Mawaru Penguindrum Episode 12: Alas Poor Himari, We Knew Her Well and the Intricacies of Plot Exposition

Never Forget

As I think I’ve prefaced every single one of my posts with, or at least mentioned somewhere in the vast walls of text that comprise them, Mawaru Penguindrum is both beautiful and frustrating in how it weaves its narrative. It’s quite proficient in painting a picture of utter insanity, while not revealing one card at a time from its closely guarded, mysterious hand. There are two secrets to this success that keep almost every episode somewhat self contained, while not giving any clue of what will happen in the future.

Since you can guess that I’m going to explain some of this to prove my point, assume that there are spoilers abound in this post. If you’d rather not know what happens in this episode, and it is rather eventful, stop reading now. 

The first secret to Penguindrum’s plot success is genuinely good storytelling. In almost no other anime have I not been able to predict with some degree of certainty what will happen, and it takes skill to withhold vital plot points from the audience without having it feel like the plot’s actually being withheld. It’s quite difficult to puzzle out, but also very satisfying when you stumble on something correct.

While I somewhat doubt the payoff will be worth all this buildup, it’s at the very least a very entertaining sojourn into a strange world that blends elements of Faustian stories and fairytales of all sorts. And part of the fun is attempting to unravel where the plot is going.

Though sometimes it's not exactly subtle.

The second, less praise-worthy reason why things remain an almost total mystery is a simple case of sensory overload. Despite appearing to move along at a decent enough clip, Mawaru Penguindrum is something that gives the viewer eye candy to focus on, even during prolonged rounds of exposition or heated arguments. This eye candy often involves those silly penguins in some form, but often veers into the realm of the surreal (The train with the number 95 plastered everywhere, for instance).

The rapid shifts in these images, coupled with dazzling visuals, often leave an episode feeling somewhat disjointed, if interesting to watch. It’s this disjointed, jolting behavior that makes the entirety of one episode difficult to take in on the first viewing. While not either good or bad, it does add to the illusion of depth, regardless of just how deep it really is. And while I think that Penguindrum has a lot of untapped potential as far as the story goes, flashing images and penguin antics do not necessarily make a fantastic story by themselves.

Unfortunately, I don’t have much else to say on the episode. The death of Himari (Spoiler alert) was entirely unexpected, and the idea of guilt is hanging thick in the air for each of the major characters, Yuri and Masako aside. For me, the most interesting part of the episode, aside from Ringo feeding off of Tabuki’s own sense of guilt at Momoko’s death, was the strange Mary Had A Little Lamb story that accompanied Himari’s death throes.

And, despite his lofty, noble goal of keeping Himari alive, it can be seen that her death is proof that the kind of love Kanbe gave her wasn’t enough to keep her going. The third penguin fading into nothingness really let it hit home that his love for her was more infatuation and obsession, an odd syndrome of having to take care of her for so many years without parents. In other words, Kanba is Mary, who would neglect those around him in favor of unhealthily fixating on keeping one aspect of his life from fading into oblivion.

Finally, as Penguindrum continues, Sanetoshi is looking more and more like Hades looking to claim his Persephone (Penguin-Hatted Himari) yet again. He’s less an angel of death, and more an odd deity of another sort who does more than claim those who die. Either way, he’s definitely of another world considering that nobody else seems to notice his presence.

I could go on and on about each aspect of this episode. It was chock full of enough information and subplots to keep any speculator well fed for days… maybe weeks. As such, the way the plot has progressed was the most reasonable post idea for me. For better and for worse, Mawaru Penguindrum is one of the most mysterious, enthralling series of the year by the halfway point. And I can only hope that it continues like this without completely losing its shit.