1) A word on the stars:
Let me draw an analogy: Say you have rubbish in your room. You put them in the garbage can, and your room is considered “clean”. But if you don’t put them in the garbage can, your room is considered “unclean”. Physically speaking there is no change in the things that are in your room (ie. rubbish and garbage can), it is only the difference in the their relationship to each other that determines whether your room is “clean” or “unclean”.
Likewise, the stars are not an indication of any meaning in themselves, it is only their relation to other objects on the screen that makes the difference.
In episode 1, the stars around Himari serve to emphasize her heaven-like quality in the eyes of her brothers.
In episode 2, the same stars emerge from the toilet seat, and that is a cruel joke on Ringo’s self-obssesion that even her urine/feces seem “heavenly” to herself. (You also get a clue of how self-obssessed she is when she is later invited to the Takakura home for dinner/breakfast – where it does not even cross her mind to ask where the Takakura parents are.)
We now also see the same stars in episode 7 where they turn out to be just mosquitoes the moment Ringo wakes to reality when she is bitten by a mosquito.
2) I have to say that this is the character with most fabulous flair in the whole series by far. Nearly the whole cast in Utena have their individual flairs in their own right, but somehow I am not sensing the kind of flair in any of the characters in Mawaru Penguindrum. Apparently this character is called Yuki Tsubasa [結城翼] and is voiced by Paku Romi [朴 璐美].
Speaking of voice actors, there were rumours circulating on 2ch that Ikuni himself would appear as a voice actor in this episode, but I don’t think I heard him at all.
Interestingly, the Man in Power below was voice-acted by Nakata Jouji [中田譲治]. A bit of a waste to hire him say just a few lines, methinks.
3) Just as predicted, “M” stood for “maternity” after all.
While this “tamahomare” frog is obviously be fictitious, you wonder why they bother to bring it up. I don’t have any good answer at this point, though I think this frog is probably of the same category as Nanami’s magic curry that made Utena and Anthy swap their personalities. That is to say, it is purely a humorous invention.
3) Fans on 2ch have pointed out that the names of all the Takakura men refer to accessory items typically associated with The Prince:
- Kenzan -> 剣山 -> 剣 -> Sword
- Kanba -> 冠葉 -> 冠 -> Crown
- Shouma -> 晶馬 -> 馬 -> Horse
4) Mawaru Penguindrum is obviously going to be one series that is analyzed to death by fandom at large. Some useful resources that have emerged on the web so far:
- Fan-made layout of the Takakura home
- English translation of the novel
- Photos of the real Tokyo on which the setting is based
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