Mawaru Penguindrum – 16

“Smile and say SEIZON SENRYAKU!”

Happy Halloween everybody! As a kid, I dressed up as Link and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, but it’s been sooo long since I’ve bothered even dressing up for anything. Until this year…Getting back to the camera thing… Masako, it’s time for your close-up. And I’m keeping the Pumpkindrum name up until November 1 comes.

A young Masako is at home reading a letter from her father asking to keep Mario safe while he’s away. Cut to present time where Masako believes she has the complete diary. When she puts the two halves together, Yuri’s song starts playing and she explains that she made an elaborate replica of the diary. Masako throws it away, but the curtains catch fire.

Masako goes over her daily routine and introduces us to Renjaku, her maid and only other person she can trust. She goes to work at the Natsume Holdings building and tosses around some money terms and tells a guy he should get ghengis conned. A huge statue of her grandfather Sahei is sitting in the main lobby, who built the Natsume Holdings.

Sanetoshi and Himari are sitting outside looking at a knitting book as Himari wonders what color boys like. Kanba arrives a little later with a Ben-to and tells Himari to not talk to Sanetoshi unless absolutely necessary. Himari gets mad and runs off. Trouble in paradise.

Renjaku decides to follow Himari and ends up getting caught in Survival Strategy. The two have a haiku battle. Himari is good. Renjaku screws up last line. Pics of hot maid snapped. Renjaku ends up pushing the trap door button herself to leave Survival Strategy.

Two minutes later…

Natsume flashes back to how her grandfather was and dreams about the ways she was going to crush him. First was by poisoned tea. Second was posing as a tree and shooting him with a poison dart. Third was buy hitting him with a golf ball. Fourth was by being the fruit bowl and putting a poisonous snake in it. In between this, we see Kanba walking towards Natsume.

Many ways to kill a grandpa

On the train, Shouma won’t drop the idea of him distancing himself from Ringo. She won’t give up and wants to change the fate.

Might want to make sure she can’t sleep under your house, bro

Flashing back to part two of the days when Sahei was alive, he is throwing some of Masako’s belonging in the fireplace and sees the letter her dad sent. How do you not get crushed? You ride a wooden horse while holding weights that’s shaking over a pool loaded with alligators. And you walk on fire. The origins of why Masako has seemingly fallen for Kanba is revealed, as he says that he’ll keep her company if she ends up being cursed.

Some might call this a circus. Sahei calls it Tuesday.

Sahei comes home with a large amount of blowfish and decides to strip them himself. He swallows a massive-sized plate of the blowfish and later feels the effect of the poison that was in it. The day Masako had been dreaming for finally happened, but her father still hasn’t come back yet.

“Oh no! Mr. President is dead! I now must go back to America and be poor and *censored* for money”

Later at night, Masako catches Mario outside swinging a kendo stick just as Sahei did. When Masako asks what he’s doing, it’s revealed that Sahei has possessed Mario. He’s made two plates of blowfish: one by a certified chef and one by himself that has a bit of poison. Not wanting to let Mario possibly be poisoned, she pushes him in the water and swallows both plates whole. Sanetoshi calls her up and teaches her a lesson blowfish and eating/preparing it.

Masako – “I don’t know how Luffy does it all the time.”

Masako appears on a train similar to the scene from episode 11, and she sees both her father and Kanba with a bunch of the Men in Black. Those two have been chosen to put the world back on track. Masako possibly could’ve joined them, but she wakes up the next day revealing that she did not join them.

Weekly Marching of the Penguins:

They were having a clearance sale on Penguins, plus Himari used a coupon for additional savings!

The 19th, 20th and 21st holes are the funnest

When Masako isn’t dreaming about crushing it, she’s been going to Q-School

Blowfish – “What the hell? Why am I here?”

Somebody’s been watching Ben-to

End Thoughts:

I guess it’s a little unusual for me to start off by saying that this was actually a pretty funny (and punny) episode. Being a character study of Masako and given how recent episodes went, the comedic tone of the episode is a great and perhaps necessary offset to the dark and pretty horrible past that we just saw Yuri go through with her father. Even the new ED theme was much more upbeat versus Gray Wednesday. There’s so many moments to highlight, such as Sahei feeling the need to explain how he was being murdered; that “Oh no! Mr. President!” guy who was doing good english but in a silly tone; and also I like the bro jokes they kept using. Here’s another one I’ll contribute: “I like my women like I like my coffee – filled with booze.” Anyways, Sahei was a man’s man, which is what ultimately uh… well… crushed him.

I’ve missed Seizon Senryaku for the past few weeks, and it was a treat to see it return with PengiHat Himari turning the camera on Renjaku who suddenly got all sexied up for the camera. I also like the random appearance of the blowfish at the end there. Himari’s poses in Survival Strategy are just the best, aren’t they?

…and with all this, we now know about this stupid “crushing” business. I think the show kept mixing up “him” and “it” prior to this which would be stupid and annoying if I’m accurate on that, but now we can attach not only a guy to it and know that it’s a phrase that’s been seemingly passed down within the Natsume family, but perhaps the idea that her hate of him has transferred onto Sanetoshi. Having Sahei possess Mario is a little weird and I’m hoping for a bit of proper explanation later on it, but all this solidifies Masako’s participation in the changing of fates, how she’s kind of taken some bad habits from her grandfather (see the genghis conned image and statue) and also reveals, but not fully, how she and Kanba met as kids. What looked like some obsession back in episode 10 is now a binding of those two by their “curses” and perhaps something more.

Why Kanba’s voice is so damn deep at the age of 9 or whatever is one discussion, but him and her father being part of the “Take Back the World” initiative by Sanetoshi is perhaps the start of something grand for Mawaru Penguindrum as it marches toward the finale, and the preview makes Kanba sound like he’s gonna do anything it takes to save Himari, even if he becomes the enemy. I caught word on Twitter sometime back of the staff for episode 18 and that there should be some action in it.

Episode 17 Preview:

And Happy Halloween! Enjoy the day, eat some fun-sized candy, dress up, and watch some scary anime.

About Jrow

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