Sarah Spews Reviews: Mawaru Penguin Drum

And finally, my top favorite new summer anime is revealed!
!!SPOILER ALERT!!

Mawaru Penguin Drum - 8 episodes, still airing

~Quick Review~

Storyline: Unique, heart-wrenching, hilarious

Characters: Well-developed, lovable, cute, crazy

Animation: Unfailingly beautiful; however, uses a lot of stock footage

Music: Fun, upbeat; nothing special but gets you involved in the scene

Overall: Butt loads of crazy comedy, but also has a unique heart-wrenching story

Where do I even start... well, first off - I LOVE THIS ANIME. You know, it's a little unfair that I'm reviewing these shows before they've finished, let alone some have barely started (see: Blood C), but I believe that within the first couple of episodes, you should be able to have a pretty clear idea of whether or not you enjoy what you're watching. On that note, I have so far enjoyed every minute of every episode of Mawaru Penguin Drum (now to be referred to as MPD). It caught my attention within the first 10 minutes of the first episode, and has since then kept me captivated. 


MPD is a show centered around three siblings - there's the twins, Shoma (blue hair) and Kanba (red hair), and the youngest and only girl, Himari. All three of them live together in a cute little shack next to a playground. While their parents have shown up in some short flashbacks, it's still unclear where they are in present day. In the first episode, you learn that Himari has some sort of terminal disease, and a doctor tells Shoma and Kanba that she only has a few months to live. Despite being heartbroken by this news, the brothers do their best to go on living their lives with Himari as normal as possible. One day, the three of them visit an aquarium to see the penguins. Shoma and Himari go to the gift shop, where he ends up buying her a queen penguin hat. However, Himari soon collapses and later dies at the hospital. As the brothers mourn, they are surprised to see Himari suddenly spring back to life, wearing the aforementioned penguin hat. It turns out she is possessed by a spirit in the hat who has decided to extend her life in exchange for a device called the "penguin drum". While Himari is miraculously cured of her condition and returns to her normal state when the penguin hat is off, if she is not within close vicinity of the hat, she will die again.

Penguin Queen Himari!

Interesting, right? Anyway, the brothers are given the task to retrieve the penguin drum. If they fail to do so, then the spirit will permanently revoke Himari's life. It hasn't been made clear what the device looks like, but the penguin spirit tells the brothers that it may be in the possession of a girl named Ringo. From then on, you meet a multitude of fantastic characters and learn a little more about the relationships between the three siblings. There are many mysterious happenings that I can't wait to discover later on in the series. Kanba is the more serious and mysterious brother, as he oftentimes disappears without an explanation and he seems to have a closer connection with Himari and the penguin spirit as well.

Kanba and Penguin Queen Himari making a strange exchange...

Despite the serious undertones, the show is chock full of comedy. Every episode has made me laugh out loud, sometimes to the point of tears (see: episode 7, frog ritual). The stars who steal the show are a trio of little penguins who seem to act as guardians to the siblings. The siblings are the only people who can see these penguin spirits, and this leads to some hilarious antics. The penguins are always in the background, eating everyone's food or shoving their heads in girl's crotches. I'm always a sucker for perverted characters. If you think my patience for having to wait for Tiger & Bunny is short, then you have no idea what it's like for MPD. Especially since in the latest episode, the cliffhanger was HUGE and I literally screamed because now I have to wait an entire week to find out what happens. IT'S HORRIBLE I TELL YOU.




Wrapping up, this show has been amazing thus far. The storyline is completely unique, the characters are deep, both lovable and hateable, and just plain crazy. My ONLY complaint is that the animators use stock footage in each episode when Himari transforms into the penguin queen. It's very magical girl-esque, which I love, but the stock footage gets redundant after a while. Oh well, compared to how great the show is besides that, it's a small complaint. I urge you to watch this show NAO because I need more people to freak out about it with.


You can watch it for free here and let me know what you think!


I will DEFINITELY review this anime again once I've watched it in its entirety, so be sure you come back to hear what else I have to say!

Love&&peace,

Sarah

Here's a little extra for this blog:

Sarah Spews Reviews: Tiger & Bunny

!!SPOILER ALERT!!

Tiger & Bunny - 23 episodes, still airing

~Quick Review~

Storyline: Interesting, dramatic, and fun

Characters: Stereotypical hero-types but still fun to love

Animation: Great CG work, hand drawn stuff fluctuates from fluid to choppy

Music: Nothing spectacular but fits the show well

Overall: A great heroic show, especially if you like X-Men

Blue Rose endorses Pepsi Nex

Tiger & Bunny was an anime I had decided to watch on a whim, and I'm really glad that I took a chance on it. I had started watching it when 19 episodes had already aired and I whipped through the episodes like a madwoman. It's a very fun show. You follow the heroic adventures of the Heroes, a group of people referred to as NEXT who all have special genetic abilities. They all use these abilities to save the citizens of Sternbild and stop criminals in their tracks. I think one of the things that makes this show unique is its blatant use of advertising. Each hero has a specially-made costume that has their sponsors' logos shamelessly plastered on it. While some might find it obnoxious, I personally find it hilarious because I've never seen such an unabashed use of advertising, and I give kudos to the production company for having the balls to be so bold. 

Anyway, the beginning of the show focuses on the Heroes chasing around criminals and saving the innocent in order to gain "hero points". Their activities are documented on the popular television program known as "Hero TV", which keeps track of these points in order to determine the "King of Heroes" in a yearly ranking. You meet the main character of the series, Kotetsu, otherwise known as Tiger. The oldest of the heroes and the most old-fashioned, Tiger doesn't care about collecting points, he only wants to save lives. He tries to come off as a cool guy, but most of the time he goofs up and ends up being ranked at the bottom. Then, the company he works for decides to bring in a new hero to keep things young and fresh, so they end up pairing Tiger with the newcomer. The new hero is Barnaby Brooks Jr., whom Kotetsu affectionately refers to as "Bunny". Bunny happens to have the same NEXT ability as Tiger - the use of super strength for only 5 minutes every hour. They're the only heroes who have this kind of restriction, and I think the time limit is a very interesting twist on the concept of super strength and hero powers in general. 

Barnaby Brooks Jr. ("Bunny") & Kotetsu Kasaragi ("Tiger")

Things between Kotetsu and Barnaby start off rocky because they have different ideas of what it means to be a hero, but after working on several cases together, they eventually become close friends. I don't want to give too much away, but further into the series, the story breaks off from the popularity contest and starts focusing on Bunny's past and his need for revenge (think Bruce Wayne kind of revenge). It gets pretty dramatic and Bunny actually becomes a little annoying. He gets very whiny and emo... he cries a lot and I feel like his entire personality from the beginning of the show is completely discarded. It was disappointing for me when he broke down because I really liked him from the get-go. It's like Spiderman 3 all over again... *shudder* Oh well, I guess given the circumstances, he's allowed a little bit of a break down. 

All in all, this show is well worth the watch. All of the characters are lovable and each of them get a chance to shine on their own throughout the series. Some of the twists and turns are predictable, but it's still just as fun to watch everything unfold.  I'm sad every time an episode ends and I have to wait an ENTIRE WEEK for the next one. Especially now that it's reaching its climax and almost every episode has had a cliffhanger these last couple of weeks. It's a good thing I'm starting school soon, so I have something to distract me from the wait!

The entire Heroes gang

I might review this again after I've watched it in its entirety, so make sure you come back soon!

You can also watch the show on Hulu here and let me know what YOU think!

Love&&peace,

Sarah

Sarah Spews Reviews: Blood C

Since that last post was a little depressing, I'm going to lighten things up here by reviewing some of the summer anime shows that I've been watching.

I'm going to start with my least favorite and work my way up to my top fav. I'm saving the best for last!

!!SPOILER ALERT!!

Blood C - 8 episodes, still airing

~Quick Review~

Storyline: Stale

Characters: Forgettable

Animation: Stiff

Music: Generic
Overall: Long, boring, and yet to get interesting

This show is a collaboration between CLAMP and Production IG, both of which are highly esteemed anime production companies. CLAMP has made several of my favorite anime such as Cardcaptor Sakura, Magic Knight Rayearth, and xxxHolic. Blood C is also a spin-off series of a previously popular anime show called Blood Plus.

I myself have never seen Blood Plus in its entirety, but I've heard only good things about it, and it was popular enough to air on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and the Sci-Fi channel as well.

So, it's safe to say I had high expectations for this particular show. Now, only 8 episodes into it so far, I'm finding it hard to continue watching it. In the first episode, you meet the main character Saya. She is sweet, clumsy, incredibly dense, and everybody loves her. She lives with her father in a shrine located in a small bumpkin town. She has a strange daddy complex and she comes off almost obsessed with him, and it's a little creepy. She goes to a cafe down the road and gets her breakfast from the cafe's owner, who is also a close family friend. She sings a happy little song on her way to school and while she's in school, it seems like any other typical high school anime. At dusk, she goes home and her father tells her she is to use the family's katana in order to defeat a creature called an Elder Bairn. The monster is just chillin' in their backyard. She starts fighting it, gets cut up, and when everything seems to be lost, something triggers Saya to tap into her "demonic" persona. Her eyes turn red and she just goes to town on the monster. Of course, not letting the show's title down, there is plenty of blood spewing everywhere. Then, she leaves the bloody mess to sit there and heads back home to clean herself up. End episode.

That is how the first several episodes are formatted. Keep in mind, the fighting only occurs in the last 5 minutes of the show, so everything before that is a bunch of boring dialogue. There are a couple of glimpses into Saya's past, but other than that, nothing is explained. You don't know where the Elder Bairn's come from or even exactly what they are. You don't know how and why Saya came to fight them. While some things have begun to be revealed in later episodes, it's hardly anything to cling onto. There are a couple of characters that obviously have a bigger part to play, but they have yet to shine and so far they have only served to deliver Saya cryptic messages. In episode 7, things really started to kick off, and I was hopeful that the anime would become much more fast paced, but it wasn't so. I just finished watching ep. 8 and it was as slow as the beginning episodes. 

I think the most irritating thing I've come across so far in this series is that Saya waits to fight. For example, in the latest episode, an Elder Bairn attacks Saya's classmates. One of the girls actually first spots the monster when it's outside of the school, but Saya just chooses to stare at it like everybody else. Then, the monster climbs up the building and starts slewing Saya's classmates one by one. AND ALL SHE DOES IS STARE. Here she is, her katana in hand, one of her classmates about to be eaten by the monster, and she's just glaring at it from afar. WHAT THE HELL. Three of her classmates die horrible deaths before Saya finally decides to unsheathe her sword. Then she's all like, "I'M GOING TO PROTECT EVERYONE!" Um, it's a little late for that, honey.

Anyway, this show is pretty awful so far. The storyline has yet to get interesting. The only thing it has going for it are the action sequences and the bountiful amount of blood. I'm going to try and stick with it until the end because I owe CLAMP that much. 

I may review this again once I've watched it in its entirety.

You can also watch the anime here and decide for yourself!

Love&&peace,

Sarah


P.S. Happy September!