Penguin Drum - Overall Series Impressions & Total Series Rating

[NightWish]

This thread is to be used for discussing the entire episodes of Penguin Drum ... your thoughts about the show, overall impressions, expectations and hopes about the DVD only footage etc.

A few subjects you might want to ramble on about:

• General impression of the series.
• Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.
• Thoughts about the animation quality.
• Characters/Character Design
• Voice Acting
  
  
• Which kind of footage (DVD only) you feel you'd really like to see.
• What the show meant to you.
• What could the creators/animators/writers have done better.

And so on.

The poll represents your total series rating. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example:

Animation Quality: 1-10
Voice Actors: 1-10
Script: 1-10
Soundtrack: 1-10
Editing: 1-10
Enjoyment: 1-10
Emotional Involvement: 1-10

Average = Total Series Rating

Or a combination of the two. Or your general gut feeling.

Feel free to discuss and more importantly, have fun

[zeando]

for me it was:
Animation Quality: 8 (10 some backgrounds, 7 some derpy faces)
Voice Actors: 8
Script: 9
Soundtrack: 10
Editing: 9 (don't really know what this is about, isn't it similar to animation? or it's meant for the subs editing?)
Enjoyment: 9
Emotional Involvement: 8

Average / Total Series Rating = 8.71 (rounded to 9 in the poll)

[DragoonKain3]

Rating: A+

While I don't care much about the heavy use of symbolism and implied references, this series is still, by FAR AND AWAY, my #1 anime of 2011.

[risingstar3110]

I will give the series 10/10. A+ or whatever the highest rating we have

MPD still a mile from perfect. However with a year of master pieces like Madoka, Usagi Drop, Haruhi Movie (more like 2010) MPD still can manage to top my #1 anime of 2011 spot, for its creativity, symbolism, strong themes, and hitting emotional notes. Have doubt against Madoka, but the final episode set my mind in stone.

[serenade_beta]

Mm... Too bothersome to go into detail, but in short...
It was an eccentric anime, and in that regard, it was interesting.
However, the tempo wasn't good (or rather, unstable) and it was hard to understand. And Momoka was too "godly" and Satou-kun needs to go back to Misaki-chan.
Yuri and Ishida's couple turned out to be pretty boring. One of them being some idiot trying to force kids to suffer for what their parents did was okay, but both of them the same character was just disappointing. Also, they never explained why Ishida could teleport.
Too many parents in this anime "insane" for the sake of... being insane.
Also, kid Kanba's voice needed a separate voice actor and Triple H's trio were a bit... too.

Animation was......... Actually not too great. Plenty of times when the art collapsed, noticeable.

[Triple_R]

I recently did a blog write-up on what I think are the 10 Best Anime Shows of 2011. MPD placed fourth on that, which is pretty good considering what a strong year of anime it's been.

Here's the key MPD-relevant excerpt from that blog:


If there was a reward for the most awesome and well-balanced character cast of the year, it would go to Mawaru Penguin Drum. There was no 2011 anime more driven by its characters, and their charismatic personalities, than what Mawaru Penguin Drum was. It holds the distinction of being the only anime to have 2 of my Top 10 male anime characters of the year and 2 of my Top 10 female anime characters of the year.

From Himari instigating the great rock and roll time, to Ringo speaking breathlessly about Destiny, to Shouma barely being scratched by a roaring automobile, to Kanba dauntlessly dodging magical slingshots at point blank range, to Sanetoshi being more electrifying than Las Vegas, to Yuri being enchantingly yuri with Ringo, no 2011 anime clearly enjoyed itself more than what Mawaru Penguin Drum did. And hence many of those of us who watched it couldn’t help but enjoy it as well.

Why, even Triple-H warranted a reference here! Gosh, how I wish Natsume and him would crush John Cena soon.

It’s fitting that MPD cutely referenced pro wrestling here since this anime had cool character catch-phrases to rival the likes of “Watcha gonna do when the 24-inch penguins come crashing down on you?!” Penguinmania is running wild, brother! Comedy gold of the year right there, with those penguins, if not the best anime comedy elements of the entire decade! Even during MPD’s weakest hours, you could always count on the penguins to keep you laughing, smiling, and entertained.

Still, as much as I ended up loving Ringo, I eventually grew very tired of her futile pursuit of Tabuki during the first half of the anime. That didn’t resolve itself quite as quickly as I would have liked. Then there’s the trademark Ikuhara symbolism that cuts like a double-edged sword for me. Sometimes I find it fascinating and it makes everything seem deep and enriching, but other times I find it incomprehensible to the point of being a bit of a negative for me. Still, MPD was the most unique anime of the year, and boy, was it ever a lot of fun to watch.


9/10 for Penguin Drum. I'd really love to see Ikuhara try his hand at another anime after producing this one.

[warita]

I liked this anime, it had an interesting way of telling the story and it required the viewer to think. That in my eyes is the strongest plus of this show. I am tired of boring shows, that numb your mind. The secretive format required you to be continuously on the lookout for clues and even long after the episode is over you think about what happened and you discuss your theories with your friends. Whats better than that???

I do have to admit though that the show had a downhill tendency and it begun with the flashbacks...... in other words the second half of the anime. Until then the story was light hearted; the characters were goofing around, Ringos infatuation was both creepy and funny. The story didnt make much sense, but that wasnt so bad, because it was entertaining. In the second half the atmosphere suddenly turned serious, creepy and depressing. I think I can say without much exaggeration, that the mystery aspect of the first half was what carried this show, so the moment the explanatory second part started, it went downhill for me.

Despite this critisism from me, I believe it was one of the best shows of this season. It was refreshingly unique, original and entertaining. We definately need more shows like this one.

Final score: 8/10.

[Kaioshin Sama]

Just finished this today and boy was it a battle to get to the end. While I appreciate the effort and the bizzare sensibilities that went into this show that made it so unconventional and while I even get the idea and core themes behind it for the most part I was never really able to get into it. It had it's moments, but for the most part it was just plain weird and the show ultimately felt like Ikuhara was more concerned with putting his eccentricities on display throughout such that the emotional weight that they were going for in this final stretch just isn't there for me. I just never really came to care for these characters (except maybe Himari to some extent) because all the circumstances surrounding them just came across as bizarre, surreal and at best amusing, but never truly gripping. I think Masako said it best in the end when she said that she felt like she just had a really strange dream. That's kind of what this show felt like in the end, a really strange surreal dream that leaves you wondering if what just transpired really happened as it was depicted or not.

When my reaction to the final episode is to just stare blankly during the climax portion while routinely checking the time and asking, "is this over yet?" I have to feel that it's failed critically somewhere in terms of getting me involved with it's narrative. The show had it's moments, I was amused by characters like Ringo and Sanetoshi, and I guess I'm kind of glad that Himari was able to survive in the end, though the machinations behind her whole story arc were bizarre to say the least....yep that's really it....my overall series impression for MPD is that it's just plain surreal and I guess my final series rating would be something like 6.5/10. Again just a little less of the weird tendencies and I bet the drama in the final stretch works just so much better for me.

[Leo_Otaku]

Wow that just felt like I wasted time watching something. This lacked some serious editing problems and incoherent story. Beautiful animation with an original style and take, but fell apart at the end without the middle substance.

Animation Quality: 8- Was quite good but some episodes lacked quality control. It was very visually appealing with the colours and noted styles. The very best aspect of this show.

Voice Actors: 9- Really well done in this department with the wide ranges and emotional tones. Despite me having no emotional connection to any characters really.

Script: 4 - Is this writing or overall story structure? If so both were very poor. I can't recall anything notable in the writing. It went all over the map in a struggle to be and do so much. The only thing that stands out for the writing was Ringo. But there was an over draft of so many useless characters that had no place in the story.

Soundtrack: 7 - I didn't find anything that stood out except for the transformation theme song. The endings were quite forgettable as they went on. The first was good the rest had mutable vocals.

Editing: 2 - My god did anyone really go back and look at this work and go, hey take that out.... This was so all over the map so many plot points were dropped then more were needlessly added. Back stories that were added that had hardly any impact to the overall structure in the end. This could have been done in 12 episodes.

Enjoyment: 5 - I really enjoyed the beginning half the latter felt like I was eating a piece of steak. Now mind you the beginning of this steak was quite good. Each bite was interesting and flavorful. But soon the steak began to fill with fat and I had to devour it slowly to get to the end. I had hoped this end might have some actual meat . It was chewy but digestible along the way, tasteless and often a boring task. When got to the end ,where there was possibly some more delicious meat, I was left rolling my eyes and questioning what the hell I had watched. This is not something I will ever revisit.

Emotional Involvement: 2 - The most I felt in this show was for that kitten. Which was an idiotic plot device on so many levels that hardly was believable.

6 is the overall grade

[fanty]

I really loved this show, especially in the beginning, but I just didn't find the ending to be all that satisfying. There was just something missing so... 8/10

[Roloko vi Britannia]

This show was amazing yet confusing and this series had a great cast of characters particularly Shouma, Ringo, and Kanba. I loved every episode and would watch it more than once.

10/10 a masterpiece in my eyes.

[Ledgem]

I recently finished this series and felt really conflicted over how to rate it. On one hand it dealt with some very heavy themes, the artwork was beautiful, the symbolism was interesting, and the music (mostly in the last half or third) was fantastic and wonderfully haunting, emotional. The final episode left me feeling that this had all been one epic journey, a total masterpiece.

Yet on the other hand, I nearly dropped this series at multiple points. If it weren't for the high acclaim surrounding the series and my belief that such acclaim meant that something amazing waited at the end, I probably wouldn't have finished it. I really didn't like watching it; it wasn't until episode 15 or so that I began to look forward to the following episode, and that some actual sense of purpose in the series became clear.

Stylistically there were also a number of things that I didn't like. The constant use of flashbacks in each episode made things feel disorganized and grated on me at a number of points. Even though I can listen to a song for a hundred times on repeat and still enjoy it, the constant use of repeated phrases also started to grate on me. The symbolism also became a bit too abstract and unreachable in many cases. As one blog post put it, it's a problem if you're unsure whether certain events are meant to be interpreted literally or as symbolism themselves (for a strong example, the final sequence with young Kanba and Shouma in the cages). This became more of a problem in the ending than the beginning.

Looking at the series as a whole experience (and selectively forgetting the unenjoyable parts), this is a 9/10 or 10/10 for me. If I had to consider it for the enjoyment and viewing experience per episode it would probably be a 4/10 or worse. Because of the lack of enjoyment with each episode it's not a series that I can recommend to anyone, even those who enjoy the themes brought up in the series. I give it a 6/10 as a final rating.

I am happy to have had the experience that is Penguin Drum, but I would not want to repeat any of it. I don't think I've ever felt this way about a series before.

[starbison]

I really liked the anime! The penguins were boss too