Arguably cheating given that I’ve done Penguindrum TV before, but now having seen the first of the new Penguindrum movies (twice), I can confirm that it is still present, and as such can be lazy and just reuse the same screencap. Hurrah for efficiency in posting!

The first Penguindrum movie is an interesting kettle of fish in that it’s mostly a recap movie, though it has a number of new framing sequences that position it as a sequel to the TV show, as child versions of Shoma and Kanba review a book detailing the events of the TV show whilst attempting to figure out why they seem to have been forgotten by the world. Also, most importantly, there’s a new Penguin. Much of this new content feels pretty Takeuchi Nobuyuki to my admitted untrained eye, though the fact it’s half riffing on visuals from the episode of the TV show he handled in the first place, and half mashing together photorealistic and animated elements is probably what’s leading me to that feeling.

As a recap movie, it’s… fine? Better than most, even? Most of the really interesting stuff is likely to be falling into the second movie that I’ve not seen yet, given how this one ends, though it does basically conclude at exactly the halfway point of the show in terms of it’s recap content. As someone who hasn’t really revisited the show since it broadcast, I at least managed to follow the events well enough – it’s obviously a recap movie, but it takes something of a sensible approach to it by arranging it’s content by character rather than strictly adhering to previously established chronological continuity. That said, given that movie a fair bit over two hours long, you are only really dropping maybe 2/3rd of the content of the show, which whilst sounding like a lot, is positively luxurious by the standards of many of these things. You’re still losing some of the flavour of the show, but it’s a pretty reasonable way to relive the story whilst being hyper-focused on a lot of the elements that are particularly meaningful about it.
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I can’t particularly say that this was a post I was ever expecting to be making…

Anyway, Adult Swim put out another one of their sporadic Rick and Morty shorts overnight (well, by UK time), and this one was animated at Telecom and directed by Takeshi Sano (Tower of God). Probably not actually that much of a shock given those circumstances, I guess.

I suppose I actually like Rick and Morty well enough, though not in the “talk publicly about it” fashion – which is to say, I do watch the show, but I can’t particularly say I want to be associated with some of the more vocal parts of the fanbase. I’m sure you can probably understand.
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From… Some episode or other of Urusei Yatsura that I actually watched a couple of weeks ago, where even if I could remember specifically what episode number it was, it would still no doubt be a contentious matter due to the weird way that the BD releases decided to renumber the show.

Anyway, Urusei Yatsura is good, even if it could do with more Ran.
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No doubt somewhat slightly to the surprise of all those folks who’ve been questioning why I’ve not actually been to Japan yet (particularly given how much money I throw at going to US cons every year), I’m in Japan at the moment (although I’m sure folks will be disappointed in my tourist-ass schedule as opposed to eventing). The above were actually spotted at the Inari Shrine, the first touristy place I stopped, and also setting up false expectations immediately by the only actual Mikan Boxes I’ve seen over here thus far.

Anyway, I’ve ran out of Mikan Box posts I prepared before heading over here. Whoops. Still, whilst over here, I’ve managed (thus far) to catch screenings of Fragtime (mostly known at this point for the studio having suddenly filed for bankrupcy post-release, and having may-or-may-not paid some of the involved animators in the process), and the new, all-CG Lupin III movie Lupin III The First. I should probably try and summon at least a few words about those once I get a momemnt or two. So probably when I’m back home in a couple of weeks.

From the old Akitaro Daichi OAV Makasete Iruka, a title which translates to something like “Leave it to Dolphin!”, but was released in English under the rather more excruciating title of “Grrl Power!” (before it was released in Japan, even).
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