Mawaru Penguindrum Rewatch - Ep. 1
the fucking STARS floating all over Himari and her bedroom - the same fucking stars associated with Ringo from her introduction, all as Shouma talks about (the cruelty of) fate
that gyroscope thingy? the beads on it aren’t red at the start here
And the kids:
“The apple is the universe itself. A universe in the palm of your hand. It’s what connects this world and the other world. / Other world? / The world Campanella and the other passengers are heading to. / What does that have to do with an apple? / Basically, the apple is the reward given to those who’ve chosen, of their own free will, to die for love*. / But everything’s over when you’re dead. / It’s not over. What I’m trying to say is that’s actually where everything begins! / I don’t get it at all. / I’m talking about love!”
*This is Tree’s translation, as the subtitles weren’t quite accurate
Other than the fact that these kids are replaced by Kanba and Shouma in the last episode, and that it’s an obtuse summary of the ending, it also gives us two things:
1. “The apple is the reward given to those who’ve chosen to die for love.” Apple, or in Japanese, Ringo. It’s no coincidence that there’s a character literally named “apple” in a show with very heavy apple symbolism. And in the end, Shouma takes Ringo’s punishment, allowing Ringo to be with Himari, who is the only character that willingly, knowingly, chose to give up her life force so that Kanba (and everyone else) would survive. (I mean, Ringo, too, also willingly accepts the fact that she’ll die in order to save Himari, so who’s to say who got the fruit ;P) (But I consider Himari’s sacrifice to be more in line with what’s said here, as she chose to die and has a whole scene about it, whereas Ringo merely accepted that she would die if she chose to use the spell.)
2. “Everything’s over when you’re dead. / That’s actually where everything begins.” This might be reaching a bit more, but here it goes: Kanba shared the apple with Shouma when they were both on the brink of death in the boxes. They are both alive because of the fate they shared, which is why, when Shouma burns, Kanba goes, too, but they return essentially back at the age where they shared that fate. They die, and return to where everything began.
I still don’t know what’s up with that weird statue with the two dudes being a ball. And it is clearly two dudes. Every time I see it, I feel like there’s a globe missing between them, like it should be some kind of gay re-imagining of Atlas. I could probably make it about Kanba and Shouma and how they make each other’s world whole or whatever, but, well...it’s a weird statue.
There’s a small sea otter plush and kappa plush (miniatures of the ones Ringo has) by the register where they’re buying Himari’s Hat. Himari’s Hat which is...half of Momoka...that they wrapped in a pink ribbon... lol
Okay, I’m just...I love the little things that keep visually/thematically linking Himari and Ringo.
I wonder if Kanba’s resolve during Himari’s death has anything to do with the fact that he already lost one family...
Tree went back to pause on the blackboard behind Tabuki during the classroom scene - the only translated part of the board is “how embryogenesis works,” but it is talking about frog development. And one of the pictures that’s shown in this episode and gets focused on near the end of the series has Shouma holding a frog (and Kanba’s shirt saying “love frog”), and then there’s Ringo’s whole occult deal with the frogs...
Why are there so many frogs?!?!?!
(Tree said that if this was a “the scorpion and the toad” thing, they were gonna be pissed) (as far as we can recall, it doesn’t fit with...anything, symbolically, but it’s funny, nonetheless)
Red umbrella...when the penguin was sent by Kanba... (Kanba loves his bro, m’kay?)
San-chan teaching Himari how to knit!
Tree pointed out that the penguins’ autonomous actions are reflections of various needs/desires of their human buddies. Kanba and Shouma’s penguins recklessly pursue things to try to fill the “emptiness” they sense in their humans - emptiness that comes from the fact that Kanba and Shouma are two halves of a whole thanks to the apple they shared. They are only “whole” when they’re together, but because Shouma doesn’t remember, there’s a schism and they can’t connect the way they’re supposed to. Kanba’s penguin pursues erotica as a crude representation of the love Kanba desires. Shouma’s penguin consumes everything in sight because it doesn’t know why the emptiness is there (because Shouma doesn’t remember why), it’s just trying to fill the void in any way it thinks it can.
Himari’s penguin, though, is very stable, but is also constantly knitting. Himari picks it up from San-chan, and San-chan knits even when Himari is not. Tree’s theory is that San-chan is stable because Himari is “whole” - she has life force from both Kanba and Shouma. But they’re unstable and unable to connect, so San-chan knits as a desire to weave them back together.
Is the gyroscope around the world in the teddydrum sequence the same as the one in the doctor’s office? I mean, it looks VERY similar, and given that the gyroscope changes in Sanetoshi’s presence and is focused on a lot around him...
Tree just asked if it was supposed to be the Gears of Fate. It probably is, since it’s associated with both Sanetoshi and Momoka.
“If a man ignored fate, and ignored his instincts and DNA to love someone else... Is he really human?”
On the surface this looks like he’s asking if he’s still human for loving his sister, but knowing that Kanba and Himari aren’t related at all (and Kanba knows that) means this interpretation doesn’t hold water. The other argument could be made that he’s ignoring his “fate” as the son of the Natsume clan...but he was already disowned, and it had nothing to do with Himari. So this can’t really be about Himari. So who’s the only other logical person Kanba could love that would be against “fate,” “instincts,” and “DNA”?
It has to be Shouma.
(This is an interpretation that has to be made with the full awareness that media is not created in a vacuum, and nobody’s opinions in the show are meant to be Absolutely Correct - homophobia and the misconceptions of homosexuality are very much A Thing, and even if the author is aware that these are misconceptions, there’s nothing saying that Kanba knows they are. As a story set in a time and world like ours, it’s entirely possible for Kanba to believe that loving another boy is against fate, (survival) instincts, and DNA, especially if he believes that his “fate” was to be with Himari.)
Tree also pointed out that this question could’ve been posed in a platonic sense - as in, he’s chosen to love and protect a family that’s not his own, which goes against basic survival instincts that dictate that he should be loving and protecting his own blood family (whose survival would still continue his own genetic line, even if he himself doesn’t reproduce).
Either way, a romantic love for Himari wouldn’t be going against fate/instinct/DNA, as she’s an unrelated female. So either he’s talking about a platonic, familial love for Himari, or he’s talking about a romantic love for Shouma.
