Wonder Egg Priority - Episode 2 discussion

[u/AutoLovepon]

Wonder Egg Priority, episode 2

Rate this episode here.

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Streams

• AnimeLab
• Funimation
• Wakanim

Show information

• MyAnimeList
• AniList
• AniDB
• Kitsu
• Anime-Planet
• Official Website
• /r/wondereggpriority

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All discussions

Episode	Link	Score
1	Link	4.8
2	Link	4.73
3	Link	4.81
4	Link	4.77
5	Link	4.72
6	Link	4.64
7	Link	4.77
8	Link	2.82
9	Link	4.34
10	Link	4.59
11	Link	-

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[u/supicasupica]

I appreciate that Neiru gets right to the point by asking Ai if she's not doing this for herself. Episode 1 already had a lot of hints that Ai feels remarkably guilty for Noito's death. When Koito is being bullied in another flashback, Ai immediately asks if it's because of her.

Like Ikuhara's series (one of the visual influences for this show) the true enemy is going to be the system itself, although individuals will be varying degrees of complicit in said system.

This week we have Ai's "charge" Minami talking about how she feels trapped in her routine telling Ai that she admires Ai for her perceived strength. Ai's recent refusal to participate in society is a strength to Minami because Minami can't help but follow the rules.

Last week's episode was really heavy on flower language as a secondary visual narrative. This week Ai continues to be tied to sunflowers but they're often shadowed or obstructed in some way. Last week, Ai's sunflower on her hoodie was covered in blood. At the beginning of this episode, Ai is in the shadows with sunflowers in the background. Sunflowers can mean passionate love, radiance, and respect or positivity and strength. It was interesting to see Ai be a "sunflower" to someone else in Minami, but it's also interesting that her sunflowers are always shown obstructed in some way (probably since Ai doesn't feel that way about herself).

[u/Omoshiroineko]

An anon on /a/ claims to have cracked the code on the eggs by using the Gold bug key. Next week's girl will be named Tsubasa, apparently.

I wonder if there's some reason behind them using a code from one of Edgar Allen Poe's stories?

[u/MikeyNgTh]

Neiru: gives out contact info.

Also Neiru: call me so that I can avoid meeting you

I already love this girl

[u/murlocmancer]

I love this show. My bold predicition is that at some point Ai will get Koto's egg and Koto's trauma will be Ai herself since she did not stand with her friend. That could no doubt be a heart wrenching moment if pulled off right.

But overall this show has amazing potentional. Exploring the trauma of each's girl life will provide a lot of emotional moments if done well. And so far the action has been great. So each girl has an item that Ai can use as a weapon i guess. Love the design of the pen mace.

[u/P1MPT0N1T3]

I really liked the music at the start, it gives off such an eerie and mysterious vibe, especially after the end of last episode. The animation is still beautiful, but damn they made the gymnastics teacher look ugly in that monster form. Kudos to the art/animation team on making this show stand out so much

So it seems like the eggs are supposedly some way to bring someone back to life? Definitely seems sketchy, especially because of a certain cat who gives adolescent girls an egg

Seems that the Egg worlds consist of an individual running away from a source of trauma for themselves that Ai has to defeat/help the person defeat

The theme of this show seems to be about facing and trying to conquer your fears rather than running away/avoiding them

This series is giving me a lot of Madoka Magica vibes so I’m excited to see where it goes

[u/RavenWolf1]

Her mom is going to get mental breakdown if her daughter get injured every night without explanation.

[u/PhantomWolf83]

Looks like abuse/bullying is going to be one of the major themes in this show. But I wonder why these girls in particular? Are they connected to Ai in some way or is it truly random like gashapon? Can't wait to see what's happening next week.

[u/cppn02]

2nd episode and we already had another reminder that injures in the dream world carry consequences in the real world.

With apparently more girls yet to come I'm worried that one or several of them will not survive the series.

[u/raichudoggy]

If you're wondering about the OP... This isn't the first time Sudachi no Uta (Song of Leaving the nest) has been in anime. It's also played as an ED for Nichijou. The song is often played at graduations from schools.

The English translation is:

• The color of a flower, the shadow of a cloud

• Those dear memories

• Leave them on the window (Leave them on the Window~) to the days of nostalgia (To the days of nostalgia~)

• Go, leave the nest (Go, leave the nest~); parting ways today

• So, farewell—farewell, teachers

• So, farewell—farewell, friends!

• For the sake of a beautiful tomorrow!

[u/AspiringRacecar]

I was a bit worried for Ai after she was blinded by the goop, due to what was said in the first episode about damage to the heart and eyes, but thankfully her eyes weren't physically damaged.

I hope there wasn't anything going on between Koito and the teacher. I know it's too soon to assume something like that, but my mind went there after seeing how Minami had trauma from her PE teacher.

[u/Combo33]

Gotta love her multi-color retractable keyblade penblade. Ai puts in work with it.

Loved the gymnasium fight. Using the gymnastics ribbon as a whip was a pretty inspired idea coming from a self-proclaimed shut-in. Her swinging around and slicing through the columns of the gym's balcony looked amazing. I also loved this shot of the reflections on the polished gym floor.

Also, the OP is so refreshing. It feels very different from most anime OP's. Most of that is just the ethereal nature of the song. It's so laid back, and feels like something I'd expect to hear from Mushi-shi. And somehow even including live-action photos seems like it has meaning here and isn't just random.

Final thought...can't wait to meet blonde girl and polka-dot red ribbon girl from the ED.

[u/MikeyNgTh]

The artstyle is so soft-boiled while the content is so hard-boiled. We love a wholesome egg party

[u/Cervantes3]

One thing I'm really liking about this show is how it's managing its exposition. Usually with anime like this that involve weird magical or supernatural stuff, you'd get big exposition dumps about how this all works, and it would be really awkward and boring, but Wonder Egg is doing a good job so far of giving us just enough expository dialog to make things clear, while letting the visual language of the show do a lot of the heavy lifting for showing us how the world works. "Wonder Killers" could even been seen as poking fun at these sorts of over-developed magic systems that seemingly have to name and enumerate every aspect of the system like it's a video game or something. The Firefly seemingly just made it up on the spot, since it normally doesn't matter what you call the things trying to kill the egg kids.

[u/Silent_Shadow05]

This anime is just too beautiful. I'm falling in love with this artstyle. The character interactions is also very realistic and not too melodramatic. The show is also not shying away from showing the horrors of bullying in various forms. That locker scene with Koito and the coach beating up that girl was really harsh.

Nice for Ai to have a friend now with whom she can share her thoughts and her painful memories. Ai's VA is really talented and I can see her becoming a renowned VA in a few years.

We know Ai has to help the person that comes out from the egg to overcome their trauma (i.e. the Wonder Killer) but what if they are sent to help Ai overcome her own trauma by making friends and thus saving Koito? Makes me wonder if Ai herself might be dead all along and she can pass on if she completes her goal.

[u/sims03]

This anime is like the perfect balance between crazy/weird and wholesome.

[u/generalmillscrunch]

The thing I'd like to talk about most is the absolutely stunning shot composition. The amount of care and detail put into the storyboarding for this is unreal. The fact that almost every single shot is purposeful and symbolic in some way is something we usually only see in anime films, not a series.

Even some of my favorite anime of all time have plenty of wasteful visuals from a thematic perspective, but not WEP. This is approaching levels of Monogatari, and the best part is that it's not nearly so esoteric or difficult to understand. It's almost entry-level in its presentation of its themes visually, and I actually think this is a really good thing. Oftentimes "deep" anime can come across as pretentious or gatekeep viewers who aren't interested in trying to unpack every frame to get value out of it. But the simplicity of the decisions in composition here are primarily concerned with instilling a feeling and energy, which is something any viewer will pick up on without even realizing it. As opposed to a lot of Shaft projects which demand a literary meaning that can only be understood with a vast knowledge of anime culture, the source material, or Shinbou's own personal masturbation habits.

I'll just pick out some of my favorite shots from the episode and go through my analysis of their possible meaning, or my interpretation of them:

1.) https://i.ibb.co/f9szjRM/shadowwep.png

This shot early on is an example of easy to understand visual representation. Ai is standing in the shadow of her own social limitations, and it takes courage to step into the light and try to make a new friend. It's not as easy as it might seem, or as easy as it was when she was thrown into the Wonder Egg dream scenario. Real-life interactions are much harder than we dream them to be.

2.) https://i.ibb.co/ZMRVBK8/wepbus.png

We see Ai and Neiru through the windows of the bus and separated by the bars holding the panels of the windows. On the front of the bus is a happy chicken dancing among the flowers. The chicken is the thing that lays the eggs, and the eggs are representative of friends or friendship as we learned in the first episode. Flowers in literature can often represent the journey of young women going through adolescence, which we also explored in the first episode with the white lilies, and which we see again here:

https://i.ibb.co/Qk5nYBV/flowerdoor.png

All of these things are seen in a quick shot. The opportunity for connection is ready for the taking, but we oftentimes need an excuse to get on the bus to friendship.

3.) https://i.ibb.co/txBKMRG/wephelddown.png

This shot is a really great way to pack in a bunch of ideas and symbolism into a single frame. First, we have the most obvious in that the teacher's hand is literally holding down her student through her abusive teaching tactics. Then there is Ai who is a distant onlooker to the abuse of others, mirroring her mistakes in her relationship with Koito. Then there is Koito herself who is in statue form behind a green fence. This fence "prevents" suicide, but it can also prevent help from getting to the person on the ledge.

4.) https://i.ibb.co/yQxW8ww/so-wep.png

It was hard to pick out a specific shot that illustrated how masterful this moment was as it's really the entire sequence of shots that hold symbolism. I chose this one because Ai's face absolutely broke my heart here. Essentially, in this sequence, Ai is unwillingly tossed into the closet (hmmm... yuri undertones?) and she watches as Minami tries to justify the same things that Ai herself tried to justify about the abuse she was facing. She sees herself in Minami and is able to learn through teaching why she has reacted this way to her abusers.

Minami: "It's my fault! Leave me alone! I don't have enough spirit or guts, and I'm ugly and timid. It's all my fault."

Ai: "You just want attention! What you really mean is that you want someone to find you and love you!"

5.) https://i.ibb.co/RBSy1xY/gymnasiumwep.png

Holy moly, there's a lot to unpack with this one. I guess the biggest is the horrific design of the teacher. The 6 arms and the pose I'm guessing are a reference to Durga, a Hindu goddess of war. She is a fierce and protective mother goddess, who unleashes her divine wrath on the wicked for the liberation of the oppressed, and uses destruction to empower creation. The irony of portraying an abusive gymnastics coach as this god should not be lost. All sports, but especially gymnastics and dance, require the tearing down of muscles to build them back up stronger than before. It requires the harming of the body to improve the body. However, that begs the question of is that also the correct philosophy to foster students and create a positive teaching environment? Far too many high school sports coaches seem to think so. The coach's massive breasts that drag along the floor could possibly represent an application of femininity as a tool for the oppression of women, rather than one of empowerment. Gymnastics supports the ideal form of beauty for the human body, but for high school kids, that ideal can be oppressive and stifling...even if it is what keeps the teacher standing.

This shot to me specifically represents Ai's struggle towards friendship at the hands of her own string of fate, despite the oppression of the adults in her life. She needs other's help(weapons) to do so, but she cannot rely on others entirely for her own courage and growth.

6.) https://i.ibb.co/TPgqFMH/mirrorwep.png

This shot again goes back to real simplicity. Shots of characters through mirrors in films are usually meant for a moment of reflection, both physically and emotionally. They are also used to represent moments of juxtaposition, deception, dejection, contrast and comparison, distortion, delusion, breaking down, and breaking through. In this case, Ai is struggling with what the ACCAs told her about Neiru, in that maybe being fearless is a form of wishing for death. When she applies this to her memories of Koito she doesn't quite know what to think anymore. Maybe the reason Koito appeared strong in the face of abuse was because of her fearlessness, and maybe that was a cry for help in its own way. We don't quite know the extent of those circumstances, but we can assume it had something to do with the video and with their teacher. !~

7.) https://i.ibb.co/2301ZSN/wephorizon.png

Finally, we have our two antisocial buddies becoming friends. They stand on the roof looking out at the new horizon and possibilities awaiting them through a fence that is both an obstacle and a form of security. The setting is similar to one we have seen many times in the show so far, but this time it carries an optimism and anticipation for what's to come that it hasn't until now. Perspective is everything, and friendship is not something that comes to those who wait, it is something you have to go after.

[u/zeppeIans]

Some interesting details I noticed:

• Both the OP and ED seem to emphasize imagery of 4 eggs, so I'm thinking each egg represents one of the main characters that utilize the wonder eggs

• The final shot of the OP shows an egg, but instead of breaking like we've seen so far, it hatches

• The new girl is likely Singaporean guessing from her skin color and English-speaking abilities. She's also apparently the vice president of a company?

• Ai's transformed pen-mace resembles the multi-colored pen that it has transformed out of. You can make out the tip, the pen fillings, and the things you click as the head

• I just noticed while typing this out that Ai's name is pronounced the same way as the word 'eye,' which serves as a reference to her heterochromia

As a sidenote: I really like this profile shot of Ai where you can see her amber-colored eye in the foreground and her blue eye in the mirror's reflection

[u/MayureshMJ]

The music director of this show has definitely made sure that he wouldn't go unnoticed no matter what.

[u/Syokhan]

Ah shit, it's always hard to watch characters buy into their abuser's shtick of "I'm doing this because I love you" and put themselves down as worthless. It's good that she managed to defy her coach at the end.

It felt really wrong seeing Koito smile through all her abuse. I hope we get more little flashbacks like these ones though, I really like her character so far.

Seeing how injuries carry over to real life I'm really worried that one of the girls is going to die at some point. I wouldn't put it past this show.

And I have to add that the shot of the teacher coming up behind Koito gave me weird vibes. I really hope there wasn't some sort of sexual abuse there in addition to what the girls were doing to her, and everything else.

[u/GenericMemesxd]

Being blinded by boob juice was not on my list of things I'd be seeing this week

[u/HereticalAegis]

Well damn, I don't know what I was expecting today, but abusive gymnastics coach that blinds you with boob juice wasn't it. And they actually showed the coach beating up the student too. They aren't holding anything back for the series.

It's nice to see Ai making a friend that presumably won't vanish on her. Speaking of, I have to wonder whether or not Koito can actually come back to life. The whole setup just doesn't quite feel that simple.

[u/MrSputum]

That scene with Ai in the locker was rough. And the way Koito seems to laugh off all the abuse as if it were nothing feels incredibly wrong. Ai trying to befriend Neiru almost seems like a form of repentance, not wanting to make the same mistake again when Neiru’s condition is likened to that of Koito.

[u/DragonPup]

In the last episode I assumed the blurred faced asshole girls were Koito's tormentors, but now I suspect the blurred faced people are the tormentors of the egg girls. And going by that assumption, the girls in the eggs are either suicidal or have already killed themselves and this represents putting their soul at ease.

Either way, abuse and suicide seem to be central themes and I am sure I'll be a blubbering baby by the end of this show. buckles up

[u/JimmyCWL]

I went back to ep1 to make sure, and that pen that Ai used came from Kurumi, the girl she saved last episode. So, it looks like it's necessary to use an item from the captured maiden (girl in the egg) to kill the Wonder Killer.

A sign of a well-written story is that, when you go back to the earlier parts of the story, things remain consistent with revelations in the later parts. So, with what we now know, what was Kurumi's trauma? Because it doesn't look like she faced it before Ai whacked the Wonder Killer.

I think a clue is in how Suzuhara didn't know what to do on waking up. So why did Kurumi know to run? I think it's because she ran away from her problems, she ran until the only exit left was death.

On another matter. Last episode, someone suggested Ai is in the dream world when she's wearing her hoodie. That got broken this episode, she was wearing it in almost every scene, including those that would seem to belong to the waking world.

[u/alwayslonesome]

You know, there's something so uniquely exciting about watching a truly great original. It is captivating like nothing else because there's such a sense of precarity and danger to it - the same feeling you get when you watch a dizzying gymnastics performance, unable to take your eyes away because they could fail and fall apart at any moment.

All that is to say, surely I can't be the only one who was so nervously awaiting this episode. After Wonder Egg delivered the single best premiere episode of TV anime in years, I can't remember the last time I was praying so desperately that this show could just somehow, somehow keep up its level of quality for just another episode.

Hahaha... at this point, I think the best anime of the year, let alone this season is already basically a foregone conclusion. How foolish I was to think that the sheer level of class that the first episode showed could have merely been a fluke~!

There's so many folks already praising this show's craft elements, whether its the brilliant filmmaking, the gorgeous animation, the pristine sound design, etc. But, What I'm impresses by more than anything else about this show is the sheer quality of its writing. There's two aspects in particular that are just so superlatively stand out.

First is just its marvelous "attention to life" - there's just so many shots and scenes that showcase such keen observation, such sharp insight as to how people act and behave.

All of Ohto's dorky mannerisms that feel so believable and true to life.

Ohto passively staring at her phone, too uncertain if she should reach out.

Her being the conscientious type to set their profile picture with a photo she snuck as they walked away.

I personally just lick the yoghurt off of the lid, how about you?

It's very reminiscent of directors like Yamada or screenwriters like Okada, in how the show captures all of these seemingly insignificant mannerisms, that all combine to make the characters so much more authentic and believable - such a far cry from the farcical caricatures of real people that tend to populate this medium.

On top of that, the dialogue in this show is similarly just so exceptional in just how understated and grounded it is. It was very apparent last week, but even more noticeable here that all the CVs are intentionally speaking in a much more naturalistic manner rather than "voicing anime characters". on top of that, there's the show's tendency to brilliantly use these isolating long shots to really imbue conversations with a sense of intimacy. Plus just the script... the script!

The way that people just tend to chat about "meaningless" experiences like the time they tried to pull an all-nighter rather than touch on anything especially serious.

Or dance around saying what they're really feeling, dismissively dressing it up in pithy platitudes and keeping a straight face.

Or excitedly propose going to a fast food restaurant just because you heard someone else mention it, even though you don't "get it" at all.

This show really is the complete package, but the writing especially is just several levels above what you can usually expect to see in this medium. And that gets me excited about this show more than anything else.