Oginome Ringo

Crazy Himari (I don’t know what else to call her) sends the two brothers on a mission to find Oginome Ringo because this girl happens to have the all important Penguin Drum… or she might not — who really knows?

Well, I bet Crazy Himari does know and she just enjoys screwing around with the brothers. Anyhow, in stalking Ringo, they find out that the young girl is also a stalker. Even stranger, however, is that Ringo is seemingly in possession of a diary that can foretell future events.

This, of course, had everyone on the internet going “MAWARU DEATH NOTE-DRUM!” (can we please forget that overrated series already?) or some variant of the above. Oh, I’m not so sure about that. C’mon, she’s right underneath her stalkee’s floor, listening to every single thing he does. She then writes down some “plans” then proceeds to fulfill them. So surprising a bird nut with a rare picture of a bird nest means it’s fate? Pfft, I don’t call that fate; I call it free will and Ringo’s perfectly (and creepily) in control.

What is the Penguin Drum and what would it have to do with some yandere school girl? Drawing any conclusions about this at this point would make “jumping the gun” an understatement. So I’m not going to do that; instead, I want to look at the two episodes we’ve just seen and ask the following question: what genre does Mawaru Penguindrum belong to? There’s always the sense that genre discussions are reductionist and ultimately fruitless other than fulfilling some compulsive desire to categorize. Still, let’s take a wild stab in the dark — I’m going to throw this out there: noir. Incredulous? I wouldn’t blame you, but it’s food for thought and it might be interesting. So let’s break it down — what do noirs have?

• A distinctive visual style
• A certain narrative style, usually featuring voiceovers
• Flawed protagonists
• Someone playing the role of a detective or something similar
• A femme fatale
• A sense of hopelessness (“Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”)

Let’s go through these one by one.

(1) The first point is the weakest point in this thesis; Mawaru Penguindrum’s visuals do not resemble your standard Hollywood film noir in any way. In fact, Mawaru Penguindrum’s aesthetics are quite fantastical, as if we are hardly in a real world but instead, some fairy tale analogue of the present.

(2) Many film noirs do not feature voiceover, but some do and it’s worth noting that although Mawaru Penguindrum doesn’t use it heavily, the anime has begun each of its two episodes with a voiceover.

(3) Although Kanba is a lot more confident and, for a lack of a better world, cooler than his brother, Shoma does bring up a good point: whatever they’re doing isn’t ethical and it’s far from legal. Stalking Ringo requires them to snoop through her belongings, stare up her and her friends’ skirts, etc. Kanba rationalizes it all as “the ends justify the means,” but he isn’t exactly on some noble mission. He just wants to keep his sister alive, who, by all accounts, should be dead anyway. And, of course, there’s that whole kissing his sister thing that’s just… blech. Needless to say, I think Kanba is somewhat flawed in his character.

(4) This very episode is a private investigation!

(5) Crazy Himari enters the brothers’ “office” (home) and gives them a job. Crazy Himari’s origins are mysterious in themselves; all we know is that she’s linked to a silly penguin hat that likes to randomly appear on Himari’s head. Like femme fatales, Crazy Himari is certainly seductive in some respects. She’s dressed in very little clothing and yet she still sheds them as she makes her way toward the brothers in every episode. She coerces the brothers into a dangerous situation, taking their sister’s life hostage. If Crazy Himari isn’t a femme fatale, I’d still say she’s very close indeed.

(6) Finally, is there a sense of hopelessness in the anime? It’s hard to say this early into the season, but all the talk about fate usually doesn’t bode well for a story’s characters. There’s always a sense in film noir that individuals are ultimately powerless and that it’s futile to struggle against the powers that be. To tie things back to Mawaru Penguindrum, I get the sense that Himari’s on borrowed time. As a result, the brothers will be forced to play an ever-escalating game wherein they must perform increasingly riskier deeds for the amusement of some sadistic spirit just to keep their dear sister alive another day. Then again, I could be wrong.

There are more than twenty episodes left in the series and Mawaru Penguindrum can shift its gear at any point in time. In other words, the show could become something drastically different in a week or two from now. Even so, for just this very episode, I believe there are some striking similarities between the events in the anime and narrative conventions of noir. I’m not going to coin some pretentious term like “shoujo noir” to describe the anime, but I don’t think the comparison I’m making is particularly outlandish after going through the noir elements one-by-one.

Stray Observations

• It appears that Himari isn’t aware of the fact that a crazy penguin spirit possesses her every now and then and sends her brothers on a crazy acid trip.

Otherwise, why is she surprised to hear of her brothers skipping class? Either way, why wouldn’t her brothers tell her what’s going on?

• Again, the anime treats us to Himari’s fabulous transformation. People left and right are praising this scene, and while I’ll admit that it does look stylish, it becomes a lot less impressive when the anime’s just going to reuse the same exact sequences over and over. The only thing of significant difference this week was the dialogue; this is starting to feel like Star Driver part deux.

• I thought the ED (“Dear Future” by coaltar of the deepers) sounded familiar and I was right.

Shoegaze is such a dumb name for a subgenre.

No, I had never heard of coaltar of the deepers before Mawaru Penguindrum, but the style of the ED is unmistakeable. The dense wall of sound reminded me instantly of My Bloody Valentine and upon researching coaltar of the deepers, the former is listed as an inspiration.

• As usual, the backgrounds are gorgeous, but I’m going to slam the 3-D animation.

The CGI just doesn’t jive with how the rest of the anime looks, especially the scene in the lingerie store. As a result, the CGI’s just ugly and distracting. Would it really have been that difficult to animate a few rotating bras on a rack?