Teikou Penguin

Alternate Title

テイコウペンギン

Synopsis

Penguin works at a black company and has to deal with the unreasonableness of society day in and day out. Whether it’s his boss breathing down his neck or his coworker taking advantage of him. And then there’s his junior who always pins the blame on him for her mistakes but is somehow hard to hate regardless. In this world of corporate exploitation and bullying, sometimes the best way to deal with it is with quick wits and a sharp tongue!

Background

Teikou Penguin is a short manga series created by Torinosasami that began being posted to Twitter in 2018. Torinosasami has been working on the series for 10 years based on his own experiences dealing with the absurdities of corporate working life. The series quickly picked up a large following and had gained 3.5 million likes and 1.2 million retweets by March 2019. Beginning the same month, Kodansha began publishing the manga in collected tankobon volumes under its KC Deluxe imprint. One volume has been published to date.

In January 2019, believing that producing an anime created for YouTube would be a success, Fabo Inc. launched an anime adaptation of the series on its FermiLab YouTube channel. The anime has been a success thus far, raising the channel’s total subscribers by over 1 million in two years. Due to its success, a new anime titled Penguin Universe has also been released. The anime’s success has been attributed to its use of manga to show the anxieties and unreasonableness adults face in the modern world. However, the anime does differ slightly in tone from the original manga, which series creator Torinosasami commented is because he wasn’t a part of the YouTube anime. Information on the voice actors has also not been released.

A TV anime adaptation of the series is also in the works. It is being animated by Plott and according to producer Takahiro Ishida will consist of entirely new episodes. The anime will premiere in Japan on Jan. 5, 2022 during TV Tokyo’s Kinder TV children’s variety show.

Characters

Penguin
A penguin working for a black company. He hates bullying, power harassment, and other unreasonable aspects of society, and when confronted he stands up to it with sarcasm and poisonous tongue.

Panda
Penguin’s colleague. At first glance, he seems unassuming and cute, but deep down he’s a black-hearted panda who slacks off at work and talks behind people’s backs. He usually unloads his work onto Penguin. He loves professional wrestling.

Shachi
Penguin’s junior. Though as motivated as anyone else, it’s not enough to make up for the mistakes she often makes, the blame of which often falls on Penguin. She loves penguins.

Joshi
Penguin’s boss. He’s a typical power-hungry, sports-obsessed boss. He watches Penguin while he works and never actually does any work himself.

• TV Tokyo Anime Site (Japanese)
• Official Twitter (Japanese)

• Original Creator: Torinosasami
• Production: Plott