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Hoooo boy, what a disappointment this ended up being!

Mawaru Penguindrum started very strong for me: an easy 8 but as episodes went by, the drearyness got stronger and stronger... and stronger.
I don't know what happened midway, if it was me or the series but things just stopped clicking.

The character design is a constant positive, voice actors have done a good job, music selection also a big plus (COTD being an instant win!) and the first Seizon Senryaku will forever be etched in my mind as it was this part that made me think I was in for a spectacular ride... sigh...

But, on the other hand, ... story and animation/editing weigh this anime down so much it became impossible for me to like it in spite of its shortcomings.
There is an impressive amount of reused animations and, of course, it happens in a lot of anime but they could have maybe been less obvious about it, it took me out of the moment every time.
As some others have mentioned, characters talking over a static scrolling image also happened way too often. I guess budget wasn't really high?
How do you expect me to get engrossed in a friendly ping pong match with characters giving the viewer precious info while showing : an empty ping pong table, vending machines and a poster?
I didn't mind the cardboard cutouts at all though, to me they served as filler while pushing the main characters to the front of the scene.
As for the story, well it was a mess with some themes being repeated a bit too much and a lot of arcs just mashed in there for the sake of it.
Symbolism was fine, some metaphors being quite obvious while some others would have warranted a rewatch that will sadly never happen.
As said above, music selection was top notch but their editing not quite. Starting a sad piano song just as some character exposed some sad information deserved a bit more subtlety. Make the viewer feel sad, don't tell him to be!

I really believe all the ideas this show wanted to bring forth could have been compressed in 12 episodes and it would have been a much better experience!
I guess I'll just cling on to what could have been, to what I thought the anime was going to be after the first few episodes : a whimsical but strong drama.

Next time maybe!

This is the third time in five years I try to watch this show and this is the first time I managed to get to the 14th episode, a couple episodes after the pivot point. I still couldn't manage watching, I had to switch off mid episode.

My curiosity pushed me to go online and see how the show ended and I have to say the story is well written. Sci-fi concepts are always tricky, especially time travel but they managed to keep it interesting.

Voice actors are good, the dub is also surpisingly high quality and the theme song is really catchy, I've never skipped it!

Everything ... else I thought was bland.

The characters exist to fill in their stereotypical, harem-like roles : smart nerd, tsundere, bubbly, cute/naive, ultra shy, nyan girl.
Then you have the dumb big-mouthed main character whose development could have been handled less hamfistedly as his laughs got more and more irritating every time they were used.
What annoyed me the most was how the situations were handled; some actions taken aren't believable at all with Okabe just looking on, acting all surprised but not really reacting. Of course, all of this comes slamming back in his face later on.

The pace was excrutiating as half the season is used to introduce the characters and the environment. This is one of the main criticisms you can see online for this show, countered by the idea that the pace picks up after that. Unfortunately, my patience was used up at this point and if you don't like the characters, I guess there's no point in soldiering on.

The art style is mediocre, neither bad nor good; it serves its purpose. A lot of the backgrounds are static and I have to question the outdoor light choices though as it makes everything look overbright and out of focus.

All of this gives me a big pot of unrealised potential which is quite frustrating as the scenario could have given something beautiful had it been produced differently.