Episode 1 is live at ANO
Yeah, you can definitely tell itās by the same create mind as made Revolutionary Girl Utena. Since Utena made it on to my Animeās to Buy list (not everything Iād give 5 Stars to makes that, and only shows Iād give 5 Stars to are on it) I was a bit worried on this one, but now I can tell that itāll be just as much weird, wacky, and lovable fun as Utena,and I canāt wait until the next ep to see where it goes next.
I was kinda hoping for a show that was surreal/weird yet still more serious than silly, but even though Penguindrum isnāt that show itās still entertaining. Normally I would be irked that tan is only streaming one ep a week but Iāve had the bluray (which annihilates tanās quality) for pretty much a month and I havenāt seen 4 eps yet.
I wish this had a commentary track. Not only because I believe that every show is better with a commentary track but also because it could explain why Sentai decided to use the awkward sounding āsurvival tacticā line instead of a more natural English phrase.
Well, hereās a challenge for you then. Come up with a different phrase that carries a roughly similar meaning, has the same number of syllables, and matches reasonably close with the lip-sinking for āsurvival tacticā. Oh, and it still has to be just jarring enough that each time it is said in the first episode the reactions of her brothers still feel fairly natural. In my opinion, unless they actually had the Japanese voice actress saying āsurvival tacticā at each of those spots, I feel that they did an excellent job of coming up with something that worked.
Say, since you have the Blu-Ray of the series (and itās quality is so much better because TAN probably uses either 480p or 720i resolution for the HD streams, while your Blu-Ray supports 1080p) couldnāt you actually run through the first ep, find a spot where in the English dubs she says āsurvival tacticā and then rewind a few seconds, switch audio tracks, and listen to what is said in the Japanese dubs? It might help answer your question as to why that phrase was used in the first place.
Having encountered this before, Iāve found that the first thing to wonder about awkward translations in dubs is whether the Japanese insisted that the awkward English phrasing be used. A commentary track could answer that, and even if it didnāt, itād provide additional info on the showās production and add value to the purchase (Iām still in commentary withdrawal as ADV was rocking the commentaries on their releases while Sentai has all of 2 that I can remember at the moment).
That said, Iām not sure that the phrasing used where Sentai inserted āSurvival Tacticā has to be jarring by itself since the sister had already been pronounced medically dead before she said it.
Iām still not completely sold on this series as while it draws from Utena & Melody of Oblivion it seems to be drawing only the parts that I didnāt think were as cool from them. It also doesnāt have the art styling of either. So far, Iām not extremely motivated to go for part 2, FWIW.
The first time, yes, but theyāre reactions to the second time were just as extreme, before the magical transformation sequence began, so I have the feeling that the phrase itself was something a bit jarring and shocking
I havenāt seen Melody of Oblivion, and I care more about a well told story than a particular art style (Which is the only reason Iām tolerating Dragon Ball Z Kai on the CW Saturday mornings, as even though it is edited they do have the complete story there, and not even the previous āun-editedā versions Iāve seen did that. Iād still prefer it to be un-edited, but Iāll settle for the complete story.), and the story-telling has some very obvious similarities to Utena. I did do a quick check and Melody of Oblivion is on my āAnimeās to check outā list (and yes, thatās the literal file name I used), so someday Iāll be getting around to it, even if it isnāt any time soon.
And for those of us not so up on abbreviations and acronyms, what does āFWIWā stand for?
FWIW = For what itās worth
IMO the art style of an anime is key to it telling its story well as we perceive the anime through its art. I canāt say that Iām a particular fan of the art in PD in general (low detail, gaudy coloring, oddly drawn people) but having seen both Summer Wars (aka Digimon) and Durarara! Iām put off by PD blatantly borrowing from the styles of those shows. I find it distracting.
I go in more for a well-written story than anything else, I can tolerate a series bumbling to tell its story if it is well written (which is why Iām willing to give PD a chance). Internet reviews promised me a great story and what Iāve seen so far has been a decent story, albeit not told in the best of ways, but it isnāt very interesting to me.
So far PDās āappealā seems to be āthereās a young moeblob here being moe; do you really need more?ā. Granted I havenāt gotten very far in the show, but itās difficult for me to get further in the show with the only appeal thus far being a moeblob as the whole moe thing doesnāt do anything for meā¦and yes, to answer my own question, I need more than that. 
When does the intricate story and profound plotting, promised me by the posters and reviewers on the Internet, kick in?
Wow some deep thinking going on here. . .
Me? I just watched the first episode, and thought it was really fun! I canāt wait to see more.
Personally, I could never get into Melody of Oblivion. I found the story very slow and it never seemed to go anywhere. Plus, I remember the characters being rather generic and uninteresting. I have the first volume and I believed I watched the second and third as well. If a show canāt pull me in with twelve episodes, itās usually not something that I find worth my time.
If you do plan on watching it someday, you will likely have to hunt down used DVDs. The series never sold particularly well for Geneon and being released towards their demise, it never even saw a complete collection release. Funimation didnāt even bother with it when they signed their distribution deal with Geneon. The series also reviewed fairly mixed to downright bad reviews as it was coming out. With all of those factors, the chances of anyone else licensing or streaming it are pretty slim.
Or u could just snatch em up over at Right Stuf for pretty cheap individually, a bundle, orā¦a box setā¦ :ohmy: !!!
At first I thought it was being said that RightStuf had finally sold out of the series, but sure enough, the 30 dollar bargain bundle is there. It seems that they just canāt get rid of their stock of Utena & Melody of Oblivion, no matter how hard they try (Theyāve given me the 2011 Utena rescue as a bargain bin item even). I wonder if Penguindrum will be sitting around like that in their warehouse a few years from now. Frustratingly I donāt believe that RSās bundle comes with the series box; I remember having to buy that separately and ended up with 2 (later 3) copies of Disc 1.
Slower shows with substance are where most of my anime interest lies so the slower pace of the series didnāt bother me. I liked that they tried to develop the main character a bit, showing his progression into a force to be reckoned with and having him evolve to occupy the ambiguous middle ground between the pious, holier-than-thou āboy heroā stereotype and the almost villainous anti-hero archetype. Melody of Oblivion had a sort of āreasonā for its slowness written in, that since the protagonist was pretty much left on his own to figure out how everything worked he couldnāt jump right to the endgame. It wasnāt the greatest show āevarā but IMO it gave a better shot than most.
Also, depending on how much of a dub fan you are:
Melody of Oblivion features the virtually pious (and ironically named) veteran actress Carrie Savage playing a somewhat shameless & salacious Andromeda, which I find to be pretty hilarious.
Penguindrum looks, as far as Iāve gotten, like it could be setting up something similar with the two brothers. Both of them are in the dark about the true nature of whatever theyāve been dragged into, theyāre almost the foil of one another, and while heās pretty stereotypical now Ilichās character has potential to develop as a character and become a bit morally ambiguous. Though TBH I think it would be more shocking if that were to happen to Blake Shepardās character.
Though as a young red-blooded male I must confess that I thought that the basic story of Melody of Oblivion, āProtagonist fights totalitarian regimeā, was much more appealing than that of Penguindrum,ā2 brothers are virtually enslaved by an eccentric spirit that has possessed their moeblob sisterā.
Penguindrum has everything it needs to cater to all the factors which appeal to the modern otaku, but Iām just hoping it has what appeals to me underneath:plot, story & character development.
Well, thatās not a real complete collection. That was one of Geneonās āThis series didnāt sell like we had hoped, so we are sticking all the discs together in the left over art boxes and slapping a new UPC sticker on it.ā
I meant to check Right Stuf before posting, but my Fios is extremely slow tonight.
I also happen to enjoy slow moving shows as well, but there was just nothing about Oblivion that pulled me in. It wasnāt terrible in my opinion, I just thought it was very bland. But itās super cheap and Geneon actually made good art boxes, unlike the cheapo peeling ones the Funi makes, so I might pick it up someday. Itās sort of sad that its been out of print for 5 years and can still be found so easily.
TAN itself seems pretty slow for me right now 
Hmmm, I thought that those RightStuf ābargain binā collections were created by RightStuf. If youāre looking at the $29 one on RS, when I ordered it, it was just the 6 DVDs in a box together, same as it was for Texhnolyze. Iād hope that their $90 box set is the real deal, though Iām surprised to see such high pricing on an old show on RS. That looks like what Iād see at FYE, not a site thatās up on anime selling like RS.
I do wish that TAN would finally, finally, start regularly streaming more than 1 new episode of a show per week. At this rate itāll take 11 more weeks to get the whole first half of the series on here and by then the 2nd half might have actually officially released. March 11th is the RS current street date for PD #2 so itād be close. Shoot, thatās so far away from now that Iāll probably have even gotten around to watching my BD of PD #1 by then. But while Iām on this minor tangent, sometime in the somewhat near future Iāll run out of space to reliably stock up on Blu-Rays and when that happens it looks like Sentai will be leaving me high and dry. Sad face
EDIT: Actually, it seems this Bargain Bundle no longer includes the art box. It appears to only include the 6 singles.
I wasnāt taking about the bargain bundle. I was talking about the ābox setā that Geneon released. It is the same thing as the bargain bundle, except it had a new UPC sticker on the art box. That was pretty much standard for any slower selling Geneon series, or shows that were over printed.
Well, my definition of a āwell told storyā is probably fairly different from most, and at present I have no idea if Penguindrum will fully qualify or not (although shows that donāt get my interest by ep 4 I usually donāt finish, as thatās where a DVD usually cut off thatās the critical point for me), but Utena did. My idea of a āwell told storyā is mostly a story whose speed fits with what is happening, everything flows together well, it manages to make sense (well, Angel Beats really doesnāt until the end, but thatās part of the story so it still qualifies), and it is entertaining (although here my definition is differs some from most peoples).
There are several shows Iād love to get my hands on, such as .hack//SIGN, .hack//LEGEND OF THE TWILIGHT BRACELET, .hack//ROOTS, Wild Arms: Twilight Venom, The Slayers, The Slayers Next, The Slayers Try, The Slayers Revolution, The Slayers Evolution-R, Tokyo Private Police, Parasite Dolls, Bubblegum Crisis, Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040, and well over 100 other titles.
All right, guys, please keep your comments limited to Penguindrum and try not to wander off to the Space/Time Continuum.
First:
Episode 2 is live at ANO
(Sorry, The Coffee God, but you hadnāt done that post yet.)
Second:
Well, that was a fast introduction for the stalker heroine of the series. Utena waited a bit longer, but I think itās going to make more sense like this in this one. I did really enjoy a lot of the younger brotherās reactions during this ep though.
I find the ātransformā sequence to be annoying (mainly how long it is before the characters involved appear once it starts)
Yea, Miss penguin deserved that slap