First off, this took a long time because 1) me and my friend, who was the primary TL on this, both have jobs and other lol fansubbing obligations and 2) everyone talks really fucking weird. For example:

Mitsunari? That fucker loves making up words because actual Japanese isn’t angry enough to convey his RAGE. We were considering smashing together English words to reflect this, but most of our solutions were too stupid sounding to work at all (ex. “zanmetsu” yeah that’s not actually a word, it’s “decapitate” smashed into “destroy” -– I almost made it “decapistroy”).

His other tic is that he likes to use passive imperatives. No that’s not a typo PASSIVE IMPERATIVES (morelike passive aggressive amirite). So shit like ordering people, not to “die” but to “BE KILLED.”

I’m sure some of you hate how we rendered Masamune in the translation, but in our most humble opinions, no one has quite captured just how fucking obnoxious he is in English. Even his voice actor thinks he’s an obnoxious little shit (at the VA greeting event before the movie premier we went to, Nakai said something to the effect of “I feel kind of bad for Mitsunari. He’s just honestly trying to avenge his lord and then THIS FUCKER crashes in, spouting English left and right and generally being totally disrespectful!”).

Also, any Engrish errors (“Long time know see!”) were present in the script included with the Bluray. We left them intact because, quite frankly, Masamune is an idiot.

Other things:

You may have noticed that we translated the nicknames (Gyobu, Kingo, etc). They’re pretty much all plays on obscure Chinese court titles or similar things. I don’t remember specifics on all of them, but we tried to pick things that made sense and sounded reasonably like a nickname instead of a long string of words.

Mitsunari’s nicknames “The Minister of Misfortune” and “The King of Misfortune” are the same sort of thing. The longer title includes a play on how you read the kanji for Mitsunari. We went with “misfortune” over some variant on “evil” because idk, Mitsunari just comes off more pathetic than evil.

What else… Oh yeah, so this fucking movie has some lines/scenes that are so utterly incomprehensible that a lot of native Japanese people had no fucking clue what was going on in them. I found a lengthy post on one of those ask-people-questions sites in which one person asked for an explanation of that scene with Mitsunari and Otani in front of the Hideyoshi statue because Otani’s using metaphors + old timey Japanese, and in return got a 7 paragraph response from someone claiming to have seen the movie 6 times.

For some lines we decided to ignore whatever was literally being said in favor of cribbing lines from the US release of Basara 3 (see: some attack names, Oichi’s song and Keiji’s Basara phrase, though I made some tweaks to Oichi’s song to reflect what happens later). We sorta just picked and chose based on our own preferences for lines (basically if the Japanese was stupid we went with the English localization), so it’s not really a consistency thing.

And lastly (for now at least), when they re-kill Nobunaga at the end, he utters half of his historical final words: zehi mo nashi––which is just fancy old timey Japanese for everyone’s favorite “shikata ga nai.”

I think my friend and I should really get together and write some posts about actual history vs. Basara, because while Basara’s obviously completely ridiculous and not really attempting to be historically accurate pretty much ever, there are some interesting little nods to ~actual history~ that are pretty interesting.

1 絆・冠葉 – Bonds: Kanba
2 絆・チェイス – Bonds: Chase
3 やだなにこれ – Ew, What IS That?
4 恋のプレリュード – Prelude to Love
5 多蕗さんだらけの乙女ゲーム (オーディオドラマ) – The Totally Tabuki Dating Sim (Audio Drama)
6 乙女がタタッタ! – The Girl is TA-TA-TA! {I think this is a pun, tatatta as a SFX and past tense 叩く “to hit/abuse”}
7 妄想ワルツ – Delusional Waltz
8 衝撃の真実 (カーたんとラッちゃん) – Reality Bomb (Ottie and Kappie)
9 ピングミッション・リターンズ – Penguin Mission: Returns

Upcoming Episode titles

Station 18: So Just Be There For Me / だから私のためにいてほしい
Director & Storyboard: Yamauchi Shigeyasu – AD: Nishii Terumi & Baba Mitsuko
Nishii: I’m doing some of the key animation for episode 18 and it reminded me that Penguindrum has some actiony parts…Yamauchi Shigeyasu is directing episode 18, so I think it’ll be a pretty unique episode. Please look forward to it.

Station 19: My Soulmate / 私の運命の人
Director & Storyboard: Gotoh Keiji – AD: Gotoh Keiji, Ishii Kumi

Station 20: Thank You For Picking Me / 選んでくれてありがとう
Director & Storyboard: Hayashi Akemi – AD: TBA

Station 21: The Door of Fate That We Choose / 僕たちが選ぶ運命のドア
Director: Yamazaki Mitsue – Storyboard: Ikuni, Yamazaki Mitsue, Furukawa Tomohiro – AD: TBA

Station 22: Beautiful Coffin / 美しい棺
Staff (other than script): TBA

脚本/幾原邦彦、伊神貴世　演出・絵コンテ/山内重保　作画監督/西位輝実、馬場充子

第19話　私の運命の人
脚本/幾原邦彦、伊神貴世　演出・絵コンテ/後藤圭二　作画監督/後藤圭二、石井久美

第20話　選んでくれてありがとう
脚本/幾原邦彦、伊神貴世　演出・絵コンテ/林明美

第21話　僕たちが選ぶ運命のドア
脚本/幾原邦彦、伊神貴世　演出/山崎みつえ　絵コンテ/幾原邦彦、山崎みつえ、古川知宏

第22話　美しい棺
脚本/幾原邦彦、伊神貴世

Digest version:

Ok, so a summary of what we’ve learned so far from the spoilers:

About Tabuki and Yuri’s relationship:
They’re both using each other, but Yuri seems to have thought she was the only one doing the using. She gets mad when she finds out.
Tabuki: “In the end, we’re nothing but a fake family. We’re just using each other.”
It’s been mentioned vaguely a couple times that they separate at some point, but I don’t know the context.

About Tabuki’s backstory:
• Tabuki played piano and he worked really hard at it
• His mother was one of those crazy parents who thinks you’re worthless unless you’re the best
• At some point she gives him a couple of birds because “Human friends will only interfere with your piano.”
• She gets remarried and Tabuki gets a younger step brother who happens to be a musical genius
• Even after he finally gets first place, his little brother has already far out paced him and his mother stops loving him
• He gives up the piano{I think, I might be reading this wrong} . And then his mother lovingly says “If only you hadn’t been injured.”{note: no one has mentioned what caused the injury yet afaik, it seems that the injury to his hand is part of the reason he sucks as piano though}
• But, those kind words were meaningless and Tabuki ends up in the Child Broiler

About Tabuki in the Child Broiler:
Tabuki gets sent to the Child Broiler. It seems like it’s a place where unwanted children go {I got the impression from the discussion that it’s probably a place like the Hole in the Sky Annex}.
The children in the Broiler are going to be turned into “transparent beings” by the adults that work there. This appears to happen by dropping the children off a conveyer belt into fire.
Tabuki seems to have his pet birds with him in the Broiler and when he’s going to be turned into a “transparent being” the only thing he can think of is letting the birds, at least, escape.{from what I understand they do but Tabuki’s basically fucked himself in the process}
Momoka appears somewhere in the middle of this and grabs Tabuki’s hand to prevent him from falling into the fire, the adults burn her hand to get her to let go but she doesn’t.
Tabuki then wakes up outside with the Child Broiler building off in the distance.

About… things that probably happen next week:
It seems that for whatever reason, Tabuki decides to take revenge against the Takakuras for Momoka’s death. He kidnaps Himari and uses her to press Kanba for information about Kenzan’s whereabouts. He threatens to throw Himari from a gondola {now this might be an elevator car actually, because lol engrish, but idk how the fuck you’d throw someone from an elevator, so take it however you want}, but Kanba genuinely doesn’t seem to know anything.

Himari just wants the punishment to end.
“The Takakura family has no choice but to be embraced by hatred and anger.”
“I always felt that someday, we’d be punished like this.”
“And if that’s our inevitable fate, please find a way to punish me instead of Kanba and Shoma.”
“Oh god, please just end it all already.”
“To spare Kan and Sho from punishment, I will shoulder it all myself.”
“My life has been long enough. I had a happy life. So I want Kanba to live his own life.” and she tries to jump {to kill herself}, and even though Kanba is wrecking both his body and soul, he shouts, “But I /want/ to live for your sake!”

Then Tabuki goes, “Ringo, don’t end up like me.”

About Ringo and Shoma:
“I have to be stronger too. No matter how unfair it might seem, if this is our fate, then I have to accept it and become stronger. I dried my tears on my sleeve and stopped lying to myself. I’m never going to run away again, not from fate and not from Oginome.”

MSC stuff:
• Kanba gets jealous when he thinks Himari’s making a sweater for Sanetoshi but it turns out she’s making sweaters for Kanba and Shoma.
• Sanetoshi’s medicine seems like it needs to be administered regularly within a certain timeframe.
• Masako gets a new gun (maybe).

—

Raw post TLs:

• Apparently the medicine Sanetoshi’s giving Himari has to be readministered within a certain time period or it puts the patient’s life in danger?
When Tabuki kidnapped Himari, there was a sense or urgency about whether she’d get her evening dose in time.
• When Tabuki has Himari hostage, he calls out Kanba and seems to be pressing him for details regarding Kenzan’s whereabouts.
Even though Tabuki threatens to drop Himari from the gondola{I’m gonna guess there’s ferris wheel shenanigans involved here} as he interrogates Kanba, Kanba genuinely doesn’t seem to know where his father is.
• The weapon Masako uses is described as a “repurposed gattling gun”
Is she upgrading to that smaller gun she had in the first opening? Or is she going to keep using the sling shot in the anime?
• The birds in the first opening with Tabuki are probably gifts his mother gave him because, “human friends will only interfere with your piano.”
Even in the Child Broiler he had a bird cage, and when he was in peril of grave bodily harm, the only thing he could think of was letting at least the birds escape, but the cage was rusted shut and would not open. Tabuki nearly plunged into the flames at the end of the conveyer belt to soften the metal with the heat and open the cage before jumping off.
• Then from out of nowhere, Tabuki’s classmate Momoka appears in the Child Broiler with him and suggests that they escape.
She desperately tries to hold onto Tabuki’s hand after he fell into the fire from the conveyer belt.
Even after “adults” in work clothes burned Momoka’s hand, she didn’t let go and when Tabuki suddenly came to, they had escaped.

Ok, so someone started asking about whether this means the Child Broiler is a concrete/real place and someone else responded with some information compiled from people who got the book yesterday. From what I understand the quotes are quotes from the book:

“When I came to and opened my eyes, I was sitting here, but I have no recollection of how I got here.” That sort of thing. It’s not really clear whether it’s a dream world or a near-death experience related to suicide? or something.

Tabuki wakes up in the Child Broiler sitting on the floor, clutching his knees––> Momoka appears “We should go home!”
–>”But I have home to go back to. I’m worthless because I can’t play piano.” they argue for a while
–>Some adults appear in jumpsuits, “Alright everyone, we’re going to turn you all into transparent* beings now!” {* Seito Sakakibara reference most likely}
“It’s nothing to be scared of, you’re just going to never amount to anything!”
–>The floor starts to move like a conveyer belt. At the edge is a sharp drop and the children fall into the fire one by one.
–>Momoka grabs Tabuki’s hand to prevent him from falling –> the adults burn Momoka’s hand to try to make her let go
–>[Tabuki?] thinks he/they are falling but the next minute he wakes up and opens his eyes to see the blue sky above him and the Child Broiler building off in the distance

Later, the reason Momoka falls in love with Tabuki:
While [Tabuki] practices frantically in the music room even though he thinks his little brother is much better than him,
[Momoka says] “I could see the music glistening as it spilled out of the classroom window and into the hall and the garden. It was incredibly beautiful.”
“It doesn’t matter if your hand can’t play anymore, because what I heard was your heart.”
Or something like that.

Hey, how ’bout an out of context page.

The guy who posted it said “I’m sure the shipper faggots will love this”

Penguin 1 and 3 rolled around and crashed into each other, then they sat motionless, dumbfounded.

“But why!” She shouted at no one in particular. My stomach was boiling. “I don’t want anything [special]. Just, like normal.” I couldn’t hold back my tears as Oginome clung to my back. My back felt warm and her tears were soaking through my clothes. I could smell her scent.

“I’m not like that. There’s no way I could ever hate you guys!”

The powerful warmth of the arms wrapping around me from behind melted my heart just a little.

“I don’t think sad things or happy things are pointless. If it’s fate, surely they all have meaning. Accepting that has given me strength. So–” Even though I’d rejected her so strongly, Oginome said that to me. “So, don’t cry.”

I have to be stronger too. No matter how unfair it might seem, if this is our fate, then I have to accept it and become stronger. I dried my tears on my sleeve and stopped lying to myself. I’m never going to run away again, not from fate and not from Oginome.

About Yuri and Tabuki:

Yuri is using Tabuki and doesn’t love him, but when she finds out that Tabuki is using her too she gets mad, lololol

“In the end, we’re nothing but a fake family. We’re just using each other.”
[Tabuki] says, so maybe they’re trying to contrast “real” families.

[Himari] when she’s kidnapped by Tabuki [thinks/says]:
“The Takakura family has no choice but to be embraced by hatred and anger.”
“I always felt that someday, we’d be punished like this.”
“And if that’s our inevitable fate, please find a way to punish me instead of Kanba and Shoma.”
“Oh god, please just end it all already.”

A related chunk:

It was so sad when Himari prayed to god, “To spare Kan and Sho from punishment, I will shoulder it all myself.”
And then she says, “My life has been long enough. I had a happy life. So I want Kanba to live his own life.” as she tries to jump {to kill herself}, and even though Kanba is wrecking both his body and soul, he shouts, “But I /want/ to live for your sake!”

Related to ^:

Himari is saved.
Kanba shouts to Himari, “I /want/ to live for your sake!”
Tabuki: “Ringo, don’t end up like me.”

Ok, found a log of the previous thread (I missed the last 300 posts) and I was right that’s where most of the basic details came out.

About Tabuki:

• Tabuki played piano and he worked really hard at it
• His mother was one of those crazy parents who thinks you’re worthless unless you’re the best
• She gets remarried and Tabuki gets a younger step brother who happens to be a musical genius
• Even after he finally gets first place, his little brother has already far out paced him and his mother stops loving him
• He gives up the piano{I think, I might be reading this wrong} . And then his mother lovingly says “If only you hadn’t been injured.”
• But, those kind words were meaningless and Tabuki ends up in the Child Broiler

Found another piece:
We’re getting another Survival Strategy next week:

Kanba asks the Princess of the Crystal if the Penguin Drum is the diary and she responds “That’s classified”
And that if they neglect the Penguin Drum, “Someone in your family will be punished severely.”
“You two/all will cause harm to befall the one you care about most.” She says.

A little bit about Himari:

So, after Himari finishes the scarves she starts on a sweater. It seems like it’s for Sanetoshi and Kanba gets mad.
Even though it was an intentional mislead, it totally got me.
Anyway, Himari secretly reveals to Ringo that she’s knitting sweaters for Kanba and Shoma.

—–

On a tangent that I’ll probably make a proper post about later, here’s the letter Sakakibara wrote that “transparent being” thing probably comes from:

I happened to turn on the TV just before heading out earlier and I saw a news caster misread my name as “Onibara.”

Misreading a person’s name is an act of extreme derision. The letters written on the page aren’t some sort of code or riddle or ateji, it is my pure, unadulterated, truth. I had that name from the second I came into existence and what I wanted to do was already determined. But, regretfully, I have no nationality. Up until now, no one called me by my name. If I had remained me since I was born, I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to do something like leaving a severed head at the middle school gate.

When I thought to try it, I managed to enjoy being a murderer without anyone noticing. The reason I explicitly attracted the attention of society was that, I am now and always will be a transparent* being and at the very least I would like to be recognized as a real human even if only in the midst of your collective imagination. And at the same time, I don’t want you to forget my revenge against the society which created compulsory education, that compulsory education which produced a transparent being such as myself.
{*透明 means transparent both literally and in the sense of “transparent government” it has undertones of purity and lucidity, I suspect he means it primarily in the literal sense}

However, if it was simply revenge, I would have simply dropped the heavy load burdening me thus far and accomplished nothing.

Thus, I tried to consult with the only other transparent being in the world like myself.

When I did, he [said], “If you want to get revenge that has merit and is not pitiable, you should combine the murder that was your hobby, your raison d’etre, and your objective and enjoy your revenge as a game, you should transform your hobby from murder to revenge. I think, if you do that, you’ll create a new world just for yourself where you have nothing to gain and nothing to lose, no more and no less.”

I tried acting in line with what he said and started the murder game.

But, I still don’t know why I like to kill. I can’t really say anything but that it’s something I was born with. I am only released from this habitual hatred and am at peace when I am killing. Only the pain of others can soothe my pain.

Final comments

I think you’ll more or less understand the text written on this page, but I have more of an obsession with my own existence than your average person. Therefore, I cannot tolerate the misreading of my name and the defiling of my very existence. From what I’ve surmised of the police’s current actions, no matter how I look at it, even though it bothers me to the core, I don’t think they’re misrepresenting me on purpose. They’re not trying to crush my existence are they?

I’ve bet my life on this game. If I’m caught, I’ll probably be hung. So, while I won’t ask the police to bet their lives too, I want them to come after me with more rage and tenacity. From here on, if you misread my name one more time, or do something similarly apathetic, in one week I’ll smash three vegetables {tl note: vegetables means people}. You’ve made a grave mistake if you think I’m some young criminal who can only kill children.

––I posess the ability to kill a single human twice––

P.S. In case the letter I put in the head’s mouth is rendered illegible by rain or something else, I’ve included a copy of its contents with this letter.

So, over the years I’ve noticed a particular tendency among fangirls (I hesitate to call it a trend because it’s entirely possible that this attitude has always been there and I’ve only been deep enough recently to notice it) to basically straight up fetishize any and all gay male relationships. Now, I feel like there’s an important distinction between enjoying depictions of man-on-man relations of a romantic and/or sexual nature and fetishizing homosexuality (for the sake of brevity, for this post let’s just assume “homosexuality” refers specifically to male homosexuality––not that there aren’t ladies who fancy ladies gettin’ it on too, but that’s an entirely different discussion). And moreover the thing being fetishized isn’t the dude-on-dude aspect in and of itself so much as an, ultimately false, sense of authenticity.

More plainly: What is it with fangirls and this hangup about “real gay”? And why is it that everything with a hint of “gay” must be consumed?

False Authenticity

I’m sure anyone who’s spent anytime, even in passing, in BL (let’s just use BL as shorthand for “dude-on-dude romantic/sexual fantasy fiction made by ladies for ladies” from now on) related communities has probably seen people tossing around phrases like, “don’t use the words ‘seme’ and ‘uke’ because real gay couples aren’t broken down into those categories!” and “omg I can’t believe they left out the lubing up stage again! That’s not how gay sex works!” as if it was part of some sort of calculated PR campaign to make sure The Gays know fangirls are well informed™ about gay issues and don’t have any illusions about how unrealistic BL is. And by the same token we have fanfic writers engaging in hot debates about using only the most technically correct jargon when talking about buttsex, because describing the prostate except explicitly as a “gland” is incorrect and unrealistic.

It’s one thing to prefer romance/porn that’s more on the realistic side, but I feel like this weird, mandated pretense of realism is something else entirely. Because, ultimately it’s not about achieving “realism” so much as adding prescribed touches of authenticity to what ultimately amounts to fap material (you know, a sexual fantasy), but to what end? I don’t exactly have an answer, but I’ve got some vague ideas. I definitely feel like part of it is a weird attempt at uh… “political correctness”? for lack of a better term. But there definitely seems to be an element of general nerdsperg in it too––you know, in much the same way you’ll see the SF nerds going “Excuse me, his name isn’t ‘Doctor Who.’ It’s just ‘Doctor.’ We don’t actually know his name. Duh.”

There’s probably more to it than that, but I think both elements are certainly present and they’re both far from unproblematic. The “political correctness” element (ex: “don’t use the words ‘seme’ and ‘uke’ because real gay couples aren’t broken down into those categories!”) is really weirdly counterproductive imo. On one hand, the whole point of those efforts seem to be to point out the absurdity and lack of realism of BL (totally founded, objectively speaking) but at the same time it fosters this weird meta environment of “authenticity” that ends up blurring the lines between fantasy (i.e. porn) and reality (i.e. actual gay people––key word: people) in discussion. BL is, fundamentally, fantasy. It’s largely constructed around ludicrous stereotypes and cliches that bear little resemblance to real life. So, why is there this need to discuss ludicrous fantasy in “real” terms? The vast majority of BL manga is constructed around the fictional concepts of “seme” and “uke” (I’m not an expert on 3D gay porn but I’m p. sure it uses similar distinctions) so why the need to act like they don’t exist? Not that we shouldn’t critique BL because it’s “just porn,” but I think it is problematic to discuss the usually cliched and stereotyped as hell characters in your average BL in “real” terms. In more concrete terms, I guess I mean like: So <insert generic porny BL oneshot> you just read? Yeah one dude is the seme and one dude is the uke. Why? Because those are the concepts around which that story was constructed (like, chances are that story was probably pitched to the magazine with those explicit terms). So isn’t it a little weird to be discussing those characters like they deserve respect like real people?

The nerd spergular side of things is more an issue of construction than consumption. Of course, people still use these arbitrary “authenticity” standards to discuss and judge the works they consume, but it’s more visible in the generation side of things. Were you to check out the work of a long-time BL fanfic writer, I’m positive you’ll find it peppered with “authenticity tokens” (ex. overly precise anatomical language, bordering on medical-terminology at times; any sex act will follow the prescribed fangirl “authentic” pattern with very prominent, specific details about things like lube and preparation––it’s about specificity and “accuracy” not about sexiness in these details and it seems to go far beyond verisimilitude). As with most nerd sperg it’s basically a dick measuring contest. It seems like new “tokens” get introduced as a means to one-up each other on authenticity until they become standard currency. Readers compliment writers on how authentic and realistic the work is despite the fact that the vast majority of them have probably never gotten anywhere near a dude’s butt, let alone participated in anal sex OR you know, been a man engaged in dude-on-dude butt love (I don’t mean that to be virgin-shaming or whatever, just that, the vast majority of people participating in this sub-sub culture are thoroughly and completely disconnected from the “reality” that it vaguely, at best, resembles).

Anyway, I think the most problematic aspect of the nerd sperg is probably that those who trade in these “authenticity tokens” become sort of self-proclaimed experts on gay dudes and gay relationships and gay sex even though they’re so far removed from the reality of it. Further, it codifies a rather warped and, well, spergular, idea of what “real” gay men are like (and of course the sperging itself is a kind of objectification, but I just sorta assume that goes without saying). And then it seems to lead occasionally into this weird objectification of real gay men (not because they’re hot, but expressly because they’re gay).

At any rate, for whatever reason it occurs exactly, many fangirls seem to have a fixation on “authenticity” even if this idea of authenticity is largely just a heavily codified set of rules, tropes and stereotypes that are perhaps just as ludicrous (if not moreso for their claim to reality) as the cliches and stereotypes in the BL they were born in reaction to. Which brings me to the next half of this discussion:

Fetishizing Homosexuality

So, to be perfectly clear, again, there’s a distinct difference between liking to watch two dudes boinking and the fangirl fetishization of all things gay. The more I think about it, it’s reminding me more of weeabooism’s relationship with Japan. The weeaboo has a heavily distorted image of Japan and the Japanese language. She or he tries to utilize “authentic” elements of the culture/language in their own creative endeavors, but ultimately those tokens of authenticity are only tenuously related to the source and in a way become a code of their own. The weeaboo’s quest for authenticity through these tokens leads to a sort of inability to distinguish between reality and their code of authenticity. I hesitate to make the comparison between the weeaboo’s deep seated desire to actually be Japanese (often out of a feeling of displacement in their native culture), though I’m sure there’s an element of that among fangirls as well though that sense of displacement is probably more related to The Patriarchy than the standard weeaboo I-don’t-have-any-friends/I-hate-America thing––at any rate, I don’t want to make that jump there because, while there are certainly fangirls out there who proclaim their desire to be gay men or proclaim that they are trans gay men (not to imply that they’re necessarily illegitimate), it seems like a less common, or at least less overt, phenomenon in this group and sexual identity stuff is complicated.

Anyway, like I was saying, the fangirl fetishizes gay men in the same way the weeaboo fetishizes Japan. I’m seeing more people these days (again this is probably less of a trend and more of an exposure thing) who will  a) only watch a show (/otherwise consume a piece of media, but most of my experience here is with anime/TV) if there are gay elements or hints of homosexuality (ex. “Does this show have any homolust in it?” “No, not really.” “Aw, I guess I won’t be watching it.”) and/or b) will be compelled to watch something precisely because it has a gay character/couple in it (ex. “Hey you should watch this thing it’s good.” “Nah, I hate that shit.” “There’s a gay dude in it.” “Sold!”––1 month later: 300,000 words of fanfiction and counting). Then there’s, of course, the ever present authenticity element. In this case media is arbitrarily given more attention/acclaim for being more “realistic” even though it’s generally quite the opposite (how many fangirls have you seen gushing about how realistically and well Wandering Son handled LBGT issues vs. No. 6? Yeah). At any rate, I guess if we simplify it down to the analogy fangirl:gay dudes::weeaboo:Japanese shit the media selectivity thing makes sense (swap “gay dude” and “homolust” for something Japan related).

I guess one of the things I don’t really understand is the “I’m only watching this show for the homolust” phenomenon. Doubly so with merely “slashy” shows. Just, why? If you want homo romance there’s a shitton of actual BL out there. Just to be clear I’m not wut-ing at like BL fan stuff in general, it’s just like, I don’t understand why people actively seek out media to stan that they do not enjoy at all save for some gay hints about some usually minor characters. Writing BL fanfic about your favorite characters from your favorite show? Makes sense. Begrudgingly deciding to watch (by one’s own admission) boring, generic as hell shonen action show #8734 because it has some homolusty overtones? Yeah, idgi. Could it just be a factor of people newer to the animes who don’t know where to get what they’re looking for (I’m looking at you, No. 6 fans who keep saying that No. 6 is in any way unique for having BL elements in a not explicitly BL series)? Is it a shame thing? (like, a need to couch BL stuff in a “legitimate” show as an excuse) Or something else entirely?

Conclusions?

Like I said, I don’t really have a particular point or a conclusion to make, just that there are some really kinda weird (imo) and kind of problematic (in the that’s-kinda-sexist/racist sense, but idk what you call it when it’s about sexuality, you know what I mean) aspects to some subsets of the whole BL thing (not that the rest of BL isn’t problematic in it’s own way) that are probably worth talking about. lol, anecdotes isn’t really the place to start insofar as declaring something “Offensive” (and I won’t even pretend to be thoroughly informed on all the related subject matter) so I’m not trying to make any kind of authoritative statement about it, just, you know, some of this seems potentially kind of problematic and it’d be interesting to discuss further. There doesn’t seem to be much critical discourse on the fandom in the anime/Japan arena (though I guess most of this really isn’t exclusive to anime) that like American comics seems to have, though (and most of that seems exclusively focused on male fans). Annnd train of thought status: lost. Anyhow,

tl;dr fangirls, discuss?

[source]

The first BD will be out on the 26th, that’s two days from now. If you can afford it you should probably consider buying it if for no other reason than the fact that the extras look fucking sweet:

- Episodes 1-3
- Audio commentary on all three episodes. Episode 1 is with Arakawa Miho (Himari) and Ikuni. Episodes 2 and 3 are with Arakawa Miho (Himari), Miyake Marie (Ringo) and Ikuni.
- HD versions of the 6 pre-show CMs
- Bonus CD containing:
— 7 OST tracks (listed above)
— The audio drama “The Murder of Penguin 0,” featuring: Kimura Subaru (Kanba), Kimura Ryohei (Shoma), Arakawa Miho (Himari) and Miyake Marie (Ringo) with script by: Takahashi Kei
- 4P guide booklet (this has a long interview with Ikuhara in it, it looked like it was 4 pages of solid text when they flashed it on KossoPin)
- 12P bonus booklet, “Princess of the Crystal” corrected genga collection
- Postcards of Hoshino Lily’s endcards for the first three episodes

• There’s a Triple H ARB cover album to be released December 21st.
• Innocent World is doing a Penguindrum collaboration piece.
• Here’s what the second novel’s cover looks like. The book’s due out at the end of the month.

Upcoming Episodes:

[EDIT] Titles seem to have been fake!

Station 16: “True Feelings” 本当の気持ち  “The Immortal Man” 死なない男 (10/27)
Director & Storyboard: Kaneko Shingo – AD: Ishikawa Tomomi, Kagami Takahiro

Station 17: “The Me Inside the Cage” 檻の中の僕 “The Unforgivable” 許されざる者  (11/3)
Director, Storyboard & AD: Nakamura Shouko, Aizawa Masahiro – Storyboard: + Ikuhara

Station 18: “So Just Be There For Me” だから私のためにいてほしい (11/10)
Director: Yamauchi Shigeyasu – Storyboard: TBA – AD: Nishii Terumi
Nishii: I’m doing some of the key animation for episode 18 and it reminded me that Penguindrum has some actiony parts…Yamauchi Shigeyasu is directing episode 18, so I think it’ll be a pretty unique episode. Please look forward to it.

BD2′s LE content announced on Twitter:

- Episodes 4-6
- An interview with Hoshino Lily
- 12P booklet, “Hoshino Lily Original Character Design Collection”
- Commentary with Kimura Ryouhei, Kimura Subaru and Ikuni
- Bonus CD containing:
— The audio drama, “The Totally Tabuki Dating Sim”
— There will be more OST tracks, but no mention of how many {corrected because lol I can’t read}
- Postcards of Hoshino Lily’s endcards for 4-6

Reminder about BD1′s LE content:

- Episodes 1-3
- Audio commentary on all three episodes. Episode 1 is with Arakawa Miho (Himari) and Ikuni. Episodes 2 and 3 are with Arakawa Miho (Himari), Miyake Marie (Ringo) and Ikuni.
- HD versions of the 6 pre-show CMs
- Bonus CD containing:
— 7 OST tracks
— The audio drama “The Murder of Penguin 0,” featuring: Kimura Subaru (Kanba), Kimura Ryohei (Shoma), Arakawa Miho (Himari) and Miyake Marie (Ringo) with script by: Takahashi Kei
- 4P guide booklet (this has a long interview with Ikuhara in it)
- 12P bonus booklet, “Princess of the Crystal” corrected genga collection
- Postcards of Hoshino Lily’s endcards for the first three episodes

The DVD is missing the genga collection and the bonus CD. So, OBTAIN THE BLURAY!

Most of the big anime shops are packaging awesome, additional bonus items with it, but they’re pretty much out of reach for us foreigners unless you want to pay stupid sums of money to use a proxy (iirc Toranoana is giving away a hard cover replica of Ringo’s diary + a destiny stamp if you preorder 1-4 :( I wants it). But if you want to support the show, Amazon’s probably your best price right now, the BD’s going for ￥6776 compared to the original price of ￥9240 it’s a pretty decent deal (and if you preorder all 8 at once you can get them shipped to the states for ￥513/ea).

Animedia (sort of) spoilers:

• Shoma will try to part with Ringo after this
• Masako’s going to be doing things the audience couldn’t even imagine from here on, perhaps there’s some incident that will/has shaken Kanba even more?
• Ringo manages to solidify her resolve to break free from the curse of the diary and live out her own fate
• Tabuki and Yuri still have roles to fulfill
• Having given her the medicine, Sanetoshi now holds the key to Himari’s survival, and the balance between the three Takakura siblings begins to crumble
• “If [the show] is a roller coaster, the first half is just the ascent, it gives you time to enjoy the scenery. But, the in the second half… you fall at immense speed (lol). It’s scary and heartrending.”
• The penguins are going to stay silly

Sanetoshi asks this question in episode 13:

What do you think of the word “fate”?
Does the concept of fate exist in reality?
To put it simply, are people’s future set in stone when they are born, never to be challenged?
Do you believe in such a rule?

And each of the three main characters have already given their answers to it:

Shoma’s (also Kanba’s in 12) answer:

I hate the word “fate.”
Birth, encounters, partings, success and failure, fortune and misfortune in life.
If everything is already set in stone by fate, then why are we even born?
There are those born wealthy, those born of beautiful mothers and those born into war or poverty.
If that’s all caused by fate, then God must be incredibly unfair and cruel.
Because, ever since that day, none of us had a future.
The only thing we knew was that we would never amount to anything.

Kanba’s answer:

Why are people born?
If people are born only to suffer, is it meant as some kind of a punishment?
Or a cynical joke?
If that’s the case, animals that adhere to the survival strategies programmed in their DNA…are far more elegant and simple.
If there really is an existence worthy of being called “God,” I want to ask him just one thing.
Is there really fate in the universe?
If a man ignored his fate and his instincts and his DNA’s commands…to love someone…
Dear God, is he really human?
Just wondering.
I hate the word “fate.”

Ringo’s answer:

I love the word “fate.”
You know how they talk about “fated encounters”?
Just one single encounter can completely change your life.
Such special encounters are not coincidences.
They’re definitely… fate.
Of course, life is not all happy encounters.
There are many painful, sad predicaments.
It’s hard to accept that misfortunes beyond your control are fate.
But I think…there’s a meaning no matter how sad and painful it may be.
Nothing in this world is pointless.
Because… I believe in fate.

Anyway, kind of obvious and I don’t have any solid analysis atm, but I thought it was interesting.

オトナアニメディアvol.2より
西位　13話と18話と最終話を作画監督予定で後は雑誌の版権イラストを書いている
18話でちょっとだけ原画をやる　『ピングドラム』にしてはアクション的なものがある気が
最終話も私が作画監督なので面倒な事をやらされる気が
18話は山内重保さんが演出を担当するので大分異色な回になるかと思います。お楽しみに。
山崎　私は14話を担当しているのですがたぶんゆりさんがエロいことをすると思います。私はエロ担当を自負してる
柴田　僕のやっている15話ではゆりさんの重い過去が明かされます。
15話は幾原監督が大事にしている回で物語のキーとなるお話。ピングドラムの謎も少し解明されるのでお楽しみに。
木村昴　実は16～18話くらいで一気に話の展開が変わってくる。

From Otona Animedia vol 2

Nishii: I’m planned to be the animation director for episodes 13, 18 and the finale, and then I’ll be drawing illustrations for magazines. I’m doing some of the key animation for episode 18 and it reminded me that Penguindrum has some actiony parts, and I’m also the animation director for the final episode so I feel like I have to do all the hard parts. Yamauchi Shigeyasu is directing episode 18, so I think it’ll be a pretty unique episode. Please look forward to it.

Yamazaki: I’m in charge of episode 14, but I think Ms. Yuri’s doing some sexy things. I like to think of myself as the “sexy” director on the staff.

Shibata: I’m directing episode 15 and Yuri’s serious past will become clear. Director Ikuhara told me that episode 15 is an important key to the story. Since it’ll clarify some of the mysteries about Penguindrum/the Penguin Drum, please look forward to it.

Kimura Subaru: Actually, around episodes 16~18 the way the story unfolds will change dramatically.

If anyone was concerned about the production schedule I think this segment should put you at ease some too.

[EDIT] Not really a spoiler, but the official site updated with a summary for episode 12 and it has Momoka’s age in it:

16年前の3月20日。この日起こった地下鉄爆破事件で多くの人が死んだ。死亡者の中には、10歳になった苹果の姉、桃果も含まれていた。

March 20th, 16 years ago. Many people died in the subway bombing that occurred that day. Among the victims was Ringo’s older sister, Momoka, who had just turned 10. ….

[EDIT] Some other stuff (actually some of this popped up last night, but the person who posted about it initially didn’t make a lot of sense and someone else’s gone back and confirmed/rephrased the information). Anyway, this is a direct quote from the “key words” section of Otona Animedia:

16年前の呪い
かつて冠葉は真砂子に対して、
「のろわれるなら一緒に呪われてやる。未来永劫、それが俺たちをつなぐ絆だ」と言ったらしい
プリンセス・オブ・クリスタルも、晶馬と苹果の前で「これがヤツに下された呪いと言う訳か！」と話しているがこの二つの呪いは同じものなのか？

The Curse from 16 Years Ago
It seems that in the past Kanba had told Masako,
“If we are to be cursed, curse us together. As that bond will bind us for all eternity.”
The Princess of the Crystal also tells Shoma and Ringo, “Is this the curse they/he* laid upon you/us!?” {* ヤツ so probably the same they/he she asked Shoma to stop this week}
Are there two curses or are they talking about the same thing?

It’s also come up that Mario’s name is spelled 万里夫 in kanji and something about (I think? it’s really out of context) Kanba’s run-in with Mario in episode 10 wasn’t the first time they’d met (I thought that was kind of obvious from his reaction though). There’s also some talk that the magazine confirmed that Masako’s Project M = Project Mario

[EDIT] Man, stuff is just trickling out. So much for the people saying they read Otona Animedia cover to cover already.

Apparently they’re done recording through episode 18, so it sounds like the schedule is, again, fine.

Something I missed earlier, in some interview apparently “Imagine!” at the end of the transformation was originally going to be “Change the world!”

[EDIT] More weird shit:

メリーさんの羊
正気を失った晶馬が呟き続ける物語。
美しい3匹の小羊を飼っていたメリーさんは、黒い鳥に誑かされ女神の神殿から灰を盗んでしまう。
そのことに女神は怒り、メリーさんの羊の中から、一番幼い小羊に罰を与えるのだった。
高倉家に起きる悲劇を示唆するような内容だが・・・

映像戦略
晶馬の心の中
陽毬が倒れてしまったのを目の当たりにした晶馬が、正気を失って『メリーさんの羊』の物語を呟くシーン。
メリーさんや羊の姿をした高倉三兄弟妹や黒いウサギ（実際の物語では黒い鳥）のイメージが出てくる。
絵本風のタッチで一見可愛らしく見せているが、錯乱している晶馬の心の中の狂気が余計に際だってる。

Mary Had a Little Lamb

The story Shoma mumbles after he snaps.
Mary, who kept three adorable little lambs, was tricked by black birds* and ended up stealing ashes from the Temple of the Goddess. {* yes it says birds, 2ch is debating whether this is an error or a spoiler}
This angered the goddess and she singled out the smallest of Mary’s sheep for punishment.
The subject matter of the story seems to hint at the disaster the Takakura family caused, but…

Visual Strategy
In Shoma’s Mind

In the scene where Shoma snaps when Himari collapses before his eyes and mumbles the story “Mary had a little lamb.”
The images of Mary, the Takakura siblings as the lambs and the black rabbits (they’re black birds in the actual story*) appear. {*again it does say birds, 2ch thinks this is fucking weird too}
The picture book style looks cute at first glance, but it highlights the madness brewing in Shoma’s mind as he’s lost it.

First off, I just have to say that I think this episode really highlights Ikuhara’s strengths as a director. I don’t think you have to be an Ikuhara fantard to agree that the man knows how to use music (or a lack of it) to push all the right emotional buttons. The scene of Kanba desperately begging the Princess to take more of his life to save Himari really reminded me of the end of Utena (and in a lot of respects this middle episode felt like a finale, but that’s another topic)––particularly the bit in the last episode where Missing Link starts and Utena’s crawling on the floor just crying “Himemiya!” over an over. Shit makes me cry every time.

Anyway, some miscellaneous thoughts about the episode because I can’t formulate any of this into a coherent post right now (>implying I can ever formulate a coherent post)

Mary and the Lambs

Hey it’s like the fish story all over again. There are like 15 different things going on at once with the story which just make it super complicated (like everything else in the show).

Mary had three adorable little lambs.
The sight of them walking in the pasture turned everyone’s heads.
The little lambs’ wool shone like angels’ wings.
Mary couldn’t wait to spin their wool into thread.
But one day,
Mary awoke to a surprise.
The apple tree in the garden had withered.
It was the first tree in the world.
The tree that bore golden fruit each year.
It was Mary’s other dear, dear treasure.
Mary ran to the apple tree and broke into tears.
The apple tree’s light had once been the source of world’s love, future and dreams.
Now, the world is shrouded in darkness.
Mary cried on and on and the lambs’ consolation fell on deaf ears.
Suddenly, a voice rained down from the sky.
Don’t give up.
The world has not ended yet.
When Mary looked up, there were two unsual, huge, black bunnies sitting on a rock.
The black bunnies said,
“You know the Shrine of the Goddess deep in the forest?
Go and collect ashes from the flaming torch inside.
This tree will recover the instant you sprinkle the ashes over it!”
Mary declined.
Their taboo forbade human contact with the torch of the Goddess.
“You’re just going to borrow some ashes!”
“The world will be filled with light once again!”
“The Goddess will be pleased, too!”
That night, Mary stole the ashes from the shrine and sprinkled them over the apple tree.
Just as the black bunnies claimed, the apple tree was revived.
Mary was overjoyed, dancing under the tree, blind to the three little lambs.
However, the Goddess was furious.
It was, after all, a taboo.
The Goddess decided to punish Mary.
But… the punishment was ultimately up to the Goddess’s whim.
“Eeney, meeny, miny, moe!”
The Goddess chose the smallest, youngest lamb.
The lamb she chose was a gentle and kind girl.
Who likes to cook and knit, and always worries about her good-for-nothing brothers.
She was but a little girl.
Himari…
The brother lambs who were left behind cried…
“O Goddess, why did you choose Himari?”
“Because punishment…”
“Because punishment has to be the most unjust.”

Ok, so the imagery presented with the story implies (well, Shoma pretty much says as much by the end by saying Himari’s name) Mary = Kenzan, the three lambs = Takakura siblings and the bunnies are pretty clearly the creepy kids with Sanetoshi.

The unclear roles are the apple tree and the goddess. My initial thought (and a lot of people are going this way too) is that the apple tree is Chiemi and something happened to her. The more I think about it the less sure I am of that though. It did occur to me that it’s an apple tree, you know, a tree that bears apples, so it might be implying Eriko (who bore Ringo (apple) ), but I have a hard time thinking of Kenzan that way even though we’ve surely only gotten a distorted image of him so far.

Anyway. I don’t think the stealing of the ashes could be related to the terrorist attack Kenzan was involved with. At least I don’t think it could be a direct allusion since in the story, the tree abruptly dies while Mary has the three lambs and Himari wasn’t even born yet. We also know with some certainty that Kenzan and Chiemi were alive and living with their kids up until at least three years ago (of course that doesn’t exclude the possibility that Chiemi had gotten ill/died-except-not prior to that). Though the way Shoma frames it, the lamb’s death is punishment for stealing the ashes and Shoma clearly considers what happens to Himari as “punishment” for their “sin” earlier. I guess what I’m questioning here is what Shoma considers the “sin.” He does tell Ringo that he considers the incident in 1995 his and Kanba’s fault, but I don’t recall him calling it their “sin.” So I guess I’m just trying to say that there’s still some question over what the “sin” and stealing the ashes actually symbolize. The Mary story’s still sort of fuzzy enough in terms o how it lines up thus far that you could probably make the argument that the Mary story timeline doesn’t necessarily match up with the rest of the show 100% , but I think it does raise some questions.

Orite, and the goddess. I’m thinking the obvious reading is that she’s the Princess of the Crystal. Making the ashes the Penguin Drum I guess? idk, I still haven’t thought this out much, but I suspect the people she wants Shoma to stop are Sanetoshi and the creepy twins (from approaching Kanba and offering him a deal). Then again, the one person we’ve met so far who has asked our protagonists to retrieve an item (like the bunnies ask for the ashes) is the Princess of the Crystal, asking for the drum (incidentally because it would revive Himari like the ashes would revive the tree, and so on). Also PotC wears black and Sanetoshi white, but idk! She did seem to characterize herself in opposition to the bunnies though. Anywho, I wouldn’t count the genders in the story for shit considering motherfucking Kenzan is Mary.

“It’s a boy.”

So, yeah, Kenzan’s phone call from the hospital has been a hot topic discussion both on 4chan and 2ch (that is, in case you were worried that people were suspicious about that line purely because they can’t into Japanese well, the Japanese viewers thought it was weird too).

While, yes, it’s entirely possible to read that conversation in the plural it’s still weird. Most people seem to agree that you’d normally mention that there were twins and you’d mention that they’re both boys even if it was already known that they’re twins (just not gender). Fundamentally, we don’t really know anything for sure from Kenzan’s phone conversation, just that it was written in an intentionally ambiguous way.

The wife line sounds weird to me too, but I haven’t seen anyone on 2ch mention it (it’s possible that I missed it if they did, but I did a quick search through the post-12 threads and I don’t see anything about it) so I’m gonna dismiss that as can’t-into-Japanese-well. It’s probably a you-wouldn’t-call-anyone-but-your-wife 妻 like that, but idk (maybe I’m crazy but couldn’t you use it like that with a close friend re: his wife?).

I’m not a fan of the the-twins-are-the-same-person theory line though. Maybe one of the boys was adopted? Idk. I don’t think it could be something like: Eriko was the one who had twins, Shoma (or Kanba) and Ringo, but gave the boy away to the Takakuras, just because of how little Tabuki described Momoka looking forward to having a little sister (unless it was a SURPRISE! TWINS! situation). Idk what to make of this either, it could easily be misleading trolling too––seriously guys, don’t put that shit past Ikuhara. He is not above trolling the shit out of his audience.

“There wasn’t a trace of her left. They only found her diary.”

They never found Momoka’s body. This is super suspicious and I think it gains some points for the Yuri-is-Momoka camp, especially how Momoka’s image was obscured. Again, never leave trolling off the list of possible explanations for shit in the show, but it’s still fucking suspicious.

Tabuki’s odd scar is weird as fuck too. (2ch was making Kaiji jokes too just fyi.) Dunno what to make of that either (noticing a pattern yet? lol). My wild guess is that Tabuki can’t believe that Momoka died in the terror incident precisely because they’d been in an extremely dangerous incident before and both had survived, but perhaps left Tabuki scarred. Curiously we never see the scar on his right hand when he’s an adult. I haven’t gone through the show and carefully watched to see if we ever get a clear, close shot of Tabuki’s right hand (just from going through the screenshots I took I have a crazy theory that perhaps we never have actually seen a clear shot of Tabuki’s right hand that wasn’t in one of Ringo’s fantasies, but I haven’t tested it yet and it sounds like :effort:).

Other stuff

Not really sure where to categorize this since it’s more of a general thing, but I think the common characterization of Kanba as the more selfless of the twins is a bit off base. I think you could very easily argue that Kanba is extremely selfish and that he really only wants to save Himari because of his own desires (as in: he doesn’t want to save his sister because he loves her (as a sister) and wants her to live a long, happy life so much as because he’s IN love with her and can’t deal with the thought of losing her––like, it’s not really for Himari as much as it is for himself). But I’m not really sure I completely agree with that either. I don’t think we have a totally clear picture about how Kanba feels about just about anything yet (that and the fact that I’m sure we could debate at length about the nature of selfishness and love without reaching any meaningful conclusion because lol abstract concepts). Anyway, just another perspective to consider.

■ 14話 嘘つき姫 （10/13）
脚本＝幾原邦彦、伊神貴世　演出・絵コンテ＝山崎みつえ　作画監督＝未定
■ 15話 世界を救う者（10/20）
脚本＝幾原邦彦、伊神貴世　演出＝未定　絵コンテ＝未定　作画監督＝未定

Staff hasn’t been updated since last time. It’s not 100% confirmed but usually by the time the 2chers have put it in the listing it’s correct.

Also this fucking episode, my mind is full of fuck.