You might have noticed from the shift in subjects lately, but the only anime that I'm currently watching is the mysterious and fabulously adolescent Mawaru Penguindrum. Kunihiko Ikuhara's return to anime has not disappointed in any way. But right now I'm going to talk about some late-series stuff and I'm obligated to warn you about that. Don't even look up Penguindrum online if you're interested in seeing it and haven't jumped in yet. The show's a giant unraveling spoiler from episode one and the best thing you can do is just start watching and let it work its magic. If you seriously want me to spoil you, I'm still going to keep writing like you don't know anything, so this post will tell you what's going on in Penguindrum. Don't do it!
In episode 22, it's been revealed that the ominously profitable side job that Kanba's been working to pay little sister Himari's hospital bills is in fact planning and perpetrating terrorist bombings. Kanba's desperately in love with Himari (the show has been letting you believe there's an incestuous love triangle here from the start, but it already pulled the rug out on that one) and he'll kill as many people as it takes to keep her alive for another day. That's his deal.
The whole show is about the terminal Himari finally dying. She's fake-died four times that I can immediately recall up to this point. She's saved every time, at great cost to the characters, by some supernatural curveball. At this stage in the game Himari would really rather be dead, if only because all her friends wouldn't have to chase the Penguindrum anymore (whatever the hell it is, we still don't have any idea), and Kanba would stop killing people. She is guilty that she is so loved, and loved so desperately, by her brothers.
So Himari does the only thing she feels like she can: she goes to Kanba in his terror-bombing lair and she pours it on in hopes that he'll quit his mission. Himari's not really a directly affectionate person-- she shows her love first and foremost with her stuffed cabbage recipe-- and I can't recall seeing her like this elsewhere in the show. Kanba squirms a bit at "I love you" but he doesn't really pay this display any mind. It isn't like Himari, and you get the feeling that it isn't completely genuine.
And I think the penguins spell out what's actually happening here. As Himari-penguin worriedly flips the pages of a girlie magazine to distract Kanba-penguin with some cheap titillation, the latter (who is seen all the time reading such mags, looking up skirts and so on) is steadfastly focused on a book called THE HEART. This brief shot footnotes the conversation: it says what we're thinking without needing to say it directly. The penguins do a lot of this.
Of course, it doesn't work. Himari chases Kanba in desperation as he walks away, begging him to let things be and to let her die. He says again that he won't abide that.
Himari-penguin's copy of Maxim or Big'uns or whatever lies in flames.
Comments