Mawaru Penguindrum – 14 & 15

Normally this would be hot. In Penguindrum… uhhh, not so much.

Here’s my quick review of Fall so far: noitaminA is off to a meh start (Un-Go is Un-Good); I might have to revisit C3; Majikoi, Maken-ki and Mashiro are a trifecta of bad ecchi/eroge shows that start with an M; Gundam AGE is the best Sunrise show; Haganai, Persona 4 & Mirai Nikki are all awesome; Ben-to is such a great surprise… and Fate/Zero is king. Anything I haven’t wrote about, I either kind of like or haven’t watched anything to give an informed opinion.

EPISODE 14

So it took me about 15 minutes to remember where I’ve heard the phrase “flying to Istanbul” from – a Franz Ferdinand song. Sure the show isn’t referencing the Glasgow band and someone else instead, but yeah, like all theater people do, Yuri & Count hookup. Yuri’s not satisfied with his moves and dashes out – not after being threatened about the secret of her body being revealed. Yuri later cries in her car wanting to see “her” again.

Ringo sees Shouma and tries to talk to him, but he doesn’t think that she’ll forgive him for finding out what happened with his parents and Momoka’s death; Shouma walks away leaving behind a teary-eyed Ringo. Later on, Ringo is mad at herself for following a magazine’s advice. Yuri sees her on the street and she hops in the car.

Himari is still in the hospital, knitting scarfs for her old Double-H friends. She throws them away thinking they wouldn’t want anything from her, but Sanetoshi puts it on and is able to pull off the light blue/pink scarves.Around this scene, Kanba gets Dr. Sanetoshi some money, but it’s not enough to get a vile for Himari. And Sanetoshi calls Masako on the phone saying that “she” has the other half of the diary.

Ringo tells Yuri what happened earlier as they get ready to have a Fabulous Max girl’s night out. Meanwhile, Kanba gets more money from a group of me, and Masako charges in and takes out all the men in black. Masako has him in her sights, but she misses and he sweeps her down with a kick. Masako knows that he loves “her”, but Kan deflects the question by stating that he only wants to protect his precious family.

Having a Fabulous Max girl’s night out, Ringo asks how Yuri and Tabuki met. They were childhood friends and classmates in school, and she also knew Momoka.  After a game of table tennis (Gravion Zwei-style, pic NSFW) where Yuri explains that the wheel of fate is why she and Tabuki are together, Yuri puts something in Ringo’s drink that knocks her out after a while.

Yuri is fascinated by how much Ringo is like Momoka and takes her into a bedroom, strips her clothes and is about to tie her up. A flashback to episode 8’s ending shows that it was Yuri who stole the diary from Ringo. Very quick indeed for a woman who had literally just gotten home up on like the 8th floor or whatever it was of the building. Yuri also wants Ringo to become Momoka, and says, “I’ll give you a body that can’t survive without me.” Wow.

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EPISODE 15

A new opening for Mawaru Penguindrum after the new endings the past couple of weeks. Luckily, we don’t have to wait for the song because it’s already in the OP Single.

Of note:

• 3D penguin designs
• New shots of the characters
• Yuri now has symbols (more on that in a bit)
• Tabuki kissing what looks like Momoka’s shoe
• Silhouettes of what initially look like Himari & Kanba
• Kanba running left while Sho & Himari run straight
• Esmeralda now sitting behind #1
• Himari sleeping in bed now replaced by just her pirate bear doll and an apple

Shouma and his friend Yousuke (whose face we still have yet to see) are staying at the same resort as Yuri and Ringo are. Why two boys are doing this… I don’t know. He checks the message that Ringo left him, and he calls back and gets an answer from her while Yuri is prepping the bed; Ringo is going to get turned inside out from interesting places… color me curious. Yousuke hears the action going on next door, and Shouma pieces together that the girls are actually next door. He barges in, slips on a bottle, hits his head and he’s out.

Flashback to a scene of Yuri with her father. Her father is chiseling statues and has an affinity for beautiful things. He wonders why Yuri is so ugly. Wha? I see a pretty young lady there, but whatever pops! Says the guy who built that big and ugly tower outside. At school, Ringo is approached by Momoka who wants to draw her because, unlike Yuri’s dad, Momoka thinks she’s beautiful. After winning a gold ribbon,the girl’s go to a park where Yuri talks about the Ugly Duckling story.

Yuri runs home and she’s late. Her dad doesn’t like that she met such a nice friend; being nice is a facade and only he can truly love her. As we realize what an incredible prick this guy is, we see her being worked on once more, this time a thud is heard as a cut-off leg is seen. Yuri buys into what her dad said as she tries to distance herself from Momoka. But, being such a nice girl, Momoka isn’t gonna give up. Momoka reveals her secret that she can use the diary to transfer fates, although the repercussions of doing so inflicts pain on her. Yuri runs away after Momoka suggests that she can make the tower disappear and her dad has one more piece to add to Yuri.

Himari is surprised to see that Hikari & Hibari are wearing her scarves on TV which Sanetoshi sent to them. Sanetoshi suggests that being tied to family is in some sense a curse and that it’d be easier on Kanba if they weren’t his family.

Masako assumes the role of a waitress in Yuri’s room and throws down versus Yuri in the pool. Yuri’s good enough with a paddle to deflect Masako’s penguin bullets in pitch black, but later Esmeralda shines a bright light at her which undoes her towel and Masako grabs the diary and swims away. Later Shouma wakes up and Yuri reveals that she put the other half of the diary in her safe and that the “rat” took the bait.

Flashback once more to Yuri’s childhood. Momoka is seen covered in flames and Yuri notices that her dad’s tower has changed. Yuri’s intention of using the diary is to bring Momoka back.

Weekly Marching of the Penguins (x2):

Slogans for 14 & 15. Some would disagree about the straps slogan.

#1 totally has it bad for megane Esmeralda

#2 – “Hey you stole my kill!” Frog – “Didn’t see your name on it!”

Of course the siscon is Threetie’s biggest fan.

Makes me nervous just looking at this pic.

I was kind of expecting this to happen at some point in the scene

Yuri’s new symbols as featured in the OP. “YT” is surely for Yuri Tokikago; female character (right-side up and upside down); same thing with the hearts (Momoka’s shirt had a reverse heart with an added stem of an apple); another character is a star, and I’ve seen mention of the Flower of Lily being the other symbol. Personally, first thing I thought of was the New Orleans Saints.

End Thoughts:

And finally, the diary’s true power is revealed! At least Momoka seemed (or seems) to know how to use it to alter fate. With the exception of I believe Masako and Mario, we’ve found the one source which ties everybody together: Momoka. Knowing that she actually has powers with the diary, I wonder if past episodes will make me think of whether Momoka had a hand in changing their fate. For example, Tabuki running late for school the day of the subway attacks; did she do that to protect him in that situation? And also in regards to how the diary inflicts pain on you, does that have any correlation to the scars on Tabuki’s hands?

Yuri’s past really is a twisted one thanks to her beauty-obsessive father. My suspicion of her turned from thinking she was a big piece of the puzzle to pure curiosity into this just sort of shocked state of just what the hell is with this show and its bizarreness. I love it all. These characters have very weird and disturbing upbringings, and Yuri might take the cake on it so far. It’s highly assumed at this point that Yuri has a male appendage thanks to some “surgical” work from her father. And rewinding back to 14, giving Momoka a body she can’t live without?

Relating to the Yuri thing would be Shouma & Ringo. I was a little annoyed at him putting so much guilt on himself, but after thinking about episode 10 where he held back some of the story to keep from placing blame on Ringo, while we can bash Shouma in the head for maybe being a bit of a jerk, it’s totally him to feel the way he felt. I find it a little odd that he wouldn’t stay at the hospital with Ringo and instead hang out with his buddy that won tickets to a resort, but it was convenient for the purpose of placing him in the same location as Yuri & Ringo. The show will hide behind the fate card, but sometimes it just looks convenient. Given the idea that Yuri’s body has been worked on, I was expecting some kind of shocked reaction from Shouma, but instead he slips because his penguin is such a glutton. Penguindrum probably made it a point to not give characters the most obvious reaction to something we were already thinking, which I can respect that it doesn’t treat me like an idiot.

Alright, so I want to take a break to do some quick math here. Episode 8, we see someone steal the diary; comments on the post leaned toward Masako being the one who stole it. In episode 10, we see somebody force Ringo to give up the diary and a silhouette takes it; comments in that post leaned toward Yuri being the person who took it. So after episode 14, we learn Yuri was the one on the bike and she had the ending pages of the diary, and Masako has revealed that she had the beginnings of the diary. Yuri was downstairs at the lobby when she rang in, so it’s not impossible to put her in the role of the biker. I’m just curious how she knew that the diary would fall onto the street in the way it did for her to grab it. Is it fate or is it convenience? You make the call.

All in all, it’s good that I could put these two episodes together. Many questions were asked and answered while still leaving some questions on the table, and Ikuhara turned the weirdness up a notch and I really wouldn’t be surprised if more of that starts happening. Tabuki is really the last guy we have some to learn about, though he comes off as the most innocent and unassuming guy in the whole cast. What dark past might you be cooking up for him Ikuhara?

Episode 16 Preview:

Bonus!

I was at the Cincinnati Zoo last week, so I was looking forward to seeing these guys. I swear I saw Threetie poke her head out in the second pic, but I wasn’t quick enough to snap a shot.

About Jrow

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