Welcome to the critical original darling of the season. If you read our midseason’s checkout you’d notice that all 5 writers uniformly regarded Wonder Egg as the top priority (pun intended), and for good reasons. Something as daring, original, emotional raw like this doesn’t come very often. It’s also fair to say that it has been walking on tightrope, yet somehow still manages to do the tricks. Take the events surrounding Sawaki-sensei for example. I (and I believe a lot of people) suspected him involving in Koito’s suicide, but I would never expect Wonder Egg to spell that out in that laid-back manner in episode 5, and as we soon learn in episode 6 it’s more because he’s dating Ai’s Mom. I will get more to that later, but my point is that Wonder Egg continues to change its shape and form but still manages to retain its unique personalities. What a feat that is.
After the first 4 episodes introducing the main cast, it makes sense that episode 5 is a breather episode. It’s not as dense in details compared to others, as the majority of this episode consists of our 4 girls hanging out together, opening up their past traumas with natural banters and simply enjoying their time with each other. What Wonder Egg does in week 5 might appear light, but in a bigger context this episode allows their bonds to grow stronger, and these natural conversations really shine in treasuring the small moments one girl sharing with another girl (Neiru and Momoe’s exchange is my favorite), at the same time highlighting their contrast views and attitudes. In a critical moment, my fav Rika bursts out and boldly questions the whole reasons they fight. She brings up many good points – especially “statue girls don’t ask for this”reason – but it was wonderfully countered by emotionally-distant Neiru, who fights solely for herself.
While not as extensive as Rika and Momoe’s episodes, Neiru remains as a spotlight for episode 5. Scrambled between these laid back times is the fights between Neiru and the monsters and it further highlights her loner status. She doesn’t care to get to know about the victims, all she wants is to destroy the monsters. She has a hard time relating to “girls issues”, and these cases she battles are about dependency and social pressure which she detests. The reasons she says she fought – her sister stabbed her then jumped off the bridges. Everytime she moves the scar aches – perfectly explain Neiru as she is now. It’s a great episode all around
Episode 6 is amongst the strangest episodes of Wonder Egg so far. Given the hero girls are accustomed to the “game” now, of course the game level is harder and there are “powered-up” items. I’m not sure if these elements really fit into Wonder Egg’s themes. I can understand the concept behind Seeno Evils transforms to Haters, it’s the “mascots” that I have issues so far. These animal pets don’t really have any symbolism meaning – they’re just there as accessories for now. This week the focus is back to Ai. We follow her fighting the The girl she saves, Yae, commits suicide because she sees ghosts but others don’t believe her. It’s a clear metaphor for the ignorance by the society in regards to girls’ issues, and in Ai’s case: her Mom whose Ai can’t share her own troubles. On the visual level, the fighting scene does a remarkable job with the suspension and top-notch direction.
Last but not least, Ai learns about her Mom and Sawaki-sensei relationship. Now, it’s interesting to note how viewers’ reception towards this teacher has been unfavorable, even after this announcement, people still speculate that there is more about this guy and that he will be more relevant when we come back to Koito’s suicide. I partly agree with that assessment, but at the same time, he hasn’t done anything outright abusive yet so I hesitate to call him the “bad guy” for now. What I found the most unsatisfying, however – and this is the only time where Wonder Egg misses its step for me, is that Ai comes to a conclusion of reaching to him and announcing that she wanted to go back to school. It comes out of left field for me because the fact that she skipping school is just the result of her own confusion of Koito’s death and being bullied by classmates and having her decide to go back to school doesn’t really resolve anything. It’s a step forward, that’s for sure, but one where I find rushed and half-baked.
There are more materials to talk about but I will save it for the next writeup, tune in for more to come.
