Supernaturally sweet series Mawaru Penguindrum returns after a week off with some romance, crazed stalking, profanity, penguins, and all that which has made the anime interesting thus far.
In regards to this sixth episode of Mawaru Penguindrum, its seems to be one of the more common types of its series. Mawaru Penguindrum most notably delivers an episode which adds another thousand or so questions to those which the viewer already has, or it may have an episode which answers around a few hundreds of them. Fortunately or not, this episode happens to be part of the former.
Shouma assists Ringo with her delirious scheme as she is promising him the diary in exchange, although whether she will uphold her word is another matter. In serving her, he carries a mass of her trashy possessions around to her victim’s home. She apparently intends to “marry” him – from the looks of things however, she defines the term “marriage” as sleeping under one’s living quarters in a clandestine manner whilst eavesdropping on them and mimicking their actions.
Yet the horrors of marriage aside, there is quite a nice moment in which she catches a fever – we hoped this would give her a much needed moment to cool down from her criminal activity, sadly it was not. For some reason, she gradually topples on top of Shouma, presumably as result of diminishing strength, or fatigue, from her fever, which results in a rather short yet exquisite moment of implied romantic possibilities. It was Shouma who points out her fever at that point.
Elsewhere, Kanba is gathering information alongside his ero-magazine reading penguin slave. Kanba finds out first hand of the tomato red penguinball projectiles which erase memories of the two former girlfriends he was conversing with. We learn Ringo is not the only stalker within the series as a third girl is spotted sniping the other two from a rooftop.
As said earlier, many questions are opened with little answers. Ringo does indeed do some bad things, yet it’s quite clear she is merely misguided and in fact a good person at heart, assuming she has one. Ideally, Shouma will wake her up so she can instead spend her time romantically with him instead of stalking others.
Focus on the Penguindrum has been belittled this episode in favor of Kanba’s creepy ex-girlfriend and Ringo. The Penguindrum plot-line is within the grand scheme of things and we find it doubtful to reappear until after smaller nuisances are taken care of – that includes Kanba’s perverse friend whose role remains unclear whether major or minor in regards to the plot.
The slight development made with Ringo is grand and one which we would love to seem blossom further – as odd as she is, Ringo is one of the more prominent characters of the series along with Shouma and their story seems to be the most important of them all.
If you hadn’t noticed yet, Mawaru Penguindrum has several stories running concurrently – Kanba’s mysterious tale, Shouma and Ringo’s main plot, and finally the possessed penguincap wearing Himari’s desire for the Penguindrum. We can then deconstruct the story much more beyond that, although those are the individual routes taken. Occasionally they may intertwine, such as Shouma and Ringo’s which was previously not directly related as it is now.
Quite a confusing ride, yet one exquisitely elaborate at that – almost as if it were a fine artwork. We’re certainly setting our sights high on the upcoming events.
Aug 19, 2011 @ 3:38 CDT
What do you mean by “embarrassingly excellent?”
Aug 19, 2011 @ 5:27 CDT
Embarrassingly – “Done in a manner to cause to feel self-conscious or ill at ease; disconcert”
Excellent – “Extremely good; outstanding.”
The round of stalking, romance, and ex-girlfriend activities are embarrassing, and the episode as a whole is excellent. If you feel otherwise, there’s simply nothing which can be done – if you agree, great.