'Penguin Highway' Is a Delightfully Quirky Anime Film About Puberty

Penguin Highway is a science fiction anime film about a science-loving boy on the verge of puberty named Aoyama, who sets out to investigate the sudden, mysterious appearances of penguins in their neighborhood.  Soon enough, he learns that his crush – the bubbly lady working in the local dentist’s clinic who tutors him in chess during her spare time – has a hand on this perplexing phenomenon.  As Aoyama and his friends progress on with their research, more weird stuff are encountered, but answers come scarce.

Aoyama is quite an interesting character.  A gifted intellectual,  he’s always eager to learn new things, and is constantly jotting down his thoughts and discoveries on his notebooks.  He feels that he has already achieved more than what needs to be achieved as a kid, and thus, he’s greatly looking forward to becoming an adult, for he can’t imagine how much greater he’ll be by then.  He’s a bit full of himself, blunt, and occasionally clueless of social cues.  He’s sort of like The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper, but significantly less pathetic, obnoxious, and selfish.  Rather, he’s pretty endearing.

He’s set up as the perfect protagonist for the kind of quirky coming-of-age storyline that the movie has.

Penguin Highway can be seen as a movie about puberty.  The wacky, fantastical elements that Aoyama encounters can serve well as metaphors for the changes that happen to someone who’s about to hit or at the stage of puberty.  At the same time, the narrative also provides Aoyama with experiences that a boy of his age does undergo in real life.  And with his spacey, forthright personality at play, his handling of them yields hilarious results.

Most notable of these relatable but comedic puberty-related depictions is Aoyama’s fondness for boobs – especially those belonging to the dentist’s lady assistant.  Aoyama treats his fascination for this part of the female anatomy like how he normally treats any scientific inquiry he’s interested in.  He’s never coy about it, and he talks about it in a straightforward manner.  Yes, it’s played for laughs, but the movie handles it matter-of-factly.  Thus, it’s a recurring joke that’s effectively funny, but it comes off as wholesome rather than naughty or ecchi-ish.

Lastly, through the arc that Aoyama and the "Lady" undergo, the film leaves a resonating message for the audience, especially young people, to chew on.  That is, we must avoid being in a rush to grow up.  Rather, we must relish and not waste every second that has been afforded to us at the moment.  A cliche, yes.  But resonating nonetheless.

All things considered, Penguin Highway is a delight to watch.  Masterful direction and sublime animation brings an imaginative script to life, and the end result effortlessly invokes a feeling of cozy wonder.  The movie clocks in at nearly two hours, but going through it is such a breeze.

Currently, it rivals Weathering with You as my favorite anime film of 2019.