Mawaru Penguindrum – 10
Esmeralda has her scalpel sharpened and ready to cut
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Hey everybody! Nice spiffy new avatar for the coming Fall season; Roy’s pretty cool. The Fall season is looking pretty good, with Guilty Crown being mine and many others’ most anticipated anime. The only carryover from Summer to Fall will be this little show right here, Mawaru Penguindrum. |
After a replay of the conclusion of episode eight, Shouma wakes up in the hospital as Kanba and Himari talk by his bedside. He could be much worse for wear after being hit by a car, but he didn’t break any bones and he’s able to remember what happened. As Himari goes to get Ringo, Shouma (doesn’t really) tell the full details of what happened with him and Ringo.
Himari and Ringo sit in a cafeteria area and she asks her brother about the types of gifts he’s gotten from girls before. Kanba not really having an answer, she asks about gifts he didn’t like, to which he lists a number of examples: exquisite bentos, wedding cakes and hand-knitted sweaters. You know, things made with love. Worried that he’s insulting Himari as she is knitting a scarf, he tells her that anybody would be a fool to not accept a knitted gift from her. As she reaches a good stopping point in her knitting, Himari heads home to grab a change of clothes for Shouma.
Banzai! Viva la Scarf!
Shouma and Ringo talk, and he basically plays it off as if he stubbed his toe. As he asks if the diary is alright, she tries to walk away, but Sho notices the diary has been ripped. A nurse (Masako in disguise) comes in shortly after bringing Sho a nice meal, but injecting some sort of substance that causes him to pass out after a little while. Ringo volunteers to get more tea, and by the time she returns, Sho has already been passed out and he along with #2 are in Masako’s cart being relocated to a secret area, where her penguin Esmeralda is sharpening a scalpel.
As Ringo and Kanba wonder what happened to Shouma, Kan gets a text telling him to bring the person the diary, otherwise Shouma is dead. He’s sent a live Penguinstream of Shouma tied up on a bed, making Ringo worry enough to hand Kanba the diary so he can give it to the mystery person. Thinking he can get by without having to forfeit the diary, he gives it back and heads to the rooftop of the hospital. He gets grazed by a couple of penguin shots and chases Masako until he sees a music box. Another penguin shot breaks the music box.
We see the world around him change to one filled with the Penguin symbol everywhere. Blaring music (the track being Dvorak – Symphony No. 9, 2nd Movement – Largo) is playing inside the hospital, wearing Kan out as he goes down each floor. We see the gifts he mentioned earlier that he hates, including an unfinished sweater that looks to spell his name as Kamba. He seems to finally remember what the intercom person is asking him as he approaches floor B1 where Shouma is being held.
He enters the room Sho is in, and the door closes behind him with no lights on. Masako gives the impression that she’s going to shoot him, but instead jumps toward him and lays a big kiss right on him. There’s some pengi action going on to, but as the lights turn on, Masako disappears.
During that scene, Ringo gets a mysterious call telling her to drop the diary down to the parking lot. Apologizing to Momoka before doing so, she drops the diary and somebody quickly picks it up and runs off.
Who did Ringo just give up the rest of her diary to?
Ending the episode on the train, Masako has gotten the diary and says the hunt has only begun and that she won’t let her pray escape. A shout of “Seizon Senryaku!” surprises her, as Natsume Mario appears, the same boy we saw at the beginning of episode nine.
Seizon Senryaku, Bishounen Style!
Weekly Marching of the Penguins:
Today’s Slogan: Cherish Your Memories. Masako clearly seems to.
Pengi #1 is all about the pantsu this week
#1 and Esmeralda join in on the lovefest
Himari – “You’re kind of looking like ‘them’ Kan-chan.”
End Thoughts:
Episode 9 was an amazing episode in both a backstory and animation perspective, so as we head back to the more standard design of Penguindrum, Keiji Gotoh did the brunt of the work this week after Nobuyuki Takeuchi commandeered episode 9. I love the design of the hospital in the second half of the episode and found it peculiar that there wasn’t really a ceiling there, but sometimes Kanba didn’t look a bit right in the face, though they occasional masked it with weird expressions.
I was pretty underwhelmed by what happened with Shouma after what happened. Maybe I built up the drama a bit much, but when you see a kid getting hit by a car, you expect a greater price for Sho’s sacrifice. The drama of the episode 8 ending was brushed off so fast that it almost felt like it barely happened.
It would seem like we’re getting a clearer picture (I believe) of what Natsume’s version of Project M is. Considering that Himari is living off the power of the Penguin Veil, perhaps Mario is in the same situation and Masako’s plan is also to use the diary and save/revive him. For a while, speculation was whether or not Masako and Ringo’s plan were one in the same thing. While they do seem to have different goals in mind, we can now gather that the diary is the common thread between those Project M’s. Now another question to ponder is when Ringo gave up her other half of the diary. Who took it? It’s hard to make anything from the silhouette we see take it, but it also could be the same person that ripped the first half of the diary earlier.
I’ve been wanting to see Kanba take center stage for a couple weeks now, and it’s interesting to see that not only did Masako just form the Victims of Kanba Takakura club to sort of get to him; she is perhaps the biggest victim as all the items Kanba said he hated popped out during his trip in the hospital. Kanba being the player that he is probably ditched her without a care while Masako seems to hold on to her feelings for Kanba. The guy remembered the weird things, but apparently forgot the girl. We’ve seen Masako run things smoothly so far, but I feel like her love of Kanba may come back to bite, or excuse me, crush her. Speaking of the hospital, it was unusual to see a quick black frame separate the normal world from this new, striped, penguin logo-filled world. Now knowing that Mario can call upon Survival Strategy, I wonder if he was able to change the world Kanba was in.
Ringo is pretty much a different person, but only for right now. She’s lost focus of her Project M in place of caring for Sho (though she really can’t do anything with half a diary). The fact that she was so quick to hand the diary to Kanba showed how affected she was by the accident. Will we ever hear her shout destiny again? I’m sure we will, as the preview suggest she hasn’t given up yet. But for this little sliver of time, our crazy stalker girl was a little more reserved and nervous for Sho’s sake.
Episode 11 Preview:
About Jrow
Produces the MetaVerse podcast. Also plays games and watches sports of all sorts. Is an actual Pirate King.
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 339 comments
WOMEN ARE CRAZY.I don’t want to be a girl anymore, there seems to be absolutely no merit to this other than going bat shit insane – oh wait, THAT’S NOT A GOOD THING.
I’d like to say this is making more sense now but for every question answered, we only have more pop up, it seems. Oh well, I’m happy to watch through to see everyone’s DESTINYYYYYYYYY!
(this is a thing now).
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Women do be crazy. Man, I’m glad I’m a man. 😉
DISTINY!!! Ya kind of miss Ringo shouting that, don’t ya? I do at least.
POWUH: Beginner (20-35) with 20 comments
The animation looks very off this episode but oh well, glad that Sho-chan is ok~ (Ok, maybe he is really unlucky since he got drugged and then tied up by Masako in this episode. oo;;) Wanna know what will happen next!
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Yeah, Kanba was where the animation clearly stood out as bad. I’ve been keeping my eyes on the credits to see who should be given praise (Takeuchi last week) and those who should be critiqued like Gotoh this week.
Space alone really has me wondering just what the heck could be up next week. None of them can really go to space, right?
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
It’s pretty interesting that Shouma didn’t tell the truth about what happened. I guess he was feeling guilty about calling her a black-hearted bitch. Well, he didn’t know, at that point, that half the diary was stolen, and that was the important part of what happened.
Mario’s role/motivation is very much a mystery (as is that of Himari’s alter ego).
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
Just goes to show how kind, maybe too kind, he is.
Dueling Seizon Senryakus? Mario’s pretty interesting sense we at least see him outside of the magical world.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 79 comments
It was certainly nice learning more about Masako and Kanba. Her Project M and intentions are still shrouded in mystery, and I don’t know how much Kanba plays into it and how much Mario does, but we certainly have a better idea of what makes her tick. As for Kanba, it looks like his womanizing is catching up to him in a big way. It’s clear the two of them have a history and were probably lovers at one point, but I want to know the rest of the details. The music box at least is probably an important part of the story.
Ringo did something genuinely selfless this episode! I don’t think that she’s out of the woods just yet, but the fact that she was willing to put Shouma’s wellbeing over the diary certainly signifies a game changer in their relationship and Project M. As for whoever picked up the diary, I think that it’s Yuri from the silhouette but I can’t be sure. The figure looks like a woman wearing a fairly long dress, and Yuri fits the on both counts. She would certainly benefit from depriving Ringo of the diary too, though I could be proven wrong about this.
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
I think one thing I still might be stuck on is Ringo’s “M” meaning Momoka, when it means maternity. Because Mario starts with an M, maybe she has another word in mind, though I’m sure it’s related to him.
Yuri was my first candidate as well. I always kinda paired her and Masako together to work against Ringo, so I’m with you in that assumption at this early stage
POWUH: 400-499 with 406 comments
Wow, this episode just made me even more confused. Who is this Mario person, and why is the diary needed for Masako’s Project M.
Also, the animation quality seemed to drop significantly this week, or is it just me?
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
The buzz is that the animation did take a bit of a nosedive in a sense. It’s one thing to go back from how unique episode 9 looked to the more common visual style of Penguindrum, but when 10 looks weirder than the other episodes, you have to point at Gotoh as the main culprit.
POWUH: 1100-1199 and Meta's Evil rice-flour Product with 1137 comments
I don’t think, for some reason, that Mario is trying to get into the maternity ward.
POWUH: 1100-1199 and Meta's Evil rice-flour Product with 1137 comments
Awkward scarf knitting!
POWUH: 1000-1099 and Pirate King with 1048 comments
You talking about that top #3 was making? It did look like #3 was making a girls top… maybe for itself.
POWUH: 1100-1199 and Meta's Evil rice-flour Product with 1137 comments
hawt penguins in sweaters? newest thing to hit milan
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
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