Mawaru-Penguindrum

Number of Episodes: 24

What Wikipeda says: "A terminally ill girl named Himari Takakura is miraculously saved from death by a strange spirit who resides in a penguin-shaped hat. However, in exchange for extending her life, the spirit tasks Himari's brothers, Kanba and Shouma, to seek out an item known as the Penguin Drum with assistance from a trio of strange penguins."

tTPO says: This series is very intelligent, steeped in philosophical ideas, chock full of symbolism, surreal, and just generally brilliant. It is a bit like a Dali painting in this respect, but herein lies the problem. While I appreciate Dali, I would be lying if I knew everything he was trying to communicate in his pieces. And it is much the same for me and Penguindrum. It just asked too much of the viewer, especially the time-pressed one.

While the core themes of the series (fate vs self determination, love vs loneliness) are definitely made clear early on, it takes about 13 episodes before we have a good idea what the actual plot of the series is actually about. And 13 episodes is just too long before getting some answers - I just felt I wanted a few answers before being barraged with more questions. Frustrating. I have no doubts there were subtle clues being dropped beforehand, and would fully expect a second go through the series would be quite a rewarding experience once you know what is happening. But for the tTPO a second run though the series is just not a reality.

Having said all that, the animation itself is clean and crisp. The characters are interesting, travel their own roads and develop well through the series. There was even a constant stream of background humour (which lighted up an otherwise quite dense series) with both the penguins and the public notices on the trains.

How About the Music?: Along with all the other production values the music was by and large great. The flavour of the music was interesting and reminded me very much of French pop, even though it was in Japanese. The EDs were different many weeks (there were 8 all up) and most of them were pretty good. Thankfully there were only 2 OPs, and while both good I liked the first one ("Noruniru" by Etsuko Yakushimaru Metro Orchestra) better than the second ("Boys, Come Back to Me" also by Etsuko Yakushimaru Metro Orchestra). 

So how does it end? (Spoiler Free): Given the flavour of the show the ending could have been left hanging. Instead we get something that is emotionally satisfying and resolves more than a few plot points. Though not all. And if it did I would have been disappointed.

Overall Grade: The series has certainly polarised the blogosphere and for me will likely be the best ever series to get the worst recommendation. To get the most out of this you would likely need a good background in the arts and philosophy (or you could just look here or here), and enjoy your surrealism and symbolism. In this case you may call this a B and or even an A. But for the rest of us there is not much satisfaction in early part of the series, and we would probably need to watch it twice to get the most out of it, and do some research along the way about the symbolism. The TPO just does not have time for that.  Grade D.