Forum - View topicWonder Egg Priority (TV).
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bllanosr
 Posts: 212 |
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Koito's Suicide Theory I have a different angle at why Koito killed herself. I was getting the impression that the teacher had a one-sided liking towards Koito and may have been sexually assaulting or molesting her. Although Koito was not interested in the teacher, the teacher is still highly considered attractive by Rika, other students, and Ai's mother. I was thinking Koito was in a very weird and sad situation where she was being molested by the attractive teacher and got bullied by other jealous students who had a crush on him. The other students may not know the real situation, but will bully anyone who gets the attention of their "crush." As a result, Koito may have committed suicide because Ai did not help her. Ai caught the teacher in the act and just left Koito there. Koito was clearly crying and broke away from the teacher when Ai walked in. Then Ai runs off and does not help her. Imagine being molested by a teacher (person of authority at a place your stuck at for most of the day) and being bullied for it your classmates. To make matters worse, your one and only friend knows about it and just ignores you and runs away. That would have probably put Koito in a very helpless situation to commit suicide. It is also very weird that same teacher keeps visiting Ai at home. I understand that she dropped out and became a shut in (hikikomori), but it's very creepy that he keeps visiting her home. When he asked her directly if he hated her, I got the impression that what he was really asking is "Do you blame me for Koito's death?" The teacher knows Ai caught them in the act and may know the abuse. Therefore, he is visiting her to keep an eye on her. Worse, he may be visiting her to torture her. He seems to be flirtatious with the mother and the mother seems to like him as well. Lesbian Theory I don't think Ai and Koito will have a lesbian back story. The series seems to touch on very different, heavy and charged topics, kind of like Stars Align. There already seems to be a lesbian backstory with Momoe. Therefore, I do not see another lesbian backstory with Ai and Koito. Wonder Eggs I thought the wonder eggs were a symbol of rebirth as well since the mannequins said the person can be brought back to life. However, I'm starting to think they are supposed to help the victim and those left behind with survivor's guilt to get closure and move on. Each wonder eggs explains why the person committed suicide. The dialogue between the abuser, victim, and heroine goes into a deep explanation of why the victims killed themselves. Right after the heroine defeats the abuser, the heroine and victim realize why the victim did it and gets some closure. The victim also realizes that suicide was not the best answer and just hopes they are not forgotten. I think once Ai finally gets the Koito egg, she will be able to understand why Koito killed herself and can get closure and move on. Koito will also realize that Ai was really her friend and that suicide was not best the answer. Koito will get closure and move on as well. Those are just my thoughts and I am really excited to where this show will take us though. |
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ACｘS
 Posts: 896 |
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This is by far the biggest red flag I've noticed. Can't help but feel that his question is so suggestive: is he asking Ai if she hates him for molesting Koito? Or for causing Koito's death? Or is it just another way of asking if Ai blames him for not saving her? There are many ways to interpret what he's doing. Even his house visits rubs me the wrong way: is he really looking out for Ai, or keeping a close eye on her for what really happened between him and Koito? |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15495 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Episode 5
This episode was absolutely beautiful, regardless of in looks but as a general concept of just our four main girls together; Ai, Neiru, Rika and Momoe. And I really like all of them. The episode worked just so well at showing how these three interact with each other. Like Rika makes Ai be more open and loud, yet more image concious stuff with Momoe in sharing pictures and stuff, and Rika does butt heads with Neiru but the challenging each other I don't think is bad. The episode also generally felt like it did the sort of thing of asking the exact sort of questions that we the audience might have had, Rika especially questioning if there might have been something funny between Koito and sensei. Momoe really thinks the whole idea is too ridiculous by what she knows of her uncle, but I do think the episode was not ruling out that something is off with sensei. Did he seem a little off in learning that Ai had made friends with people including his own niece? Rika also did something that I would argue should be an end goal, that perhaps they should stop this whole egg thing, that they really should not feel responsible for the people they are trying to save, at least not at risk of their own lives. It was maybe not the most elegantly worded, but it is something I would say should be very true, committing suicide is actually a very selfish thing to do, there can be a lot of different experiences, but these girls should not be locked down to keep punishing themselves. How fun they had together should show that. But the episode also focused a lot on Neiru's story, showing her dream world, a bridge that we later learned represents the one that her sister threw herself off of, after stabbing Neiru. Neiru reacted the most strongly to the idea of not continuing, even though the one she is trying to save has scarred her in a very long lasting way. The people Neiru saved, that we saw this episode, also seem to leave quite the impact on Neiru, which goes into an idea I had building that the challenges they face are not entirely up to chance, and may really be some element of reliving their trauma. Ai's trauma is some elements of bullying, Rika's, not sure but no shock that the one we saw of her saw involved idols as if to her own trauma, Momoe's do involve gender and the girls often saying they love her in the end, and Neiru's in this involved a theme of money with whether actually being loved and fading beauty that may relate to Neiru's scar. The episode may have ended on a bit of a sour note, but I hope things get better, and I really put my prayers that all of these girls stay safe. There are some hints that Neiru might really be in a bad place, what with one of the eggs pretty much trying to coax her into doing herself in. |
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ACｘS
Posts: 896 |
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5:
Man, this episode went right in with addressing the two big elephants in the room. Elephant #1: Sawaki-sensei It's almost eerie to see how Rika basically blurts out almost everything we've said about what Sawaki-sensei is up to, from his possible affair with Koito right down to visiting Ai just to keep her in check. And to see Sawaki-sensei probably overhearing them, I can't help but wonder if it's really true. Elephant #2: Neiru's trauma Yes, I finally got what I wanted: to know her story. I don't know much about the situation about Neiru's first encounter (Capitalism? God complex? Runaway? A case of power harassment?)... not like I care much about it either. To be honest, Neiru's encounters with the two girls aren't necessarily about the girls themselves; it's about Neiru herself and her views. The idea of give-and-give and dying for others seems illogical for Neiru, whom I can safely say is logical and single-minded. So no, Rika's argument doesn't hold for someone like Neiru, even if Rika has a point. But truth be told, we (or maybe I) still don't fully understand Neiru's full story. Why was her sister suicidal in the first place? And why did she want to drag Neiru along for the jump? Not explicitly revealed, but DuskyPredator's idea is a plausible one. And for the other one... We now know that Haruka, Momoe's trauma subject, did see her as a girl. That means when they had that "incident", it was revealed that her best friend was a lesbian and Momoe's rejection drove(?) Haruka to death. And no, I don't think her dressing like a guy is a manifestation of her guilt towards rejecting Haruka. She's been seen as a guy even before all that, so I don't think there's a connection. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15495 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Momoe was surprisingly upfront about her wanting to be seen as a girl, that Haruka did such, that she was mostly surprised by Haruka's advances, worries about if she handled it right, and how is annoyed by the wards all confessing to her.
It is a little something about how the others are quick to understand that Haruka came onto Haruka despite specifically seeing her as a girl, and not much of a fuss about that, despite Rika specific claim that she too might be interested in Momoe if she was a guy. The episode also had that Momoe does enjoy some of the popularity she gets, despite the parts that annoy her, mentioning that she uses some social networking. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4093 |
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I thought Momoe lied.
Beginning of story, in a manner of speaking. They're going have to come clean or try dying. I mean, die trying. Yes, absolutely. Regardless, the show has gotten to the point that any advances to the plot will be about revealing information rather than just looking good while remaining enigmatic. I have some ideas... again, the same dark ideas that I've had from the start. The girls are armed with weapons of suicide, can we agree on that? If we're going to start somewhere, it may as well be there. Utility blades, gymnastic ribbon... I still don't know what Momoe has but it there's a pointy end... and a pen. I can hear some people saying "But a pen isn't dangerous!" I think it depends what you write with it. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23831 |
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For me, the most significant part of Episode 5 was learning that originally Sensei wanted to paint Ai and she had agreed. It seemed like his intent was her to become more confident about her appearance, especially her eyes. Then Koito seemed to talk her out of letting Sensei use the painting in an exhibition. She claims his goal is to win a prize and then make a living as a painter. Koito tells Ai she shouldn't do it if she's not confident because it's important for sensei's future. Then we see Koito has become his model.
So here's my theory: both Ai and Koito had a crush on sensei. Koito didn't like where the "Ai being sensei's model" was going so she sabotaged it and took Ai's place. Then at some point she confessed her feelings to sensei and he rejected them as being inappropriate due to the teacher-student dynamic. Koito killed herself in reaction. In other words the "Koito being bullied and Ai not doing anything about it" was just a red herring. A darker version of this theory is that Koito confessed to Sensei and he either directly or indirectly indicated he had feelings for Ai. Or perhaps Koito merely assumed his rejection was because he had feelings for Ai. So her suicide might have been an "eff you" to them both. Another theory: ultimately, this show won't be about "saving" the girls whom our leads feel responsible with respect to their suicides. It will be undergoing an experience that lets them accept it wasn't their fault and to accept the deaths of their friends/relatives and be able to move on. |
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bllanosr
Posts: 212 |
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I can see this but I'm looking at the heroine's weapon being symbolic to their friend/sister's suicide. Ai - her weapon is a pen. Koito killed herself without telling Ai why. I think the pen is symbolic for the lack of a suicide letter (written by a pen) to explain why Koito killed herself. Neiru - her weapon is a riffle. The sister stabbed and cut up Neiru then the sister jumped off a bridge. I think the gun is symbolic of the violent murder-suicides. Rika - her weapon is a pair of scissors that she splits apart. Chiemi and her were a constant pair at those idol meet and greets. Then one day, Rika told Chiemi that she did not want to see her again. I think this is symbolic of a cutting ties or parting ways suicide. Momoe - her weapon is an umbrella. This may be a reach but in Asian rom-coms there is usually an umbrella scene. Where the girl does not have an umbrella and is hoping to share an umbrella with her love interest. The gag is that the guy has an extra pair and the girl views this as a form of rejection. I think this is symbolic of the unrequited love suicide. |
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bllanosr
Posts: 212 |
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I wasn't thinking of this until I read your post. I do agree that Neiru seems off from the other three girls. Her suicide backstory seems to be an attempted murder-suicide. The fact that she had to "murder" the second victim's hair (most prized beauty trait) in order to save her was a major twist. There also seems to be elements of self-hate and regret. That does not look good for Neiru in the future. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15495 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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In particular Ai's pen is a multi-colour retractable pen, it is not hard to connect that to her different coloured eyes. But I would not find it hard to put that with the fact she has finished off the monsters with weapons of the wards, and there that statement about Ai being pulled around like what was said when she entered Rika's world. Neiru's gun is apparently actually a compass, the sort of thing where you put the spike in and then with a pencil in the other slot draw a circle. The guess is that that her sister might have stabbed her with such a compass. It could also be something about how she is a very particular person. Rika's weapons are not only two half of a scissor, they appear to be both box cutters or utility knives, they have lines on the blade that are meant to be broken off when the edge gets dull. These types of knives are kind of infamous for their image as being used for self cutting, which can create the easy assumption that they might have been what Rika used to cut herself. Can't say anything about Momoe's weapon yet. |
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ACｘS
Posts: 896 |
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6:
Pokémon! Occam's Razor: a scientific and philosophical rule that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily which is interpreted as requiring that the simplest of competing theories be preferred to the more complex or that explanations of unknown phenomena be sought first in terms of known quantities. In English: the simplest explanation is usually the right one. Urgh, what a mess. Mom's dating Ai's teacher. Never mind that seeing your parents divorce along would confuse anyone. Never mind that seeing your own mother dating your teacher alone would confuse anyone. But this is Sawaki-sensei we're talking about here, a suspect in Koito's suicide. Not confusing enough? The reason behind the longstanding confusion in Ai's feelings over Sawaki-sensei has been the simplest one, maybe so simple we never thought about it: she likes him. Honestly, now I'm confused. I have no idea what to make about Ai's newfound optimism for coming to school. Is it because she's finally being honest with herself and looking forward to seeing Sawaki-sensei more by coming to school? So what about him playing a role in Koito killing herself? Ai didn't just forget about all that overnight, did she? I understand Ai's fight this time round. It ties in with the Occam's Razor: Ai can't see the enemy because she didn't believe in it. She only began to see once she believed in it. Apply that to her RL: she finally acknowledged what was so obvious to her. Call it denial if you want, but she accepted the fact that she likes Sawaki-sensei. But me? I'm just confused. "Punch Drunk Day" seems too perfect of an episode title. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15495 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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My suspicion of why Ai suddenly did what she did was was because the prayer beads had somehow come into the real world, which maybe she thought would allow her to see invisible things, and ghosts, like her departed friend.
Ai's feelings do seem like a mess for what the audience should take. Perhaps it is Occam's Razor that the simplest answer why Ai might have mixed up feelings over her teach, ran away from seeing her friend in his arms and is upset over him dating her mum is that she actually likes him. Yet in general the whole thing does not sit right with me, it would be too obvious, yet also the framing for this being the case is odd how Sawaki has been framed, it has to be intentional how all these ominous atmosphere has been around him. But I will fully admit that I am quite possibly just trying to blindly hold onto my pet theory. I still suspect that it was Koito that she liked, and that would be the actual Occam's Razor to feeling uncomfortable around the guy Koito liked. "Nothing costs more than a free gift." That was what was said earlier in the series, and yet we are just supposed to look at these free gifts as just the great, like so great that they get something to protect them in battle and are a pet. I pretty much laughed out loud when I saw what the gifts were, that they looked like Soul Gems from the Madoka franchise, which made me think of them as super sketchy. They conveniently eat Haters like some sort of build up of jealousy or something, which has me wonder if they might eventually turn on them or something, even if they do look super cute. We probably could read a bit into what the pets are like, when I saw each of the animals without really being sure who's was which, I knew that the Chameleon was Ai's. It fits way too well into her themes along with the pen in different colours, and that she can be pulled along by other people. It does make me think of the idea that Ai might not even understand her own self in cases where she might change colours, an idea that perhaps she will think that she likes Sawaki Sensei because that is what her friends said. That maybe she will think she likes her teacher when it is easier to think she liked someone else. But if I am not careful I will just start saying how I think it should have been written instead. Also, Momoe excited that she might become family with Ai was the cutest. And totally not good when it looked like Momoe was not taking well the attacks on her uncle. |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3896 |
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I was thinking the same thing and I'm sure that we're not alone.
I had to laugh at Momoe's naivety when she said, "No way. Besides, he knows that Ai's my friend.", considering that I knew a coworker whose uncle had an affair and slept with her best friend. If I remember correctly, the friend was around 18-19 and the uncle was in his 40s or so. |
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ACｘS
Posts: 896 |
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7:
Dealing with the heavy topics yet again. Parental neglect, self-harm, and self-worth are topics that are way over my head. I've been lucky enough to never have to go through any of them, but these are real problems that affect perhaps more people than we think. And perhaps, arguably, it affects more women than men. I imagine it's tough to be kids with single mothers. I can't really have a say on what Rika goes through, but the usual narrative is: Rika's father was likely to have cheated on her mother and left them, Rika hates her mother (but more importantly, ultimately hates herself because usually neglected children often blame themselves for allowing parental neglect to happen), they self-mutilate as a coping mechanism for emotional pain, self-punishment, and also because they feel numb), but thankfully felt needed and thus managed her way back up to help herself. The common issue I observe that people like Rika is feeling like nobody cares if they live or die—many suicidal cases with stories like Rika's have this sentiment—but that's where her turtle comes in to save the day. I imagine that parental neglect really sucks. Rika may or may not have forgiven her mom, but she has at least accepted herself and forgave herself. That's the important first step to take. People like her need a lot of support, and it's great to see that she has good friends on her side. Oftentimes, people like her didn't have a happy ending because they didn't have the network, and people never noticed until it's too late. On an unrelated note, I'm curious about Neiru's background because her story's the most unique among the girls. An executive at her age, and parents that aren't even on her radar (whatever that means)? What kind of life has she been living? |
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emerald00
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This latest episode hit way too close to home for me. My biological mom is a massive drug addict and a pathological liar. When I'd ask who my biological father was she'd just lie and say that he died in a motorcycle accident or of some disease.
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