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Originally Posted by Solace
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As a side note, that's probably the most surprising thing about this series. Usually when you have stories with lots of puzzle pieces people are practically falling over each other to put them together and guess future events and even the ending. I think this is the first series where no one really knows what is going to happen but even with all of the clues given to us, it's difficult to dissect what has happened to create speculation with.
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Precisely, nobody can deduce what will happen, because in reality the clues they give us are not very useful. For example, nobody knew anything about Natsume’s grandfather, or Yuri's father or Tabuki’s mother... How speculate about that? Nobody made connection between Tabuki’s scars with a piano because there never was any piano before. And there are some inconsistencies, Momoka change the world to save Yuri, but when she saves Tabuki the world remains unchanged, unlike as expected ¿Momoka will change the world again, Tokyo tower will be replaced for the Tokyo Sky Tree? Maybe, or maybe not, surely.
Everything is like a perpetual introduction, where we have new things all the time pointing in different directions and there are many elements, but are not sufficient or are not the one necessary for the viewer to solve the posed puzzles.
I think it's deliberate and Ikuhara tries to prove a point, can be catch the viewer in a pincer movement exploiting the "Zeigarnik effect" and the "paradox of uncertainty" at the same time.
"Paradox of uncertainty" relies on the ability of the audience to anticipate precisely what is to come, a premonition that is particularly enjoyable when things work out just as we imagined:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solace
...Usually when you have stories with lots of puzzle pieces people are practically falling over each other to put them together and guess future events and even the ending
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In this case, the "paradox of uncertainty" is illusory, (because we have no elements to solve most puzzles) but not less valid: the evidence are the many speculations that have arisen.
"Zeigarnik Effect" relies on the motivations of completion: subjects remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks. A well known application of this effect is the cliffhanger, so prevalent in Mawaru Penguindrum.
It is also used Ikuihara creating other new puzzles (who are the rabbits? What is Sanetoshi’s medicine? Why PoC warns to Kanba “not be fooled”? How continues now the relationship between Yuri and Tabuki?...) which are superimposed to previous unanswered, unresolved interrupted tasks by the audience (What is Penguindrum? Kanba and Shoma are really brothers? Where are the Takakura's parents?...)
Wikipedia about suspense:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspense
Wikipedia about Zeigarnik Effect (sorry, in spanish)
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efecto_Zeigarnik
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