Wonder Egg Priority

Haven't actually seen this yet, but people in the season thread were saying it should have a topic so I figured I'd do them a solid.

In real life, being a teenage girl is hard. Dealing with your peers, your body, your aspirations...Isn't it easier to find solace in the world of dreams? And when dreams and reality start to mix, which is the better option?

Edited by IniuriaTalis on Jan 13th 2021 at 9:42:57 AM

The first episode was really good. I didn't know what to expect but the horror elements were done well, along with the underlying story of bullying and dealing with grief. I'm excited to see where it goes and see what dreamworlds come out of the eggs next.

Thanks for creating the thread. Please do check it out!

The first episode was fantastic and plenty ripe for dissection. The eggs seem to be unfortunate souls and our protagonist believes she can resurrect her friend if she saves as many as she can. Key word there being "believe" as the otherworldy beings throwing her into the rabbit hole never make any such deal. I think it's a really interesting setup.

Down the rabbit hole is a nightmare school straight out of Silent Hill. It's all a big metaphor for bullying. I legit got chills when the clear condition was said to be "to make it til the bell rings". That single, raw line bullied kids all over the world must have thought at some point. And when our heroine decides to leave the egg-girl behind to protect herself? Followed by egg-girl's understanding look? A horrible but beautiful scene.

I am flat-out excited for the next episode. This cour is bonkers.

Second episode is out now, and it introduces a few new mechanics that I expect will be coming up repeatedly - having to defeat the dream's "boss", and apparently needing to use a weapon related to the Egg girl to do it. Again, not exactly subtle, but that fits in with the show so far.

We also get to see more of Neiru, and the four eggs in the OP suggest that we'll eventually have a main cast of four. I would expect they're all social outcasts in some way - Ai has her heterochromia, Neiru looks foreign, the third girl seems to be a delinquent, and the fourth girl... not sure.

I wonder where we're going with the idea of having four main characters—Thus far the story is structured in a way that doesn't really allow anyone but Ai to have much focus

Curious to see what roles the other three girls will play, too. Will we be seeing their dreamscape adventures (which I really really want)? Or will they simply function as a quartet of like-minded comrades? Plenty of ways to tackle it. Maybe one of them will fail a mission and we'll learn what happens then.

The design of the ballpen-mace is sooo good. Heck, the visuals in general are flat-out amazing, not only in the sakuga but also with the shot composition. The soundtrack too, I'm not sure how to describe it, it's like it's got a slightly irregular tempo which really fits the mood of the show.

I like Neire already. Cute when Ai decides to take a page from the gymnast and invite Neire out to a burger joint.

I wonder if Ai will get to keep the gymnastic ribbon.

So aside from the bullying, Koito might have had something sketchy going on with the teacher... ugh.

Edited by fillerdude on Jan 20th 2021 at 12:02:18 PM

Yeah... I'm definitely getting a sketchy feeling about that whole situation.

I was more mixed on this episode compared to the first one, can't really explain. Something about the dialogue felt a bit more stilted when it's actually Ai interacting with people than metaphysical concepts.

I do wonder if all the girls struggle will tie in some way to Ai's past with Koito like the implication that like Neire, the reason she could be so stony faced in the face of difficulty was because she wanted to die.

Also yeah, I don't trust that teacher, especially when it's brought up in the same episode that has a teacher abusing their authority to abuse a student

The only saving grace of this show was the 4 main Love Live V Aa are there (my idol Shuu is there) but that's about it.

Strange how this show was actually thriller but marketed like a SOL genre (judging on key visual).

I would actually agree on the dialogue, in that it’s actually a fair bit more awkward compared to the previous episode, but that’s still plenty polished.

I like that Ai has been bullied for something as inconsequential and minor as heterochromia. It helps show how dumb and arbitrary bullying can be as opposed to if she had a more obvious thing going on.

Though I will say, her name being Ohto Ai doesn't help with that - it's kind of like seeing your baby has heterochromia and then naming her Hetero Chromie, since the Japanese name for the phenomenon is "oddo ai" (odd eye).

Episode 3: We get introduced our third main girl, Rika. And the stage for the next mission is her dreamworld, and it's a downright gorgeous field of flowers. Everythin about it is gorgeous. Loved the smug look on Ai and Rika's faces when they were mocking the kraken lady.

I love how Rika's shown to be outwardly callous and easygoing in her attempts to deflect and downplay her trauma. That short bit where she's telling her story to Ai and she kept expecting Ai to laugh along with her... oof. That hits different. Must have been crazy, she only wanted to stop her fan from being a criminal, and then her fan wasted away from an eating disorder.

Neiru is still going on those missions, so her rehab might not going so well... Oh and her phone conversation with Ai about "pillow fights" was morbidly funny. Please keep that innocence, Ai.

Oh dear it's looking more likely that Koito and the teacher were having some "pillow fights" too... In fact it's so suspicious I'm beginning to think it might be a fake-out. Ai could be an Unreliable Narrator who hates the teacher for being the friend and confidant that she wasn't to Koito.

I'll keep singing my praises for the soundtrack. It hits that perfect balance of unsettling and cheerful.

Yeah, we'll have to see. Either way, I can only see this getting more uncomfortable to watch.

Teachers aren't generally supposed to get into Cry into Chest situations with their students. There isn't really a pleasant explanation for what Ai saw. The only question is what the dude's game is now - is he trying to atone for his catastrophic professional irresponsibility, or is he doubling down?

Episode 4:
We meet Momoe Sawaki, a girl with the gender expression of masculine and the sexual orientation of probably lesbian or bi. If the last name sounds familiar, that is the same last name as the Sawaki who kept on visiting Ai's house and the one who embraced Koito last episode...
The themes are getting much deeper...

I'm not so sure what to make of Momoe's sexuality. She's very obviously playing up the "prince charming" shtick, but when she's embracing the girls she's never looking at them, she's looking away. Kind of gives of the impression that due to sexuality norms she pushed the girl she's trying to save away, or they were just incompatible. It's also pretty interesting that her fights take place in a train station.

Neiru being a child CEO is certainly...a choice. Feels kind of over the top for how down to earth most of the show has been outside of the magical fight sections.

The "boys and girls suicide mean different things" comment was also certainly...a take. And not one I think I like at all, I'm NGL.

Edited by Mami on Feb 2nd 2021 at 10:12:08 AM

Since it’s the straw men or whatever they are, I’d take that with a salt rock anyways.

Maybe, we'll see

With how well most of the other stuff has been managed it’d be SUPER disappointing if that was played straight. “Oh yeah, the reason we don’t have any boy eggs is because boys mean it while girls just make bad choices” is a heck of a take for this kind of show to have.

Yeah, that part was iffy, but it's also coming from the mouths of characters who are very clearly not to be listened to and consistently jerkish, so I'm giving it a pass for now. Also, did anyone else get trans vibes from Momoe? From her discomfort at being perceived as a boy and the comment about having broad shoulders, as well as the monster yelling at her for being on the train, and her first conversation with Ai—I'm not sure, since it's fairly ambiguous, but we'll see what future episodes bring.

I definitely got transgirl vibes from her. Could be way off base, and there are certainly arguments that could be made for several interpretations of her this early on. We'll see!

There are actual, major differences in suicide stats for men and women across multiple cultures. It's not universal, but it's an accurate reflection of success rate and methodology in Japan, at least. As for Momoe, it seemed pretty clear that she's a masculine-looking cis girl who dresses to flatter her looks (and may have something deeper going on - maybe her parents wanted a boy, or she thinks that she needs to look like a guy for girls to be interested in her), but really wants to be accepted and loved for her femininity. Her flashback showed her and her statue girl in uniform at school - that plus her lack of an Adam's apple means she's cis, not trans.

Yeah, I'm not really sure. It definitely seems like Momoe has a problem with her statue touching her, or coming onto her, without Momoe's consent, since she flashed back to the infirmary during the fight and there was a definite link between the pressures there. She seems defensive over her shoulders, looks uncomfortable when her rescue Eggs fall for her, and she consciously code-switches to a feminine pronoun when she runs into Ai at the end, so it seems like your reading is probably right, Iaculus.

Going off what we've seen from this show already, my guess is that Mr. Sawaki's creepiness doesn't extend just to his students and Momoe's masculine presentation is a defense mechanism. It remains to be seen whether the show would go that far, but so far it hasn't really held back on messed-up themes.

Though - and this is coming from my perspective as a cis man, so it may simply be a case that I'm not part of the thematic audience - I'm not so sure if the show... has a message, yet, aside from that bullying is bad and that girls go through a lot of trauma growing up? I can't tell if it's intended to be cathartic or just wallowing in human suffering.

Edited by RedSavant on Feb 3rd 2021 at 7:41:26 AM

Hmm, there's some scenes that seem to point towards a trans reading of Momoe but other scenes that make it seem like the show is doing the eyerolling cliche anime thing. Gonna have to wait and see where this goes before I decide how to feel about it.