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EP. REVIEW: Wonder Egg Priority


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Netero



Joined: 10 Jun 2018
Posts: 159
PostPosted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 3:41 pm Reply with quote
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Ai takes a hell of a beating

As eggspected.

Seriously, though, this is really a refreshing series, at least so far. Maybe it's Nojima's lack of experience with anime that's making this so different. Yes it's sort of like Madoka's diabolic offspring, but I think it's really, really good.
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dm
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 4:13 pm Reply with quote
The coach's abuse turning her into a neolithic fertility symbol (https://i.pinimg.com/originals/61/08/f9/6108f91c5e62e691df337c62db7e9b76.jpg) connection to Minami's fear of impending puberty is a connection I hadn't made.

I think it's interesting that, for Ai to attack the trauma of her egg-girls, she must use something of the girl's to do it. Her attempts to use the pen-turned-mace from episode one on episode two's trauma failed. She didn't make progress until she picked up Minami's ribbon and began using it as a weapon.

Some notes:

With each egg-girl turning to dust after their trauma is conquered, I suspect that will be what happens at the end of the series with Koito. I wonder what weapon Ai will have to use then? Perhaps herself?

I liked the way Ai tried to game the system --- attempting to leave Minami's egg untracked until the end of the night, so the survival game would only have to last a few minutes.

I also wonder about Ai's relationship with her teacher. Does she blame the teacher for not doing anything to abate the bullying of herself or Koito?

I was a little taken out of the illusion by Ai's "perkiness" in episode two. I would think it would take longer for her to work her way out of her hikkikomori shell.
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gridsleep





PostPosted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 4:19 pm Reply with quote
Instead of My Shit perhaps you could have written My Oeuf.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 4:21 pm Reply with quote
Between the abusive coach and the implication that the teacher (not sure what his name is) raped Koito episode 2 seemed to take more than a few pages out of P5 playbook.

I'm enjoying it at the moment because, unlike most "symbolism!!" anime, the basic story is still firmly grounded, like Ai having to go to the hospital. Although I dunno how long that'll last, after 2-3 times that a child has to go to the hospital for injury they refuse to explain I imagine child protection service would be called or the kid would be restrained for their safety.

I do wish the "Ai was bullied" aspect was more developed. Ugly because of heterochromia is a pretty weak reason for being bullied (I don't think a single person ever though "FFX Yuna is ugly because of her eyes color"), I went to summer camp with someone who was literally missing one eye and everyone found that awesome cause he would take out his glass eye and you could see the hole. It feel like a case of wanting the audience to empathize with the main character but being afraid that something serious (say disfigured or heavy burn or something like that) would alienate the audience so they picked something harmless and kinda weakened their message in the process. If anything I wished they dropped the physical aspect and instead upped Ai "weirdness" (like wearing her raincoat in class or something) and used that as the reason for the bullying.
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Helix91
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Joined: 30 Apr 2017
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 4:48 pm Reply with quote
dm wrote:
I was a little taken out of the illusion by Ai's "perkiness" in episode two. I would think it would take longer for her to work her way out of her hikkikomori shell.


I think it might be that she behaves differently in the dream world. Ai is kind of playing out the fantasy of saving her friend when she goes there, maybe that fantasy also includes having a personality that she finds more appealing than her own? I haven't watched carefully enough to be completely sure that her personality only shifts when she goes to the parallel world though.

It's also complicated because I'm already not 100% sure about what's real or imaginary in some scenes.
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FireChick
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 4:49 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
I do wish the "Ai was bullied" aspect was more developed. Ugly because of heterochromia is a pretty weak reason for being bullied


Eh, who knows? It'll probably get explored later down the line. Plus, people will always find a reason to bully others, no matter how inane. I was often picked on in school due to being autistic and not liking makeup, boy bands, and going to the mall like most girls my age did back in elementary/middle school, and for being rather gullible and annoying.
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Ming Yi



Joined: 20 Dec 2005
Posts: 207
PostPosted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 4:55 pm Reply with quote
meiam wrote:
I do wish the "Ai was bullied" aspect was more developed. Ugly because of heterochromia is a pretty weak reason for being bullied (I don't think a single person ever though "FFX Yuna is ugly because of her eyes color"), I went to summer camp with someone who was literally missing one eye and everyone found that awesome cause he would take out his glass eye and you could see the hole. It feel like a case of wanting the audience to empathize with the main character but being afraid that something serious (say disfigured or heavy burn or something like that) would alienate the audience so they picked something harmless and kinda weakened their message in the process. If anything I wished they dropped the physical aspect and instead upped Ai "weirdness" (like wearing her raincoat in class or something) and used that as the reason for the bullying.


I'm glad your friend was in a welcoming environment, but people's experiences with bullying are different. Sometimes people bully others for harmless things, and other times, with no reason at all.
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25thchestnut



Joined: 14 Sep 2020
Posts: 23
PostPosted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 5:13 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Wonder Egg Priority uses the careful, grounded weight of its animation as a purposefully quotidian contrast to the sinister and fantastic threads writhing just under its surface. [...] Wonder Egg Priority analogously invokes realism in pursuit of surrealism...


Just want to say that this is a wonderfully written review; I particularly love the way you phrased this part so elegantly.
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Everlasting Coconut



Joined: 22 Jul 2019
Posts: 290
PostPosted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 5:27 pm Reply with quote
meiam wrote:
I do wish the "Ai was bullied" aspect was more developed. Ugly because of heterochromia is a pretty weak reason for being bullied


I'm ashamed to admit that this was also my reaction at first. I thought to myself: "Getting bullied for heterochromia? Nonsense. That shit looks cool as all hell".

But then I googled "heterochromia bullying" and what do you know, it's apparently pretty common for kids with this condition to be harassed by their peers. Sadly so.

I'm still not a fan of how a lot of media that deals with bullying makes its characters look traditionally pretty, and Wonder Egg is no exception. But even though Ai is just too darn cute, I can totally believe that she was bullied for her condition and called ugly because of it.
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 6:50 pm Reply with quote
FireChick wrote:
Quote:
I do wish the "Ai was bullied" aspect was more developed. Ugly because of heterochromia is a pretty weak reason for being bullied


Eh, who knows? It'll probably get explored later down the line. Plus, people will always find a reason to bully others, no matter how inane. I was often picked on in school due to being autistic and not liking makeup, boy bands, and going to the mall like most girls my age did back in elementary/middle school, and for being rather gullible and annoying.


I think those element would be more interesting than heterochromia. I'm sure some kid get picked on for heterochromia, but like you said kid will pick on each other for any reason but there's big difference being called ugly for a trait that's obviously very minor as far as appearance goes and outright exclusion.

I can understand wanting something simple that they don't have to spend so much time on, but then I would have liked it if they had been brave enough to make the character actually ugly rather cute with an "ugly" traits that's often used to make character design cuter. Even then they could have used something like alopecia, which is never used to make character cuter but also would have let them just give her a wig to make her look "normal".
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MasterGhost



Joined: 29 Nov 2011
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 20, 2021 8:03 pm Reply with quote
meiam wrote:

I do wish the "Ai was bullied" aspect was more developed. Ugly because of heterochromia is a pretty weak reason for being bullied (I don't think a single person ever though "FFX Yuna is ugly because of her eyes color")


Bullying in Japan is very much different from that in other countries. A culture that prioritizes (no pun intended) conformity over any other qualities, one can get bullied/discriminated just because of his/her appearances, background, sexual orientation, or even the way he/she speaks Japanese. I have lived in Japan for seven years and I do like this country very much, but I would still admit that it is probably the most fucked up part of its people. I'm lucky in the sense that I have a professional career and speak Japanese fluently enough to shut bullies or racists up before they can say anything discriminatory, but I've seen enough foreigners around me who aren't so and are forced to leave the country in dismay. It's really sad that we are in the 21st century, yet certain parts of the Japanese culture seem unable to move beyond the 50's.
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zrdb





PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2021 12:20 am Reply with quote
I refuse to go into a long winded diatribe about this show-yes, it has brutality and very dark undertones and a lot of disturbing shit going on but it's just so mesmerizing and fascinating to watch.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2021 12:55 am Reply with quote
I thought that I would throw in a bit of my thoughts of an extra thing that was snuck in the second episode. There was a man at Ai's place, and my assumption based on the previous episode was that this was the teacher mentioned in the first episode. I did not know how he fit into things until I remembered that apparently Koito was being bullied because of the special attention she was getting from teacher, which makes me think that this is who that was. The man might have some responsibility from not handling the situation with Koito better, and then there was the part where he asked Ai if she hates him, which felt like he was making problems about himself, which is a little gross.

Not really anything like an implication yet, but there could be a possibility that he himself did something to Koito that might have led to her jumping, but those would be worse case scenarios.

I wonder if there would be anything like Ai getting Neiru's sister. My guesses are the the principle main cast will be survivors of people who died.
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dm
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Joined: 24 Sep 2010
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2021 1:39 am Reply with quote
DuskyPredator wrote:
The man might have some responsibility from not handling the situation with Koito better, and then there was the part where he asked Ai if she hates him, which felt like he was making problems about himself, which is a little gross.


Yes, I think that was the teacher. I think the question might have come from the possibility that he felt guilt about what happened to Koito (it's hard to imagine a teacher not feeling like they should have defused a situation before a student commits suicide). Especially if Koito was getting bullied for being the teacher's pet.

DuskyPredator wrote:
Not really anything like an implication yet, but there could be a possibility that he himself did something to Koito that might have led to her jumping, but those would be worse case scenarios.


Yes, I was wondering if some of the bullies were jealous of Koito's relationship with the teacher, and wondered if it was maybe more than a teacher/student relationship (which has a surprising presence in anime --- take Kyoko Otonashi in Maison Ikkoku, who married her high-school teacher, or Hongo in O maidens in your savage season). Meiam talked about an implication that he'd raped Koito (though I'm not sure where they see that implication --- when Ai was hiding in the locker, Koito was being bullied by other students).

DuskyPredator wrote:
I wonder if there would be anything like Ai getting Neiru's sister. My guesses are the the principle main cast will be survivors of people who died.


Oh, what a neat idea! That may be why Neiru keeps taking out suitcases full of eggs --- she's hoping to get her sister.
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Kicksville



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 1168
PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2021 8:07 am Reply with quote
I see we're getting into Apocalypse Zero Tactical Fiend territory with the enemies.

(...you should, uhhh, be careful about googling that)
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