Really enjoyed reading your thoughts! Penguindrum is a series I think of revisiting from time to time because I caught most of it as it was airing, and it looks like the emotional threads of it connect together stronger when watching in batches. (Though not without leaving its own mess behind, as you detailed so well.)
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".
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branchandroot
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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".