Three siblings, twins Kanba and Shouma, and the in-and-out-of-the-hospital Himari who's in poor health, live together at the Takakura home. One simple day, while the siblings were out on a trip to the aquarium, Himari collapses and suddenly dies. When all hope seems lost, she's miraculously saved by a strange spirit. However, the extended life is limited and in order to fully resurrect their sister, the Takakura brothers must find the Penguindrum with the help of a trio of penguins.
Credit: Weskalia
Story & Characters
Now why won’t anyone want to experience the very SERIOUS TV series, in which the people are obsessed with CURRY so as
to make cakes out of it? O.O and in which penguins are the spy-bots, chefs, bug exterminators, grannies, hentai and the
centre of every job and yet not the very centre of attention? (No, I am not talking about certain penguins from a
certain Hollywood movie) And the whole series is full of such scenes, that you can’t hold your chuckle for.
“And you still think that it is A SERIOUS TV series? You didn’t hit your head somewhere, did you?”
Aham!
The truth is, it can happen (that someone don’t want to experience);
“Why is that?” You ask?
Because that is all the outer chocolate coat of a CARROT ice-cream (blakh! ...I really mean it). The real story can be
very terrifying then what one initially comes to anticipate. Reading to all the above detail, you might think that this
is more of a comedy and lively series. Rather than that, it is actually a very dark one and sometimes presents its
criminal aspect.
The story starts with three siblings of the Katakura family (afterwards other characters join), who are not far from
adulthood; the realistic and apparently just a playboy Kanba, the mother like loving and simple Shouma and the always
ill and the only sister, Himari. The trio are living together after the disappearance of their parents in the small
Katakura house. One may understand this poor family‘s circumstances who is barely surviving in the very cruel society.
Even so, when they sit together to eat, they are the happiest family; all this changes with the sudden death of Himari
(foretold by the doctors) while at a trip to aquarium with her brothers. When all hopes are lost, Himari is resurrected
by the spirit of a cute, big, penguin hat (bought as a souvenir from there).Taking over Himari’s body; it orders the
brothers to bring her the Penguindrum, if they want their sister to continue living. Without knowing what a Penguin drum
is, they set to follow a young girl Ringo, for according to the spirit, she holds the penguindrum. They are granted with
three funny penguins, which are afterwards named 1, 2 and 3, for their aid. But there is a catch to these penguins, they
represent each member of the family and are only visible to the three. Throughout the series, these penguins had played
important roles, but are certainly not the centre of attention.
“But hei, it doesn’t sound so bad; I mean the series sounds to have a pretty fine story, not a single hint of
darkness or criminal or whatever you said?”
Quite true, but that is where the first session ends and the first impression of the story with it. The adventures start
with cute little playing stalker, going through the torture of recalling the terrible past, which greatly affects their
(brothers’) upcoming nature and can gravely challenge their family bonds. I must admit, such determined brothers, who
are always looking keen to do anything to save their beloved sister (who after words is recalled to be not the blood
sister), very touching. Especially Kamba, apparently he can even jump into hell for his sister (I used the word
APPARENTLY). As a matter of fact, the brothers often recite the slogan: “Himari no thameni” (For the sake of
Himari) for their motivation.
The story can be very jumpy, as it has a lot many twists (for its own good) and what’s more, it offers far too much
VERIETY in these jumps than any super store can ever offer. There are magical dimensions, fate controlling diary, memory
erasing balls, library as big as a leviathan’s stomach, human discarding machines, extremist stalkers, weirdest
methods of winning a lover, medicine of fate, picture stories (in animation indeed), terrorist organizations and after
all that, it can also be termed as slice of life.
After watching about 15 to 16 episodes, one might exclaim: “What the hell is going on???”
Yup; pretty mind blowing.
Jumping from a cute and usual house life; to the extremes, like blood thirsty shady organisations and death of many
innocents. Sometimes one turns back to review the story from the start and came to know that the things he/she
remembered are at a very far distance. Even so, the show is surprisingly successful in leaving you stick to
it.
When it comes to characters, there are a very scarce number of them in this series. But I must say; the work has a very
impressive detail assigned for each one. Each character is very well defined in terms of their past, their nature, their
experiences, their thinking, their talking accents and even their getups. The show itself hops between the past and
present more than quite often and while at it, it defines each character (sometimes individually). Though this can be
very risky for losing one’s interest (as sometimes one may want to know ahead rather than the past), but it seems that
the series is taking this risk willingly. All the main characters have a perfect reason of doing what they are up to,
even if they are joining the lines of some shady organization at an age as low as 17 years and even if they are
sacrificing themselves for the other.
“This makes this series very predictable” one may think. But if one thinks so, he/she is gravely mistaken. You can
never judge the series’ complete story line by a few episodes. (10 to 16... wow I mean over half of the episodes from
the word “few”…:)) Since from the start, it seems obsessed with its own mysteriousness and focuses on imposing it
on its audience throughout. The good part is that its not annoying. One last thing, the end of the series, is
terrific.
Rating: 8
Art
First and a very unique thing that one would immediately come to note, is that the series’ art focuses only on the
discrete main characters that have some influence on the story; i.e. most of the things of the world are black and
white. You may often see crowded streets and public places in the environmental presentation which can make one feel
very lonely…
“That’s just absurd, how can an audience feel lonely in a crowd? It seems okay for the character but… You sure you
didn’t strike your head somewhere?”
Aham! Aham!
Because almost everyone, who is not a special character, is presented by the LIMBO character we see as signs on the
public toilet doors or pedestrian traffic signals, i.e. you will see the crowd as many of these black and white, limbo
characters floating here and there. That implies that if you see this the other way around, it means that in the whole
series, if you came across any colourful character, there is a big probability that they have some influence on the
story line or character defining.
The main character art, however, is very well worked upon. Each one is given a set of appearance that perfectly suites
his/her character. The clothes, hair style and even accessories can give out a lot of idea about the nature and status
of each one to the audience.
The drawing used is fine, and there is a lot of effort put on none living environment. Overall the show loves its shady
and gothic aura. The sudden introduction of a magical dimension and then again, back in the real world (which is not
always very differently presented, especially further down the series); one might get confused if he/she is in a real
world or in a magical dimension, or may be in between. The lighting and colours used are fitting, yup, just fitting.
Rating: 6
Sound
Brilliant starting and ending songs, with quite cool presentation and style. The songs might not be very appealing in
the start, but when you go through them, the fact will reveal that the songs, art and the presentation can be taken as a
THREE PIECE SUIT. Each is made for the other and from the same linen. The three give out the same feelings and aura, and
when they resonate, it gives out the true feelings of the series. The BGMs are also very…… fitting, not well but
very fitting indeed, in terms of progress, presentation and mood. They would be the major cause of lowering the overall
rating.
One thing that must be mentioned here is that there is one song (mini-song actually) which is a lot different from every
theme in this series, the song which is used during the Himaris Transformation with the Penguin Hat (I love that
part). It feels quite obvious that it is out of place, but it runs so abundantly (and since from the start of the
series) that one might not notice it. The song itself is quite lively and energetic, which will urge you to dance on it
and is very good indeed, but is very different from its mysterious and enigmatic buddies.
The voice acting, however, cannot be rated same as BGMs. If we see by the character descriptions, the voices and
accents; used for each character are as well suited as none other can ever do. One can judge each character’s nature
very easily by just looking at its detail and hearing him/her speaks. The voice actors seem to have tried their best
too.
As for the abstract sounds, there are almost none. No bird ever chirped, no wind ever blown, no river ever flowed and no
tree ever dropped its leaves.
“Is this bad?”
Absolutely not, I must say if they had brought in the abstract sounds, they could never bring it to go hand in hand with
the presentation. The only abstract sound used is that of a train’s incoming and departure from a station.
Rating: 6
Presentation
A very unique property of the presentation is that it instantly jumps from a very funny scene to a very serious one,
from a certain act to an entirely different one, and astonishingly, without disturbing the tempo. One may think of
skipping a scene or two, but is compelled to watch since an instant you are in the current life, the other you might be
watching a flash back or a day dream. So if you are getting bored, one cannot guarantee that your boredom would
continue the next instant, as there is a high chance for you to experience this maelstrom any time. The frequently
changing story and odd events, just adds the probability to these frenzies
Regardless, I am compelled to say, NO ORDINARY WORK. For those who are fan to the Gothic environment and are willing to
compromise, this would be a brilliant one. But those who are energetic and bouncy might not give much head to it. So it
depends a lot on the audiences' nature to judge it. As for me, i have already decided ;)
One more thing I must say separately; the series screams for being a very mysterious one and you won’t be able to get
out of this feeling throughout the show. It seems that the series cherishes it too much. There can be observed some
cases of extreme criminality, like bomb blasts, very extreme stalkers and rape-attempts (*gulp) but they are not very
abundant.
At one side the presentation defines very less living environmental details, (actually only the main characters are
detailed, which is also reasoned very hurriedly) and had made some events just pushed under the rug, on the other side,
it offers very well defined and abundant flash backs and day dreams which not just clarify the story as we move ahead,
but also gives the series’ progress, massive twists. A second we were talking about how happy a close family is, the
other second we are talking about the ever ruthless terrorists, and to the surprise, without any misleading or
confusions. One more thing that will come to an obvious note; a big part of the series is spent in trains.
Psychological, fantasy, comedy, slice of life, drama, shoujo, romance and some little suspense and action are the major
aspects.
“Oh my, if this is all it got then what is left?”
Err… well… It is not a mecha... XD
Hope you had enjoyed this review, but far more you will enjoy, if you watch the series:
“MAWARU PENGUINDRUM”
Shall we initiate the survival strategy?
Rating: 7
Final Verdict
7.0000 (above average)
Reviewed by Daydreamer1, Apr 23, 2013
