WATCH OUT MR. PRESIDENT
Aug. 12th, 2021 04:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shamanicshayminAnon 1: I feel like this is what Yuri returning the diary and she and Tabuki giving the weird "we have to love all the children!" monologue was supposed to convey, and failed
Anon 1: or at least that when this was scripted out, the writer thought he had done the job and left for the day without ever giving that scene a second look to see if it contained everything it needed
Anon 1: but it's like... these are basically the secondary villains of the series and their arc ends with "well, we were interrupted from assaulting you and throwing you off a building, so now we feel bad. here's your stuff back, we should be nicer to kids :("
Puri: No kidding. It’s not satisfying at all.
Anon 1: I'm hoping the movie will clarify some of this a bit. I think Yuri is important in that she's what Ringo might have grown into, and Tabuki is important in that he hates the family in the exact way Shouma figures everyone would if they knew, but it all just fizzles. Also not entirely sure how (or why) the Oscar-ex stabbing Tabuki figures into the sudden change of heart except to just really hastily close the book on a subplot.
I love MPD a ton -- my partner has covered my things in Kiga stickers -- but I've always felt there was a lot of stuff that never made it to the page that would have made the sheer number of hasty/dangling plots work.
Puri: From my recollection of the subs I watched, I don’t think they said "We need to be nice to kids uwuuuuuuu" but "All children deserve a second chance," with "children" being hopeless people who were abused and scarred as kids and grown into perpetrators like Yuri and Tabuki. But obviously, that moment didn't feel earned at all. :/
Puri: You can’t just dismiss Yuri and Tabuki from the story entirely because their roles are too important. Which makes the execution even more frustrating. :(
Anon 1: The sub I have at hand phrases it as: -- "we were lost children, most children are the same as us, just once we needed someone to tell us we loved us, loved children will find happiness and we were left behind in the world to do that."
Anon 1: which is v. sweet and not at all how they had been living
Puri: Yeeeep. They spent their time grieving Momoka and plotting revenge. :p
Anon 1: altho looking at it again now, the next scene is Masako and Mario talking about how they don't remember Kanba so
Anon 1: maybe all that was just erased and these are just nice versions of Tabuki and Yuri who never hurt anyone which is kind of ???
Puri: Which feels like it’s just sweeping it all under the rug, and it's not a true conclusion at all. Blegh.
Anon 1: but they're still in the hospital so even that AU Tabuki got stabbed lmao
Anon 1: damn, messier than I thought
Puri: Ringo and Himari still exist, which implies the Takakuras still exist, and Double-H didn't become Triple-H overnight...
Puri: So I think it's still the same timeline, just that everybody magically forgotten that Kanba and Shouma existed.
Anon 1: it's p ambiguous but there are some physical changes (the house isn't painted anymore since the boys painted it originally) while at the same time, the bear they got her was left behind
Anon 1: so alternate timeline might be a little too literal
Anon 2: I want the movies to address some of the hanging plot threads like mario's existence but expect it to instead have new "mr president, watch out!" scenes
Anon 1: oh 100
Anon 1: mario appearing was a damn cliffhanger so AT SOME POINT in the process he must have been more important than he turned out to be
Anon 1: I do really think something outside of the staff's control had to have cut down the number of episodes halfway through
Anon 2: Yeah that would check out
Anon 2: Iirc the sakuga blog said ikuhara wasn't used to working with a shorter episode count and refused to compromise
The Child Broiler reminds me of the gigantic meat grinder from Pink Floyd’s The Wall. After finishing the show however, it reminded me of another thing: animal control centers.
Animal control basically takes unwanted and abandoned pets the same way the Child Broiler takes unwanted and abandoned human children. If you’re lucky, you’re adopted into a new family. If you’re not, you become "invisible." A lot of animals are euthanized through no fault of their own; just the fact that shelters are overcrowded. You have to reduce overpopulation or else all these animals will die the slow and painful death of starvation.
It's kind of a misnomer to refer to animal control as "kill shelters." Nobody with compassion is thrilled at the thought of euthanizing animals, after all. When I volunteered at my local no-kill shelters, I learned it's becoming a common practice for animal control and no-kill shelters to work together. No-kill shelters would take in animals from animal control, and they often encourage you to adopt from animal control first.
But the Child Broiler has no compassion, just cold sterility. You never hear about random adults wanting to start a family entering the Child Broiler looking for a kid to save. Nope, this is just a slaughterhouse.
Another creepy detail is there’s no screaming or crying from the children while they die or wait their turn. They’re just grinded into dust and forgotten for good.
To end the post on a brighter note, I made MPD Miis for Miitopia and had Himari befriend Sprinkle in Animal Crossing. also MEMES
Anon 1: or at least that when this was scripted out, the writer thought he had done the job and left for the day without ever giving that scene a second look to see if it contained everything it needed
Anon 1: but it's like... these are basically the secondary villains of the series and their arc ends with "well, we were interrupted from assaulting you and throwing you off a building, so now we feel bad. here's your stuff back, we should be nicer to kids :("
Puri: No kidding. It’s not satisfying at all.
Anon 1: I'm hoping the movie will clarify some of this a bit. I think Yuri is important in that she's what Ringo might have grown into, and Tabuki is important in that he hates the family in the exact way Shouma figures everyone would if they knew, but it all just fizzles. Also not entirely sure how (or why) the Oscar-ex stabbing Tabuki figures into the sudden change of heart except to just really hastily close the book on a subplot.
I love MPD a ton -- my partner has covered my things in Kiga stickers -- but I've always felt there was a lot of stuff that never made it to the page that would have made the sheer number of hasty/dangling plots work.
Puri: From my recollection of the subs I watched, I don’t think they said "We need to be nice to kids uwuuuuuuu" but "All children deserve a second chance," with "children" being hopeless people who were abused and scarred as kids and grown into perpetrators like Yuri and Tabuki. But obviously, that moment didn't feel earned at all. :/
Puri: You can’t just dismiss Yuri and Tabuki from the story entirely because their roles are too important. Which makes the execution even more frustrating. :(
Anon 1: The sub I have at hand phrases it as: -- "we were lost children, most children are the same as us, just once we needed someone to tell us we loved us, loved children will find happiness and we were left behind in the world to do that."
Anon 1: which is v. sweet and not at all how they had been living
Puri: Yeeeep. They spent their time grieving Momoka and plotting revenge. :p
Anon 1: altho looking at it again now, the next scene is Masako and Mario talking about how they don't remember Kanba so
Anon 1: maybe all that was just erased and these are just nice versions of Tabuki and Yuri who never hurt anyone which is kind of ???
Puri: Which feels like it’s just sweeping it all under the rug, and it's not a true conclusion at all. Blegh.
Anon 1: but they're still in the hospital so even that AU Tabuki got stabbed lmao
Anon 1: damn, messier than I thought
Puri: Ringo and Himari still exist, which implies the Takakuras still exist, and Double-H didn't become Triple-H overnight...
Puri: So I think it's still the same timeline, just that everybody magically forgotten that Kanba and Shouma existed.
Anon 1: it's p ambiguous but there are some physical changes (the house isn't painted anymore since the boys painted it originally) while at the same time, the bear they got her was left behind
Anon 1: so alternate timeline might be a little too literal
Anon 2: I want the movies to address some of the hanging plot threads like mario's existence but expect it to instead have new "mr president, watch out!" scenes
Anon 1: oh 100
Anon 1: mario appearing was a damn cliffhanger so AT SOME POINT in the process he must have been more important than he turned out to be
Anon 1: I do really think something outside of the staff's control had to have cut down the number of episodes halfway through
Anon 2: Yeah that would check out
Anon 2: Iirc the sakuga blog said ikuhara wasn't used to working with a shorter episode count and refused to compromise
The Child Broiler reminds me of the gigantic meat grinder from Pink Floyd’s The Wall. After finishing the show however, it reminded me of another thing: animal control centers.
Animal control basically takes unwanted and abandoned pets the same way the Child Broiler takes unwanted and abandoned human children. If you’re lucky, you’re adopted into a new family. If you’re not, you become "invisible." A lot of animals are euthanized through no fault of their own; just the fact that shelters are overcrowded. You have to reduce overpopulation or else all these animals will die the slow and painful death of starvation.
It's kind of a misnomer to refer to animal control as "kill shelters." Nobody with compassion is thrilled at the thought of euthanizing animals, after all. When I volunteered at my local no-kill shelters, I learned it's becoming a common practice for animal control and no-kill shelters to work together. No-kill shelters would take in animals from animal control, and they often encourage you to adopt from animal control first.
But the Child Broiler has no compassion, just cold sterility. You never hear about random adults wanting to start a family entering the Child Broiler looking for a kid to save. Nope, this is just a slaughterhouse.
Another creepy detail is there’s no screaming or crying from the children while they die or wait their turn. They’re just grinded into dust and forgotten for good.
To end the post on a brighter note, I made MPD Miis for Miitopia and had Himari befriend Sprinkle in Animal Crossing. also MEMES
no subject
Date: 2021-08-13 05:33 am (UTC)The Yuri/Ringo subplot did kind of poison the series for me, and I'm glad you discussed it because it seems to be the ignored elephant in the room whenever Penguindrum is brought up these days. I love a lot awful, unhealthy relationships in fiction, but if there's no satisfying throughline to them then I'm left at a loss of what it's trying to say or accomplish, if anything. And I do think there was something it wanted to say, or it wouldn't have gone through the trouble of dedicating an episode to it, I just don't know what that could be. I've poured over several Penguindrum analyses--they've given me nothing on this topic!
I'm still fond of Yuri, as terrible as she is. Unfortunate predatory lesbian (bi/pan?) stereotyping aside, I think she had the most potential of the series' many presented "antagonists".
no subject
Date: 2021-08-21 01:34 am (UTC)Hell, the Yuri/Ringo subplot and its lack of conclusion is precisely why I avoided this show for so long. And it was every bit as bad as I expected, considering how long it took me to pick it back up again. I know there's the manga and novels, but I'm not buying unless That Scene is snipped. According to an article, Ikuhara wasn't used to working with a shorter runtime and refused to compromise, as explained here. By the time Sarazanmai rolled around, he took better advantage of what he had with the ancillary materials.
Ikuhara clearly saw potential in her, but he's just not the right guy to do it. Her backstory was well-done, so it's jarring to see it paired with... that. He tried the Yuri character again in Yuriika, and ugggggh stoooooooop. At least the YKA manga had Kale, who is basically Anime!Yuriika Done Right.