Speculation on Fate, Apples, and Transportation in Matawaru Pengiundrum

Watched the first episode yesterday and, a day later, I’m still trying to process how awesome it this show already is. The following is just my personal mulling and theories of what we’ve seen so far.

I’ll be using gg’s sub and as my analysis is really quote heavy, please feel free to point out stuff that hasn’t been fully nuanced in the translation or things I totally went off on the wrong track on because of my poor Japanese.




It’s kind of interesting the color assignment here and what it tells of the characters. Given the trashcan penguins and whatnot (a discussion completely onto itself which has given a tangent on it's own by kyon_kun's second comment), we can assume that Green=Himari, Sho=Blue, and Red=Kanba. But look what color is governing what area. Himari over fantasy books, Sho over feminine objects, and Kanba…well now. The second Anonymous commenter has made an absolutely brilliant analysis of every object in this frame and what these object have to say about the sibling's personality.

”I’ll show you that fate can be changed!”

First off, let’s start out with how fate is defined and understood in the Pengiundrum universe. Given how it’s treated so far, this is probably the show’s main theme. Like how Revolutionary Girl Utena's main theme is “revolutionize the world,” Pengiundrum is something like “changing/rebelling against fate.” From the opening monologue:

Shouma: I hate the word "fate."
Birth, encounters, partings, success and failure, fortune and misfortunes in life.
If our lives are already set in stone by fate, then why are we even born?
There are those born to wealthy families, those born of beautiful mothers, and those born into the middle of war or poverty.
If that's all caused by fate, then God is incredibly unfair and cruel.
Because, ever since that day, none of us had a future and the only certain thing was that we wouldn't amount to anything.

To revolutionize the world implies that that one has the power to change the world to fit one’s vision whereas altering fate is a more personal action: it’s that one has to change themselves in spite of the world. This difference is already telling of what kind of story that’s going to be told: the main characters are operating in a framework they’re can’t (for now) exceed. They’re stuck in their roles—it’s not possible for them to change the fact that they were “born to wealthy families,” etc. whereas Utena (the character) starts out being able discarding her set role as “princess” for one of a “prince” and through changing herself, she able to change the rules which her world operates on. What Shouma’s complaining about in the opening is the fact that, if there is such a thing as fate, he doesn’t have the power to overturn it.

Of course, given that this show is going to be all about playing around with fate, this rule is obviously going to be broken, but before I go about showing how the show’s probably going to do so let’s first flesh out and define how fate’s being understood so far.

Going from Shouma’s monologue, we are given the definition that fate is pretty much everything that happens to a person. It’s the situations that govern a person during his or her birth, life, and death. Everything is being predetermined by something or someone (God). In fact, the only thing that Shouma doesn’t attribute to fate is a person's thoughts and self-consciousness. He’s finding a problem with the fact that a person has the ability to see all sorts of different possibilities, but is still only able to follow a set path.

Kanba’s monologue at the end further adds to the discussion by articulating how morality and the divide between animal and humans operate within the question of fate. He says:

Kanba: Why are people born?
If people are born only to suffer the hard life, is it meant as some kind of 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 a God, I want to ask him one thing.
Is there really a fate in the universe?
If a man ignored the fate, and ignored his instincts and DNA to love someone else...
Dear God, Is he really human?
Just wondering.

This bit is super juicy with all sorts of different implications but let’s just start slowly unpacking it piece by piece. Kanba continues where Shouma leaves off: he agrees with the whole “free will” bit implicitly when he asks why people are born into suffering. After all, he argues that if people’s lives are already predetermined with hardships and suffering—what is the point of them being self-conscious?

Kanba further defines the difference between humans and animals as being that animals don’t have the same awareness that human’s have: they act simply to the coding that is “programmed into their DNA.” Of course, given that humans are a kind of animal, they too have that programming—the things that they should do to ensure that they continue to live. This is the sort of paradox he’s conflicting against in the end—there are the things that he ought to do as an animal, and there are the things he wants to do as a human.

The unvoiced question here, then, the reason why Kanba is questioning if a person is a person, is what should a person do. Of course, if fate does exist than this question is moot and the fact that a person even has a free will is “a cynical joke.” But even regardless of whether it does exist, a person still has to mentally make that decision.

To anyone familiar with theology, this of course is the million dollar, much debated question regarding predestination. I’m going to hit all the religious stuff in the apple’s section of this post so I’m going to skip analyzing it here.

Moving onto what all of this means in the first episode, the two brothers are obviously struggling to cope with the fact that their sister, Himari, is born sickly and is told she’s going to die. Even though she isn’t named or referenced in either monologue, it’s pretty clear the brother’s are thinking about her.


It’s her fate to be possessed by a penguin hat!


Sho is such a girl. I bet he’s going to cosplay or genderbend later.


Destination, predestination—tee-hee, don’t you love it when things work out so well?

The rules of the Peguindrum universe are thus set: the first half of the episode shows how it’s grounded in reality; the second half shows the way that it deviates from it. That is, Revolutionary Girl Utena operates in the world of fantasy—ridiculous things are taken as being part of the setting: no one bats an eye at Chu-Chu; the existence of an upside-down castle, etc. whereas Peguindrum has everyday life as normality and things like the Penguins are taken to be fantastic. In other words, unless otherwise expressed and defined, the Peguindrum universe is real life and anything that we find weird the main characters will also find weird.

Therefore, the concept of fate is being set up only so the show can break it down and possibly deconstructed by the means of a fantastic intervetion.* The brothers are given a chance of altering Himari’s fate through the interaction with whatever entity is possessing their sister (the Princess of Crystal). Right now, we have no clue what the heck is the Penguin Drum they’re supposed to attain, so for now I’m going to skip over it and focus the words the Princess says to them.

*Given how badly the concept of deconstruction is misunderstood, especially after Madoka (which isn’t a deconstruction—it’s a subversion of the magical girl genre though that’s an entirely different argument for another day), I really, really hesitate to use this word—but I’m going to use it anyway because it makes sense in context.


Apparently, mechanical teddy bears procreate by having a pregnant female give birth while growing a staircase penis...


...which she then uses to impregnates the other female. Yay for pregnant futanari mechanical teddy bear porn! Truly Japan's finest creation.

Princess: Listen, you lowlifes who will never amount to anything.
Obtain the Penguin Drum.
I am not your sister.
I have come from the destination of your fate.
This girl's life has been temporarily extended using my powers.
However, everything has a price.
I am taking the price for her life.
Let's initiate the Survival Strategy.

The Princess is directly commenting on both of the brother’s understanding of fate and, what more, the way she goes about taking the price of reviving Himari is kind of brilliant. Simply put, from Kanba’s monologue we get that “animals…adhere to the survival strategies programmed in their DNA.” Fate then is pretty much a brand of Darwinism—it’s the assurance of the survival of the fittest. Himari suffers from some kind of brain chest disease and thus it’s her fate to die from it.

Therefore, overturning one’s fate is actually synonymous with going against the laws of nature. That is, the price of Himari’s life is pretty much the assurance of a deviation of what is considered “normal” for an animal to do.

From this, I’m going to guess that the Survival Strategies that the Princess of Crystal initiates also stem from the deviation of the animalistic natural law. After all, nothing exists in vacuum: once you change the rules, there are consequences—“everything has a price.” If sickly Himari is allowed to live than other deviations that would otherwise be seem as being detrimental to furthering the natural order are allowed to exist.

See where I’m heading with this? This is where the callback of Utena happens. Only the Princess doesn’t pull out swords like the Black Rose Duelists, Anthy, and Utena do—she pulls out the person’s deviation and turns it into an alternative “Survival Strategy.”


To revolutionize the world!


Oh how red everything is! Going back to the bedroom picture…I wonder what else is colored red…

Therefore, the Princess isn’t actually changing a person’s fate—she's only tampering with it. Just like she says that she’s only prolonging Himari’s life for now, I guess the Princess only changes Kanba’s innermost desires (one of the reasons why he rebels against the concept of God and fate) into an “elegant and simple” survival strategy. That is, what he wants and what he ought to do become one and the same thing.

At first, this seems okay— I suppose it’s good to eliminate all that suffering and anguish a person goes through, but where does this leave a person?

If a person is defined as being someone with free will, and that free will is governed by their struggle and their rebellion against their DNA programming—what happens when you take away that struggle and make it their programming?

Take a look at what Kanba says at the end of again. Kanba wonders, “If a man ignored [his] fate, and ignored his instincts and DNA to love someone else...Is he really human?” This line of thought actually conflicts with the first part where he says that he admires “animals that adhere to the survival strategies programmed in their DNA.” After all, he defines an animal by his “instincts and DNA”—his programmed fate. Therefore, by that logic, if a man DOESN’T ignore fate, and DOESN’T ignore his instincts and DNA, than that man is an animal. If I’m not overanalyzing a mistranslation, I think it’s quite telling of the affects of being “Survival Strategy’d” upon: in a sense, Kanba’s turned into an animal. His love is no longer a love out of free will, but on being acted out of obligation which then becomes something that is not love. I’m extrapolating at the last part—there’s no evidence for it. But it’s not a completely illogical leap.


Incesticide

In any case, let’s move onto the last bit I want to say regarding fate. That is, what is the destiny of such a beast with swapped Survival Strategies? Even though the rules have changed for Kanba, they haven’t for the rest of the world. Despite being classified as an animal, he doesn’t have the tools to survive. After all, incest isn’t exactly the best way to ensure the survival of one’s offspring or is it socially permissible. Therefore these people, to go back to what Shouma said in the beginning, “don’t have a future and the only certain thing was that we wouldn't amount to anything.” The Princess of Crystal that possesses Himari addresses them the same way as she calls them, “lowlifes who will never amount to anything.”

So, what should be done with such people-animals? Well…there’s a screenshot that puts it kind of aptly (look at the mascots):



So yeah, I’m willing to bet that this bit is only the first part of the narrative—there’s is going to be a point where this entire concept is fully examined and broken down—sort of like what happened when Utena went against Touga the first time around when she realizes the problems of pretending to be a prince. Given that there aren’t any major clues to how this is going to be done, I’m going to stop here in the discussion of fate in Penguindrum.

”The Apple is the Universe Itself!”

Boy A: Like I said, the apple is the universe itself! A universe in the palm of your hands. It's what connects this world and the other world.

Boy B: The other world?

Boy A: The world Campanella and the other passengers are heading to!

Boy B: What does that have anything to do with an apple?

Boy A: The apple is also a reward for those who have chosen love over everything else!

Boy B: But everything's over when you're dead.

Boy A: It's not over! What I'm trying to say is that's actually where everything begins!

Now in the context of what I’ve ranted about before, this quote seems to become more interesting, doesn’t it? I’ve only started reading Night on the Galactic Railroad so I can’t comment on the allusion to it yet, so I’m just going to skip that and go straight to how its related to Judeo-Christianity and the story of Adam and Eve.

Given that both Kanba and Shouma directly question the idea of whether or not there is a higher entity—a God—and assumes that God has power over fate, I pretty sure any similarities and symbolism in Penguindrum are intended.

In any case, to sum up the first major Genesis story (as it’s going to be useful to do a point-by-point analysis of it): God creates the world. He then creates Adam in the likeness of his image and dictates that Adam is to be the master of all animals. He then pulls Adam’s ribcage out and turns it into Eve. The two humans live in Eden where they are completely innocent and free from sin. They are allowed to do anything and everything except eat from the Fruit of Knowledge. Key quotes from the International Version of the Bible are such:

Genesis 2:15-17: The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Genesis 2:25: Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Of course, this kind of bliss gets ruined by the serpent who convinces Eve it’s a good idea to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. His argument is:

Genesis 3:4-5: “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Eve decides to eat it and then gives some to Adam. Once they both eat it, well:

Genesis 3:7: Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Let’s break all these elements down and see how it relates to Penguindrum. Adam and Eve get kicked out of Eden and become mortal because they ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Even though they were both created in the likeness of God they only become “God-like” through eating the fruit. That is, even though they have the decision-making mental faculties that separates them from animals, they don’t really have any decisions to make with it. They do what they do because they don’t know any better—they have no “shame” because they don’t even know what shame is, let alone can they act on it.

It’s only after Adam and Even eat the fruit that they become self-conscious (and this is only after the meeting the magically talking, crafty, crafty serpent). They then know shame. They then know suffering because they now know better. They don’t just see the path towards “goodness”—the things that they used to do blissfully, but they see evil—the things that they could do instead of what they ought to do.

Only after eating the fruit do they become fully “human” in the sense of Shouma and Kanba’s definition of humanity. And so, given that the apple has pretty much associated/is considered to be the forbidden fruit you can say then say that the apple is the catalyst of everything. The apple symbolizes the universe because it’s only through eating the apple that humanity becomes completely sentient and have the freedom to explore the universe instead of being confined in Eden.

So now then, what does the apple have to do with love?

If you really want to go into the whole Christianity thing further, there’s a reason it’s only in the New Testament when Jesus comes along preaching about love and peace instead of the Old Testament rules, violence, more rules and fire and brimstones that people get the means of salvation. That is, humanity is only able to transcend itself (i.e. go to heaven) through love and believing in God.

So now then, what is love? Given the framework that I’ve laid out so far, I’m going to guess that it’s the thing that goes against a person’s animalistic instincts—of going against one’s fate to suffer and die. If you want to get out of the whole Western religion and Christianity thing, the concept still works if you’re going with Buddhism and Eastern thought too. That is, Buddhism is founded on the fact there are Four Noble Truths. To summarize really quickly, they are 1) Suffering exists, 2) Suffering exists because one desires stuff, 3) Suffer ends which one stops desiring stuff, 4) this happens through following tenants of Buddhism and attaining Enlightenment.

There’s a difference between desire and love. To love that means one has to sacrifice his/her own desires for the sake of something else. But of course, in order to sacrifice desire, one also has to know desire…see where I’m getting at?

Let’s head back to the Peguindrum and what the two boys are talking about near the beginning of the episode. I’ve already talked about how the “apple is the universe itself! A universe in the palm of your hands” because it symbolizes the choice that a person has made in order to know what his or her choices are. “It’s what connects this world and the other world” because is signifies the first step one has to make to get to heaven/Enlightenment/” the world Campanella and the other passengers are heading to.” After all, if Adam and Eve didn't eat the apple, humanity would still be stuck in Eden. If someone is ignorant of suffering and only focused on what he or she feels (his or her genetic coding), that person will never reach Enlightenment. I’ll comment more on Night on the Galactic Railroad later once I finish reading it.

Anyway, moving on, the apple is not just what has been mentioned above, it’s “also a reward for those who have chosen love over everything else!” This bit is really interesting as it implies the apple isn’t just a catalyst, but the result of it too. Again, using Christianity and Buddhism as an examples works really well here. Christianity has the apple as the catalyst in order to love. Buddhism starts out with suffering as the default and through love/self-sacrifice, one becomes Enlightened.

And yet, as Boy B also cynically notes, there’s a flip side to all of this. In order to be the reward and the catalyst, it means that the apple is also the punishment. That is, in order to choose love and transcend suffering there has to be something to choose and something to transcend.

And of course, if one has the power to transcend/overcome one’s fate, it’s obvious that death is not the last thing. “What I’m trying to say is that’s actually where everything begins!” The “everything” here is the gift and the choice of choosing the apple and the results that follows.

…so yeah, how both dem apples, man?





Transportation

Last section! I’ve pretty much covered all the textual analysis I want to make, so now I’m just going to point out things in the pretty pictures (as this show is really pretty).

In the apples section I talked about it being both the catalyst and the end result—that is, they are different points in time. So then, how does one get from point A to point B? The answer is obviously that you ride the line connecting them—you get onto the metro.

As in Night on the Galactic Railroad where trains are the way to reach the other world, so does transportation play a huge part in Penguindrum. Let’s check some of the reoccurring motifs:



Flashbacks are represented on those electronic sign board things that announce boarding times and whatever. I forgot what they’re called.



Destinations and the mention of them are just as important. As thereisafire aptly notes in the below comments, and blogger animekritik further explores in his entry, all the subway lines ridden in this episode are on the Marunouchi red line. This line also simultaneous works as reference to the red string of fate. I talk more about this a couple paragraphs below.



The entrance to the fantastic metro. Also, yay penguin.



Point B meeting at Point A which is obviously totally not sexual at all. Nope, not even that Freud-dude would think so. Also note all the different signs in the background. I've stipulated here the breaking down of the entire transformation sequence, noting that the entire evolution point leading up to humanity is connected by railroad/metro tracks.



This I think is all sorts of brilliant: Ikuhara has literally made the background people into crosswalk signs that the main characters pass by.



The fact that it’s the metro in Penguindrum is kinda interesting too. Obviously it’s one of the main methods of transportation for Japanese people and whatnot—prevalent in real life, but I can’t help thinking back to how the car is used in both the series and movie of Utena. The car is used as a symbol of maturity (Akio’s apple red car), freedom, and a means to escape (movie Utena turns into a car and quite literally becomes the vehicle which Anthy uses to flee Ohtori Gakuen). In driving a car, one has the ability to steer, direct, and control the speed of his or her path.

Now compare the car to the metro and trains. You travel at a set speed, on a set path, to a set destination. No matter what you do, you can’t change where you end up.

As a couple commenters mention below with sanada being the first, there is actually an alternative to what I wrote--it's possible to not arrive at the destination whether out of a person's free will or from some kind of outside influence. That is, the metro can be stopped in the middle of the line or it can be completely derailed. Both sanada and miraculousloops bring up the '95 terrorist attacks on the Marunouchi red line and the fact that Ikuhara has consistently brought up this tragedy to a point where the events probably both inspire and run as an undercurrent to this anime. In this way, it's possible for the red string of fate to not have a destination or to be cut off from it.

Stealing thereisafire picture, we see:



The red string isn't connected to another person. After all, Himari is fated to die so she doesn't have a destined lover. It is also highly possible that this red string is indicative of the fate of the anime Marunouchi red line as well.

Regardless, given what I've speculated, there's a reason to believe that these metro lines/train tracks are simultaneously being use as a physical entity, a spiritual allusion both the Miyazawa novel and the '95 tragedy, as well as an analogy for evolution (see transformation sequence). We also start to see how the nature of fate is being tied closely to evolution, and how the apple is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end of the Penguin universe.

So yeah, I'm going to leave my analysis/speculation on this note:




Edit: In light of the fact that the entity possessing Himari is called the Princess of Crystal, an entirely new layer to what I have speculated has emerged which I completely missed in my analysis above. It's that that of royalty and the animal kingdom. Given the elaborate dress that Ringo "transformed" into in that one leaked photo, the fact that other animals are due for an appearance, and kyon_kun's comment about Kanba being picked to play the "prince"...it really does look like the Princess of Crystals is creating a people-animal court for Queen Himari by "Survival Strategy"-ing the people close to her.