Puri Watches Mawaru Penguindrum (Part 1)
Aug. 12th, 2021 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shamanicshaymin"I hate the word 'fate.' Birth, encounters, partings, success and failure, fortune and misfortunes in life. If our lives are already set in stone by fate, then why are we even born? There are those born to wealthy families, those born of beautiful mothers, and those born into the middle of war or poverty. If that’s all caused by fate, then God is incredibly unfair and cruel. Because, ever since that day, none of us had a future and the only certain thing was that we wouldn’t amount to anything."
Since two movies are coming out soon, I finally got around to watching Mawaru Penguindrum. Under the cut is basically my live reactions as I watch the show on Discord. I was already aware of all the spoilers, so this may have affected my viewing, haha. XD
Puri: Insomnia attacks and I'm worried over Mii making stuff, so I'm watching Mawaru Penguindrum.
Puri: Two episodes in so far!
Puri: - Himari is so cute! Himari Day indeed.
- Princess of the Crystal ftw
- This feels more fanservicey than Yuri Kuma somehow
- "Huh, I don't see the infamous kiss ye--AAAAAAAA good it cut away"
- Hey, it's the walking symbol dudes from Sarazanmai!
- Oh my god, Ringo sounds like Amy Rose
- Yeah this is Amy taken to extremes.
Puri: "Save your innocence for Himari." Wait what just happened
Puri: Himari looks like an Animal Crossing character with her hair in buns.
Puri: Himari x Ringo = I ship it
Anon 1: Himari is precious
Puri: "I'm glad I got to share my curry with you, Ringo. Because you're a friend I love!" ;;
Puri: Ringo's right. Whoever eats curry together are fated to be, but it's Himari's curry she ate~
Puri: Dude Ringo, just forget about Tabuki already. :pensive:
Puri: "Then Devour Me Curryageously" DAT PUN
Puri: The brothers are useless, just like their penguins. :P
Puri: Pet skunks usually have their stink glands surgically removed. Kiyoshi would've been dead meat without them.
Puri: Yuri's musical number wouldn't be out of place in Shrek. :P
Puri: An entire musical episode. Good thing we later got a musical series in Sarazanmai. :D
Anon 2: if the brothers are useless, then shouma is the most cutely useless one. >3<
Puri: 12 episodes down. Taking a breather before I do the last half.
Puri: The animation in this show is so good aaaaaaa
Puri: Everything with Ringo and Tabuki is wince inducing, but I can't really bring myself to hate her? I know she's a stupid teenager, and alongside the revulsion is a lot of second-hand embarrassment. Like Ringo, honey, don't do this to yourself...
Puri: Which is only going to make... that scene with Yuri and the fact the show won't bring it up again so much worse. D:
Puri: Goddamn, Ringo managed to avoid falling into the Princess of the Crystal's pit, that's damn impressive.
Puri: Himari's still my favorite and I feel really bad for her. I think she does feel resentment that she isn't able to join Triple-H with her friends, but towards her illness and the shitty hand life threw at her rather than Hibari and Hikari.
Anon 2: agreed :pensive:
Anon 2: that scene is so funny (the ringo one)
Anon 2: i agree, its so sad and realistic that her illness stopped her from reaching her dreams. i dont think she blames the girls
Puri: Also the fact that it was Himari that held a finger up to Sanetoshi and told him no. Not Princess of the Crystal, Himari.
Anon 2: right??
Puri: Yeeeeesss
Puri: The way this show deals with loss is so good. It's like ouch.
Anon 2: i agreeee
Anon 1: Now that I think of it, Himari is kind of like a Momoko who happens to still be alive. Every time Double-H appears in the show, which is a lot of times, it's a reminder of the future that was stolen away from her, the Himari-shaped hole that sits never to be filled. (。•́︿•̀。)
Anon 2: ouch..this hurted :sob:
Anon 2: oh that’s a great point [anon 1]
Puri: I've never been split by death or divorce, but what Ringo's going through reminds me of a lot of stories from kids like that.
Anon 2: was just gonna say that Lol
Puri: Kids being terrified of their parents splitting up and doing everything to keep them together, only to fail.
Anon 2: ringo is so over the top but also i feel like i understand her ig
Puri: Like yeah, she loved Tabuki, but Ringo also wanted her family to love her without being reminded of Momoko's death. So her swaying after her diary is torn in half is painful. :(
Anon 2: she "loves" tabuki like you would look up to the friend of an older sibling.. prob because Momoka has always been there in the mouths and minds of everyone in her life. ughhhhh
Puri: She probably doesn't believe her parents can ever love her because of Momoko's death. So to be told "just be yourself" is mind-boggling to her. Why would anyone want her when Momoko has done all these wonderful things and impacted so many people's lives? Why would anyone want her who just exists to remind people of what they've lost?
Anon 2: aaah, yeah. thats how it is w her T_T
Me: Ikuhara: SO HOW ABOUT THAT INCEST
Me: why god why
Puri: Words to run away from really really fast: FABULOUS MAX
Puri: Something awful and not sexy is always happening. D:
Anon 3: what a good phrase though
Puri: It’s interesting how there’s a lot of sexuality in Ikuhara’s shows, but actual sex itself is portrayed as damaging and traumatizing.
Puri: Even in Sarazanmai, the closest to “Sexy Times” we see with Reo and Mabu are either Otter molesting Mabu or Otter manipulating/mocking Reo.
Anon 4: That is really interesting
Anon 4: What is Ikuhara’s op on sex?
Anon 5: I'm not sure I'd say sex is always portrayed that way, though the only counterexample I can think of is the invisible storm lily licking sequences in Yuri kuma
Anon 5: But he is definitely really interested in sex and sexuality as tools of/motivators for violence
Puri: Sanetoshi, y so creepy
Puri: "It'll be like a prince's kiss waking the sleeping princess."
Puri: RED FLAG RED FLAG RED FLAG
Puri: Also wtf Momoka's a kid you sicko
Puri: Mario looks like Milne, otherwise that's all the commentary I have on him except for the obvious "It's a-ME" joke.
Puri: Shouma, you idiot. ;; Ringo, you're so sweet.
Puri: Hopefully Himari speaks some sense into him.
Puri: Why do Kanba and Sanetoshi's meetings feel familiar? :/ Kanba got suckered into the Mafia of Fate.
Puri: Noooooooo Sanetoshi, those scarves don't belong to yoooooou
Puri: Also this calls back to the conversation between Himari and Kanba about how he can't stand personal gifts. THANKS KANBA
Puri: The girls are the only ones who've named their penguins: Sunny and Esmeralda.
Puri: "Hop in."
Puri: RUN RINGO RUN
Puri: YOUR DAY IS ABOUT TO GET EVEN WORSE
Puri: "A Fabulous Max girls' night out is the solution!"
Puri: Nope
Puri: Nope
Puri: Nope
Puri: Fabulous Max = RED FLAG
Puri: Oh nooooo, it's at The Scene. :cry_blood: :cry_blood: :cry_blood: :cry_blood: :cry_blood:
Puri: C'mon Puri, you can get through this.
Puri: My god, she really is proto-Yuriika. I DIDN'T LIKE HER IN YKA, AND I DON'T LIKE HER HERE EITHER. Pro-tip, Yuri and Yuriika: banging your love's sister/daughter does NOT mean you're banging your love. GET YOUR DIRTY HANDS OFF THEM.
Puri: Show: See? Just like when Ringo stalked Tabuki! HO HO HO
Me: EXCEPT RINGO IS A BLOODY TEENAGER, YURI IS A FULLY GROWN ADULT AND SHOULD KNOW BETTER. THEY ARE NOT AS ALIKE AS YOU THINK.
Puri: "But I'm sure you'll hate me once you see my true self." Cry me a fucking river. No one likes your true self because your true self is a bloody rapist.
Puri: That's like saying "Oh noes, nobody likes me and rejects me once they learn I love eating babies! :cry:"
Anon 1: :gasp: amazing! For the first time in history a character is right about themselves being hated :tehehe:
Puri: Wow, and just to rub salt on the wound, there's Lily Hoshino art of That Scene.
Puri: YOU DONE FUCKED UP NOW
Puri: Angry Budgett's Frog! Hurry and bite Yuri!
Puri: Anywaaaaaaay...
Puri: "Don't be depressed over being rejected by a girl!" I hope it's an assumption of the boy's part, because if Shouma told him he got rejected by Ringo, that deserves a slap.
Puri: "Shouma, I'm going to get all messed up. It's all your fault!" I'm going to assume that call is after That Scene.
Puri: "I'm heading over right now!" Yeah, you better hurry Shouma. Just sayin'.
Puri: "Ringo's 'you-know-what' is mine." Oh great, looks like someone's never grown out of childhood. One step forward, 1000 steps back from Utena.
Puri: At least Ringo's "virginity" or any number of vulgar euphemisms would've been more honest.
Puri: My god Shouma, you rival Kureha in terms of complete and utter uselessness. You're the guy who would get stuck on the tutorial in Cuphead.
Puri: Thank you thank you thank you thank you Not!Juri/Nanami Lovechild!
Puri: Nevermind, god fucking dammit.
Puri: Heaven forbid anyone cross the Mighty Invincible Yuri. :no:
Puri: Uggggh. I'd respond better to Yuri's backstory if the show didn't try to portray her adult self as sympathetic.
Anon 6: Reading this liveblog without context is such a fun experience :popcorn:
Puri: Congratulations Yuri. You are now ugly, but ugly in the way that your father is. =)
Puri: Like geez, Shouma's okay, but god, he really is passive/useless in the way Kureha is. I'm less frustrated with him than I am with Kureha solely because he at least has a personality and doesn't have a jillion people in love with him.
Puri: At least Kanba's actually doing something even if that something is terrible. ;;
Puri: It also helps that Shouma isn't the only MC and isn't advertised with a million informed traits. Meanwhile, we're told Kureha is an expert badass hunter but she's inept and constantly fails unless she's provoked by someone else.
Anon 7: I was very disappointed by Kureha not actually being a badness bear hunter
Anon 1: Maybe that's because she had a rifle but as we all know lesbians only know how to use swords
Puri: Manga!Kureha is infinitely superior.
Puri: Shouma: (jumps, then gawks helplessly as the Goomba walks into Mario and kills him... on the very first screen of 1-1)
Puri: Gonna take a break before tackling more Penguindrum. These episodes were oof, not pleasant.
Puri: Penguindrum: (great at depicting grief and the injustice and bullshit of “sins of the father”)
Also Penguindrum: (terrible at depicting sexual assault, with the exception of Yuri’s childhood flashbacks but that’s rendered null and void)
Puri: Penguindrum will likely win over Yuri Kuma in my Best Ikuhara placements, but only because there’s more character development and more episodes to expand on them. They’re both :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ regarding sexual assault. Thank god Sarazanmai was much better about that, with what little there was.
Anon 1: Were they just infected with the inexplicable Japanese concept about lesbian relationships being inherently more pure somehow and therefore bad things do not happen in them
Puri: Probably. It’d apparently explain why Ringo would later not be affected by what just happened. :vomit: :vomit: :vomit:
Puri: It’s a big pet peeve of mine in shows when female rapists and predators are treated as “not a big deal.” Which was why I refused to watch MPD for so long. :(
Puri: Sure, Akio is a horrible man for what he’s done to Utena, Anthy, and who knows how many victims, but guess what, Yuri is also horrible for what she did to Ringo (and I sure hope to fucking god the scene with Yuriika and Kureha was a fantasy and that the former was shot before assaulting her, though I much rather it had been Kureha who killed her)
Puri: And the worst thing about the Ringo & Tabuki scenes is Ringo likely doesn’t even know she’s trying to commit sexual assault, she’s just copying everything the media told her was “romantic” along with all the “destiny” bullshit. I just wish the show could’ve highlighted the very real danger she was in and how Tabuki easily could’ve taken advantage of her, as opposed to “Haha, isn’t Ringo silly trying to drug her teacher and bang him? lol”
Puri: It just rubs of “Ooooh, she’s a teenage temptress!” like Humbert pinned on Lolita and is such a common mindset among pedophiles. :rage:
Puri: If this is supposed to be Ringo’s “just desserts” for her cluelessness, fuck you, show. No one deserves rape as punishment.
Puri: At least Ginko went through a mini-arc that being a creep is bad.
Puri: Mitsuko: Hey, remember episode 2 where you almost had your way with Kureha? You’re entitled to her, you know. She’s aaaaaaaaaall yours, who’s there to stop you? After all, we exist to be predators, it’s in our nature.
Ginko: No! I’m not going to be that person anymore.
Puri: Which is funny, considering Ringo and Ginko have several similarities with each other (and Himari and Ginko share the same seiyuu)
Anon 5: I don't think penguindrum was interested in punishing Ringo for the tabuki thing for much the same reason I think it treats Yuri too sympathetically for some people
Anon 5: I don't think it's making fun of what Ringo is doing or trivializing it or any of that, it's shot like a horror scene and only gives way to comedy AFTER Shoma stops it. But the narrative is very clear that Ringo's hurting herself as much as she's hurting Tabuki, if not more
Anon 5: The theme with Penguindrum imo is really cycles of trauma. Hurt people hurt people. Everyone involved is unbelievably traumatized and their trauma leads them to extremely ugly actions that hurt each other and don't actually help them with what they're struggling with. They are also still human people caught in a wider systemic network that caused all those traumas in the first place
Anon 8: ^agreed
Puri: That makes sense. I'm iffy on some of the execution, but I get what the show is trying to do.
Anon 5: Remembered that Himari calls penguin 3 sun-chan after the cat she and Shoma had and I die
Puri: omg. ;;
Anon 9: Is it sun-chan or san-chan?
Anon 9: I thought it was san-chan as in, "Ms. Number Three"
Anon 5: the cat is named sun-chan as in sunny, so i think Himari calling her penguin that is a pun situation
Anon 5: she's saying "Sun", but it still sounds kind of like "San" at the same time, so both meanings are carried
Anon 5: that said its possible the subs i had just translated what she was calling the penguin wrong? But it would be a little strange for Himari to call her penguin something as impersonal as just "Three" characterization wise, i think
Puri: My subtitles called her Sunny. Maybe the dub calls her that too.
Anon 5: Yeah sunny, that's what I meant. I wasn't quite remembering which one it was
Anon 5: I think think the sun/san soundplay is probably preserved? But that's just me guessing based on Ikuhara's track record, I'd be curious to hear what a Japanese speaker/fan might think
Puri: I didn’t catch the San pun! That’s so cute and clever.
The middle of the show is when MPD slogs, especially after being damned by That Scene. D: But that's for next post.
Since two movies are coming out soon, I finally got around to watching Mawaru Penguindrum. Under the cut is basically my live reactions as I watch the show on Discord. I was already aware of all the spoilers, so this may have affected my viewing, haha. XD
Puri: Insomnia attacks and I'm worried over Mii making stuff, so I'm watching Mawaru Penguindrum.
Puri: Two episodes in so far!
Puri: - Himari is so cute! Himari Day indeed.
- Princess of the Crystal ftw
- This feels more fanservicey than Yuri Kuma somehow
- "Huh, I don't see the infamous kiss ye--AAAAAAAA good it cut away"
- Hey, it's the walking symbol dudes from Sarazanmai!
- Oh my god, Ringo sounds like Amy Rose
- Yeah this is Amy taken to extremes.
Puri: "Save your innocence for Himari." Wait what just happened
Puri: Himari looks like an Animal Crossing character with her hair in buns.
Puri: Himari x Ringo = I ship it
Anon 1: Himari is precious
Puri: "I'm glad I got to share my curry with you, Ringo. Because you're a friend I love!" ;;
Puri: Ringo's right. Whoever eats curry together are fated to be, but it's Himari's curry she ate~
Puri: Dude Ringo, just forget about Tabuki already. :pensive:
Puri: "Then Devour Me Curryageously" DAT PUN
Puri: The brothers are useless, just like their penguins. :P
Puri: Pet skunks usually have their stink glands surgically removed. Kiyoshi would've been dead meat without them.
Puri: Yuri's musical number wouldn't be out of place in Shrek. :P
Puri: An entire musical episode. Good thing we later got a musical series in Sarazanmai. :D
Anon 2: if the brothers are useless, then shouma is the most cutely useless one. >3<
Puri: 12 episodes down. Taking a breather before I do the last half.
Puri: The animation in this show is so good aaaaaaa
Puri: Everything with Ringo and Tabuki is wince inducing, but I can't really bring myself to hate her? I know she's a stupid teenager, and alongside the revulsion is a lot of second-hand embarrassment. Like Ringo, honey, don't do this to yourself...
Puri: Which is only going to make... that scene with Yuri and the fact the show won't bring it up again so much worse. D:
Puri: Goddamn, Ringo managed to avoid falling into the Princess of the Crystal's pit, that's damn impressive.
Puri: Himari's still my favorite and I feel really bad for her. I think she does feel resentment that she isn't able to join Triple-H with her friends, but towards her illness and the shitty hand life threw at her rather than Hibari and Hikari.
Anon 2: agreed :pensive:
Anon 2: that scene is so funny (the ringo one)
Anon 2: i agree, its so sad and realistic that her illness stopped her from reaching her dreams. i dont think she blames the girls
Puri: Also the fact that it was Himari that held a finger up to Sanetoshi and told him no. Not Princess of the Crystal, Himari.
Anon 2: right??
Puri: Yeeeeesss
Puri: The way this show deals with loss is so good. It's like ouch.
Anon 2: i agreeee
Anon 1: Now that I think of it, Himari is kind of like a Momoko who happens to still be alive. Every time Double-H appears in the show, which is a lot of times, it's a reminder of the future that was stolen away from her, the Himari-shaped hole that sits never to be filled. (。•́︿•̀。)
Anon 2: ouch..this hurted :sob:
Anon 2: oh that’s a great point [anon 1]
Puri: I've never been split by death or divorce, but what Ringo's going through reminds me of a lot of stories from kids like that.
Anon 2: was just gonna say that Lol
Puri: Kids being terrified of their parents splitting up and doing everything to keep them together, only to fail.
Anon 2: ringo is so over the top but also i feel like i understand her ig
Puri: Like yeah, she loved Tabuki, but Ringo also wanted her family to love her without being reminded of Momoko's death. So her swaying after her diary is torn in half is painful. :(
Anon 2: she "loves" tabuki like you would look up to the friend of an older sibling.. prob because Momoka has always been there in the mouths and minds of everyone in her life. ughhhhh
Puri: She probably doesn't believe her parents can ever love her because of Momoko's death. So to be told "just be yourself" is mind-boggling to her. Why would anyone want her when Momoko has done all these wonderful things and impacted so many people's lives? Why would anyone want her who just exists to remind people of what they've lost?
Anon 2: aaah, yeah. thats how it is w her T_T
Me: Ikuhara: SO HOW ABOUT THAT INCEST
Me: why god why
Puri: Words to run away from really really fast: FABULOUS MAX
Puri: Something awful and not sexy is always happening. D:
Anon 3: what a good phrase though
Puri: It’s interesting how there’s a lot of sexuality in Ikuhara’s shows, but actual sex itself is portrayed as damaging and traumatizing.
Puri: Even in Sarazanmai, the closest to “Sexy Times” we see with Reo and Mabu are either Otter molesting Mabu or Otter manipulating/mocking Reo.
Anon 4: That is really interesting
Anon 4: What is Ikuhara’s op on sex?
Anon 5: I'm not sure I'd say sex is always portrayed that way, though the only counterexample I can think of is the invisible storm lily licking sequences in Yuri kuma
Anon 5: But he is definitely really interested in sex and sexuality as tools of/motivators for violence
Puri: Sanetoshi, y so creepy
Puri: "It'll be like a prince's kiss waking the sleeping princess."
Puri: RED FLAG RED FLAG RED FLAG
Puri: Also wtf Momoka's a kid you sicko
Puri: Mario looks like Milne, otherwise that's all the commentary I have on him except for the obvious "It's a-ME" joke.
Puri: Shouma, you idiot. ;; Ringo, you're so sweet.
Puri: Hopefully Himari speaks some sense into him.
Puri: Why do Kanba and Sanetoshi's meetings feel familiar? :/ Kanba got suckered into the Mafia of Fate.
Puri: Noooooooo Sanetoshi, those scarves don't belong to yoooooou
Puri: Also this calls back to the conversation between Himari and Kanba about how he can't stand personal gifts. THANKS KANBA
Puri: The girls are the only ones who've named their penguins: Sunny and Esmeralda.
Puri: "Hop in."
Puri: RUN RINGO RUN
Puri: YOUR DAY IS ABOUT TO GET EVEN WORSE
Puri: "A Fabulous Max girls' night out is the solution!"
Puri: Nope
Puri: Nope
Puri: Nope
Puri: Fabulous Max = RED FLAG
Puri: Oh nooooo, it's at The Scene. :cry_blood: :cry_blood: :cry_blood: :cry_blood: :cry_blood:
Puri: C'mon Puri, you can get through this.
Puri: My god, she really is proto-Yuriika. I DIDN'T LIKE HER IN YKA, AND I DON'T LIKE HER HERE EITHER. Pro-tip, Yuri and Yuriika: banging your love's sister/daughter does NOT mean you're banging your love. GET YOUR DIRTY HANDS OFF THEM.
Puri: Show: See? Just like when Ringo stalked Tabuki! HO HO HO
Me: EXCEPT RINGO IS A BLOODY TEENAGER, YURI IS A FULLY GROWN ADULT AND SHOULD KNOW BETTER. THEY ARE NOT AS ALIKE AS YOU THINK.
Puri: "But I'm sure you'll hate me once you see my true self." Cry me a fucking river. No one likes your true self because your true self is a bloody rapist.
Puri: That's like saying "Oh noes, nobody likes me and rejects me once they learn I love eating babies! :cry:"
Anon 1: :gasp: amazing! For the first time in history a character is right about themselves being hated :tehehe:
Puri: Wow, and just to rub salt on the wound, there's Lily Hoshino art of That Scene.
Puri: YOU DONE FUCKED UP NOW
Puri: Angry Budgett's Frog! Hurry and bite Yuri!
Puri: Anywaaaaaaay...
Puri: "Don't be depressed over being rejected by a girl!" I hope it's an assumption of the boy's part, because if Shouma told him he got rejected by Ringo, that deserves a slap.
Puri: "Shouma, I'm going to get all messed up. It's all your fault!" I'm going to assume that call is after That Scene.
Puri: "I'm heading over right now!" Yeah, you better hurry Shouma. Just sayin'.
Puri: "Ringo's 'you-know-what' is mine." Oh great, looks like someone's never grown out of childhood. One step forward, 1000 steps back from Utena.
Puri: At least Ringo's "virginity" or any number of vulgar euphemisms would've been more honest.
Puri: My god Shouma, you rival Kureha in terms of complete and utter uselessness. You're the guy who would get stuck on the tutorial in Cuphead.
Puri: Thank you thank you thank you thank you Not!Juri/Nanami Lovechild!
Puri: Nevermind, god fucking dammit.
Puri: Heaven forbid anyone cross the Mighty Invincible Yuri. :no:
Puri: Uggggh. I'd respond better to Yuri's backstory if the show didn't try to portray her adult self as sympathetic.
Anon 6: Reading this liveblog without context is such a fun experience :popcorn:
Puri: Congratulations Yuri. You are now ugly, but ugly in the way that your father is. =)
Puri: Like geez, Shouma's okay, but god, he really is passive/useless in the way Kureha is. I'm less frustrated with him than I am with Kureha solely because he at least has a personality and doesn't have a jillion people in love with him.
Puri: At least Kanba's actually doing something even if that something is terrible. ;;
Puri: It also helps that Shouma isn't the only MC and isn't advertised with a million informed traits. Meanwhile, we're told Kureha is an expert badass hunter but she's inept and constantly fails unless she's provoked by someone else.
Anon 7: I was very disappointed by Kureha not actually being a badness bear hunter
Anon 1: Maybe that's because she had a rifle but as we all know lesbians only know how to use swords
Puri: Manga!Kureha is infinitely superior.
Puri: Shouma: (jumps, then gawks helplessly as the Goomba walks into Mario and kills him... on the very first screen of 1-1)
Puri: Gonna take a break before tackling more Penguindrum. These episodes were oof, not pleasant.
Puri: Penguindrum: (great at depicting grief and the injustice and bullshit of “sins of the father”)
Also Penguindrum: (terrible at depicting sexual assault, with the exception of Yuri’s childhood flashbacks but that’s rendered null and void)
Puri: Penguindrum will likely win over Yuri Kuma in my Best Ikuhara placements, but only because there’s more character development and more episodes to expand on them. They’re both :/ :/ :/ :/ :/ regarding sexual assault. Thank god Sarazanmai was much better about that, with what little there was.
Anon 1: Were they just infected with the inexplicable Japanese concept about lesbian relationships being inherently more pure somehow and therefore bad things do not happen in them
Puri: Probably. It’d apparently explain why Ringo would later not be affected by what just happened. :vomit: :vomit: :vomit:
Puri: It’s a big pet peeve of mine in shows when female rapists and predators are treated as “not a big deal.” Which was why I refused to watch MPD for so long. :(
Puri: Sure, Akio is a horrible man for what he’s done to Utena, Anthy, and who knows how many victims, but guess what, Yuri is also horrible for what she did to Ringo (and I sure hope to fucking god the scene with Yuriika and Kureha was a fantasy and that the former was shot before assaulting her, though I much rather it had been Kureha who killed her)
Puri: And the worst thing about the Ringo & Tabuki scenes is Ringo likely doesn’t even know she’s trying to commit sexual assault, she’s just copying everything the media told her was “romantic” along with all the “destiny” bullshit. I just wish the show could’ve highlighted the very real danger she was in and how Tabuki easily could’ve taken advantage of her, as opposed to “Haha, isn’t Ringo silly trying to drug her teacher and bang him? lol”
Puri: It just rubs of “Ooooh, she’s a teenage temptress!” like Humbert pinned on Lolita and is such a common mindset among pedophiles. :rage:
Puri: If this is supposed to be Ringo’s “just desserts” for her cluelessness, fuck you, show. No one deserves rape as punishment.
Puri: At least Ginko went through a mini-arc that being a creep is bad.
Puri: Mitsuko: Hey, remember episode 2 where you almost had your way with Kureha? You’re entitled to her, you know. She’s aaaaaaaaaall yours, who’s there to stop you? After all, we exist to be predators, it’s in our nature.
Ginko: No! I’m not going to be that person anymore.
Puri: Which is funny, considering Ringo and Ginko have several similarities with each other (and Himari and Ginko share the same seiyuu)
Anon 5: I don't think penguindrum was interested in punishing Ringo for the tabuki thing for much the same reason I think it treats Yuri too sympathetically for some people
Anon 5: I don't think it's making fun of what Ringo is doing or trivializing it or any of that, it's shot like a horror scene and only gives way to comedy AFTER Shoma stops it. But the narrative is very clear that Ringo's hurting herself as much as she's hurting Tabuki, if not more
Anon 5: The theme with Penguindrum imo is really cycles of trauma. Hurt people hurt people. Everyone involved is unbelievably traumatized and their trauma leads them to extremely ugly actions that hurt each other and don't actually help them with what they're struggling with. They are also still human people caught in a wider systemic network that caused all those traumas in the first place
Anon 8: ^agreed
Puri: That makes sense. I'm iffy on some of the execution, but I get what the show is trying to do.
Anon 5: Remembered that Himari calls penguin 3 sun-chan after the cat she and Shoma had and I die
Puri: omg. ;;
Anon 9: Is it sun-chan or san-chan?
Anon 9: I thought it was san-chan as in, "Ms. Number Three"
Anon 5: the cat is named sun-chan as in sunny, so i think Himari calling her penguin that is a pun situation
Anon 5: she's saying "Sun", but it still sounds kind of like "San" at the same time, so both meanings are carried
Anon 5: that said its possible the subs i had just translated what she was calling the penguin wrong? But it would be a little strange for Himari to call her penguin something as impersonal as just "Three" characterization wise, i think
Puri: My subtitles called her Sunny. Maybe the dub calls her that too.
Anon 5: Yeah sunny, that's what I meant. I wasn't quite remembering which one it was
Anon 5: I think think the sun/san soundplay is probably preserved? But that's just me guessing based on Ikuhara's track record, I'd be curious to hear what a Japanese speaker/fan might think
Puri: I didn’t catch the San pun! That’s so cute and clever.
The middle of the show is when MPD slogs, especially after being damned by That Scene. D: But that's for next post.
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Date: 2021-08-12 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-08-12 07:37 pm (UTC)