Not That Guy - Mawaru-Penguindrum ~ Freak and Nitro TV!

The colorful nature of the animation sticks out

I enjoy reading the viewer comments to animes on streaming websites. Though brief there are always some gems which perfectly sum up nearly everyone feelings to the particle anime and its episode. With the new anime Mawaru Penguindrum I think comment #48 sum'd up what everyone was left thinking at the end of the episode; "Da Fuq?"

Added note: The blog over at The Abandoned Factory did a great job at putting up some great photos for this anime. I think its worth a look.

Mawaru-Penguindrum will surely be the "weird" anime of this season. What got me, at least, was that the anime started off relatively normally (for an anime). In the final few minutes however, the creators chucked the shit at the fan. This first episode was used mostly to set the plot and do some explaining. We meet the characters, we're given an intro to their problems and the direction of the plot is kinda hinted at. I say kinda hinted because not much is really explained in the plot department, the next anime could go anywhere as far as I know.

A fun side animation during conversation

The three main characters are Shoma, Kanba and Himari. They are siblings who live together, two brothers and one sister. Himari, the sister, is very sick. In a flash back it is explained that she has only a few months to live. Possessing this knowledge her two brothers try their best to keep her happy. Today they are cooking her hot Miso soup and taking her to the aquarium to see penguins. Yay! The anime then quickly takes a somber tone. While at the aquarium Himari collapses and shortly afterwards dies.

The hat.

Then the twist out of no where, while the two brothers are grieving next to her, Himari is brought back to life by... well it isn't really explained, uhh a Alien Penguin Queen? (that needs an acronym... APQ!) Yes this is where things start spinning all over the place. Much to the surprise of the doctors, they happily return home, Himari completely recovered from that slight affliction we call death. At home they find three penguins who were mailed to their house. These penguins do not talk, but can do house chores and are universally declared to be cute on the anime forums. Himari, meanwhile becomes possessed by the APQ when she puts on a cute penguin hat, and undergoes one of the strangest transformation scenes I've seen in a while. It is then explained that the two brothers must get a penguin drum as payment for the continued existence of their sister. The anime finishes of on a controversial note, and certainly is what is being discussed the most in its wake. It seems one brother is or has fallen deeply in love with his sister and the possibility of incest is strongly suggested. All this within 7 and a half minutes. uh.. Da Fuq?

Those in the background really stick out.

The animation is fairly clean but very colorful. I would almost venture a guess that the animators have been given extra freedom to experiment. As can be seen from the photos included, the house is a mosaic of bright colors and the outdoors is filled with deep contrasts. Other quirks are present throughout, riding the subway is given its own special animation sequence, the anime often moves its visual focus to strange bright small animations near the characters, they have severely simplified background traffic to the point that it stands out and have inserted brief 100 millisecond photos throughout the entire anime. Individual scenes are filled to the brim with small details and little notes to look at to the point that it would be temping to watch the entire episode in slow mo. The overall effect is enjoyable, they seem to be expertly balancing effects that could easily annoy.

The penguin helps find cabbage.

The transformation sequence needs its own mention, because well, it caught many off guard, especially myself. It was placed in such a weird way, and started so strangely that I thought it was the end credits. Overall if it was an ED it would be great, at least at the beginning. It starts off very colorful, with some energetic singing and a cute rocket ship. Okay not an amazing ED but whatever. Instead it is a transformation sequence, and an exaggerated one at that. Everything is over the top somewhat random and just plain crazy. It really needs to be watched to understand. I have included it below. It starts about 20 seconds before the transformation sequence just to highlight how it came out of no where.

I do not know where this anime is going. Already it has many people squeamish about the potential for incest. Myself, I will watch a few more episodes before I judge it too harshly.