Penguindrum complete. First half was really good, and basically everything with Ringo from episodes 2-8 was the highlight. I would watch 100 episodes of yandere Ringo being Ringo, no problem. I'd watch another series with an actual villain version of Ringo. She's absolutely nuts and everything to come out of her mouth or her head is great in more ways than one. Her backstory is also imo the best of the bunch. All this makes it a bit disappointing when she becomes more reasonable and normal. However, the second half just wasn't as enjoyable, at least to me. For starters, there was less humour/character/mystery focus, and more 'dramatic' twists, reveals, and conflict. Unfortunately, I feel like once it got grittier and more dramatic, it just didn't have the character and lacked something that was there before. I didn't really get many "holy shit" moments either, cause many reveals were handled clumsily or dumped in quick succession. Child abuse was the generic background story for everyone (guess there's only so many options for tragic backstories when your characters are mostly children). I get that there's themes running through which make that fit, but it's predictable and has always irritated me a little when overused. The foreshadowing ranges from excellent to nonexistent (at least to me, although I've only just finished and so may not have had time to think of particular moments). Oh, and there's a lot of romantic subplots or subtext going on there particularly in the second half. Most of it's forced, underdeveloped, incestuous, kinda but not really incestuous, or several of the above. Thanks, Japan.
I feel kinda bad for focusing more on the negative here cause I did have a lot of fun overall. The art and OST/OPs/EDs were great. I think it's creative as hell, and the story is excellent in concept even if the execution was lacking at points. Worth my time, although it probably isn't enjoyable for everyone. Don't remember who recommended it, but thanks for the suggestion. ---