In Japanese it is customary to leave out the subject or the object of a sentence if it can be inferred from the context. Perhaps as an extension of this principle, Japanese writers usually disdain to spell out anything that the audience members should be able to figure out for themselves. Western anime fans are accustomed to the experience of watching an anime and saying “Huh? What the heck happened?”
The true fan will accept this. Sometimes I have to watch an anime 2 or 3 times before I feel that I really understand it. If the anime is good enough I don’t mind, and if it isn’t I probably wouldn’t have watched it all the way through even once. (A native Japanese viewer, with a better grasp of the underlying cultural assumptions, could probably figure it out in a single viewing.)
In more serious literature, beyond manga, anime and light novels, things are less simple. In a typical Haruki Murakami fantasy we may be left with the understanding that something supernatural has taken place but there is no way to be sure exactly what happened or who did it or why. (The universe is more complicated than we imagine and it doesn’t come with a manual.)
Mawaru Penguindrum enters this territory. (Writer/Director Kunihiko Ikuhara is clearly a fan of Murakami’s stories.) It’s all very surreal. Some of the scenes that we see are clearly symbolic while others are supposed to be “really happening” in the context of the story, and it’s often unclear what is supposed to be real and what isn’t.
I’m going to make an attempt to sort out what story elements we are supposed to take literally and what is only symbolic. Two warnings: first, I’m not 100% sure about any of this. Second, everything below is loaded with spoilers and you really would do better to watch the show before reading this.
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