The last thing I’ll mention is Sanetoshi’s apple-medicine that saves Himari, which I wrote about briefly in my last post. Despite her failings to have the kind of meal she wants with Tabuki, note how she never has a problem having a nice meal with the Takakuras.Īs for the Takakuras, I will let you interpret their meal scenes for yourselves since theirs tend to be pretty straightforward and easy to understand once you pay attention to them. You could even say that her corrupting of food-sharing represents how she can never truly become Momoka. And when Ringo chooses to drug Tabuki’s cake at the height of her stalking, she is showing a huge display of betrayal (the same could be said for when she puts the love potion in his coffee). Her moments of jealousy over Tabuki and Yuri’s relationship are almost always food-related, be it how Yuri makes lunches for him at the park, invites them to a fancy dinner after her show, or cooks her own curry for Tabuki on Curry Day. Ringo gives us the most examples of this act going wrong or being corrupted. Lots of meals are eaten together in Penguindrum and, yes, they’re all symbolic of the relationships between those doing the eating. When the Takakuras share curry with Ringo, unaware of why they are eating it on that day, it represents how even if they don’t know it yet, they too have become Momoka’s disciples. Those who eat curry on Curry Day are symbolically her followers. Momoka took physical punishment to save people from the suffering of sinners, died trying to save the world from falling to evil, and was “resurrected,” not as Ringo but as Princess of the Crystal. Chronologically, this is the first example in Penguindrum of a communion, and despite what I just said about not all communion being Christian, this one is very much tied with Christian symbolism if you think of Momoka as a Christ figure. The people touched by Momoka also end up eating curry on that day, like Tabuki, Yuri, and eventually even the Takakura siblings. With that in mind, let’s take a look at this with examples throughout the show:Īfter Momoka’s death, the Oginome family celebrates “Curry Day,” where they all eat her favorite food on the anniversary of her passing. Not necessarily in the Christian sense of the word, but in the way that many cultures and religions see taking in sustenance as a symbolic ritual. For such a sacred action to literally be about the meaning of life itself, you have to look at every other instance of it as symbolic as well, including the parts that might not seem significant at first.Įating together, in literature, often represents communion.
Just think back to what the secret words were that allowed Ringo to use the Diary, or to the sharing of the apples that saved the lives of the Takakuras. I don’t think it will shock anyone when I say that sharing food in Penguindrum is a holy act. My previous analysis posts can be found here and here. As usual, spoilers for the whole show will be under the cut.
In honor of today being Curry Day, I’m going to type up my thoughts on the meanings of certain foods and the actions involving them in Mawaru Penguindrum.
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