Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 19

Last episode on Mawaru Penguindrum, the good guys managed to rescue the damsel-in-distress from the clutches of the evil Tabuki.  But things still aren’t resolved; Tabuki seems to have given up, for now at least, but Yuri is still out there scheming, so is the pink-haired doctor, and Masako and the Penguin Queen seem to have their own agenda.  Plus Kanba has been getting money from the remains of the cult, and you have to wonder what the cult is getting in return.  Let’s find out in episode 19 of Mawaru Penguindrum.

…thirty minutes pass…

Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 18

Last episode on Mawaru Penguindrum, the various factions were squaring off against one another.  Tabuki was confronting Ringo and Himari at the top of a skyscraper, Yuri was confronting Masako in a parking garage, and Shouma and Kanba were confronting their own powerlessness to protect their sister.  That’s pretty much all the players accounted for, unless the pink-haired doctor wants to confront Mario, or Ringo’s divorced dad wants to confront Masako’s maid.  I wouldn’t put it past this show.  In fact, I’m guessing we’ll see something even more implausible in episode 18 of Mawaru Penguindrum.

…thirty minutes pass…

Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 17

Last episode on Mawaru Penguindrum we got Masako’s sordid backstory.  It actually didn’t seem that bad!  I mean sure, she’s a member of the 1%, exploiting the hardworking honest members of society and engaging in destructive currency speculation to enrich herself at the expense of the global economy.  I guess when you put it like that, the various rapes and bombings committed by the other members of the cast don’t seem quite as bad.  She could be spending that money on helping  those who need it, not buying expensive poisonous fish and magic amnesia slingshots.  Let’s hope she gets her comeuppance in episode 17 of Mawaru Penguindrum.

…thirty minutes pass…

Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 16

Last episode on Mawaru Penguindrum, we learned the secret of the diary.  Apparently it can be used to alter reality, at a proportional physical cost to oneself.  Magical artifacts with proportional costs for use are always a pain, but they’re probably worth having around anyway.  It’s not clear what is proportional to what, exactly, but if you could learn to fine tune the alterations in reality without fully killing yourself, you could perhaps conjure into being better medical technology.  And then the medical technology would be used to repair the harm done by the diary, and you could then use it again to conjure even better medical technology, which will be even better at repairing you and allow you to make an even more daring wish… it’s an exponential explosion, eventually you just shoot off the top of the power chart and can rewrite reality according to your whims.  That’s one possible way of using it!  Let’s see if they can think of any others in episode 16 of Mawaru Penguindrum.

…thirty minutes pass…

Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 15

Last episode on Mawaru Penguindrum, Ringo was in immediate danger of being sexually assaulted by Yuri.  I have heard people say that this is karma, because of the time Ringo nearly raped Tabuki.  Karma is no excuse, though.  We should seek for good things to happen to good people, and good things to happen to bad people too.  Love all mankind, even the evil parts of it.  And Ringo isn’t really evil anyway, she just got a little tangled up in her own goal system and made some bad judgment calls.  Let’s hope someone (the crossbow chick?) intervenes in episode 15 of Mawaru Penguindrum, before Yuri goes too far with her bad judgment call.

…thirty minutes pass…

Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 14

Last time on Mawaru Penguindrum, the pink-haired guy, who is possibly the god of death and possibly the main antagonist of the series, saved Himari’s life for reasons, possibly nefarious ones, that he kept to himself.  I mean, if his motives are good and pure, why doesn’t he just come out and tell us?  Even if his motives are ordinarily venal, like for example wanting to get his hands on the money that Kanba is receiving from what is possibly the possibly evil cult that his parents used to be bigwigs in, that is nothing to be ashamed of in a modern capitalistic society.  But since he chose to hide his motives, we can probably conclude that were his motives known Kanba would refuse to go along with him, even at the cost of his little sister’s life.  The pink-haired guy must be up to something really awful, or at least really awful by Kanba’s standards.  We probably won’t find out explicitly what it is in episode 14 of Mawaru Penguindrum, but we might at least get some clues.

…thirty minutes pass…

Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 13

Last episode on Mawaru Penguindrum was kind of a downer, or a cliffhanger, or a hanging down a cliff.  I guess it depends whether or not you think that Himari can still be revived.  I’m optimistic for two reasons.  First off, she still has another brother she can do naked kisses with – the Penguin Queen said it was a one time deal, like a first kiss, but she didn’t specify whose first kiss it was like.  It might be one per customer, rather than first come first served supplies are limited.  Secondly, there is a whole lot this show isn’t telling us.  The pink-haired dude, the black rabbits – the secret to reviving Himari might lie with them, or in any one of a million places we haven’t seen.  We simply don’t know enough to conclusively say that Himari is beyond help.  At this point, I’m just sort of watching to see what happens next, I’ve disengaged from the plot that they refuse to explain to me.  So, let’s see what happens next in episode 13 of Mawaru Penguindrum!

…thirty minutes pass…

Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 12

Last episode on Mawaru Penguindrum, there were a bunch of non-revelations about how something had happened sixteen years ago that had left bad blood between the characters, and the characters knew what it was, but they weren’t going to tell us, the viewers.  I imagine this episode they will try to clarify what they were talking about, but I’ve imagined that before.  I pride myself on having a grand, expansive imagination, but it is starting to fill up with counterfactuals about what Mawaru Penguindrum would be like if it were an actual good show where they actually told the audience what was going on.  Let’s hope they at least clear up enough confusion to make room for the new confusion they’ll create in episode 12 of Mawaru Penguindrum.

…thirty minutes pass…

Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 11

Last time on Mawaru Penguindrum, things had gone badly for our heroes.  They had been kidnapped and ransomed and dressed up in pink sweaters, and they had the other half of the Penguin Drum diary stolen from them.  I’m not sure where they can go from here, really.  Kanba might know something, but the crossbow chick seemed like she was ten or twelve steps ahead of him the whole time.  Himari went home to get something, so I guess she’s loose in the world.  She might spot the crossbow chick on the train and pull something heroic.  Really, we don’t know enough to speculate meaningfully, so let’s just shut up and watch episode 11 of Mawaru Penguindrum.

…thirty minutes pass…

Mawaru Penguindrum – Episode 10

Last episode on Mawaru Penguindrum was a flashback/dream sequence/drug trip/allegory for 17th century Korean politics.  The issue of what has happened to our poor protagonist who was hit by a car, or what has happened to the titular Penguin Drum that got torn in half, has been sitting in abeyance for a week.  Probably they will resolve it in episode 10 of Mawaru Penguindrum, but the resolution is likely to only raise more questions.

…thirty minutes pass…