Colloquium: Mawaru Penguindrum Episode 24 END

“As it turns out, living was a punishment.
I’ve been punished in small doses living as a Takakura.
…But, still, we were together.
We took all the punishments, no matter how small and trivial.
They’re all precious memories.
Because the only reason I felt alive was because you two were there.”

-Himari Takakura, Mawaru Penguindrum, Episode 24

Colloquium: Mawaru Penguindrum Episode 18

ajthefourth: Please disregard a few of the speculations I made on Tabuki’s character last week. Although I still see him as partially representing that equalizing sort of attitude that I described from a few interviews in Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche, it goes a bit deeper for Tabuki personally. I was wrong in saying that he has completely shut down emotionally, for there was still one thing that could stir Tabuki’s heart: Momoka.

Colloquium: Mawaru Penguindrum Episode 17

"The sins of the parent aren't shared by the children."

vucubcaquix: I was honestly a bit at a loss for words for last week’s post. I didn’t dislike it and found it quite funny, but the animation was a bit weak in places and there wasn’t much to visually parse amidst the gags and slapstick. That’s not so for this week. In fact, halfway through I had to remark to my partner how absolutely beautiful some of the compositions for the scenes were. It’s not just the beauty that struck me, but also what’s being communicated through the imagery.

Colloquium: Mawaru Penguindrum Episode 15

"Stop!!"

ajthefourth: In what appears to be a pivotal episode in the series, I’m going to start us off with something simple, but nuanced: characterization.  Once again, we’re presented with Shouma’s inability to do anything, even when he tries to act.  In a way, he’s reverted back to his self from the beginning of the series: an inept and fairly useless person.  We see his penguin spraying for bugs, this time around being beaten to the punch by a nearby frog.

Colloquium: Mawaru Penguindrum Episode 14

"I wonder, I wonder, do you know what I wonder? Multiple choice. Which of the following three things is eternal? 1. A diary. 2. Momoka Oginome. 3. Canned peaches."

“The next day, she’d come out of the coffin, and there was something about the look in her eyes…however, I thought for sure that he must have shown her something eternal.”

-Kyouichi Saionji, Revolutionary Girl Utena

ajthefourth: What exactly in our lives is eternal?  With such a fleeting, time-bound existence, it’s no wonder that humanity constantly seeks for eternity.  The concept itself is a bit daunting to wrap one’s head around, since all one has to go on are their own limited experiences.  If something eternal does exist, then surely it would be outside of the worldly parameters of time and space as we know them.  In other words, surely, it would be God-like.

Colloquium: Mawaru Penguindrum Episode 13

“It really was a day like any other
We had breakfast together in the morning.
The three of us went to school.
Our parents went to work.
We smiled by the door and waved.
But they never came back.
That was the last time we were together as a family.”