an oblivious dolt. But enough chit chat. Let us proceed with SEIZON SENRYAKU! |
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Zabo! College has been busy busy busy for you and some of the other Metanorn peeps, so I’m glad you’re able to take some time and tag with me for Penguindrum. :)I recently wished my friend a happy birthday, on September 1 actually, by telling him not to get hit by a car when he went outside. Perhaps I should have given this suggestion to a couple anime characters. Anyways, let’s talk Penguindrum 08! |
Continuing right from the end of episode 7, Ringo takes off her clothes and is ready to initiate Project M, but Tabuki has also pulled the sleeping trick by placing a chicken and 3 eggs where he would be sleeping.
If this weren’t rape, I’d enjoy Ringo’s enthusiasm more
At school, Shouma sees Tabuki is very tired as he’s beating erasers together. Tabuki and Yuri have already moved in together, and he invites Sho and Ringo to come over sometime. As you might imagine, Ringo is frustrated about these turn events and seems to not know what else to do as Shouma suggest she have a healthier relationship next time.
Operation Marriage Blues is not going well, and Kanba blames Sho’s softness in it not working and thinks taking it by force is the only way. Perhaps they should get Himari to take it away from her, as she is working out and has oversized boxing gloves which she accidentally uppercuts her brothers with.
Ringo visits the aquarium by herself, and notices her dad Satoshi in the gift shop with another woman and child. Aoi, the little girl, asks him if he would go to a Parent’s Day event at school with her and be her daddy. Satoshi (in Ottie form) reveals a ring and proposes that they seriously become a family.
And now, we break away from Mawaru Penguindrum coverage to bring you Penguin Western Channel’s premiere of Destiny Project M, starring Ringo Oginome.
She saw Huey do it on Dantalian no Shoka.
Ringo is freaking out, and shortly later gets sucked into a Wild West fantasy versus Ringo. This time, she actually trumps Yuri with as she’s pretty fast with her six-shooter. Is this a sign of things to come?
In case we have forgotten, Masako reminds us that “it” must be crushed soon. Got it, Natsume. How about you actually move now? Ugh, anyways… Ringo is preparing a meal (pouring some pink sparkly stuff in it) and promises Sho that he can see her diary if the next plan goes without a hitch. What’s the next plan? With Yuri starting her national tour in Osaka, Ringo realizes that Tabuki is alone and can take advantage of him. Along the way, Sho starts thinking funny things, such as Ringo planning a murder-suicide.
#2 smells what the Ringo is cookin’ (btw, a quick plug for Overcooled’s Food For Thought editorial)
Nice digs, Tabuki! As Shouma is fascinated by the house and the view, Ringo pulls out her surprise treat; a curry-rice-shaped Mont Blanc cake. She spiked the cake so that it made everybody incredibly drowsy and tired. Shouma and #2 are passed out on the table, and Ringo drags Tabuki into his bedroom and gets all sexied up for some Project M; she even pulls out a blonde wig so as to impersonate Yuri. Shouma crawls in and she finally tells him what Project M means, to which Shouma strongly objects to. He’s able to get back up to strength and takes Ringo’s wig off as the lights come back on. Yuri’s flight was canceled, so she’s back home to yet again foil Ringo’s plan.
Ringo answers the question, “can it be raep time now?”
Her armor of darkness is weak in light, so Sho must take care of censorship duties
Exiting the condo, Sho and Ringo trade verbal blows about what it is they’re doing with their lives. As Ringo walks away, Sho reaches for her. Trying to shake him off, the diary goes flying down the building and lands on the sidewalk. When Ringo finally gets all the way downstairs, somebody on a motorcycle blazes by her and is able to rip away half of the diary (most importantly the 2nd half). In shock, she mindlessly walks in the middle of the street as an oncoming car is honking at her. As heroes do, Shouma pushes Ringo out of the way and takes a hit from the car, seen flying before being knocked down.
Great, now there are Dullahans in Penguindrum to deal with
Hoshi, I pray for Sho’s speedy recovery for your (and all the fangirls’) sake.
Weekly Marching of the Penguins:
Today’s Slogan: No noise makers.
Buy Penguindrum Fighter now! Beat it on the hardest difficulty…
…and you unlock Three Tie!
Shots like this are awesome. Penguindrum’s art direction is so solid.
Ringo: “I didn’t expect it to look like that, Tabuki.”
Oh dang! Shouma got hit by a car! I’ll admit that I was anticipating his accident because I got spoiled, no thanks to Tumblr. As a result, the moment was kind of ruined for me and that may have contributed to the fact that I actually didn’t find myself too concerned about his wellbeing. Think of it this way: If Himari can die and be resurrected by a penguin hat and Kanba can make it through being dragged around by a truck with only some scratches to show for it, Shouma would be a bit of a failure if he didn’t survive this accident. Plus, it makes no sense to have him killed at this stage of the game. Not only is he one of the main characters but also, we’re not even halfway through! It was definitely an epic cliffhanger of a moment though, I’ll give it that. Also, it was rather nice to see the shock in Ringo’s eyes. I’m not a fan of her. She just drags Shouma around and, though I understand that he is willingly cooperating for the sake of obtaining her diary, it is almost disgusting to see how little she seems to care. Hopefully, seeing him incapacitated to save her will be the almighty bitch slap of realization.
That being said, I do feel pretty bad for Ringo. To put it bluntly, her family life sucks. All the things that she holds dear are just out of her reach, be it Curry Day or her father using the matching phone straps. Her parents are no longer together, the family torn apart. The trigger is her sister’s death and, in her desperation to regain some semblance of normalcy, Ringo figures that assuming Momoka’s identity will fix everything. In a sense, it’s understandable that her actions are so ridiculously out of hand. Her sheer desperation to do anything to restore her family takes away a layer from the initial perspective that I attained of her. She’s not just some insane fangirl with a misplaced crush on a school teacher, though she’s still a creeper. She’s broken and twisted, forced to cling to some supposed “fate” as the solution to her problems. Her determination to get what she wants may well be the only thing I appreciate about Ringo.
Continuing on, I wish that Himari could have more appearances. There is so much that I want to see from her. How does she feel about her illness? Does she even realize that she died at some point? Is her happy-go-lucky attitude just a front? It just doesn’t seem plausible that she can keep up such a bright and sweet attitude at all times. I almost feel as though the Princess of Crystal is a manifestation of her inner emotions. However, aside from all that, what really bothers me is the fact that Himari, who should be the heroine of the story, has seemingly been reduced to a side character. I understand that she has her cute moments and her body definitely makes appearances during Seizon Senryaku, but that’s not at all enough. At this point, I feel as though Ringo is more of a main character than Himari and it definitely should not be like that.
Penguindrum has had some really intriguing conclusions, but none more shocking than Shouma being hit by a car. It makes me really anxious for episode 9 to see how/if Shouma is able to survive that crash, and equally as concerning, Kanba and Himari’s reaction to this. I’m pretty sure he isn’t dead (I was proven wrong earlier when Asami got pushed down an escalator), but it would certainly take guts for the series to live on without Shouma. It won’t so I should just stop talking about that. Kanba is likely to just completely lose it on Ringo, so there’s a possibility of some really intense family drama real soon.
Back to episode 8, Ringo and Shouma outside the condo was a really strong scene. It was really great to see Sho let out his frustration with Ringo, even going so far as to claim that her heart is pitch black. Ringo’s got a lot of gall to be saying that his relationship is nothing more than a facade after everything she’s done with the diary, and you could see that statement stung as she went to pick up the wet diary. The title of the episode, “Even if your love is a lie, I…” likely speaks to the status of Sho and Ringo’s relationship.
Quick speculation of the biker that ripped the diary would be Masako, just as Zabo is also predicting. For one, we’ve already had this discussion in episode 1 of DRRR!!: the biker has boobs. (Sorry to be hackneyed with the DRRR!! comparison) She’s been going on about “it” needing to be crushed, and whatever that means, perhaps her stealing the diary is a part of the plan. I really can’t imagine who else could be placed on the bike except for her. The second half of the diary was stolen, and unless Ringo was clever enough to write a backup of “Destiny” in that other notebook of hers, things might be at a standstill with Project M for the time being. If there was doubt of the diary’s meaning to now, someone actively reaching for it at such a time is definitely most curious.
Please let me know that I’m not the only one confused by the slogans the past couple of weeks. The first was to not get caught in a bear trap, and this week’s says no noise makers. The first 6 episodes, they were pretty plain to see and were a combo of being just minor situations and overarching like the one about getting in debt as Kanba accepted money from the man in black. The only time I can think of a trap occurring was the cake scene, and the noise maker slogan being the honking of the oncoming car. Elsewise, the symbolism was in top form this episode, with a chicken and 3 eggs under Tabuki’s bed and Ringo seeing her dad with a potential new family. We remember from episode 6 when the Moray Eel broke up the fight between Ringo’s parents. That was likely a symbol of what caused them to split up, and now we see the image of the Eel on Satoshi’s new woman and the little girl Aoi. I admit I was a little puzzled by what the Eel meant at the time, but now with Ringo seeing her dad move on, it only adds more fear within her and urgency to complete Project M. Also of note, I think this is the first time Ringo has referred to fate as a “circle”.
Episode 9 Preview:
About Tag Team
We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: iLurker with 16 comments
This episode completely changed my opinion of Ringo O.O I was totally freaked out about the (rape) attack…thought she was really going to do it and then I remembered that this is more like a PG-13 anime…
Hopefully Shoma’s okay, he’s one of the main characters…there’s not way he’s going to die and get possessed by a penguin spirit…right?
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Heh, well, there are some very mature themes on the show, so even if they wanted to imply rape, they maybe could have without taking too much heat from angry non-fans.
That would be really weird if Shouma joined Himari as like the Prince of Crystal or something.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 338 comments
HA! Best episode yet! Though I think they should go in a new direction and do a western insert every episode! And if that is Kanba on the motor bike. Hot~~~~~
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
The western insert was much more enjoyable than hearing that bad music, I will say that much.
I myself am not so sure it’s Kanba, but we’ll see. I have no comment on the hot thing, btw.
POWUH: 400-499 with 489 comments
talk about ur average co*kblocking cliffhanging episode
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Yeah, right?! I mean, Ringo just wants to hook up with a dude and Shouma is totally blocking, ya know? And then Yuri shows up? Ringo can’t catch a break. We must get her a phallic-shaped item to get rid of all that buildup she has in her.
Gross, yet clean comment response.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 20 comments
Sho-chan! Sho-chan! Sho-chan! Nooo~! ;o;
Apparently, he was the reason why I picked up this series. lol. Anyway, since Tabuki took all the effort to actually ‘disguise’ himself as sleeping under those blankets using those toys as himself, does that means he knows Ringo is stalking and is going to do something to him? I mean, if not why would he even bother doing that? D: D:
Also, is there any chance of Sho having to wear that Penguin Hat? o.O lol.
(And I want that pink-haired person to appear soon. ;o;)
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
I was thinking that too, and while we see Tabuki so much as a bit of a goofball, he seems like he could be involved. Or maybe it’s just Ikuhara placing his symbolism in there.
I commented to Orange just a moment ago about that. What if they have to buy another hat from the aquarium?
I want the pink-haired person to come soon, too.
POWUH: 800-899 and Self-proclaimed Manga Queen with 874 comments
~I literally SCREAMED when Shouma got hit by that car. I can’t even count how many curse words I yelled at Ringo…But I have to say, I love those tragic, surprise elements like that because they completely catch me off guard and bring my full attention back to the series. BUT WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE SHOUMA?! WHYYYYYYYYYY -SOB-
[Will give back more coherent, educated thoughts on this when, or if (-SOB- PLEASE NO IF), Shouma is fine]
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
I hadn’t watched the episode yet, but I saw your tweet and was like, “oh no, something happened with Shouma” so I watched pronto.
Those surprises are really good and well played out, but yeah, poor Shouma is gonna need serious medical attention. Let’s hope for the best!
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ and Vocaloid Fangirl with 363 comments
WHUUUUUT SERIOUSLY RINGO IS SERIOUSLY GETTING OUT OF HAND. i love how their censors can be so creative xD
I’m sure Shouma will be fine.. right? RIGHT?!
I love the appearance of Celty though 😀 Brings back fond DRRR! memories *w*
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
I hope Shouma will be fine. I do like when censorship is done within the style of the show; now, not unlike ecchi anime are we gonna see Ringo nude, but it makes it feel like the anime thought of a style of censoring that fit into the show and it looks cool (like in the opening scene) and funny (like in Tabuki’s bedroom).
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
The Celty reference was yet more brilliance in an already brilliant series.
Ringo is completely insane. She deserved being called black-hearted since she doesn’t care what the consequences are for anyone else if she gets what she wants.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Penguindrum is kind of referential, but it would be odd if that really was a reference to something as recent as DRRR!!
It’s always great when characters like Shouma break out of their shell and verbally lay into someone the way he did with Ringo. That and the scene when she saw Sho after getting hit were really great.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 79 comments
I’m also thinking that Masako was the biker. She usually talks about crushing Kanba when she’s on the phone, and in this episode the object of the crushing was described in gender neutral pronouns, making me think it was an object she was talking about. Plus, she seems to know a lot about the hunt for the Penguin Drum, and I still think that her and Ringo’s Project Ms are intertwined in some way.
This episode is going to have huge repercussions, I’m calling it now. I don’t think that Shouma is going to die, but either way this is going to change things between Ringo and the Takakuras. Ringo may be on the path to sanity given her reaction to Shouma getting run over, but she’s probably going to get worse before she gets better. Crazy of that magnitude doesn’t go away overnight.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
It is interesting that she’s talked about crushing both Kanba (back in episode 5) and “it” for the past couple of weeks. There does seem to be some intertwining between the two M’s, so I’m really curious to see what the mystery person will do with the half of the diary she stole.
It could be an interesting situation if we start to see like, some kind of situation where Ringo is finally becoming more of her own person, and then suddenly a situation is presented to her where she can continue/complete the Destiny Diary and what choice she makes. It’s something you’ve mentioned before about “Free Will vs. Fate” before, and maybe Ringo might have to make that choice.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Critique with 1024 comments
SHOUMA DONT YOU DARE DIE, I WILL FKING MURDER YOU!!!!
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
I second this.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 323 comments
As do I. xD
POWUH: iLurker with 17 comments
I’ve recently noticed that the penguins seems to imitate the Takakura family. When Shoma and Kanba were fighting the two penguins were fighting too, Himari’s penguin was also bowing. Even after Shoma got in the accident his penguin was also face down. Maybe there’s some connection between the penguins and their guardian.
I also think Yui Horie’s character was the one who took the diary. There’s just something strange about that diary, with it being able to tell the future. Shoma’s a nice person though, after Ringo said all that he still pushed her out of the way. But if Shoma gets hurt too bad I’ll hate Ringo even more. She already pisses me off with her treatment of him and her total disregard of other people’s feelings/well-being. I really hope Kanba chews her out.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
I joke with the fighting picture, but yeah the Penguins do match up symbolically a lot with their human counterparts. Scenes like episode 5 when Sho asked Ringo straight up about the diary, as he kinda put himself in a tough spot, #2 was being assaulted by cockroaches and got knocked over.
I do think it’s interesting that when Himari and Threetie are lifting weights, #3 is lifting 5 kg while Himari is only doing 3 kg; maybe speaks to the difference between Himari and Boushi-sama.
I’d really like to see a character transformation with Ringo. If this can’t affect her, then I’m not sure what will.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Finally got around to watching this…FINALLY. By the way, thanks for the plug, Jrow! :3
So much symbolism. I thought that eel was just randomly added when I first saw it breaking up the fight (I laughed pretty hard), but I should have known better. Everything is done on purpose in this show. I wonder why Ringo didn’t just approach her dad about it though. I sure as heck would have. Then again she thinks everything will be fixed by just reliving her sister’s life, and we all know how well THAT’S going for her.
I really liked seeing Shouma finally grow a pair of balls and tell off Ringo for her crazy ways. She actually listened to him (a little) so maybe there’s hope for rehabilitation. Maybe Shouma’s injury (I doubt he died either) will be a kick in the right direction for her. It might even spring Kanba into action more! I demand more Kanba!
I got some Steins;Gate vibes with the way the bros were ignoring Himari…in order to save her. Like Okarin and Mayuri, no? Tuturu~
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Thus is the life of a delusional stalker creep, right? She made up her mind from when she was 4 years old and pretty much just doesn’t know any better. She’s such a misguided soul, or more like an unguided soul cause I feel like her parents are neglecting her and really didn’t take her feelings into account when they were fighting a couple episodes back.
I’m demanding more Kanba as well! He should chew out Ringo for what happened to Sho-chan!
That’s a good comparison, though I think primarily on Kanba’s side of things. I feel like Sho-chan has had Himari in mind the whole time while Kanba is doing his own thing with that man in black and worrying about affording the house. I think what Ringo said to Shouma about creating a facade of a happy family is more applicable to Kan before Sho.
POWUH: iLurker with 3 comments
ACK. Stupid Ringo. She really needs to let go about her sister and whatnot. Her sister is dead, and Ringo is a different person.
Just to warn you, the part about the Western (wacko) fantasy says Ringo beats Ringo.
I hope you mean Yuri, seeing as Ringo didn’t fight herself. XD
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Good eye. Thanks for spotting that and letting me know.