|
How is the music for this show so godlike. New ED made me freakin' cry. I love the first OP too, but I'll be honestly curious to hear the next one.
On the other hand, the episode itself this time was a bit blunt. Neither subtle nor clever there, Ikuhara: "because to have the punishment end here would be no fun"? The reuse of Shouma and Ringo's "fate" monologues were quite effective, though: their words again at this point in the story really hits home.
You can see a bit of Shouma's darkness coming out here. He's fully accepted it: the punishment, the sin, that their own lives really are worthless and that they will never amount to anything. With no will to challenge that or remotely fight against it, Shouma's perspective is one of someone who has long given up any hope to resist.
The contrast with Kanba's personality is thus direct. The latter had better reason to idolize both his parents and, accordingly, also Himari. He refuses to give up hope out of moral outrage on behalf of them. He does not accept that they should have to give up on there ever having been a point to their lives.
As I thought, Tabuki is indeed "broken". He really seems to me as if he is just apathetically flitting through his life, unable to come to grips with reality. This makes his relationship with Yuri so shallow and fake that it's really quite amusing and interesting. Tabuki's relationship with Momoka will obviously a plot key somewhere somehow however.
On Sanetoshi's messiah complex, and "Survival Strategy". Extending from what I talked a bit about last time, I might be stretching this, but seeing himself as being the single person who can see the "proper" path for the universe gradually leads me to think of the leader of Aum Shinrikyou. I wonder if the 1995 subway attacks (in Penguindrum-verse) were not orchestrated by Sanetoshi and if Takekura Keibu/Takekura Chiemi were not in fact actually working for him?
Who is "the Goddess"? I know that in the previous episode I started feeling like the PotC was the goddess, in some weak/incomplete form.
We can guess that the PotC i.e. Momoka is working against Sanetoshi, as his "aibito" who rejected him. However, she herself is also chasing the Penguindrum in order to pursue a "Survival Strategy". The holder of the other diary half must be a third party who is unrelated to both of them. The obvious suspicions currently lie with Yuri.
(Natsume was revealed to be speaking with Sanetoshi by cell phone this episode. Presumably this closes the loop of who she was talking to in all the previous incidents.)
Kinda clumsy in delivery, but damn this episode did deliver I guess. A solid watch this time.
|