Iwa ni Hana: Mawaru Penguindrum - Commentary & Analysis

The Marunouchi Line and I

Nov 062011

Quite a people wrote to ask to where I have been. The boring answer is that I have been busy with work since I relocated to Tokyo last month. The more interesting answer is I have been living in the world of Marunouchi Line just like the characters of Mawaru Penguindrum. Let me explain what I mean.

Remember how Episode 4 mentions a girl with red shoes at Akasaka-mitsuke Station? Well, I now live in a serviced apartment close to Akasaka-mitsuke Station. I had no say whatsoever about this – apparently it was HR who made the choice. The Akasaka neighbourhood has no supermarket worth speaking of, which makes it a bit of a chore to buy my groceries. But otherwise it is a nice place – I can see Mt Fuji on a clear day from my window. I have been told that you can see Tokyo Tower from the other side of the building; but then I am not sure I want to look at Tokyo Tower from my window after watching all the stuff with Yuri.

Penguindrum pilgrimage to Ogikubo?

Fandom 3 Responses »

Oct 182011

I am thinking of the Japanese public holiday on either 3 Nov 2011 (Thu) or 23 Nov 2011 (Wed). Would anyone else in the Tokyo area be interested in a trip to the Ogikubo neighbourhood (where the Takakura home is)?

To be honest, I have never been there and here are some ideas of where to go after some research on the net:

The shopping area in the northern exit of Ogikubo Station
Odaguro Park [大田黒公園]
Zenpukuji Park [善福寺公園]
The Suginami Animation Museum (see official website here).
The Suginami Central Library

[Trivia] Gray Wednesday and Ash Wednesday

Trivia No Responses »

Oct 112011

Here is an interesting trivia to observe. The song that appears towards the end of Ep.9 and also as the ED of Ep.13 is called:

灰色の水曜日 : Haiiro no Suiyoubi : Gray Wednesday

I think it is a wordplay on the Japanese word for “Ash Wednesday” -

灰の水曜日 : Hai no Suiyoubi : Ash Wednesday

Episode 13: Boku to kimi no tsumi to batsu / 僕と君の罪と罰

Episodes 7 Responses »

Oct 082011

1) Sanetoshi refers to “she” (Momoka?) as the only other being who has ever seen the same fūkei [風景] (meaning “sights”) as he did, and he emphasized fūkei no less than three times in his monologue.

Now I have to take a step back to explain the word fūkei. On seeing the below shot from Episode 9 for the first time, I had a hunch that it may be a foreshadow that fūkei may be a keyword in this series (though I was not entirely sure). Originally, I was planning to write a post on it and categorize it under “Trivia” – little did I know that fūkei does bear some significance in the story.

On the right hand side of the shot, you see books that are purportedly written by 司　遼太郎. Actually the names of author as they appear on the book-binds in that library all have one word missing – and in this case 司　遼太郎 is a reference to Shiba Ryōtarō [司馬遼太郎], the pen-name of Fukuda Teicihi [福田定一].

Shiba Ryōtarō is (among other things) a historian and writer of historic fiction. Though little known in the west, he was one of the foremost men of letters in post-war Japan. I do not know what to say to impress upon you his intellectual influence; let me just say that I have been in Osaka twice this year and visited the Shiba Ryōtarō Memorial Museum both times – and I did not just take the train and get off at the nearest station, I made a point of getting off three stations before and walked on foot for an hour in his honour.

[Translation] “Shoujo Kakumei Utena” Privacy Files 1 – 3 by Enokido Youji

Translation 2 Responses »

Oct 042011

ENOKIDO Youji [榎戸洋司], scriptwriter of the Utena series. He is a friend of Ikuhara Kunihiko from their high school days, and was most recently involved as the scriptwriter of STAR DRIVER Kagayaki no Takuto.

Translation notes:

1) I have left the Japanese word seishun [青春] as it is, even though there is a close equivalent in the English world “youthfulness”. This is because there is something at once bittersweet, philosophic and nostalgic in the word seishun that “youthfulness” does not seem to convey.

2) If there are several places in the translation that sound odd, it is because those places also sound odd in the Japanese original (which you can find here, here and here), and I have intentionally left it that way as much as I can.

And I made apple curry…

Fandom 2 Responses »

Oct 012011

Episode 12: Boku-tachi wo mawaru lin / 僕たちを巡る輪

Episodes 9 Responses »

Oct 012011

1) Now we know that the Maru-no-Uchi Line in this series ends in the 95th station, which is called “Unmei no Itaru Basho” (meaning “the place that destiny reaches”). The 94th station is “Seizon Senryaku” (meaning “survival strategy”).

If you look at this map of the Tokyo subway in the real world, the Maru-no-Uchi Line is coded in red, and Ogikubo is the 1st station (“M1″) and also the westernmost. This brings us to the colour lines drawn on the floor of the hospital which Kanba runs over:

[Trivia] The word “ringo” as an argot in Japanese

Trivia 2 Responses »

Sep 282011

Here is a but of trivia about the word ringo (meaning “apple”) which I doubt has any bearing in Mawaru Penguindrum but is nonetheless interesting to share.

In Japan (at least in the finance industry), the word ringo is an argot for any client entity you do not want to mention by name, such as the government and so forth.

This I just learned today, actually. I was reviewing an internal document produced by the Tokyo office and suddenly it started to talk about ringo. Why is this document suddenly talking about apples? thought I, and rubbed my eyes in disbelief. Sure enough, the document said ringo alright. I got out my dictionary to check if ringo had any special meaning that I was not aware of. There was none. Dumbfounded, I asked a colleague what ringo meant, and she kindly explained to me it is an argot (隠語) and its peculiar meaning in financial parlance.

Episode 11: Youyaku kimi wa ki ga tsuitanosa /ようやく君は気がついたのさ

Episodes 10 Responses »

Sep 242011

1) To those of you who missed the comment section of the post on episode 10 for whatever reason – I strongly suggest that you have a read at Auto’s excellent (and very long) analysis. I totally took my hat off. Bravo!

2) I have always said that the depiction of lost love is an acid test of film-making – it is an acid test because you have to try very hard to not fall into banalities and clichés. And within this general umbrella of depicting of lost love the most difficult scenes to execute are: i) the farewell and ii) the meet up of former lovers.

I personally like the meet up of Kanba and Masako a lot; it is magnificently done – probably the best directed part in this series after the part with Sanetoshi letting go of Himari’s hand in episode 9.

[Translation] “The Duelist’s Qualification” by Oguro Yuuichirou

Translation 6 Responses »

Sep 222011

This is the first entry of a series of translations of staff commentaries and interviews of Mawaru Penguindrum and Shoujo Kakumei Utena I intend to post on this blog. Before people begin to throw eggs at me for including Utena stuff on a Mawaru Penguindrum blog, let me just say that a lot of thought and personal philosophy from the creators had gone into the making of Utena over 10 years ago, and Mawaru Penguindrum does feel to me like a reunion of these creators. While 10 years is neither long nor short in the span of one’s life, it is significant enough for gradual changes to modify one’s worldview one way or other, and it is interesting to ponder on the then and now.

Besides, ever since I came across this very comprehensive archive of Utena-related staff commentaries and interviews in Japanese that was begun in 2007, I have always wanted to translate some of them. Very likely some or all of them have already been translated by various individuals in the vast realm that is the Utena fandom… I confess that I have been living under a stone and I reckon that it would be quicker for me to translate them myself than to search for each of them by Google… (However, if you know where such translations can already be found, please feel free to let me know.)

The format of this series is simple: brief biography of the commentator, followed by the translation, and finally some personal comments.

Here we go:

Episode 10: Datte suki dakara / だって好きだから

Episodes 7 Responses »

Sep 182011

1) Fans of Utena should be no stranger to the “twisted” music that was played in Kanba’s descent in the hospital building. Touga also played this piece of music on a gramophone in episode 15 of Utena (that was during his period of sulking after being defeated in duel by Utena). It was the second movement of Dvorak’s Ninth Symphony “From the New World”.

[Storyboard] The hand that speaks a thousand words

Storyboard 6 Responses »

Sep 172011

I have always thought that the scenes in Utena that delivered the most emotional impact and stylish beauty were inevitably close-up shots of the hand.

If you have ever tried to draw the human figure, you would appreciate how difficult to draw hands. The hand is probably more difficult to draw than than the face. And Utena had the most elegantly drawn hands and hand gestures I have ever seen in animation. I have never seen animators paying such artistic attention to the hand ever since.

Illustration from Oct 2011 issue of NewType

Illustration 1 Response »

Sep 112011

Courtesy of Baidu -

As usual, the write-up is as thin as you normally find in NewType articles. The only thing of interest is the mention of kotodama [言霊] in relation to the Fate Diary. Those of you who remember my post on Mouryou no Hako [魍魎の匣] may remember this concept, which essentially is the belief that what you say in words has a magical way of becoming true:

Beautiful fan-made goods of Mawaru Penguindrum

Fandom 4 Responses »

Sep 112011

1) Papercraft of the Pingroup delivery box with the three penguins. The source is here.

[Trivia] Voice actor of Watase Sanetoshi: Koizumi Yutaka

Trivia 2 Responses »

Sep 102011

Here is a bit of interesting trivia I found on Wikipedia JP’s entry on Koizumi Yutaka [小泉豊], the voice actor who voices Watase Sanetoshi. Apparently, he plays more than one role in this series:

Watase Sanetoshi: This we already know from episode 9. He plays this character to perfection.
Doctor A: This would be the doctor in the emergency room in episode 1.
Teacher of World History: This would be the teacher at Ringo’s school in episode 2.
Event Host: I believe this would be the event host on the TV show in episode 4.

Anyway, I believe Watase Sanetoshi would be a breakthrough role for him in terms of gaining a fan base…

Older Entries

Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha

Iwa ni Hana: Mawaru Penguindrum – Commentary & Analysis

The Marunouchi Line and I

Penguindrum pilgrimage to Ogikubo?

[Trivia] Gray Wednesday and Ash Wednesday

Episode 13: Boku to kimi no tsumi to batsu / 僕と君の罪と罰

[Translation] “Shoujo Kakumei Utena” Privacy Files 1 – 3 by Enokido Youji

And I made apple curry…

Episode 12: Boku-tachi wo mawaru lin / 僕たちを巡る輪

[Trivia] The word “ringo” as an argot in Japanese

Episode 11: Youyaku kimi wa ki ga tsuitanosa /ようやく君は気がついたのさ

[Translation] “The Duelist’s Qualification” by Oguro Yuuichirou

Episode 10: Datte suki dakara / だって好きだから

[Storyboard] The hand that speaks a thousand words

Illustration from Oct 2011 issue of NewType

Beautiful fan-made goods of Mawaru Penguindrum

[Trivia] Voice actor of Watase Sanetoshi: Koizumi Yutaka

Categories

Archives

Links

Meta