HonorableShadow wrote:

I guess they're like modern day versions of Chu Chu, they seem to share the same purpose in the story, though they get more focus than he did.

Yeah... but Chu Chu was just put out there as something we had to accept.  SKU is a world where there exists a tiny marmoset who likes eating cookies whole, and this is unexceptional -- deal with it.  The penguins are different.  They are introduced as mysterious and inexplicable, with supernatural characteristics that baffle the characters themselves; their arrival coincides with Himari's first resurrection, and they seem to be connected to Penguin Hat Lady.  Chu Chu doesn't require explanation.  The penguins do.  Don't they? 

Maybe her penguin is different because she has her own separate curse from the Natsume clan.

Kanba, Shoma, and Himari's penguins look alike, probably reinforcing the idea that they took on the punishment as Takakura.

Interestingly, Coffinbreaker, the fact that you brought up Shadow Girls reminded me of C-Ko. For the duration of the Black Rose Arc, Utena responded to everything that C-Ko did. This was unique from the rest of the Shadow Girl experience, where A-ko and B-ko are more independent from the rest of the cast.

Derailing into Utena for a minute there, Black Rose Arc was somewhat of a period of introspection for a lot of characters. A point where characters have their flaws presented before them, but probably didn't realize it (Because it's Utena who answered to C-ko, not any of the Student Council members or their respective shadow counterparts).

Penguins seemed to interact a lot with the three siblings early on, when they aren't necessarily aware of their own sins and their "punishment".

I guess it's kinda like the "us" and "them" mentality. The penguins are acting out the siblings' flaws as separate entities. So early on, the siblings could be looking at the penguins being silly and think that it has nothing to do with them, while not realizing that that is them all along.

I noticed that it was when all 3 of them started to remember/acknowledge their sins and their punishment that they started interacting with the penguins much less, and the penguins were relegated to backgrounds. By then, they seem to be living their lives without realizing the penguins are there. So maybe, in a way, even though the humans and the penguins seem to be drifting apart, they've actually "united".

Kinda like how even though our conscience isn't really a material entity, but it's still ringing in the back of our mind.

SIDENOTE: The fact that Himari's photo ended up changing from penguins to monkeys could be an indication of "change" and "evolution" (humans evolve from monkeys), whereas penguins symbolize verge of extinction.

Giovanna wrote:

Hiraku wrote:

Penguins seemed to interact a lot with the three siblings early on, when they aren't necessarily aware of their own sins and their "punishment".

I like this! It's like over the course of the series, they close themselves off more and more, even to the potentially very helpful penguins, because they carry the burdens of their punishments on their own shoulders.

The penguins serving actually purposes fades out quickly and they begin to be more symbolic, SPG things...I just wonder if that was the intent all along, or if it was quickly figured out that they were too useful a resource for the characters to have, when part of the drama was that the characters had only themselves and their will to defend against the events in play. If the logical conclusion built from the first three or so episodes continued, by the end Kanba and Shouma would have been able to turn events to their advantage using their awesome magical invisibuddies, but that would have involved a level of scheming and a reduction in the overall drama of their plight.

I guess it's kind of like if in SKU all the characters who dueled had actually carried around their swords, like knights or samurai. Then every dispute would have ended in swordfighting, instead of just most.

Why now I imagine a SKU with illegals penguinfights in the suspended arena as shady ways for Akyo to gains funds from the bets?
Oh, my twisted mind..

Last edited by SeizonSenryaku (01-27-2012 05:48:42 PM)

I don't think Akio's "lecherous" the way Kanba is.

At least, I don't think he lusts after people, that would mean that he's being controlled by that kind of desire, while in almost every instance, he seemed to be very much in control over the situation. At least he seems like he's in control, until that scene where he commented, "Must you torture me so," to Anthy.

I think his penguin would be a control freak. A well-dressed, groomed, finely cologne scented control freak with a whip and has a knack at bondage. :|a

Okay, so there's something that DD said in the Evangelion thread that struck me, regarding penguins. Bear in mind that Ikuhara and Anno have been friends for decades, that Anno even tried to get Ikuhara to leave SM to come work on NGE.

Decrescent Daytripper wrote:

One of the writers for Eva, in an interview, is supposed to have said that removing Penpen towards the end of the series was a way to hurt and destabilize the audience without them realizing it.

I really like that a penguin with a funny backpack is the emotional lynchpin that way.

So, I think this is why the penguins disappear later in the show and why the tone changes so much.

Prausst wrote:

Penguins are birds, but can't fly
They swim, but they are not birds
They walk funny, but cannot swim forever.
In short, they are kind of stuck in a weird middle ground where they never quite fit in. Just like many of the characters, who have been rejected by society.

Also, we've all seen March of the Penguins, that kind of devotion is very reminiscent of the the way Kanba, Shoma, and Himari characters are so closely knit.

It's as good a theory as any I've heard, I s'pose.  I think I've pretty much come around to the idea that Ikuni wanted a marketable mascot and found a way to shoehorn penguins into the show for that reason.  I just can't find a point during Penguindrum's story where the penguins solve some kind of narrative problem that justifies their weight.  The same is true of SKU's Shadow Girls, of course, but I understand what the Shadow Girls are doing.  They don't have to influence the plot, because they are meta entities, the Greek chorus commenting on the plot.  But if the penguins' purpose is entirely meta in the same way, it seems strange for them to be embedded into the plot as deeply as they are.

PS: I'm new here. Why are there four different masturbation-related emoticons? Isn't two enough?

NEVER

I'm rather late to the party but I think that the penguins were chosen at least partially for a much more prosaic reason. The Sunshine City aquarium around which so much of the story takes place has a very popular penguin show. Ikebukuro's iconic symbol is the owl but in a way it makes more sense to use penguins.

Apart from the Pen-Pen connection, I wonder if they are in any way related to the wonderful Iwatobi-chan: