Mawaru Penguindrum - Episode 8

Despite all her other failures to date, it appears that Ringo is about to take the direct action required to bring her so-called "Project M" to bear as this eighth episode of Mawaru Penguindrum begins - but, once again, fate ironically conspires against her.

Put simply, Ringo's intentions to get herself forcibly pregnant by Tabuki fail quite simply because he isn't there - indeed, in a further slice of bad news for our favourite stalker, he has in fact moved out of his home completely to take up residence in a new apartment with wife-to-be Yuri.  On top of all this, the world seems to be rather enjoying punching Ringo in the gut as she stumbles across her father at the aquarium just as he proposes to his girlfriend - a proposal which, of course, she readily agrees to.  Whichever way you look at it, Ringo's idea of being part of a proper family have never been more distant.

While Kanba suggests that it might be the time for more drastic action to wrest Ringo's diary from her grasp, Ringo herself still remains unwavering about her fate and what it will ultimately bring her - cue a visit to Tabuki's new residence with a "celebratory" cake which happens to be drugged, which she plans to use to (and let's not be churlish about saying this) rape him.  Once again though, nature and misfortune conspire to put paid to her plans as Yuri returns home early and leaves her to take flight with Shou, who finally confronts her about what she's trying to do in no uncertain terms.  While this argument almost leads to the loss of Ringo's diary, the resulting scenes could be about to bring us a very different kind of loss altogether...

Although you could certainly make an argument that following Ringo as she stalks Tabuki has been dragged on for a little too long now, it somehow manages to remain both entertaining and fascinating as it goes about its business - Ringo herself is oddly likeable no matter how dark her intentions (or maybe it's just me), and her comment on Shou and Kanba's relationship with Himari and what they really want from it is an interesting window on the series that suggests that perhaps they aren't so different to Ringo after all.  All that said, and putting aside Ringo's various delusions (which almost threaten to become an unnecessary distraction), it's hard for our thoughts about this episode to focus on anything but its cliff-hanger - a cruel twist of fate perhaps that could either change nothing or having major ramifications upon the series going forward.   Looks like we'll have to wait another week to find out which one it's going to be...