Penguin Drum - General Discussion

[RRW]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

He looks a bit young to be the 'fated one' from the scene with the huge fans, though.

Maybe he's older in real life?



It uses a light-hearted atmosphere to disguise how dark it actually is.

story wise is it dark as madoka (AKA everyone will die)?

i can withstand some think like sad or mindfuck but i kinda hate "i die because i deserve it or i sacrifice for the world"

[zeando]

Originally Posted by RRW

story wise is it dark as madoka (AKA everyone will die)?

i can withstand some think like sad or mindfuck but i kinda hate "i die because i deserve it or i sacrifice for the world"

how can we know? >_>
till now 1 has died(but is still half alive) and 1 got hit by a car, all others are alive

still i don't get this asking for suggestions, when it'll be finshed watch the first episode then decide if you want to continue or not
if it has some value to you, it's rated PG13 >.> (i was sure it has do be a bit higher :/ )

[Nina.Wolken]

Originally Posted by Forsaken_Infinity

The episode didn't tell us exactly happened to Himari to have her stop going to school, to delineate her so much from her friends though ._. Last I knew, they were still together like nail and flesh and the two didn't submit a video for idol contest or anything. So what gives o_o

At first I thought it was because she fell sick, but then I noticed the whole school was looking at her leaving.
I'm guessing now it has more to do with whatever happened to her parents (death?). But why would the whole school know about it? ...hum...

[RRW]

it seem it's better ask same question after the anime actually end

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Nina.Wolken

At first I thought it was because she fell sick, but then I noticed the whole school was looking at her leaving.
I'm guessing now it has more to do with whatever happened to her parents (death?). But why would the whole school know about it? ...hum...

They could well be connected to Aum Shinrikyo, assuming the show actually IS about the Sarin Gas Attacks.

[Jin Kizuite]

This episode made me so sad inside I feel the need to hug someone. ;_;

[Nina.Wolken]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

They could well be connected to Aum Shinrikyo, assuming the show actually IS about the Sarin Gas Attacks.

Oh! Good point! They is a lot in the show pointing at this terro' attack but nothing linking it directly to the cast directly so far so that could make the connection.
Since the siblings' father was also working for Kiba (or so it's hinted here with his jacket ) and the company being major, I thought something involving directly Kiba had happened to the parents. Maybe there is a bit of both

[Faerie]

Originally Posted by Nina.Wolken

Oh! Good point! They is a lot in the show pointing at this terro' attack but nothing linking it directly to the cast directly so far so that could make the connection.
Since the siblings' father was also working for Kiba (or so it's hinted here with his jacket ) and the company being major, I thought something involving directly Kiba had happened to the parents. Maybe there is a bit of both

my first thought was that she got bullied out of the school, but it makes no sense. Not only is the whole school watching, but her two best friends are looking at her angrily (!?)
You'd think, if she had been bullied or sick, her parents would've picked her up, but she was alone.

So I, too, thought it might have to do with the attacks as something big must've happened, and the parents might be guilty of something- something that everyone knows, and which caused them to hate on Himari like that anyway.
It can't really be that they died in the attacks, or were otherwise victimized, that doesn't explain the negative attention she's getting... :/

[Forsaken_Infinity]

At least we now know why the brothers were so persistent about not bringing up their parents into discussion when Himari was around. And the crossed out names in the nameplate outside. But we don't quite know the whole detail. I am sure Sho has a story to share about his parents as well.

[ookamigirl]

This was an interesting episode.
Flashbacks to Himari's childhood where enlightening.
Guess this time it was all about her life before the penguins & how she got that hat..

[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by Solace

The ED doesn't make sense to me, not just yet. I can't be the only one who found it incredibly weird that her friends are so similar in appearance to her brothers. The color coordination in this show just seems too detailed to be coincidental.

Solace's comments here really managed to spur a lot of MPD speculation for me.

Like many viewers, I suspect, I simply took the flashback portions of this episode at face value. As perfectly accurate accounts of history, basically.

But then, Solace noticing the similarities between Himari's two friends and her two brothers, really did get me thinking.

It's important to note that almost all of Episode 10 takes place within a dream. Who's to say, then, that the flashbacks are literal accounts of exactly what happened in Himari's past? Are the flashbacks perhaps partly literal, but also partly symbolic?

As I took this train of thought from one station to the next, I couldn't help but notice how Himari's friends treated Himari just like Himari's brothers treat her. In other words, when the three of them got caught in trouble, Himari's two friends were earnestly - even passionately - willing to take the fall for her. They wanted to throw themselves on the sword for Himari's sake. It actually felt very gallant.

I don't doubt that there are childhood friends like that in real life, but the way it played out really made me think of how Kanba and Shouma would throw themselves on a sword (figuratively or literally) for Himari's sake.


Dreams are often the mind's way to deal with stresses in real life by filtering the actual causes of them through symbolic dream imagery and narratives.

So what actual reality might lie behind the flashbacks in Himari's dream? I have some (admittedly wild) speculations here:

Spoiler for Dream Interpretations:

1. Himari's two friends actually represent Kanba and Shouma.

2. Himari saw herself as being very close to her two brothers, wanting them to be a tight trio. Gender differences didn't matter to her. "Triple-H" represented to Himari how she wanted the three of them to succeed together.

3. Himari's desire for a "matching ribbon" is actually symbolic of something else. One wild guess here - Himari didn't want to wear a girl's student uniform. She wanted to wear a boy's student uniform, like Kanba and Shouma did, so all three of them would be matching. She thought that by wearing a different uniform, she'd end up feeling cut off from her two brothers, negating "Triple-H".

4. Himari really did get into a squabble with her mother over it, and her mother really did get accidentally injured during the squabble.

5. Himari and her two brothers did something to try to help her mother, but it got them in trouble. The brothers took the fall.

6. Himari was eventually forced to leave school for some reason. Perhaps sickness. Perhaps something else.

7. Getting hit with an eraser thrown at her from her two friends in the dream represents how part of Himari feels like she's been "erased" from reality.

8. Through Himari's eyes, Kanba and Shouma are living exciting, abundant lives... like rock stars. Now, of course, that's not exactly the case, but I think Himari may perceive things this way. Perhaps she feels like she's been "left behind", like a girl who dropped out of a pop idol trio only to watch the remaining pop idol duo go on to big success.

9. So part of Himari is actually jealous of her two brothers, and resentful of them. And perhaps that comes out in The Penguin Queen...

In light of those nine points, there's a different interpretation that I think maybe should be raised here. To a certain extent, we've been interpreting the "survival" part of "Survival Strategy" in a basic, straightforward fashion. In other words, that it's simply about living and not being dead (or creating new life in a literal sense).

But what if "Survival Strategy" doesn't mean just living, but living life abundantly?

Himari's alive, sure, but is she surviving in a greater sense? Or does she feel like she's withering away, cooped up in that house all the time, while her brothers go out and live normal lives all the time? Does the ED represent the sort of abundant living that Himari would like to share with her two brothers (perceived through her mind's eye as BFF girls)?

I'm not sure. But I think this is a train of thought worth exploring.


And as I dwell on it, I begin to ask myself - Where exactly does Himari end and the Penguin Queen begin?

Most of us, I think, have been thinking of the two as entirely different personalities and existences. But what if they're not? What if the Penguin Queen is a persona of Himari's? Something tied to her specifically? Perhaps the Penguin Hat doesn't contain a spirit of sorts that takes over the host's body, but rather draws out and emboldens a persona within the host that he or she always had.

When Bruce Wayne's parents died, Batman was born...

When the Penguin Hat was put on Himari's head, The Penguin Queen was born...


Or perhaps a better analogy than that can be found here:




Is Himari to the Penguin Queen what Usagi Tsukino is to Sailor Moon/Princess Serenity?

Usagi Tsukino thought that she was just a normal human teenage girl. But she was also a sort of reincarnation of Princess Serenity, IIRC. And that is what allowed her to become the powerful Sailor Moon.

Is something similar going on with Himari? Is that why part of The Survival Strategy sequence looks like the Sailor Moon transformation flipped horizontally? It could just be a visual flourish that Ikuhara has a taste for, or a basic reference, but I can't help but wonder...


Now, to take this one step farther...

Is Sanetoshi the one that Himari is fated to be with? Is he the Prince Endymion to her Princess Serenity? The Tuxedo Kamen to her Sailor Moon? The Utena to her Anthy?

Given the anime that Ikuhara has worked on before, it would seem strangely fitting to me...


Anyway, I'll leave all this speculation here for now. I'd love to know what other people here think of it.

[DragoonKain3]

Originally Posted by Slick_rick

Personally who ever this soulmate turns out to be will probably have the least shot at Himari. I'm really interested though in who the other kid with the penguin hat is.

Who's to say the fated person isn't the same person who has the penguin hat?

From episode 1, when these random bypasser kids were talking about 'nonsense'.

Originally Posted by Episode 1

"Like I said, the apple is the universe itself. A universe in the palm of your hand. It's what connects this world to the other world."

"The other world?"

"The world Campanella and other passengers are heading to."

"What does that have to do with an apple?"

"The apple is a reward for those who have chosen love over everything else!"

"But everything is over when you're dead"

"It's not over! What I'm trying to say is that actually where everything begins."

Mr. "Soulmate" shares an apple that is called the 'fruit of fate'. The hat is said to be bestowed upon the "Bride of Fate", so who's to say that the Kid and his hat is the male equivalent, aka. the Groom of Fate?

So yeah, lots of speculation you can go through here. Like. the princess of the crystal not only possible being from the future, but from another timeline when Himari is actually an idol, to the destination being 'heaven', to Mr. Groom being dead like Himari as well (which could account for Mr. Hat looking younger than Himari if he died at an earlier time)... so much possibilities; need next episode now lols. XD

[zeando]

^someone said that "nonsense" in ep1 was a reference to the film http://myanimelist.net/anime/1441/Ni...actic_Railroad
the kid talking, apparently, had watched

[DragoonKain3]

I dunno, but the kid talking about apples, alternate worlds, death, and what happens after that seems to be very tied in to this story, don't you think? Yeah, it's a reference, but it seems it's connected to something much more deeper here.

[Shiroth]

What are the chances that Super Frog Saves Tokyo is a reference to the short story with the same title by Haruki Murakami?

[Ekureiru]

Originally Posted by Triple_R

Spoiler for Spoiler:

Solace's comments here really managed to spur a lot of MPD speculation for me.

Like many viewers, I suspect, I simply took the flashback portions of this episode at face value. As perfectly accurate accounts of history, basically.

But then, Solace noticing the similarities between Himari's two friends and her two brothers, really did get me thinking.

It's important to note that almost all of Episode 10 takes place within a dream. Who's to say, then, that the flashbacks are literal accounts of exactly what happened in Himari's past? Are the flashbacks perhaps partly literal, but also partly symbolic?

As I took this train of thought from one station to the next, I couldn't help but notice how Himari's friends treated Himari just like Himari's brothers treat her. In other words, when the three of them got caught in trouble, Himari's two friends were earnestly - even passionately - willing to take the fall for her. They wanted to throw themselves on the sword for Himari's sake. It actually felt very gallant.

I don't doubt that there are childhood friends like that in real life, but the way it played out really made me think of how Kanba and Shouma would throw themselves on a sword (figuratively or literally) for Himari's sake.


Dreams are often the mind's way to deal with stresses in real life by filtering the actual causes of them through symbolic dream imagery and narratives.

So what actual reality might lie behind the flashbacks in Himari's dream? I have some (admittedly wild) speculations here:

Spoiler for Dream Interpretations:

1. Himari's two friends actually represent Kanba and Shouma.

2. Himari saw herself as being very close to her two brothers, wanting them to be a tight trio. Gender differences didn't matter to her. "Triple-H" represented to Himari how she wanted the three of them to succeed together.

3. Himari's desire for a "matching ribbon" is actually symbolic of something else. One wild guess here - Himari didn't want to wear a girl's student uniform. She wanted to wear a boy's student uniform, like Kanba and Shouma did, so all three of them would be matching. She thought that by wearing a different uniform, she'd end up feeling cut off from her two brothers, negating "Triple-H".

4. Himari really did get into a squabble with her mother over it, and her mother really did get accidentally injured during the squabble.

5. Himari and her two brothers did something to try to help her mother, but it got them in trouble. The brothers took the fall.

6. Himari was eventually forced to leave school for some reason. Perhaps sickness. Perhaps something else.

7. Getting hit with an eraser thrown at her from her two friends in the dream represents how part of Himari feels like she's been "erased" from reality.

8. Through Himari's eyes, Kanba and Shouma are living exciting, abundant lives... like rock stars. Now, of course, that's not exactly the case, but I think Himari may perceive things this way. Perhaps she feels like she's been "left behind", like a girl who dropped out of a pop idol trio only to watch the remaining pop idol duo go on to big success.

9. So part of Himari is actually jealous of her two brothers, and resentful of them. And perhaps that comes out in The Penguin Queen...

In light of those nine points, there's a different interpretation that I think maybe should be raised here. To a certain extent, we've been interpreting the "survival" part of "Survival Strategy" in a basic, straightforward fashion. In other words, that it's simply about living and not being dead (or creating new life in a literal sense).

But what if "Survival Strategy" doesn't mean just living, but living life abundantly?

Himari's alive, sure, but is she surviving in a greater sense? Or does she feel like she's withering away, cooped up in that house all the time, while her brothers go out and live normal lives all the time? Does the ED represent the sort of abundant living that Himari would like to share with her two brothers (perceived through her mind's eye as BFF girls)?

I'm not sure. But I think this is a train of thought worth exploring.


And as I dwell on it, I begin to ask myself - Where exactly does Himari end and the Penguin Queen begin?

Most of us, I think, have been thinking of the two as entirely different personalities and existences. But what if they're not? What if the Penguin Queen is a persona of Himari's? Something tied to her specifically? Perhaps the Penguin Hat doesn't contain a spirit of sorts that takes over the host's body, but rather draws out and emboldens a persona within the host that he or she always had.

When Bruce Wayne's parents died, Batman was born...

When the Penguin Hat was put on Himari's head, The Penguin Queen was born...


Or perhaps a better analogy than that can be found here:




Is Himari to the Penguin Queen what Usagi Tsukino is to Sailor Moon/Princess Serenity?

Usagi Tsukino thought that she was just a normal human teenage girl. But she was also a sort of reincarnation of Princess Serenity, IIRC. And that is what allowed her to become the powerful Sailor Moon.

Is something similar going on with Himari? Is that why part of The Survival Strategy sequence looks like the Sailor Moon transformation flipped horizontally? It could just be a visual flourish that Ikuhara has a taste for, or a basic reference, but I can't help but wonder...


Now, to take this one step farther...

Is Sanetoshi the one that Himari is fated to be with? Is he the Prince Endymion to her Princess Serenity? The Tuxedo Kamen to her Sailor Moon? The Utena to her Anthy?

Given the anime that Ikuhara has worked on before, it would seem strangely fitting to me...


Anyway, I'll leave all this speculation here for now. I'd love to know what other people here think of it.

I got to thinking after you posted this, but couldn't say anything other than applaud.

Now, let's see if this train takes us down the deep path or the obvious one.

[Tjfarmer]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

What are the chances that Super Frog Saves Tokyo is a reference to the short story with the same title by Haruki Murakami?

Probably a considerable amount because that short story is in the book "after the quake" which is a collection of short stories taking place between the 1995 Kobe Earthquake, and the 1995 Gas Attacks.

And of course, that happens to be the ONE Haruki Murakami book I don't own so I can't read it and see if theres any relation

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Shiroth

What are the chances that Super Frog Saves Tokyo is a reference to the short story with the same title by Haruki Murakami?

I would say 100%, given that the subject matter and that this is Ikuhara.

TJ, here's the story - it's very short.

[Haak]

Holy crap, I just wanted to post about how great this episode was but now I see people speculating that Himari's two friends were actually Kanba and Sho. AARRRGH AND IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE TOO!!!! DX. You guys have blatantly spoiled everything now. This isn't the first time I've come across highly accurate predictations that end up being right...

[ninja_pintu]

I was wondering why the seven social sins were written in Hindi, until I realised they were Mahatma Gandhi's reference.

As for the episode itself, it was a really great one. It raised some interesting questions but my favorite part was the introduction of the pink haired character. I was really looking forward to his introduction.

Next episode we will know what happened to Shoma. Hopefully show will not go back to Ringo's madness(I did enjoy her, but it was starting to drag a bit), though after last episode incidents, plot will most probably start moving.