Last episode of Mawaru Penguindrum was enough to pique my interest, but not enough to give me a clear idea of… really not enough to give me a clear idea of anything. There is this penguin queen, and she’s giving the two brothers orders in exchange for saving their beloved sister’s life. I guess there is a drum involved somehow? Let’s see if Mawaru Penguindrum episode 2 will clear things up for us at all.
…thirty minutes pass…
It seems like they should have clued her in that they were going on a mission. After all, she knows about the penguins.
So, of the four types of show this show could have become, it seems to have mostly become the “wacky sealife does wacky things” type of show. Which was one of the better options! I like watching penguins girding up for missions, or poking around in people’s belongings, or trying on lingerie, or whatever. These are things that penguins do not usually do, so it is incongruous and therefore funny. They don’t seem to be belaboring the little sister’s illness anymore, which is good. It’s just there as a reason why the brothers have to do what the penguin hat says. And the supernatural elements have been mostly a framing device too. We still don’t know what this “penguin drum” is, but hey, neither do the brothers. The penguin hat says stalk this girl, so they’ll stalk this girl, because their sister’s life is at stake. They don’t concern themselves with the details.
So in the last episode we had an incestuous relationship. In this episode, we have a creepy stalker (well, three, or even if the one brother isn’t creepy the other sure is, so at least two), and we have an student/teacher romantic relationship. Is this going to be that sort of show? I’m not saying that’s a problem, I liked True Tears, I liked Shigofumi, but it doesn’t really seem to fit in with wacky penguin funtime and a magical penguin queen who descended from spaces. I guess it’s incongruous and therefore funny?
So, I’m engaged by this show, and I’ll keep watching it. Penguin comedy is penguin comedy. One concern I have, though, is the penguin queen’s transformation sequences. If they’re going to put them in every episode, that’ll add up to a lot of wasted time. I mean you can say it’s an “ironic” transformation sequence, but ironic timewasting is still timewasting. See also: Endless Eight.
suntzuanime 