12 Days of Anime 4 and 5: Animated GIF Edition
I was doing so well, but I got a fever and that throws things off.
I finished Utena. I started watching it back on CPM’s VHS tapes, then got the CPM DVDs, and then the RightStuf editions, but I never actually finished it. Because no more Utena means no more Utena.
But with Penguindrum coming, I decided it was time. The ending of the TV series was sad, and the movie made no sense, but it had a lot of good moments. The “Utena becomes a car” is so famous everyone knows it happens. But THIS is the car moment that stuck with me.
He seemed so threatening once.
The movie basically makes Akio, the powerful supercilious douche from the TV series, into an utter goofball. He deserves it. It’s fantastic.
The second anime GIF moment of the year will surprise no one, due to how often I’ve expressed my affection for it.
Feel. The. Burn.
Was this moment scripted? Was it put in by a specific animator? We may never know. But boring miss goody-two-shoes suddenly had a SOUL, and CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, and she didn’t even have to change her hairstyle.
The theory that she’s secretly a sociopath emerged from these few seconds of animation.
That is a good day’s work, Mr. or Mrs. Animator. Feel proud.
I’ve had kind of an abusive reshitonlaip with Mawaru Penguindrum this past few months. On one hand, the show can be ABSOLUTELY INFURIATING the heavy focus on Ringo, the wacky pacing, the occasionally oblique imagery. But then there’s at least a moment or two in each episode (even if it isn’t apparent at first) where you blink and suddenly realize that the creator has you in the palm of his hand. I mean, take the penguins! On one hand they serve to joke around in the background, sort of the penguin equivalent of Chu Chu. Then you go a layer deeper and realize that each one represents the inner psyche of the siblings, from #1 reading porn magazines to #3 trying on wigs and so on.Then you go deeper, deeper, and realize that each of the penguins are marked #1 by a bandage (in the same place where Kanba would have been hit by the mirror had it not fallen on his father) and #3 by a ribbon (probably the same ribbon that indirectly toppled the mirror that would have hit Himari had it not fallen on her mother.) The siblings are literally carrying their sins no wonder they continuously talk about punishment! Except for Shouma, of course. His penguin is totally unmarked. Does that mark him as the pure one surrounded by sinners, or as the most untrustworthy one of the bunch?Its questions like these (seemingly inconsequential, actually kind of terrifying when you think about them) that I think elevate Penguindrum from Utena 2.0 to something legitimately interesting. Then again, from the three episodes I’ve seen Steins;Gate is also pretty great! (although I’m debating whether to read the visual novel rather than watch the series, since the former is about to be translated, apparently)