I watched the first episode of Saranzanmai and decided to wait until it wrapped up before fully committing to it, but the positive response from Ikuhara fans and skeptics alike has me tempted to catch up with it on a weekly basis! I'll be interested in what you think of YKA and Penguindrum once you finish them; I was pretty lukewarm on both (Utena is the only Ikuhara work that's resonated, and I think it's largely because that was such a collaborative effort), but I always like hearing what others have to say about them and see if there was a magic touch that might have escaped my notice.

Kunihiko Ikuhara is basically the Hideo Kojima of anime.

Oh my god it's true, lol.