Anime / Penguindrum

I hate the word "fate" Birth, encounters, partings, success and failure, fortune and misfortune in life. If everything is already set in stone by fate, then why are we even born? There are those born wealthy, those born of beautiful mothers, and those born into war or poverty. If everything is caused by fate, then God must be incredibly unfair and cruel.

Because, ever since that day, none of us had a future. The only thing we knew was that we would never amount to anything.

—The opening narration of the first episode

Penguindrum, known in Japan as Mawaru-Penguindrum (Spinning-Penguindrum) is a 2011 Original Anime directed and co-written by Kunihiko Ikuhara and animated by Studio Brains Base. It has character designs by the manga author Lily Hoshino, and the original series has also spawned a series of novels (written by Ikuhara and Kei Takahashi) that are being released alongside the anime. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the anime (under the name Penguin Drum) for release starting at the end of 2012.

The story follows the three siblings of the Takakura family: twin brothers Kanba and Shouma, and an ill girl Himari. Their parents are gone, and they live in a small bungalow alone. Poor Himari dies during a trip to the aquarium in Ikebukuro; while Kanba and Shouma grieve over her death, she is suddenly brought back to life by a mysterious entity (one who apparently resides in a souvenir hat purchased at the same aquarium) who offers them a chance to extend Himari's life for a price: to bring her the "Penguindrum".

At the same time, they receive three mysterious penguins who understand the orders of the Takakura siblings. The only clue given to them by the Penguin Hat is to follow a certain Ringo Oginome, a girl the same age as the boys who also has a huge obsession with their teacher and tries daily to win his love by reenacting out the next entry of her (oddly accurate) diary...

Yeah. This show is very weird.

To commemorate the ten year anniversary of the anime, a crowfunding campaign was announced to fund a compilation film project called Re:Cycle of the Penguindrum. After the campaign was more than successful, two movies were made; the first covering episodes 1 to 12 while the second covers 13 to 24. While Re:Cycle is mostly a retelling, there are new scenes as well due to the Framing Device for the movie.

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This show provides examples of:

• Abusive Parents: A major theme in the show; the majority of the older characters have a screwed up childhood because of them, whether from outright abuse or neglect.
• Achievements in Ignorance: As children, Shouma and Kanba both unknowingly using the same fate transfer spell in Momoka's diary to save Himari and Shouma
• A-Cup Angst: Ringo, though it only comes up as a minor note in her introduction. (And considering her design, it's a sort-of informed flaw).
• Adults Are Useless: When it's up to 4 teenagers to stop a terrorist plot you're fully in this trope. It ties into a major theme of an indifferent society that ignores danger and abandons its most vulnerable people.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Masako loves Kanba, who loves Himari who cares for Kanba but doesn't show any sign of reciprocating (although the Princess of the Crystal does). Ringo starts out loving Tabuki, who is an engaged adult and her Big Brother Mentor and naturally doesn't reciprocate. She eventually moves on to Shoma, but Shoma is too guilty about how his parents killed her older sister Momoka to let himself love her back. Tabuki's fiancee, Yuri, would like to stay together to form a fake family that would eventually in her eyes be real, a hope that Tabuki abandons, and their true love was their common friend Momoka... who either died or disappeared from this world. Shoma's friend Yamashita is revealed in a audio drama to be in love with him. Later, it turns out that Himari sees Shoma as her soulmate, with episode 20 showing the two having sweet moments together as children that could be seen as familiar or romantic. The last episode (and the second novel) also shows that Shoma returns his feelings for Ringo, but he has to let her go.
• All There in the Manual: The Mawaru-Penguindrum Prototype Manual Official Starting Guide reveals that possessed!Himari is called the Princess of the Crystal and that the bear mecha are called Teddydrums.
• Alternate Timeline: The terrorist attack within the series was carried out by Penguin Force using bombs, whereas the real attacks were done by Aum Shinrikyo with nerve gas.
  • Momoka's diary can be used to create alternate timelines.
• And Your Reward Is Infancy: After Shoma and Kanba selflessly gave up their lives to save Ringo and Himari, respectively, they were later reborn as preschoolers in the end.
• Animal Motifs: The "dark bunnies", who in Shoma's fairy tale are an actual pair of black rabbits. In the real world, they appear to simply be black-haired Creepy Twins. In episode 23, they are revealed to be the containers that sealed Sanetoshi away 16 years ago, which have been reunited and allowed Sanetoshi to manifest in reality.
  • Similarly, penguins. The three penguins are representative of the owner's personality, and the penguin hat is revealed in episode 23 to be one-half of the containers which sealed Momoka, courtesy of Sanetoshi.
• Animation Bump: Episode 9. Episode 10 is horrendously Off-Model, presumably to compensate.
  • Also episode 21.
• Arc Number: 95, as seen in both the logo and OP sequence. It refers to the series of subway bombings in 1995 that resulted in Momoka Oginome's death.
• Arc Symbol: The penguin head logo, which in-universe is the logo for a corporation called Pingroup, which is also associated with the Takakura parents and their extremist group. It is ubiquitous on products throughout the show, including stranger ones such as Masako's ball-bullets.
  • Three distinct variations of the penguin symbol have been revealed so far, standing for Penguin Force, Pingroup and Kiga Group. At least two of them are one and the same organization trying to confuse authorities with the new name.
• Arc Words: "Survival Strategy" and the "Destination of Fate"."Let's share the fruit of fate" becomes one as well for the last few episodes.
  • The words "never amount to anything" are also used abundantly. Comically when the Princess of the Crystal mocks those she summons, dramatically everywhere else.
• Art Shift: During Ringo's Imagine Spots with Tabuki, the characters are drawn like paper cut outs and in a much more 70s Shoujo style.
• Attempted Rape: In episode 8, Ringo serves Tabuki a drugged montblanc and attempts to rape him so she can bear his kid and finish her Project M. Shoma's interference and Yuri showing up at home stop her, however.
  • And in episode 11, Ringo drugs Tabuki with a Love Potion that makes him lust for her, but when she backs off she barely escapes being in the receiving end of this at the hands of a Tabuki who is very much Not Himself.
  • In episode 14 Yuri attempts to rape a drugged Ringo because she looks a lot like her lost love, Ringo's dead sister Momoka. It is ambiguous if Shouma got there in time to stop it; her lines at first implies that he didn't, but later she contradicts it..
• Babies Ever After: Ringo tries to invoke this with Project M, believing that giving birth to Tabuki's child will bring her broken family back together and allow her to fulfill her sister's destiny. This is portrayed in a negative light, showcasing how crazy she is.
• Back from the Dead: Himari.
• Balancing Death's Books: In the end, Kanba transfers his whole fruit of fate to Himari and Shouma takes on Ringo's punishment allowing both girls to live
• Bed Trick: During Ringo's Attempted Rape of Tabuki, she disguises herself as Yuri.
• Big Eater: #2 is quite the glutton.
• Bittersweet Ending: Himari and Ringo survive and begin to live happy lives, and Yuri and Tabuki seem to be moving on to be better-adjusted people, but at the cost of Shoma and Kanba vanishing from existence. Becomes sweeter at the end when Shoma and Kanba return as young children, revealed that they were given a new life after giving up their previous ones to save their friends and family.
• Black Comedy: You know how the series likes to turn comedic situations into dramatic ones? Well...
• Bland-Name Product: Kanba's computer has pTunes and puick Time. Practically everything seems to be made by companies with penguin-based names.
• Book Ends: At the start of the first episode, two random kids walk by the Takakura house while discussing Miyazawa's Night on the Galactic Railroad. The series ends with Kanba and Shouma, now revived and reborn as preschool children, walking by the house discussing that very same novel.
  • The first and last lines of the first episode are both "I hate the word 'fate'".
  • Like other instances of repetition in this show, the use of this trope reflects the show's themes of the cycle of fate.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: When he appears to the Takakura brothers in the hospital, Sanetoshi uses the Princess of the Crystal's "Shall we initiate the Survival Strategy?" However, the existence of other Survival Strategies along with other "princesses" like Himari would imply that this particular catchphrase isn't very exclusive in the first place.
  • Another is "Let's share the fruit of fate". Despite it being only stated in the finale, it is what Kanba tells Shoma as he saves him from starvation, Double-H's newest album title (named with Himari in mind, as according to them she cherishes the phrase since it's the same thing Shouma said to her as he saved her from the Child Broiler), and Momoka's spell to use the Fate Transferal, which Ringo does use in the episode (and she learns of from Hikari and Hibari aka Double-H).
• Butt-Monkey: #2 gets into some of the most painful and humiliating situations of all the penguins, either through no fault of his own or sheer derp. Fitting as he represents Shouma, who also bears the brunt of many situations.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Abundant (see All Love Is Unrequited). In short: Kanba likes Himari, Himari likes Shouma. It turns out that they are Not Blood Siblings, and Masako and Kanba are actually siblings, making her obsession with him a case of this as well.
• Caged Bird Metaphor: Scenes about Tabuki frequently feature a visual motif of a birdcage. This is a metaphor for his troubled, high-pressure childhood. Tabuki harmed himself in order to escape from from this, but it didn't work.
• Cain and Abel: Zig-zagged. After episode 21, Kanba has a Heel–Face Turn that breaks up the family and transforms his relationship with Shouma into this. Largely played straight, with the older Kanba as a Well-Intentioned Extremist Cain and the broken cutie Abel Shouma working in opposition. It's also subverted, as Kanba reveals they are Not Blood Siblings when the breakup happens. And they don't end up defeating each other exactly.
• Camp: Turns into this a few times, Ala Utena and Star Driver.
• Cassandra Truth: Shouma tries to tell Himari's doctor and later Ringo about the powers of the penguin hat, with no success until Ringo sees that Himari's life really does rely on the hat's presence.
• Casting Couch: What Ringo suspects about Yuri in her jealousy-fueled Imagine Spot in ep. 7.
• Chekhov's Gunman: The pink- and blue-haired girls who appear on subway signs every episode turn out to be childhood friends of Himari's with an important role in her backstory.
• The Chikan: Yukina (Ringo's ganguro best friend) mistakes Shoma for one in episode 2.
• Cerebus Retcon: There's strong evidence in the final episode that Penguin #2's constant eating is linked to Shouma nearly starving to death in a cage as a child.

• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Ringo has things going on in her head that don't quite match the flow of normal people's perceptions. And she's the most sane character.
• Color Failure: Kanba briefly suffers this in episode 10 after realizing that he unintentionally insulted Himari by saying that he doesn't like homemade sweaters... while she's knitting him a scarf.
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Ringo attempts to invoke the romantic aspect of this trope by throwing herself in a pond to be rescued by Tabuki. It doesn't work out like she planned, but the trope is played straight when Shouma revives her with no physical trauma.
• Crapsack World: The world is a sinister place where a magical factory will grind unwanted children into dust by the tons. Meanwhile terrorists and magical radicals try tinkering with reality with the goal of destroying the status quo regardless of the collateral damage.
• Credits Jukebox: 10 ending themes for 26 episodes.
• Cruel Mercy: As Himari aptly puts it, living was the punishment
• Deliberately Monochrome: Episode 21 is occasionally desaturated to reflect the characters' moods. Also, a dying Himari in episode 24 is similarly desaturated.
• Deranged Animation: Initiated when Himari shouts "Survival strategy!"

• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Episode 5. Ringo vs. Himari's possessor. PUNCH, Ringo wins. Sorta.
• Dissonant Serenity: The activation of the Child Broiler, which entails the grinding-up of unwanted children and reforming them as identical, invisible nobodies, and the torching of Momoka's hand in the same scene are announced with generic cheerfulness by a factory floor foreman.

• Disney Death: Himari, halfway through the first episode.
• "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Episode 10 features a cover of the ending theme by Yui Horie (Masako).
  • The ending themes from the second half of the series are songs from the band ARB done by Triple H.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Ringo beats up Shoma a few times, though as Character Development kicks in she stops doing it.
• Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: Penguindrum has the adult Yuri's attempted rape of Ringo, an underage sixteen-year old girl. On one hand, the rape isn't exactly portrayed as okay, and it's made clear that the rapist is a messed-up person. However, the rape is used to develop the rapist's character and segue into the rapist's backstory, which gives off the vibe of rationalizing and excusing her actions, whereas the victim is reduced to a mere prop and has an uncomfortable amount of Male Gaze fanservice applied to her — which may have been intended as Fan Disservice, but the sheer exploitative nature of it makes the claim fall flat. The details of the rape are inconsistent from one episode to the next, with the rape being portrayed as rape one episode and as a titillating seduction in the next, and whether or not the rapist actually went through with it or not is ambiguous; the rescue attempt is played for comedy, and only happens due to a hideous amount of contrivity. Furthermore, the victim is completely unaffected by the ordeal and the rapist gets off with absolutely no repercussions for her actions, and the whole scene affects practically nothing in the grand scheme of the story and is quickly forgotten afterwards, save for being the subject of a brief joke a couple of episodes later, wasting a lot of character and story potential on top of everything else; in fact, the scene could be completely cut out of the story with little to no loss. The shoddy handling of the scene really smacks of the writers writing themselves into a corner and hastily retconning the story in an attempt to fix it, and given all the above, it's no surprise that some viewers consider this part of Penguindrum to be one of the lowest points in the series.
• Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Ringo doesn't face any consequences for her attempted rape of Tabuki. Made even worse as her plan was to get pregnant and force him to raise the child with her. In real life, if a man is raped and the woman falls pregnant the aftermath can be horrendous, with the man being forced to support the child he was forced into creating. Even Shouma doesn't criticise Ringo all that much for her actions.
• Dress Hits Floor: Ringo at the beginning of episode 8.
• Dueling Messiahs: Between Momoka, the All-Loving Hero who extends a kind hand to those in need but also isn't afraid to use her powers to erase those who are Beyond Redemption, and Sanetoshi, the nihilist who believes survival instincts and individuality are trapping people in boxes and believes the only way to change the world is through destroying it.
• Dying Declaration of Love: In the final episode, Shouma gives this to Ringo before succumbing to his Heroic Sacrifice.
• Dysfunction Junction: Everybody has issues. Ringo, who stalks Shouma's teacher in an attempt to become her dead sister, has it together better than anyone else by the end of the series.

• Expy:
  • The red and blue-haired girls look like Tsubomi Hanasaki and Erika Kurumi untransformed.
  • When Himari has her hair up in buns, it makes her look like Doremi Harukaze.
    • Himari, Hibari and Hikari resembled Hazuki, Aiko and Doremi when they were younger.
  • There are several Utena ones:
    • Sanetoshi Watase is a dead-ringer for Souji Mikage. Alternatively, he can be seen as a mix of Mikage and Akio Ohtori.
    • Masako Natsume's hair and face make her look a lot like Juri Arisugawa.
    • Hibari and Hikari's chibi PS As on the train foreshadowing the events are reminiscent of the Shadow Girls commenting on the duels' themes.
    • Motivation-wise, Masako turns out to be one of Nanami Kiryuu what with the unrequited Big Brother Attraction and all. She's slightly more heroic, though.
    • In the creepiest way possible, Yuri's abusive father seems to be an expy of Touga's rapist stepfather from The Movie.
    • The subway cartoon versions of Double-H◊ look unquestionably like Utena Tenjou and Anthy Himemiya.
    • Renjaku has several things in common with Anthy, including Scary Shiny Glasses, her way of standing, purple hair that's actually a lot longer than it initially looks, and being Beautiful All Along.
• Extreme Omnivore: The penguins eat plenty of things that penguins usually do not. Case in point, 3 eats a wig in episode 2.
  • 2 attempts to eat 3 in episode 4.
• The Faceless: Shouma's friend Yamashita (only the back of his head is shown), Masako's grandfather (at least half of his face is usually blocked by a paper tag), Momoka (until episode 15), Yuri's father, Tabuki's mother (she's only shown as a painting with too little detail to make out her face), and the "tabloid journalist" (his head is never in frame).
• Faceless Masses: They're big, unmoving, bathroom sign-style figures.
• Fairytale Motifs
  • Pretty much any fairy tale involving apples has popped up in some form or another.
  • The Destiny Diary has an Urashima Taro design motif.
  • The tribulations of the Takakura siblings apparently fit the storyline of an in-universe fairy tale.
• Family of Choice: None of the Takakura siblings are related but it doesn't stop them from being a deeply loving family even through constant hardship.
• Fan Disservice: Ringo is a very cute girl, indeed, but seeing her in a black negligee when she's about to rape a completely drugged Tabuki so she can be the mom of his child in episode 8 is all but ACK. It's not much better in episode 11, when she gets the guy to "love" her via a Love Potion, then backs off the sex deal... and Tabuki is so Not Himself that he starts making creepy Nightmare Faces...
  • Episode 14 takes the cake. Two cute young women (Yuri and Ringo) bonding and spending a whole day together in an onsen? Oh yes, please. A mentally and emotionally broken Yuri drugging up Ringo, stripping both of them naked and then trying to rape her, while mentally repeating how much she hates herself due to her body issues and loneliness? While we have LOTS of Male Gaze directed at the unconscious Ringo's nude body as she's about to be raped by her dead sister's Unlucky Childhood Friend?
  • Episode 15 has a quite bit of it, what with all the nudity of a young girl like Yuri who is about to be heavily scarred and possibly raped by her father.
• Final Speech: In episode 22. After Masako chases after Kanba only for Kanba to get severely wounded while protecting her, Masako stands up and blames herself for not being able to save Mario, and then goes on to talk about the curse of the Natsume Clan and how Kanba saved her and Mario from being dragged into the terrorist group at a young age. Her final words are her catchphrase - "Gosh, I must crush them soon" - followed by gunfire.
• First-Episode Twist: Much of the first episode suggests the series will focus on Himari's recovery from her illness. When she dies, it's shocking and Played for Drama. But her coming back to life becomes the basis for much of the rest of the show.
• Five Stages of Grief: Upon learning of Himari's condition in the first episode, Kanba goes through the first four stages in about a minute.
• Food Porn: A deliberate decision by the staff was to make all the food look delicious.
• Forehead of Doom: Himari. In the final episode, she receives a scar on her forehead, which causes her to comb her hair in a way that hides her forehead.
• Foreshadowing: The train PS As tend to foreshadow events or themes in the episode they are in.
  • In episode two, PSAs warning riders not to grope others play on the train right before Ringo's ganguro friend thinks that Shoma was doing just that.
  • In episode four, the PSA warns riders that falling asleep may lead to possessions getting stolen. Later in the episode, Ringo passes out after falling into a pond while attempting to get Tabuki to kiss her. Sho ends up stealing her first kiss while giving her CPR.
  • And onto episode five, where the PSA mentions to "borrow responsibly". This time, while he is ON the train, Kanba is seen being handed a good deal of money by an unknown man in an overcoat. The cash presumably helps him pay off whatever is still owed on the siblings' house.
  • As the series becomes more and more of a Mind Screw, the PSA warn riders become more and more aggressive. In episode 15, i.e, the girls are seen ganging up on an innocent white figure, tying him up from the "ceiling", using him as a swing, making a bonfire underneath him., and whipping him.
  • In episode 9 it's revealed that the labels on the bins the penguins were hiding in in episode 1 are marked 'Recyclable' (1) 'Flammable' (2) and 'Non-Flammable' (3). In the end, Kanba gets grinded into glass (a recyclable material) after sacrificing his entire fruit of fate to save Himari while Shouma gets consumed by the 'Cursed Fire' caused by the fate transfer spell. Both of the brothers get seemingly reincarnated as young children whilst Himari survives.
  • In episode 12's flashback, Kenzan calls Chiemi at the hospital and hears that "the baby" is okay, even though Shouma said both he and Kanba were born on that day. They were... but not to the same parents.
  • In episode 9's flashback, Chiemi shields Himari from a falling mirror and her face is permanently scarred in the process. When we see Kanba talking with her at the noodle shop, her face is unblemished.. because she's just a hallucination.
  • There's a flashback to the Child Broiler in episode 9, where Himari first met her soulmate. Careful viewers will notice that the boy's shoes are blue a color heavily associated with Shouma
• The Four Loves: Love, in all it's forms, is the main theme of the story.
  • Philia is best shown through Triple-H; Himari's friends Hibari and Hikari share a selfless friendship since childhood that is rekindled later in life. Their bond, represented by the Double-H's CD, help Ringo find Momoka's magic phrase.
  • Eros is represented through Ringo/Shouma and Kanba/Himari. Their loves motivate and soften Shouma and Kanba with Ringo helping break Shouma out of his shell and Kanba desperately trying to save Himari.
  • Storage is the basis of the Takakura siblings, their familial bond despite not being blood related being the main driver of the story.
  • Agape is tied to Momoka of course. As an All-Loving Hero, she can change fate through her selfless love for all things.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus/Bilingual Bonus: The newspaper Masako's grandpa is reading in episode 16 contains an English language article about making paper from pachyderm excrement. The opening paragraph mentions a brand of colorful notebooks with animals on the cover as being manufactured with this process, which could mean that Ringo's diary is really elephant dung.
• Full-Frontal Assault: In episode 15, Yuri fights Masako while wearing only a Modesty Towel. Which ends up falling off in the end, right before she wins.

• Genre-Busting: The show combines a lot of typical Shojo and Shonen tropes and plotlines, and veers back and forth between realism and the fantastic.
• Genre Roulette: the show at first seems like a touching Slice of Life comedy, picks up Ecchi and fantasy content before veering into tragic realism. Then the Science Fiction and Fantasy elements are upped and the characters find themselves in a crime thriller with gunfights and secret organizations...

• Goofy Print Underwear: Kanba apparently wears pink boxers.
• Gory Discretion Shot: In episode 21, when Tabuki gets stabbed by Yuri's jilted lover.
• Gratuitous English: Ringo's "Destiny" stamp. As she uses it, she also says "Destiny" aloud.
  • Tons of it in Episode 16 during a flashback sequence, as well. To Memetic Mutation levels.
• Grief-Induced Split: Ringo's parents Satoshi and Eriko divorced in the wake of her sister Momoka's death. By the time the series takes place, both have made peace with Momoka's death and moved on.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: The two fights between Yuri and Masako in Episode 14 and 17. Episode 17 even has feathers and rose petals fly about while the two engage in a verbal battle and later begin shooting at each other with weapons.
• He Knows Too Much: What happens to a very aggressive journalist that harrasses Ringo, Himari and Shouma in episode 21. Courtesy of Kanba and the MIB.
  • In that same episode, either Yuri or Tabuki (if not both) get a similar treatment when they find out the truth about Kenzan and Chiemi. Right after that, A MIB attacks them with a knife and all we see is the blood that falls on the floor... Then, it turns out it was just Yuri's spurned lover Tsubasa in for revenge. Probably. Oh, and Tabuki survives.
• Hidden Depths: Kanba is apparently an expert lockpick, as can be seen in ep. 3. Where and how he acquired this rather peculiar skill isn't mentioned.
  • Tabuki has some of this going on as well, specially in episodes 6 and 12. And then both 17 and 18 came along... OH WOW.

• Honest Axe: Or rather, an Honest Erotic Novel in episode 17's stinger.
• Hope Spot: The Episode 13 ending is one for Ringo as she resolves herself to stop trying to be Momoka and be her own person instead, then Episode 14 have her get rejected by Shouma and then almost raped by Yuri.
  • In episode 22, Ringo recieves half of Momoka's diary from Yuri, only to have it burned to pieces in episode 23. And then she's left to die in the flames. Oh, and Kanba burns the other half as well.
• Humongous Mecha: They're bear-shaped and called Teddydrums. These teddydrums are used to commit terrorist attacks by Kanba and Sanetoshi
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Episodes are called Stations.
• I Like My X Like I Like My Y: Something of a Catchphrase for Masako's grandfather. All of them involve women, and some of them are rather disturbing.
• Imagine Spot: Ringo has one before knocking on Tabuki's door in episode 3. She has another one while on the train in episode 4. And from then on...
• Invisible to Normals: The mysterious penguins that the siblings receive.
• It Only Works Once: The life-transferring scene from Episode 1, as revealed by the Princess of the Crystal in Episode 12.
  • To be more accurate, it only works once per person. As revealed by episode 20, Shouma shared half of his life (or if you will, apple) with Himari years before episode 1. This is why the Princess never has Shouma transfer part of his life to Himari - he already has.
• It Was with You All Along: Final episode spoilers: The Penguindrum is the life, love and pain shared by the siblings, as represented by the apple that Kanba shared with Shouma, who himself shared it with Himari. When the Princess of the Crystal ordered the brothers to search for the Penguindrum, she only meant for them to find Ringo and thus be able to change fate - the Penguindrum itself was already within their reach, not that they could have known that.
• Jerkass Gods: The goddess in Shoma's fairy tale only revived the Himari!sheep so that the characters' suffering can continue.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Quite literally. It fits the trope so perfectly, you'd think Ikuhara reads this wiki.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: #1 has a more extreme version of his owner's love of the ladies.
• Love Dodecahedron: Ringo is trying to become her dead sister Momoka by coming on and almost raping Momoka's love Tabuki, who is married to the very shady and mentally/physically scarred Yuri, who also loved Momoka and tries to rape Ringo because they're so much alike. And then Ringo starts to fall in love with Shouma whose parents killed Momoka in the first place. The incestuous Love Triangle between Kanba, Himari, and Masako looks like an episode of Leave It to Beaver by comparison.
• Love Potion: Ringo attempts one on Tabuki in episode 11; it works, but only for one night. And the effects backfire badly on Ringo..
• Luminescent Blush: Kanba's whole face turns bright red in episode 10, after telling Himari (in a rather extravagant manner) that any man would be lucky to get a knitted gift from her.
• MacGuffin: The Penguindrum that the siblings have been sent out to find. At first, it's thought to be Ringo's diary, itself an important MacGuffin.
• Meaningful Echo: The opening narration in the first episode is narrated once more by Sanetoshi in Episode 12, and again by Shouma in Episode 13.
• Meaningful Name: Sanetoshi Watase's first name means (if the kanji are anything to go by, Sane = truth/reality (present in the buddhist word "shingon" for "mantra", "words of truth"), toshi = clever/shrewd/crafty/cunning/guile...) something like Cunning Truth-teller. Kind of appropriate, one would say.
  • Ringo's name means "apple". It derives from the Chinese "ping guo" which just happens to sound a bit like "penguin"—and the series generally uses "pingu" for "penguin" instead of the orthodox "pengin".
  • And need we mention, well, Yuri?
• Mind Screw: In typical Ikuhara fashion, the show becomes more and more surreal as time goes on, and it becomes difficult to tell when events are being depicted literally or symbolically.
  • At times, Sanetoshi seems to be offering apples—but then they're medicine ampules in other shots. A similar phenomenon occurs with Sanetoshi's Creepy Twin tagalongs and a pair of black rabbits.
  • Similarly, in episode 15, Momoka and Yuri meet on a grassy hill to discuss how Momoka can change Yuri's miserable fate. In the next shot, they're sitting in chairs on concrete or asphalt painted with subway maps.
  • Anything related to the Child Broiler
  • The final episode, which is back to endgame-Utena levels of symbolism.
• Mood Dissonance: The show has some very silly trappings, like the Crystal Princess's shiny, teddy bear-based imagery and the Idol Singer Greek Chorus. The actual storyline involves terminal illness, childhood abandonment, human trafficking, and terrorism.
• Mood Whiplash: This show is very fond of turning comedic situations on their heads.
• More Hero than Thou: The final episode is the equivalent of a ten-car pileup. Himari has been trying to convince Kanba to give up on her so that he won't be killed, Kanba refuses point-blank out of his own feelings of love and obligation and insists on martyring himself, Ringo comes charging in declaring that she'll finish transferring fate despite the life-threatening consequences, Shouma coughs up his half of the Scorpion's Soul-slash-Penguindrum by tearing it out of his heart, Kanba dies saving Himari anyway, and finally, Shouma transfers the Destiny Diary's curse from Ringo to himself and dies declaring his love for her. Himari and Ringo survive.
• Ms. Fanservice: In a series that is otherwise pretty much devoid of sex-based fanservice, it seems Himari and the two mascot girls (Hibari and Hikari) are this, particularly in the first ending.
• Mugged for Disguise: Natsume disguises herself as a nurse in Episode 10, with the woman she stole the uniform from briefly shown Bound and Gagged inside a locker.
• Musical Episode: Episode 4, sort of. It involves Ringo's Shojo-tastic daydreams and three songs.
• No Name Given: Sanetoshi's Creepy Twins haven't been named in the show yet. The credits call them Shirase and Souya.
• Not Blood Siblings: In episode 19 we learn that Himari is actually not Kanba and Shouma's blood sister, but a little girl rescued from the Child Broiler and adopted into the Takakura family. The next episode reveals that Kanba is likewise adopted, with episode 21 explaining exactly where he comes from.
  • As a corollary... in episode 21 Masako explains to Himari that yes, Kanba is her older brother (later on revealed as a Half Identical Twin, and that Kanba left alongside their Disappeared Dad to protect them from shame. Yeah.
• Offscreen Teleportation: The hat usually gets on Himari's head this way.
• Old Master: Played for drama with Masako's grandfather, a master swordsman Large Ham corporate CEO obsessed with manliness and power. His misguided attempts at getting frail to Mario follow in his footsteps made him a decidedly abusive individual and destroys his relationship with his grandchildren.
• On The Next Episode Of Catchphrase: "Shall we initiate the Survival Strategy?" Different phrases are not uncommon, but "Survival Strategy" always comes up.
• Parental Abandonment: A major theme, happens to most of the characters. Most notably, Mr. and Mrs. Takakura are missing. By episode 12, it is revealed that they are on the run from authorities pursuing them for the bombings 16 years ago, and episode 21 reveals that they were Dead All Along, and Kanba meeting up with them in previous episodes was just a hallucination. Unlike many other instances, the Takakuras were good parents, and took in Himari and Kanba after they were abandoned by their own parents.
• Parents as People: Ringo's parents are separated. We only see Eriko Oginome keeping Ringo company at home, and episode 5 has Ringo "going out on a date with Daddy" during which Satoshi mentions visitation. And he actually remarried or is about to, as he's seen with another woman and a little girl in episode 8, but hasn't told Ringo anything. She sees him with his girlfriend anyway, which is the trigger to her planning to speed up her "Project M".
• Perpetual Poverty: The Takakura house is very run-down, and there's the possibility that the siblings will be separated and taken in by others. Their concerned uncle is trying to get them to sell their old house so they can live a little more comfortably in a smaller place, but Kanba will have nothing of it. He does receive an apparently large sum of money in episode 5, and we later learn that it comes from the KIGA group, Kenzan's faction. Kanba is apparently not only still in contact with them, but can order them around, including fetching him large sums of money, as seen in his deals with Sanetoshi.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Ringo buys herself a pink toothbrush and Tabuki a blue one.
• The Power of Love: The main Aesop. The world is cutthroat and indifferent but through love and kindness you can fight against despair and make a difference in someone's life.
• Practically Different Generations: Ringo is revealed to have a deceased older sister named Momoka who was ten when Ringo was born. The dynamic between the two is never shown since Momoka never got a chance to meet her sister but Ringo's dynamics with Momoka's friends Tabuki(who's a teacher) and Yuri(who's an actress) shows the spirit of the trope.
• Prophecy Twist: Happens over and over again with Ringo's diary, but as long as everything technically works out she isn't too bothered.
• Psycho Lesbian: Zig-zagged with Yuri. Initially inverted, as she is portrayed as a reasonable and mature adult in contrast with Ringo's Yandere antics. After some Character Development, she gets more and more extreme and violent in her quest to acquire the diary, and her love for Momoka definitely reaches Psycho Lesbian territory when she tries to rape Ringo. But overall, she is a sympathetic and mostly reasonable character. Yuri's jilted ex-lover Tsubasa definitely fits the trope.
• Rape as Drama: The extreme lengths to which Ringo will go to accomplish Project M. And it is most definitely not okay.
  • And in episode 11 Ringo practically finds herself at the receiving end, when she hesitates into having sex with a Tabuki who's just been slipped a Love Potion and he won't back off due to the effect. Again, it's portrayed as rather screwed up.
  • Happens again in episode 14, with Yuri drugging up and attempting to rape Ringo after bonding with her. Many times, a female/female rape scene is depicted less rape-like, but in this one it's clear that Yuri is very fucked up too.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Shouma is a calm pacifist Team Mom and Kamba is more action-oriented, decisive and the Team Dad. Their hair is colored to hammer in the point.
• Red String of Fate: Appears in both ending credits sequences.
  • In episode 10, Masako makes Kanba wear an unfinished sweater that's trailing a long piece of red yarn. This might symbolize the state of their relationship, but then again 1 ends up entangled with the loose end, so maybe it's hinting at a potential romantic angle there, eh eh.
  • In episode 18, #3 knits with a ball of yarn that represents the red string of fate. When Kanba says that he wants to live for Himari, the yarn is shown up close, slowly falling and unraveling.
• Rescue Romance: Ringo invokes it when she decides to pretend she's drowning so Tabuki will save her. It fails spectacularly and she almost drowns for real, so Shoma saves her instead. Later played rather straighter between Shoma and Ringo, in an incident involving a speeding car, an inconveniently-timed Heroic BSoD, and a Diving Save.
  • Also, if you ship Momoka/Tabuki and Shouma/Himari, their scenes in the Child Broiler count as this.
• Ret-Gone: Appears to be one of the effects of Momoka's powers.
  • Also, what happens in the Child Broiler.
  • This is what happens to Kanba and Shouma in the end.
• The Reveal: In episode 6, we find out that Ringo's diary belonged to her dead older sister Momoka and that Ringo's motivation behind fulfilling the diary entries is to "become her sister", which she believes will bring back everything she holds precious and allow it to continue into eternity.
  • Every single episode from ep. 9 on has had some kind of revelation.
• Rhyme Theme Naming: Himari and her friends Hikari and Hibari. The latter two went on to become a famous idol duo, but keep Himari in their thoughts.
• Rules of Orphan Economics: Kanba actively encourages his siblings not to worry about it, while he gets money from the Takakura parents' terrorist organization.
• Running Gag: Penguin 2's hate of insects, which it always exterminates on the spot with a handy insecticide bottle from Hammerspace.
  • Possessed Himari always has Shouma drop through the floor for talking back to her.
  • Shouma never, ever manages to save Himari or Ringo from trouble, typically either coming in too late, or falling over at a crucial moment. The only exception happens in episodes 19 and 20, where he successfully rescues Himari from the Child Broiler, and when he takes Ringo's curse into himself in the Grand Finale.
• Scenery Censor: In episode 15, when Shoma opens the door of Yuri and Ringo's onsen room, his head blocks the audience form the sight of a drugged up, naked, and shibari-tied-up Ringo and the very awake and naked Yuri.
• Scenery Porn: Nearly every daytime scene is filled with detailed and lushly-colored backdrops.
  • Not to mention all the fantasy sequences...
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Shouma tells this to Ringo's mother, and Ringo returns the favor to Tabuki and Yuri.
  • Masako-disguised-as-a-nurse refers to Ringo as Shoma's girlfriend in episode 10, and he denies it again.
  • And Yuri asks Ringo again if Shoma is her boyfriend in episode 11, which she also denies.
• Ship Tease: Now has its own page.

• Shoo Out The Penguins: The invisible Penguins don't disappear completely when things become darker- but they notoriously interacted and are seen less with their humans partners as time passes.
• Shout-Out: So many that they needed their own page.
• Sick Episode: Episode 6 starts with Ringo catching a fever...
• Significant Birthdate: While the exact date is never stated in-show, Ringo is said to be born on the same day (March 20, 1995) her sister Momoka died/disappeared - the date of the subway bombings headed by the Takakura parents that Momoka tried to stop. As it turns out, Shouma, Kanba, and Masako were also born on that day.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Alluded to in the page quote. Most of the Takakura siblings' trouble is due to this, and Shouma in particular is weighed down with guilt about his parents.
• Slipping a Mickey: Several times.
  • In episode 8, Tabuki and Shouma are both subjected to this via a mont blanc that Ringo prepared and drugged.
  • And then in episode 10, Shouma has this happen to him again when Natsume feeds him a drugged dessert so she can kidnap him.
  • And then in episode 14 Ringo has it done to her by Yuri, who spiked her drink so she can tie up and rape her.
• Snow Means Death: the kitten in episode 19
• Social Services Does Not Exist: Three teenagers living in a rundown shack after their parents go on the lam as wanted terrorists and the only adult who shows any interest in their situation is an uncle who stops asking questions after Kanba comes up with enough money to cover the mortgage (Though considering it's Kanba, the uncle likely knew that it simply wouldn't work — Kanba is that stubborn).
  • In general, abandoned children end up in the Child Broiler.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: Quite a few episodes have this, but episode 23 is by far the worst offender.
• Spoiler Opening: The opening turns out to be quite spoilerrific:
  • Ringo's flame motif: Momoka's payment to save Yuri from her abusive father was Spontaneous Human Combustion. In episodes 23 and 24, Ringo nearly burns to death, the former due to Kanba's and Sanetoshi's attempt to burn the diary, and the latter due to her using the diary to transfer fate just like Momoka did. Ultimately, it's Shouma who suffers this fate.
  • Tabuki's bird and elevator grate: Tabuki kept a pet bird as a child. A similar elevator is used when Tabuki decides to dish out a punishment upon the Takakuras for their hand in the bombings that killed Momoka.
  • Sanetoshi and medicine ampules: Sanetoshi poses as a doctor and gives Himari said drugs to keep her alive after Kanba's life force is no longer enough.
  • The black penguin: Her name is Esmeralda and she's owned by Masako, who is conducting her own Project M and Survival Strategy.
  • Glass shards: A visual used to represent the victims of the Child Broiler. They show around Himari because she was this close to becoming a victim as well, but was rescued in the nick of time.
    • During an out-of-reality moment in episode 24, both Himari and Shouma walk through a myriad of these suspended in midair to reach Kanba, letting the shards cut them in the process to represent the "punishment" the two are both willing and destined to go through because of Kanba's actions.
  • Penguin-shaped "rose petals": Actually stylized blood spatter used in the aforementioned punishment by Tabuki. Also seen in the Grand Finale..
  • The factory fan: The "Child Broiler", where unwanted children are sent to be forgotten about. Momoka saved Tabuki from here, and young Shouma took Himari as well..
  • The siblings running: Kanba runs in a different direction, symbolizing how Shouma and Himari are soulmates... but even more so, his upcoming Face–Heel Turn and abandonement of the Takakura family.
  • Masako's Ass Kicking Pose in the first OP: It is the last stance, or stand she makes while she acts as sacrificial bait to get a heavily injured Kanba away from the police.
  • Even the lyrics can be considered spoilers (at least in hindsight). The second OP gives us "Boys, come back to me". Both Shoma and Kanba have their existences rewritten so they are reborn as the kindergarten-age boys seen in front of the Takakura household in episode 1. Himari has no memories - at least conscious - of her brothers by the end of the Grand Finale, yet she's moved to tears because of a note they managed to leave her, prompting her to desire what is said in the lyrics. What's more, Himari actually does say "come back to me" to Kanba. Since the title can also be translated "Boy (singular), Come Back to Me," the song may have been named for that very moment.
    • The lyrics to the first OP are told from the perspective of Momoka, immediately before the bomb that killed her exploded.
  Round and round, your eyes wander around, searching around the station's platforms
  The sound of fanfare from afar
  The clamorous city making noise, I tried to keep an ear out for all this
  In a world that's about to end
• The Stinger: They're always of the penguins doing something while a Cryptic Conversation regarding the next episode plays over.
  • And in episode 21, another one shows how Kenzan and Chiemi took Kanba into the Takakura family.
  • In episode 22, young Shouma is seen in a cage with a penguin logo that is not from KIGA.
• Stock Footage: Starts up once possessed!Himari shouts her "Survival strategy!". Except for episode 11.
• Stripperific: Possessed!Himari loses items of her clothing as she walks down the steps in her illusion world. In the first episode, she actually ends up completely naked at the bottom of it, and later she strips at least twice again.
• Strong Family Resemblance: The Takakura siblings resemble their parents quite a bit, particularly Himari to their mother Chiemi and Kanba to their father Kenzan. Rather curious, considering Himari was adopted by the Takakuras after being rescued from the Child Broiler, and Kanba himself was a member of the Natsume clan also taken in by the family.
• Technicolor Eyes: When Himari is possessed, she has magenta eyes and pinkish sclerae. Same goes to Mario. Sanetoshi has magenta eyes, but white sclerae.
• Tempting Apple: Apple motifs are important from the very first episode and show up everywhere, in Ringo's name and curry to the omnipresent Kiga apples. The fairy tale Shouma tells has elements of the story of Genesis as well. The apples lack some of the evil connotations of many variants of this trope, but seem to represent life and fate, similar to many mythological uses. Kanba offers Shouma an apple in the Child Broiler, and Shouma later does the same to Himari. In both cases the apple comes with an offer and opportunity to live a new life. In the final, Shouma shares the fruit of fate- an apple, rewriting the timeline. Ringo is also an apple, and she holds the key to the curse of the diary and the power to change fate.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: #3 has a pink bow and long eyelashes, but is otherwise identical to the other two penguins. The other girl penguin, Esmeralda, has longer eyelashes and darker coat.
• Theme Naming: "Triple H" stands for the first names of its three members. Then there's Ringo (apple) and Momoka (peach blossom). Strangely there doesn't seem to be a theme to the twins, Shouma and Kanba. Although that's to be expected, considering Kanba was adopted.
• There Are Two Kinds of People in the World: Masako's grandfather thought there were only winners and losers in this world. This seems to be a recurring theme in character flashbacks: Yuri's father: The beautiful and the ugly, Tabuki's mother: The talented and the useless. Little!Himari: The Chosen and the Unchosen. Compare with Momoka, who believes that everyone and everything is beautiful.
• There Are No Therapists: There's a girl who breaks into the crawlspace under a man's house every night while plotting to rape him in his sleep, because her dead sister's diary told her to. She's the most sane character in the series.
• Through His Stomach: Ringo reads a magazine at a bookshop that suggests this in episode two. She goes on to try it in episode three, musing as she prepares it that curry must've been the first cooked meal and served this purpose to boot. Too bad Yuri was also making curry for him...
  • In episode 11, Shouma is seen cooking stuffed cabbage and his sister Himari notices it's a dish he only cooks when he intends to ask someone for forgiveness. She then speculates that he's had a fight with Ringo and says "I hope Ringo-chan likes cabbage!". In a subversion, Ringo don't get to taste it, as she knocks the dish down because when Shouma and Himari found her, the kid was in the middle of a huge Heroic BSoD.
  • Invoked again in episode 17, since Shouma and Kanba's takoyaki is so good that not even the Princess of the Crystal can resist their taste.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: The cafe where Kanba meets his parents as revealed in episode 21. It's actually abandoned, has been for a while, and Kenzan and Chiemi's lifeless and rotten bodies are under a table.
• Tokyo Tower: Very plot-relevant in this series. Apparently, it didn't always look the way it does now.
• Too Dumb to Live: Masako's grandfather insists on eating blowfish that he prepared himself.
• Touched by Vorlons: Himari, possibly also coinciding with Demonic Possession.
• Transformation Sequence: One that's more than one minute long. Accompanied by a bubbly Jpop version of a stadium rock anthem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xal2-mlWYo
• Tron Lines: The Princess's illusion starts with subway station gates made out of orange and blue lines. The Kiga Group's base is also decorated with a grid of green Tron Lines.
• Visual Pun: In the third episode, after seeing Yuri at Tabuki's place, Ringo flips out when a cat carrying a fish in its mouth walks in front of her. She then imagines Yuri holding a fish with Tabuki's face on it in her mouth. This is because in Japanese the phrase "dorobou neko" ("thieving cat") refers to a woman who steals someone else's man, roughly analogous to the English term "homewrecker".
• Wham Episode: Episode 11. Kanba talks to Masako and then meets Mario. Ringo attempts again to have Tabuki for herself, and it backfires badly again. She explains her full backstory to Shouma and possessed!Himari. Shouma pretty much screams "It's All My Fault" for only later disclosed reasons. The allusions to the Sarin Gas Attack in the Tokyo Metro are laid out at their thickest. Holy shit.
  • Episode 12. Himari dies again, seemingly for real this time, since even the Penguin hat stops working. And the Takakura parents are part of the group which organized the 1995 bombings on the subway. And then the legend of Black Bunnies and Sanetoshi's appearance in the end. Hooo leee sheeeeet.
  • Episode 19. Himari is not a born Takakura, but a Child Broiler prospect victim. Shouma is revealed to be Himari's fated person, specifically because he rescued her from it. Ikuhara's trolling knows no limits.
  • Episode 21. All of it. Kanba has a tabloid writer killed for digging in way too much. Somebody is stabbed, and it's either Tabuki or Yuri. Kenzan Takakura is revealed to be already dead as well as Chiemi. Sanetoshi is also revealed to have been involved in the 1995 bombings on the subway, and despite being dead, has every intention to succeed at destroying the world this time around. Shouma finally confronts Kanba. Kanba and Shoma fight. Kanba leaves the family. Himari declares her love for Shoma, but she then leaves him. Himari is still gonna die, so she joins Kanba — to save him. And we see how Kanba, a member of the Natsume clan, was brought into the Takakura family. This is a heavy episode.
• World of Symbolism: Unsurprising considering the director. It's uncertain if some things, particularly the Child Broiler (a factory where unwanted children are sent to be forgotten about—i.e., crushed down and reconstructed into generic nobodies), are actual phenomena or are simply some kind of strange representation of something else. The Child Broiler has evidence for being a real place, but at the same time it's such a bizarre concept that it's difficult to suspend such disbelief.
  • The Child Broiler could be a strange metaphor for an orphanage or the emotions of abandoned children.
• Yandere: Ringo has shades of this after meeting Tabuki's girlfriend. Played for Laughs almost completely, until we see that she has reasons for it, and until we see the extremes she'll reach.
  • Masako also seems to be this... for Kanba. It's specially shown via erasing the memories of Kanba's ex girlfriends (after apparently pushing one of them down a stair!) and later staging a whole Hostage Situation both to get Ringo's half of the Diary... and to steal a kiss from him. Though she seems to be less... unstable and more calculating than the standard yandere, and she also has other motives aside of him (re: Mario).
  • Tabuki's girlfriend/fiancée Yuri also veers towards this by episode 14, trying to rape Ringo because she resembles her older sister and Yuri's childhood friend/crush Momoka so much. She too has an extreme Freudian Excuse behind her actions.
  • Tabuki is shown to have some whiffs of this as well, as of the end of episode 17 and the whole of episode 18 — he actually tries to kill Himari to punish the Takakura family for the death of Momoka. Again, he has an extreme Freudian Excuse.
• You Are Number 6: For the sake of convenience, Kanba labels the penguins with a permanent marker. 1. is his, 2. is Shouma's, and 3. is Himari's.
• You Can't Fight Fate/Screw Destiny: The show is heavily associated with fate, though which theme it will take in the end is still up in the air. The theme is emphasized further with an in-universe fairy tale with characters that all the main characters correspond to. Will it be derailed, or will it stick to the storyline?

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