YMMV / Penguindrum

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Plenty, specially in regards to the following characters:
  • Shouma: Normal Bishonen nice guy who is trying to save his possibly doomed sister and help another girl at the same time, or a Cute and Psycho-type Stepford Smiler? If it's the latter, why? Has he been that way since the beginning and just needs an excuse, or is it out of sheer force of trauma and guilt after the parents had to run away and the siblings were left on their own?
  • Kanba: Just how far will he go for Himari's sake? And is he in love either with Himari or with the Princess, specially after episode 12?
  • Himari: Is she truly that oblivious to what happens around her, or does she know more than she lets on (and may be in denial due to her grief)? Also, when she gets possessed by the Princess, how much of her conscience is left: does the "real Himari" fully retreat, or can she influence the Princess's thoughts and behavior (and/or viceversa)?
  • Tabuki: Is he really that much of a Cloud Cuckoo Lander? And it he's not, then just how much is he aware of, and what secrets he keeps in his own mind?
  • Yuri: A simple Bitch in Sheep's Clothing? Someone trying to deal with the craziness around her and not really finding a way to do it? A Broken Bird who desperately misses the one person who loved her? Does she have influence in what Tabuki says, thinks, etc.?
  • Masako: Like Kanba, how far will she go for Mario? And what did Kanba exactly do to her, anyway?
  • Sanetoshi: What are his true plans, and what risks will he be willing to take to meet his fated one again?
  • Momoka: She's undeniably the Big Good but what was she like really? Tabuki and Yuri remember her as a selfless, saintly figure but they've heavily romanticized her memory. And on the other hand, her diary is disturbingly detailed, the Princess of the Crystal is arrogant and insulting and she's wiped people from existence. At age 10.
  • Kenzan: Episode 21 reveals that he adopted Kanba after his (and by association Masako and Mario's) biological father passed away. Did he do it out of altruism? Guilt? Or considering that Mr. Natsume was a member of Kiga Group, wanted to keep his son close to prevent him from telling the authorities. Adding to this, was Kenzan was shaping Kanba into being his successor? There's some evidence of this including Kenzan's blatant favouritism towards Kanba over Shouma (who rejected Kenzan's mentality) and the former Kiga Group members following Kanba's orders. With Kenzan being revealed to be dead however, the truth behind why he adopted Kanba may never be truly known.
• Angst? What Angst?: Ringo shows absolutely no signs of trauma from being kidnapped, drugged, and raped by Yuri. The closest she gets is a small amount of hesitation when Yuri calls her to say that last time was "fun" and then invite her to dinner.
• Ass Pull: Some fans believe Yuri's relationship and backstory with Momoka to be this, seeing as it comes with little foreshadowing. It doesn't help that the reveal comes hand-in-hand with a turn of events that come off as Ass Pulls themselves (see They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot and Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female for more details), and that the events make the reveal itself look even more like an Ass Pull given the absolute lack of attention given to Yuri's attraction to Ringo both before and after. Not to mention that the event is resolved shoddily and heavily smacks of the writers writing themselves into a corner and hastily retconning themselves out of it, probably because they couldn't figure out how to fit Yuri's plan to make Ringo into Momoka into the plot or handle the consequences of Ringo being raped, or both.
  • Special mention goes to Shoma's attempt to rescue Ringo from being raped by Yuri. It's hideously contrived to the point of absurdity and doesn't even manage to accomplish anything, both short- and long-term.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Depending on where you go, you either think that Ringo is an adorable and funny Plucky Girl who knows what she wants and will do her best to get her "Destiny" fulfilled and deserves a lot of sympathy for her genuinely sad backstory, or that she's a stupid, delusional, psychotic, stalker who's also an attempted rapist who totally deserved to have Himari's possessor insulting her all over as well as being locked up in a ward.
    • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Especially after episode 14. The scene in which Shouma rejects her friendship/feelings because of the Sins of Our Fathers and she breaks down was met in several circles with utter anger for poor Ringo's sake.
    • Of course not all fans are broken up about it. Because some those in several circles act like she has done nothing wrong and that Shouma is wrong to reject her feelings even after abusing him, saving her life twice, and preventing her from raping a man once. Then act surprised when he rejects her because he has his own issues. (She is very sympathetic, but she's not a total innocent.) Some feel more sorry for Shouma as a result.
    • And others have taken a third option via feeling bad for both of them, since it's not exactly an easy situation for either kid. Then again, it's noticeable that ever since episode 6 explained her backstory, the sympathy for Ringo has steadily increased, reaching its peak in episode 14; people who professed their hate for her at first have been spotted rooting for her now.
  • While Shouma still has many fans, he has also had detractors referring to him as "weak" and "useless" and "inferior to Kanba". Then episode 19 rolls around and shows that Shouma was the one who took Himari out of the Child Broiler and into the Takakura family. Cue the rage of many Kanba fans on /a/.
  • Inversely, Kanba has become divisive in the time gap between the original series airing and Re:Cycle. While the opinion of him being a badass that deserves his happy ending with Himari is still quite prevalent, there are also those that see his devotion to Himari as creepy and obsessive rather than touching and dislike how he abandoned Masako and Mario without any explanation and didn't tell the truth about why Masako was antagonizing the Takakuras which could've avoided many problems. His Face–Heel Turn make detractors dislike him even more due to him resorting to murder, hurting Shouma and Ringo, and nearly getting Masako killed to achieve his goals.
• Catharsis Factor: For those who dislike Kanba and how far he is willing to go for Himari, him being erased from her life and memory in the final episode is seen as karmic.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Ever since his first appearance, Sanetoshi has had an enormous amount of fanart despite his relative lack of screentime. Doubles as Evil Is Cool and Draco in Leather Pants later on.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Sanetoshi warns Kanba that he and Shouma will be erased from existence and leave not so much as a grain of dust behind. This is (mostly) true, but unlike Sanetoshi, the brothers look upon this as a good thing.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The ED becomes a lot harder to watch after Episode 9 reveals that the Double H girls used to be Himari's friends and that the ED is a wistful reminder of something that can't happen for her.
  • Also, seeing the beautiful Yuri in a princess-like pose and garb in the first OP is harsher when you learn how her father wanted "to make her beautiful"...
  • When the Princess of the Crystal refers to Shouma and Kanba as "lowlifes that never will accomplish to anything", it's really freaking funny. When little Himari refers to herself as "someone who never accomplished to anything" as she's in the Child Broiler, it's really freaking sad.
  • Seeing Kanba blush when he's being complimented by his parents in episode 19 is cute, but when you find out he's actually talking to his parents' rotting corpses and the living parents are just a delusion he constructed to not feel horrible about what he's doing it's just heartbreaking.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The whole Brother–Sister Incest between Himari and Kanba becomes totally hilarious by episode 21. Why? Because not only they turn out to be Not Blood Siblings (though Himari had amnesia in regards to that), but then we learn that Kanba's Clingy Jealous Girl Masako is Kanba's real sister (and his twin), and they knew it all the time. Meaning, the pairing that many people shunned due to incest, it wasn't incestuous in the end. And the "alternate" pairing that some people shipped to not fall into BSI? Surprise incest!
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • For some, episode 15 makes Yuri Tokikago this. She is crazy and all, but one cannot deny that her past was fucked up as Hell.
    • Also, Tabuki after episode 18.
• Memetic Badass: Kanba is already badass enough in-story, but his 4chan fans take his badassery even further. Because this guy will punch gods and goddesses and kick whatever/whoever is on his way FOR HIMARI'S SAKE!
• Memetic Molester: Sanetoshi. It's rather creepy to see him looming close to a 13-year-old girl like Himari in rather suspicious attitudes (and getting Kanba NTR'd).
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "SURVIVAL STRATEGY!"
  • "VIVA MUFFLER!"
  • "FABULOUS MAX!"
  • Lol wut? u mad?
  • Kanba is getting NTR'd!
    • Which has been upgraded into "EVERYONE is getting NTR'd", due to the huge Love Dodecahedron.
  • "Himari no tame ni!"
  • HEY MR. PRESIDENT, WATCH OUT!
  • Pulleys!
  • Shibireru darou? :D
    • Dayo ne~?
  • Being a Takakura is suffering
  • Mario will never be relevant. :(
  • IIIIIKUUUUUHAAAAAARAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
• Mind Game Ship: Sanetoshi with anyone. Examples are Himari, the Princess of the Crystal and specially Kanba.
• Moral Event Horizon: Sanetoshi had done plenty of shit before episode 23, but he seriously crossed the MEH not just by being the one who "killed" Momoka via transforming her in the two Penguin Hats when she tried to stop him, but by using Masako's "death" and his revival of her to push Kanba further into his plans, the setting up Ringo to be seriously injured and mocking her as she was burning to almost death. All to destroy the Destiny Diary.
  • Some people believe that the Face Heel Turned Kanba also crossed the line by becoming the KIGA leader and orchestrating the Teddydrum bombings and by participating in Sanetoshi's almost murder of Ringo to destroy the Diary.
• Narm Charm: The fight between Masako and Yuri in Episode 15 is so ridiculously over-the-top (it involves Yuri swinging ping-pong paddles to swat Masako's slingshot balls, for crying out loud!) that it warps back to ridiculously awesome.
  • Also the buttloads of Engrish in episode 16.
  • The whole scene where Ringo remembers her parents eventually deciding to split up is reenacted via stuffed animals. It's ridiculous, but considering she was a young child at the time it actually works and conveys how traumatic it was for her.
    • By the same token, most of Ringo's Imagine Spots are so over the top ridiculous that you can't help but laugh, but they also managed to convey just how screwed up the girl is.
  • When Masako pulls her "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner in episode 22, we see Esmeralda next to her opening a paper fan. It would've made the whole scene hilarious in normal circumstances... but come on, Esmeralda is THAT loyal to her partner and to #1, and she's ready to die with Masako! How can that not be really touching?
• Nightmare Fuel: Now with its own page!
• Not Badass Enough for Fans: Shouma gets potshots (ranging from mere affectionate jokes to straight-up bashing) for not being as action-geared as Kanba. Even more so after episode 19.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: As of EP 19, there has been serious ship wars between Kanba/Himari, Shouma/Ringo and Shouma/Himari.
  • Die for Our Ship: Shouma is starting to take the worst part, mixed with how Kanba rabid fans mock his "lack of badassery".
• Strangled by the Red String: Some complains have been raised in regards to the relative lack of development between Momoka and Tabuki's bond, specially when compared with how Yuri and Momoka got almost whole episode to explain their friendship while Momoka and Tabuki's own took less than 1/3 of another.
  • However, this seems for the moment justified — Tabuki says he doesn't understand Momoka's actions either, and he is an Unreliable Narrator as well.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The fandom agrees that Mario Natsume is the epitome of a wasted character. He's revealed to have his own penguin hat that holds the other half of Momoka (the Prince of the Crystal) AND he's revealed to be Kanba's biological brother. Despite this, Mario is relegated to being a Satellite Character to Masako, and doesn't even get to have his own Survival Strategy sequence like Himari nor do we get to see his feelings towards Masako trying to both save him and bring their wayward brother back and doesn't even get the opportunity to interact with Kanba or Mirror Character in Himari.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Yuri trying to make Ringo into Momoka. Introduced in episode 14, then shoved into the background by other plot developments and pretty much dropped a few episodes later with little fanfare; not to mention the non-existence of the consequences of Yuri's rape, as well as the incredibly awful handling of the event itself, wasting a lot of potential for character development. It doesn't help that the whole situation feels shoved into the plot for drama and to quickly explain Yuri's involvement in the plot to begin with, with said explanation clashing with earlier plot developments and characterization.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Yuri is definitely played up to be sympathetic in the narrative, but it's hard to regard her as such when she unapologetically kidnaps, drugs, and forces herself on an underage teenage girl out of hideously selfish reasons, gets away with no repercussions, and even makes a second attempt which luckily doesn't get off the ground. Not to mention that at the same time, Yuri also plots to murder a sickly, completely innocent child just because of her family relation.
  • Kanba can come off as this after The Reveal that he's actually a Natsume. It makes his conflict with Masako no longer look like him dealing with a crazy ex, but rather his desperate twin sister begging him to return home. Rather than try to keep in contact with said biological family, it's implied he cut off contact with the Natsumes after being adopted by the Takakuras and he doesn't tell Shouma the truth about why Masako is after the diary as well. It makes Kanba come off as cowardly and selfish due to his unnecessary secrecy, leading to both of his families being put in danger.
• The Woobie
  • Ringo, once her Freudian Excuse is revealed. Even more so after episode 14, in which the closest to a best friend/love interest she has pushes her away due to his issues, and then she's pretty much kidnapped and raped by Yuri.
  • And after episode 9, Himari. Then episodes 19 and 20 kick in and turns this up to eleven.
  • Let's face it, between this trope and Jerkass Woobie, almost everyone in this show could qualify.
• Woolseyism: Discussed by the (fan) translator himself here. In particular, the "Lol wut? U mad?" line is a translation of some outdated slang that Sanetoshi uses. Since Sanetoshi is also quite a troll, it also makes sense for him to use it. Most prominent in the opening and closing songs:
  • The GG subs use "Everybody went nutso!" instead of the more literal "Everyone's gone crazy."
  • "Now remember the spectacular past" vs "Now remember the time when we shone."
  • "From the other side of the binary world line," vs "From the end boundary of a world made of 0's and 1's."

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