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Wonder Egg Priority (TV)

Genres: drama, psychological
Themes: bullying, dreams, school

Plot Summary: Ai scores a “Wonder Egg” from a gachapon machine at a deserted arcade. But now when Ai falls asleep a girl emerges from her Wonder Egg, the worlds of dreams and reality begin to collide. And it’s all connected.

Episode 1

Well, that was a lot. I also have thoughts that saying it is a slice of life might not fit. The episode had pretty strong themes around bullying, and even imagery of suicide. A teenage girl having flung herself off of a roof. It is easy to see how this won't be an easy watch for everyone, added on that it also seems to be giving our heroine, Ai, a promise that she could somehow undo her friend's suicide, which could come across as a bit of bad taste.

My take so far is that the promise was vague, and thus there is not a real chance that there is going to be some way to bring Koito back to life. But I think that there is a few things to analyse, a little surprised that none of the reviewers mentioned Flip Flappers. The first thing to analyse I think was about a story assumption that the dream world was Ai's dream, that she would be overcoming her own trauma. The idea that she is immortal in the dream world, and with power, might point that way, that the other girl was attacker because she was something like an intruder in Ai's dream. But other elements point that the dream world was actually the other girl's, her experience of being bullied, and following an answer of "no comment", she may have killed herself.

Confusion kind of presents itself with the ending pushing the idea that Ai is the one out helping people of the eggs, to get her idea of an award. But it kind of feels flipped in the sense that Ai is the on paying for the egg, and the girl who popped out of the egg seemed more in the know of how things should work, and talked to an entity behind the experience like she was an employee. Leaving the promise Ai thinks she has of maybe eventually getting her friend back, why would she be getting asked to help people who know more than her? And there was that promise of asking not to be forgotten.

Way too early to make theories, but at this point I oddly thinking of the events as a sort of 4th wall sense Kind of a little thinking of an anime about an anime (a story about a story?). Like Ai bought (although first one is free) a piece of media (book, anime or game), with said media having the purpose of making Ai feel like Ai is taking part in helping someone from trouble like bullying, while really could look at it as the work of someone meant to make like Ai is being active. The cynical view could be that Ai is just buying into a product meant to make her feel like she is helping someone, just to get money out of her. While another purpose is to help her get over her own grief and trauma. Perhaps the eventual promise of bringing Koito back to life would be something like Ai herself making an egg like experience of Koito that could help someone else. The girl asking Ai not to forget her would be like what Ai could do with Koito in also not being forgotten.

Although, again, way too early for theories, and I kind of think that my track record has gotten really bad recently, and not worth taking my thoughts for granted. My other thoughts in the episode are of Koito, where I suspect that Ai was not the sole source of trauma (like sharing her bullies), that eventually led to Koito taking her life, that there were probably other things she was dealing with.

Also think that I am way too much falling into a trap of seeing queerness all over the place, and really don't want to read too much into the relationship of feelings between Ai and Koito, they should be allowed to have been just friends. But I do think that there was a touch of sub textual imagery when Ai and Koito were on the bed, although another part of the episode had Ai curious over the girl having a boyfriend, and Hibike Euphonium is an example of even more obvious body language doing dirty. And yet Ai for some reason was captivated by the figure of the other girl getting eggs, which does not at all help with pushing that Ai is totally straight. I don't want getting hopes up. Probably worth recalling what I said about think of Flip Flappers, which seems to have general thoughts that it totally had queerness as a theme.

Not even talk about the production values of the episode yet, which were pretty great.

Yes, I might be one of those who DP was thinking about when he said some peeps might find this a tough watch due to the bullying theme and imagery of a teenage girl's suicide. I have to be honest: I really hate bullying stories, especially when the victim is a young girl. As a Westerner, the only "acceptable" resolution for me is that the bullies get tortured for the rest of their natural lives. Anything less feels unsatisfying. I'm exaggerating, but not by much.

So yeah, not sure how I'm going to feel about this but the episode intrigued me enough to want to carry on.

Yeah.... here's the thing about gacha games; You have to buy a lot to get the one you want and what keeps you going back for more isn't the promise of success, its the potential of success. You are just strung along until you're taken for everything you have.

So I'll just ask it outright: Did they take Ai's kidney? One of them I mean? She misidentified it as liver but that's more below the stomach. I have a lot more suspicions but most of them are strictly bad and I do mean bad.

Flip Flappers? Yeah I got hints of that on the positives but the bad feelings that are coming off this show in waves remind me of Bokurano and also, sigh, Shadow Star.

Hope as a drug? That's dark and this one will fit right in along side those two.

An example of one of my suspicions: What if the real girl wasn't the one who came from the egg but the one trying to get one for herself? She was a "Noseeevil" but there was an awful a lot of blood for a hallucination.

Edit: I just checked out the Previews and my jaw dropped at how the reviewers took everything at face value even when Ai was told not to. My advice: Always look a gift horse in the mouth and there's no such thing as free.

1:

This. show. is. STRANGE.

Okay, first things first: this show is pretty AF. One of the prettiest shows I've ever seen in recent times. This is basically Kyoto Animation at its best; I wouldn't have known that it's produced by CloverWorks. And it's not just the flawless artwork and animation; the muted atmosphere is also exceptional. I know I'm watching something serious when I see a show with a lot of muted scenes.

Moving on... oh boy, heavy themes inbound. I understand that this is a show where dreams and reality collide. Dreams are weird, so fine. The last time a show's directorial style left me baffled was Mawaru Penguindrum's alternate world (remember that show?); it had similar vibes.

But the point is not about how weird the dream world is; like how people have sensed since time immemorial, dreams carry meaning (what that meaning is, it's still up for debate). I can tell that the small things in this show carry meaning. And it deals with bullying, discrimination and friendship. Those are the heavy stuff. I'm also surprised to see deep snippets that's easy to miss, be it Ai's tasting of Koito's tears, the tiny See-no-Evil killing machines, or "nothing costs more than a free gift".

So here's what I think is the gist of the show: Ai is reaching out to others like her. In doing that, she hopes to get a chance at saving Koito (I doubt so) and forgive herself (very likely this is the case). The whole dream world is just the plot device... as colorful as it is. Symbolism is abound, with the egg as the central one (pretty clearly it symbolizes rebirth or something like that).

I'm not completely won over by the show, but I'm intrigued. And guess what, intriguing shows are more interesting than those who seem amazing from the onset.

Episode 01: The Domain of Children

After having watched the first episode of EX-ARM, the production value in this was a sight to behold. This is awesome stuff. Such a rich amount of color and contrast between the real and dream worlds, and the animation is so smooth. This is actually my first viewing of a CloverWorks production. And looking up their Wiki page, they seem to have been a part of A-1 Pictures, then separated. Does all of their stuff look this good?

Anyway, this was surprisingly trippy. Kinda' reminds me of the movie Sucker Punch, where a girl is basically channeling a lot of her trauma and emotional issues into imaginary manifestations and dealing with them through that dream world. This clearly doesn't have any of that over-stylized Zack Snyder action and is meant to be more serious. But with how this first episode turned out, maybe it'll go all psychoanalytic, maybe not.

I have not seen any of the other shows y'all mentioned. So the only other psychological tites I can think this might resemble is, maybe, the works of Satoshi Kon. I don't really like to theorize plot points, unless the show gives enough hints of what is/isn't possible. This one, though, if it does decide to be psychoanalytic, will have tons of potential.

I will definitely be keeping up with it.

Tony K. wrote:

Anyway, this was surprisingly trippy. Kinda' reminds me of the movie Sucker Punch, where a girl is basically channeling a lot of her trauma and emotional issues into imaginary manifestations and dealing with them through that dream world. This clearly doesn't have any of that over-stylized Zack Snyder action and is meant to be more serious. But with how this first episode turned out, maybe it'll go all psychoanalytic, maybe not.

In my circles, Zack Snyder's work has been becoming a bit infamous, specifically in how his work can often convey almost perverse perceptions of reality. Partially noted by Sucker Punch that one would think would be female empowerment is not so much. There was some videos by a Youtuber that put the question to the audience what their ironic fate would be in a Zack Snyder movie would as not super empathetic in a way that I am suspecting that Wonder Egg Priority will be.

*sigh*

It's as I feared... it seems this show is going to be a catalogue of scenes involving young girls being abused. Still, I feel compelled to find out where this is all going.

Episode 2

The girl of this episode was a young gymnast who appeared to be pretty much abused by her coach. A particular interesting turn with regards to our protagonist, Ai, is that she has taken a rather positive turn, I think a lot more forward from the idea that she can save someone. And I think it was used to show that just a positive attitude won't always be enough, Neiru seemed mostly concerned with avoiding her and questioning Ai's motives. The gymnast girl I think was mostly a bit jealous, and did not really recognise the key problem.

Ai almost fell to pieces as we saw an echo of past where she tried to work with Koito to get evidence of bullying Koito was facing, but was too affected by fear in the moment to get a good recording. I think that this worked a bit to show how it can be easy to put up a bright sunny attitude when you are alone, but when you get into an actual situation it can be hard to back up your earlier courage. Looked like this time Ai had to face the trauma in a different way, where perhaps Kurumi in the first episode could be helped enough by someone stepping in despite being scared to help, the Minami required actually recognising how she was treated was wrong and have the guts to rebel.

Neiru apparently did not go too well, perhaps trying too many at once, we are not sure, but the question was placed that perhaps Neiru was partially hoping to die. Neiru questioning of Ai's motives while claiming that she herself is purely looking out for her sister that she lost and "loves herself", maybe a cover, if not the greed of trying too hard at once. Whatever, I would like to think that Ai maybe realised some element of it would maybe look out for someone who is alive, and probably needs a friend.

One part of the episode that did surprise me was the man that showed up at Ai's place. I was assuming based on the previous episode that this is her teacher, trying to convince Ai to come back to school. But some of the things he said are weird, perhaps purposefully to point out some toxicity, such as him asking if Ai hates him, which is gross in him making it all about him.... Wait! I think we probably do have his name, he is probably the teacher that was apparently giving Koito special attention because she was a transfer student, the reason that Koito was being bullied. I wonder if there is going to be more on this.

The show does continue to have its odd elements, that OP almost feels like a strong contrast to the much more dramatic elements of the show.

2:

So it's all metaphorical. This Dream World is where troubled kids are transported to face their Traumas, and Ai is the "chosen one" who can summon them to, well... face their fears. Also, along the way Ai battles against See No Evils because, well... those who didn't act when they see kids in trouble aren't exactly innocent, right? While she helps other troubled kids, Ai must also face her own Trauma (which she haven't seen... or have we?), while not telling anyone what she's really doing.

Bullying, power abuse... yeah, Trauma comes in many shapes and sizes. Like an ogre who squirts paint out of her inflated titties (that alone should be traumatic, isn't it). Still not sure what is the deal with the Voice; he "promises" that Ai can get Koito back by helping others face their Traumas, but there's no guarantee he will honor the deal. And those two puppets... who exactly are they?

I think this is the season's sleeper hit. Not exactly the smash hit of the season, but probably one that would turn out to be better than expected, without many people knowing.

ACｘS wrote:

So it's all metaphorical. This Dream World is where troubled kids are transported to face their Traumas, and Ai is the "chosen one" who can summon them to, well... face their fears. Also, along the way Ai battles against See No Evils because, well... those who didn't act when they see kids in trouble aren't exactly innocent, right? While she helps other troubled kids, Ai must also face her own Trauma (which she haven't seen... or have we?), while not telling anyone what she's really doing.

I think that it is more than just troubled kids, the implications point that the people from the eggs have already died, perhaps committed suicide. I thought that Ai questioned in the first episode if Kurumi had commited suicide, and only got back an answer of "no comment", which at least makes me think that it is the case.

Noted by the fact that both girls so far asked that Ai would remember or think of them, like someone well aware that a physical presence is no longer an option, and the best they could hope for is to be remembered by someone.

I certainly could read things into the paint coming out of the breasts. The coach as an adult was given exaggerated features of womanhood to highlight her position of power, with the paint covering the face being representative of how she used it to blind the kids from what was happening. That there was an alternative to taking the abuse from someone that I am going to guess was forcing her own insecurities onto children who were in her care. There might be more jabs at adults that go beyond some of usual youth power if we see more like this, like perhaps with the man we saw in Ai's house, who perhaps turned a blind eye to the abuse that Koito suffered. And how he pushed Ai by questioning if she hates him as the reason she is not returning to school. I hope that there won't be something worse.

DuskyPredator wrote:

In my circles, Zack Snyder's work has been becoming a bit infamous, specifically in how his work can often convey almost perverse perceptions of reality. Partially noted by Sucker Punch that one would think would be female empowerment is not so much. There was some videos by a Youtuber that put the question to the audience what their ironic fate would be in a Zack Snyder movie would as not super empathetic in a way that I am suspecting that Wonder Egg Priority will be.

Oh, yeah, I've never believed Snyder to be a good storyteller. I watch his movies strictly for their entertainment value, because that's what he excels at. 300 and Watchmen had the advantage of really good source material, and all he had to do was translate them from panel to screen, which I think he did wonderfully. Man of Steel was written by Christopher Nolan, who I feel is a master storyteller, but I feel the end result of the film wasn't quite the masterpiece it could've been: a little too much destruction in the last part of the movie, and not quite enough scenes with Clark Kent as an adult (would've like 15-20 minutes of just him being Clark Kent). But like I said about Snyder, visual entertainment is his forte.

Sucker Punch was his own writing and had really cool visuals and action choreography, at least. But I didn't try to delve too much into his story and characters, for that one. Contrary to the other three, which are great stories with great visuals, I saw SP as a contrast: great visuals that just happened to have a story on the side. I didn't think it was a bad story, per say, but like MoS it could've been better. Still an entertaining enough film, though.

I'm sure WEP will be much more meaningful and cathartic in comparison. I just felt to mention the premise as being somewhat similar to SP, so people could get a general (and maybe more commonly understood) idea of how to approach this show.
----------------------------------

Episode 02: The Terms of Friendship

Going with my theory of how the girls in Ai's dreamworld are representations of her own emotions or personality aspects, I'm wondering if Koito is supposed to be the endgame. She wanted to be friends with Ai at the beginning, but with her committing suicide and dying, with her went Ai's hopes of being able to love herself and actually being able to make friends. Ironically, Ai and Koi can also mean "love" in Japanese.

So maybe with each proceeding episode, every girl Ai helps or saves will liberate her own feelings and eventually set her free as a person by the end? And if these girls die, she's unable to access those emotions (maybe not permanently, but temporarily), which I guess would make the journey more difficult, but perhaps, also more rewarding, depending on what happens during said journey.

The bullying is tough to watch. But I feel if Ai's gonna' deal with these issues, the writing really needs to present said obstacles as straightforward as possible. The stronger the issue, the more powerful the catharsis. Damn it, I just quoted Inception. Now, I'm starting to compare too many anime to movies.

Wait.. maybe I should compare this to Inception, rather than Sucker Punch! Oh, man, this just opened up even more possibilities..

Not to just go off into discussing Snyder movies, but there were elements I saw about how much an adaption can depend on specific images of creators. Such as that Snyder's adaption of Watchmen puts a bit more positive focus onto characters like Rorschach and The Comedian compared to the source material that apparently was more critical of their characters. The discussions I have seen point to possibly fascist tendencies in Snyder's work that is also found in 300. That his adaption of Dawn of the Dead essentially flips the script of the original's anti-capitalist messages that might even pose empathy for the entities that don't know why they return to the mall. And there was something about a more positive queer reading that is undermined in Snyder's version that has a preacher being anti-gay and another character later on being used as comedy.

To make this relevant to this show, I do think that a lot of people like the director can be put into these kinds of creative works, and I do imagine that some deeper analysis will probably be in order to understand the often dream like aspects. And many elements that are rather violent, if not just in an abuse performed on another but things that are rather striking. It does remind me of elements of Madoka Magica, where you might be expected to read into the trippy worlds of the Witch Labyrinths to understand certain subtext.

I may have watched too many videos in recent times about queer theory, because I am reading it into this show, such that Ai talked quite a bit about how good she thinks Neiru looks, and even commented on Minami's figure. Although, perhaps Japanese teenage girls just do that. But considering two of the shows I mentioned so far Flip Flappers and Madoka Magica, what they did with relationships of its main female characters.

DuskyPredator wrote:

I think that it is more than just troubled kids, the implications point that the people from the eggs have already died, perhaps committed suicide. I thought that Ai questioned in the first episode if Kurumi had commited suicide, and only got back an answer of "no comment", which at least makes me think that it is the case.

Hmm, maybe. Kurumi's response was suggestive that maybe all these girls are dead, even if that's really morbid. Maybe that would bolster my take that the egg symbolizes rebirth or some kind.

DuskyPredator wrote:

Wait! I think we probably do have his name, he is probably the teacher that was apparently giving Koito special attention because she was a transfer student, the reason that Koito was being bullied. I wonder if there is going to be more on this.

I don't even know what to say to this but my mind already made the leap from "special attention" to special attention.

"Did Kurumi kill herself too?"
"No comment."

There's a problem with asking the wrong question or asking the right question the wrong way. I always try to advise people to ask questions as directly as possible but also having the answerer bear the brunt of the question as you're trying to get information and not just affirmation. This is a bad question....
"Because I betrayed you"
... from an unreliable narrator.

Koito's dead and that's as far as we can go with it. My first thought upon this realization was.... but then I had a second thought.
And the bad vibes I was getting from this series suddenly made a lot more sense.

I'm sure I'm completely wrong as usual and that this series is merely about Survivor's Guilt built around a form of recreational gambling... and if this is true, I'll probably end up writing paragraphs of complaints... and not another form of guilt.
But. Still. So. Much. Blood.

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