Mawaru Penguindrum – 10

Esmeralda has her scalpel sharpened and ready to cut

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:

We’re In Space

About Jrow

Produces the MetaVerse podcast. Also plays games and watches sports of all sorts. Is an actual Pirate King.