Trivia / Penguindrum

• Acting for Two:
  • The penguins are voiced by the voice actors of their respective human character that they're "paired" with.
  • In Episode 22, Ringo talks with Double-H. She and one of the Double-H girls are voiced by Marie Miyake.
• Actor Allusion: In episode 16, Masako dreams of poisoning her grandfather with a basket of fruits concealing a snake.
• Anime First: Penguindrum was originally conceived as an anime series, although there are tie-in novels that were being released alongside it, as well.
• Cross-Dressing Voices:
  • Played straight with Souya, averted with Shirase since Motoki Takagi is one of the few male seiyuus able to voice pre-teen boys regularly.
  • Played straight with both boys in the dub, as they are both voiced by Hilary Haag.
  • Played straight with young Shouma and young Kanba in the English dub of the compilation movies.
• Defictionalization: At least one version of Momoka's curry exists in real life.
• The Other Darrin: Re:Cycle of the Penguindrum brings none of the dub cast back. While it was inevitably understandable with Kanba’s original actor Illich Guardiola, it's rather unusual that the rest aren't called back.
• Reality Subtext: The compilation movies were announced and released a decade after the anime aired and have a subplot of Sanetoshi returning and trying to pull a Happy Ending Override. Coincidentally, Sanetoshi's JP voice actor, Yutaka Koizumi, hadn't had any other roles after Penguindrum until he reprised his role albeit for a short promotional video for the second film.
• Sleeper Hit: Ultimately ended up becoming this after its airing.
• Trolling Creator: It's Kunihiko Ikuhara, is it not?
  Ikuhara (via Twitter): All of you have enjoyed making your predictions. Now, I'll tell you the truth. Yes. Just as all of you have predicted all along: the Penguindrum is a pink washing machine.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Tomoko Kawakami spoke with Ikuhara about working together again, since she played Utena from Revolutionary Girl Utena. Sadly, Kawakami passed away a month before the series was aired.
  • The official artbook showed that plans were once made to have Shouma and Kanba wear pilot suits.

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