Penguin Drum Collection 1
Hey Gurls! Hey Boyz! Yo Momma's! Yo Hotties! Yo... SHUT UP! I have a review about invisible cute penguins, an alien life form that brings back the dead from a hat, messed up love triangles all in a hyper stylish show that'a colorful, thought provoking and sometimes oddly funny.
Getting to strange parts first let's talk about the shows' style. Two features stand out. One is characters is this anime travel the subways every episode, this is depicted by and info graphic of which line there getting on. Now while on the subway there are little digital ads playing of two mischievous popular idols teaching some sort of lesson for the subway use. This sets the show apart from most anime, but having the main characters talking on the subway, but going to angles trying to capture a tiny bus ad commercial with very odd situations happening. Those idols harass people like 1920's cartoon characters. Secondly, the populace of the world is mostly bathroom signs, that is to say if your not a main character your drawn usually as just a bathroom logo of a person. There are exceptions, but this makes you focus on the main characters of the series. You have some odd wipes for flashback too.
Who are the main characters you say? Poor little Himari, she's is so cute and lovable. She has two brothers Kanba and Shouma looking after her in their cute little house next to a small park. Then she dies. What? No, it can't be! Luckily, the penguin hat she got at the sea park that day is actually an alien life form... thing that turns her into the Princess of the Crystal.
Imagine!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's what the Princess version of Himari yells every time she transforms and we go to some sort of other dimension or subspace. How do we get there? By taking a rocket ship that connects with a giant bear robot. Our rocket ship transforms into it's own teddy bear giant robot that interlocks with the other bear and Princess Himari yells, "Imagine!" At this point Princess Himari steps down stairs, gets more naked and seemingly steals the life energy from Kanba to live a bit longer. Then everything goes back to normal...somewhat.
You see for Himari to live, her big brothers must obtain the Penguin Drum for the Princess. The reason for this is unknown, but they've got to do it or she'll just die. So as it turns out the Penguin Drum belongs to Ringo, no no the Beatle. Ringo is one messed up young lady and she gets involved in a love triangle she herself creates out of sort of a morbid love for her dead sister. The plot gets even more hyper convoluted down the road. A mysterious red-headed woman wants to make Kanba her own personal lover. A pink-haired creepy man has plans for Himari. The parents of the siblings seemed to have been involved in a terrorist organization. This all ends with a cliffhanger in part 1.
The show can become light and dark very fast. One excerpt to show this off might be a fevered daydream by Ringo about her parents fighting. In her dream, they were represented as aquatic animal dolls and it took place underneath the ocean. The topic was that of her sister's death which shouldn't have been funny, but a giant moray eel passed through the house knocking over everyone. Surreal moments and odd comedy skits happen from time to time.
Penguins! Three cute little penguins are with the three siblings through thick and thin. Given to them by the Princess to help them on their quest they usually are useless. I love these guys. Simply titled 1,2, and 3 so they can be distinguished they are always doing something in the background no matter if the stakes are high or nothings happening at all. They can only be seen by the siblings and a few special people. So at parties and really anytime they're creating mischief for those around them. The two boy penguins seem to be perverts getting into panties often. Each is assigned to their own sibling. No. 1 for Kanba tries to work hard, but can be found in perverted positions. No.2 for Shouma is constantly killing bugs and eating. No. 3 is a girl penguin for Himari who helps her around the house. The design of them makes them instant lovable mascots.
Anime Expo and other cons have had a lot of fan art coming in because of the wonderful design of the characters, not quite a girly as clamp, but still impressive animation in every episode. If your into strange mysteries and dark humor this is a wonderful new series to pick up.This series has a lot of unanswered questions that hopefully will start to be explained in Part 2 coming out in March.
The Blu-ray's were provided by the publisher for review.
