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The ending of Mawaru Penguindrum had a lot of ambiguous symbolism.

My first impression was that the writer had no idea how to resolve the
fundamental questions of the plot, and thus had to throw out completely
unresolvable symbolism in order to fake an ending. A few of my driving
questions throughout the series were as follows:

  1. A recurring motif of the show is that the main character would get possessed by a penguin hat, and pull one or two characters into a kind of alternate reality where they were handcuffed. To what degree was this a hallucination? Likewise, Penguins 1, 2, and 3, plus the additional penguin, were important characters who were not visible to most people in the show. To what degree were they hallucinations, and to what degree were they paranormal? 

  2. Were there any forces in the story that were godlike, in that they were both powerful and capable of passing judgement on mortals? In particular, at the end of the show, it seems that two boys sacrificed their mortal lives for the sake of two girls. Was this a sacrifice made to a god or other cosmic power?


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2013-02-12T06:01:36.100
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2015-06-30T14:01:56.713
2015-06-30T14:01:56.713
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mawaru-penguindrum
Was the ending of Mawaru Penguindrum completely incoherent?


The place that Himari goes to (with her two brothers) is called the [Crystal
World](http://penguindrum.wikia.com/wiki/Crystal_World). It's a fantasy world
that they get transported to by the [Princess of
Crystal](http://penguindrum.wikia.com/wiki/Princess_of_the_Crystal), the
entity that possesses Himari through the hat. Not sure if it can be considered
a hallucination (if it is, it's definitely shared between its occupants), but
it's probably not in the physical world, perhaps in a "dream" world?

The [three penguins](http://penguindrum.wikia.com/wiki/Penguin_Trio) were
assigned by the Princess of the Crystal to Himari, Shoma and Kanba to help
find the Penguindrum. They're not hallucinations since they physically
interact with the real world. The reason why only the 3 who were assigned
penguins could see them isn't explained.

As for **B** , I don't think you can look at any of this as "godlike" or
"cosmic power". This is purely fantasy so it doesn't make sense to apply the
series in a real-world like setting. These powers are fantastic beyond
explanation and the entire series is heavily laden with symbolism.

> The Princess of the Crystal wants the Penguindrum and in return, Himari can
> be saved. At the end of the series, it's revealed that the Penguindrum was
> actually the apple that Kanba and Shoma shared while in cages when they were
> little (the "fruit of fate"). So the two boys give up their "fate" to the
> Princess of the Crystal, thus giving up their entire existence, resulting in
> a Himari that is alive and well in a world where the two boys never existed.
> The sacrifice was giving up their fate to the Princess of the Crystal, who
> isn't a god or cosmic power, but turns out is part of Momoka Oginome's soul,
> Ringo's older sister and the original owner of the diary (she died from that
> terrorist attack). Her soul was split into two and became the two penguin
> hats, one of them being the one that Himari was given.


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