Questioning My Entire Life Right Now (a.k.a. Pingu in the City First Impressions)
In regards to a topic such as this, I felt like a blog that practically no one reads is a good way to let my opinion get out there without pissing too many people off. Okay, so I've been questioning a lot of things in my life right now, such as whether or not my friendship with a certain person in my life (someone I've actually subtly mentioned in a few of my reviews, specifically my Elfen Lied and A Silent Voice reviews) was actually real, if I'll ever be able to catch up in AP Calculus, and when I'll finally get around to finishing Princess Resurrection. However, all that I've mentioned just pales in comparison to the oddball that I'm writing about today. This particular CGI Fall 2017 anime has gotten people talking and calling it the "best anime ever", while I'm just sitting here, questioning whether or not they're joking.
Yes, I'm talking about "Pingu in the City".
Pingu in the City is based off of the British-Swiss 1986-2006 stop-motion cartoon, Pingu, which focuses on a young penguin named Pingu in his home of Antarctica. Some people may have a fond memory of watching Pingu; although I never considered it a top favorite of mine, I actually enjoyed watching Pingu myself when it aired on PBS Kids Sprout (now Universal Kids). Those Pingu-related memories resurfaced for a moment when I found out about Pingu in the City, where Pingu and his family move to a city and Pingu gets various jobs that have a tendency to go wrong. I saw many forum posts on this announcement saying that "anime is saved" and such, but all I was thinking was, "Huh. So Pingu is getting an anime, and a CGI one, at that? Well, it'll definitely give the younger generation some Pingu-related memories." (Geez, I'm still a teenager, but I feel really old from saying that!) I didn't really pay much attention to Pingu in the City after that.
Then, one day, something happened that caused me to be unable to ignore for any longer.
I saw a forum on MAL that posed the question of if there was an anime that was critically better than one's favorite anime. I forgot who it was, but somewhere on that article, there was someone who claimed that Pingu in the City being "the best anime ever" was an established fact, not an opinion; when I checked that person's username, I saw Pingu in the City on their "Favorite Anime" list. Then, I clicked on it.
Pingu in the City currently has a score of 8.83 on MAL, and it's not much lower of a score than it was back when I found out about it.
That was when all of the confusion began.
Everywhere I looked, I saw people saying things like "Pingu is the best anime ever", "the story of Pingu is actually deep", and "you have to have a high level of intelligence to enjoy Pingu". At first, I tried to tell myself that people saying this was a joke, but seeing so many people refute against anyone who tries to go against the norm.... I began to ask myself some serious questions.
Is Pingu in the City really that good?
Determined to answer these questions, I watched the first two episodes of Pingu in the City for myself a few hours ago. It was a lot easier to find than I thought it would be, actually; all it took was a YouTube search.
I'm still confused.
Both episodes follow a rather simple formula; Pingu gets a job somewhere, everything seems to go swimmingly, something somehow goes wrong while his boss isn't around, and he manages to fix it in the end. As I suspected, a formulaic series such as this is definitely something children - the target audience, mind you - could appreciate, and the same may goes for a few of older people. I mean, if I'm being honest, Pingu in the City is definitely not horrible; the CGI is well-done, it doesn't deviate too much from the original Pingu, and these little adventures of Pingu have a bit of a charm to them. However, the nonsensical language spoken among the penguins personally bothers me (it probably wouldn't have when I was a less-cynical little girl), the humor never got me beyond a millimeter of a grin, and the story wasn't anything too special. Overall, in my opinion, it's rather average; although it's not bad, I can't really see myself watching more.
I was and still am a bit scared to get this opinion of mine out there, however, and do you know why? I'm afraid of being a victim of those people marveling in how "great" the Pingu anime is. People may call me an idiot who can't appreciate "the fine arts", and they would tell me of why Pingu is a superior anime to all the rest. If I have any self-worth left, I will say that I am someone who gets almost all As and Bs in school and was amazed by most of the creations in an art show I went to a few months ago; I will also say that just because I enjoyed a show in the past doesn't mean I have to enjoy it now. If people seriously enjoy Pingu in the City, that's perfectly fine, but it's definitely not worth making it into a "best anime ever" meme; we've got enough of that with Cory in the House!
Yes, I'm talking about "Pingu in the City".
Pingu in the City is based off of the British-Swiss 1986-2006 stop-motion cartoon, Pingu, which focuses on a young penguin named Pingu in his home of Antarctica. Some people may have a fond memory of watching Pingu; although I never considered it a top favorite of mine, I actually enjoyed watching Pingu myself when it aired on PBS Kids Sprout (now Universal Kids). Those Pingu-related memories resurfaced for a moment when I found out about Pingu in the City, where Pingu and his family move to a city and Pingu gets various jobs that have a tendency to go wrong. I saw many forum posts on this announcement saying that "anime is saved" and such, but all I was thinking was, "Huh. So Pingu is getting an anime, and a CGI one, at that? Well, it'll definitely give the younger generation some Pingu-related memories." (Geez, I'm still a teenager, but I feel really old from saying that!) I didn't really pay much attention to Pingu in the City after that.
Then, one day, something happened that caused me to be unable to ignore for any longer.
I saw a forum on MAL that posed the question of if there was an anime that was critically better than one's favorite anime. I forgot who it was, but somewhere on that article, there was someone who claimed that Pingu in the City being "the best anime ever" was an established fact, not an opinion; when I checked that person's username, I saw Pingu in the City on their "Favorite Anime" list. Then, I clicked on it.
Pingu in the City currently has a score of 8.83 on MAL, and it's not much lower of a score than it was back when I found out about it.
That was when all of the confusion began.
Everywhere I looked, I saw people saying things like "Pingu is the best anime ever", "the story of Pingu is actually deep", and "you have to have a high level of intelligence to enjoy Pingu". At first, I tried to tell myself that people saying this was a joke, but seeing so many people refute against anyone who tries to go against the norm.... I began to ask myself some serious questions.
Is Pingu in the City really that good?
Determined to answer these questions, I watched the first two episodes of Pingu in the City for myself a few hours ago. It was a lot easier to find than I thought it would be, actually; all it took was a YouTube search.
I'm still confused.
Both episodes follow a rather simple formula; Pingu gets a job somewhere, everything seems to go swimmingly, something somehow goes wrong while his boss isn't around, and he manages to fix it in the end. As I suspected, a formulaic series such as this is definitely something children - the target audience, mind you - could appreciate, and the same may goes for a few of older people. I mean, if I'm being honest, Pingu in the City is definitely not horrible; the CGI is well-done, it doesn't deviate too much from the original Pingu, and these little adventures of Pingu have a bit of a charm to them. However, the nonsensical language spoken among the penguins personally bothers me (it probably wouldn't have when I was a less-cynical little girl), the humor never got me beyond a millimeter of a grin, and the story wasn't anything too special. Overall, in my opinion, it's rather average; although it's not bad, I can't really see myself watching more.
I was and still am a bit scared to get this opinion of mine out there, however, and do you know why? I'm afraid of being a victim of those people marveling in how "great" the Pingu anime is. People may call me an idiot who can't appreciate "the fine arts", and they would tell me of why Pingu is a superior anime to all the rest. If I have any self-worth left, I will say that I am someone who gets almost all As and Bs in school and was amazed by most of the creations in an art show I went to a few months ago; I will also say that just because I enjoyed a show in the past doesn't mean I have to enjoy it now. If people seriously enjoy Pingu in the City, that's perfectly fine, but it's definitely not worth making it into a "best anime ever" meme; we've got enough of that with Cory in the House!
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