Mawaru Penguindrum - Episode 13

Having had her life saved (or at least extended) by the "magical" penguin hat over the course of the series, is this really the end for Himari as her brothers and Ringo watch on helplessly?

Perhaps not, courtesy of the appearance of a mysterious doctor who goes by the name of Sanetoshi - a man who also happens to be the same mysterious man we met in the library back in episode nine.  Sanetoshi arrives bearing apples/phials of "medicine" which are as equally mysterious as their provider, but prove to be the means to reawaken and bring life back to Himari... but at what cost?  Both Kanba and Natsume seem likely to be those who are now indebted to this man, who we learn little about other than the fact that he seems to be attempting to test and perhaps even change the universe as it pertains to the concept of fate.

Meanwhile, this episode is also set against more flashbacks surrounding the Takakura family, and focusing upon the day the sibling's parents were taken into police custody, turning the lives of their children upside down as a result.  As our present day brings us to the tenth anniversary of the replacement subway system constructed after the incident brought about by the Takakura's, will history be repeating itself, or is Natsume's desire to crush related to something different entirely?

Once again, Mawaru Penguindrum provides an episode which continues to revel in teasing us as it refuses to explain Sanetoshi's appearance in little more than the vaguest of terms, while concentrating a lot of its time on flashbacks which we could probably have extrapolated for ourselves - it's hardly shocking to think that the Takakura sibling's life was thrown upside down by the arrest of their parents, nor the affect this might have had on Himari.  Perhaps the most notable element of this episode (aside from Himari's "resurrection") is that the end of this week's instalment felt almost like it was writing Ringo out of the story, bringing her some kind of peace in her own battle against fate and seemingly putting her on a more even footing.  Her diary, of course, remains at large, and it seems that we'll be introduced to yet more individuals in the search for its missing half - hopefully the series won't forget to close the myriad other questions its posed while doing so.