Child molestation & gender issues are the latest episode's personified topics of Wonder Egg Priority. Considering the frequent switching of different character perspectives in this episode, I will start with our newest character's perspective first, but with a preview of what happened after the last moments in the last episode beforehand. The previous episode may have ended with a cliffhanger, but hey, we cannot have Rika die like that in her first episode. Of course, they are immortal in their dreams, as what she said so eventually, all "disables" will just be fixed in a matter of time.
She showed up only in middle of the episode, so let us talk about what happened before her appearance again.
The episode started with a preview of our fourth main character - Momoe but for some reason, she seemed to pretend as a "he" at first, on top of her somewhat masculine appearance. She was shown right away in her dream map, which is a train station.
Together with her is Miwa, her Wonder Egg Girl and revealed her case which is molestation. Apparently, Momoe seemed to be an already experienced "player" as she vowed to protect Miwa from her molester.
Yes, she acted like a knight on a shining armor for this girl. How did she fare against the Molester Trauma though?
Her weapon seems like a fancy pen or an umbrella, I really cannot tell but it looks cool and works like a lance.
And her enemy monster looked perfect as well for a molester. Look at that face of the maniac! His lines as well depicted a very disgusting portrayal of a pervert.
While Momoe was busy holding the enemy, Miwa decided to step in and submitted freely to this Molester.
I am not feeling good where this is going especially when it got more disturbing.
But of course, it was all a decoy for Momoe to attack but it costed a quick-frame flashback to charge forward and finally defeated the enemy.
And after that, we got a romance scene just like that.
That is how I realized, why a train station could be a good dream map for her when it comes to farewells. But anyway, what about the flashback? Well, this episode was generous enough to give her another fight before it was revealed. This time, her enemy seemed like a gender-strict persona. I am not sure whether there is a train ride for a specific gender though.
Even though the fight ended in just few seconds, I still appreciate the monster design for this one. Look at that pinchers!
And just like her first before, it ended in another romance scene but with an attempt of a further step than just the first one.
The subtle yuri undertones from the previous episodes seems negligible now compared to what is happening here especially when her flashback was now revealed.
The person she wants to save is named Haruka, who is her schoolmate and based on the following screenshot has definitely an interesting relationship with Momoe.
I am definitely curious, if Momoe has already an identity crisis before or after this certain flashback. She was still in the process of understanding Haruka because of her confused look in this scene which is reasonable of course. So currently, the question is, is she attracted to girls or not? We can give a good guess later on this post.
Meanwhile, let us go to Ai's perspective. She and the two fans ran away from the shore and made their way to a misty forest. That literally reminded me of Stephen King's "The Mist." The enemy might be stronger this time, but Ai still found another way to even up her strength in the form of the penlights that were used like a dual-wield weapon.
Not only that, the fans also used a "lure" strategy just like how Miwa baited herself to the Molester. What could that be? Of course, they are all fans to this "Yu-yu" artist and that includes their enemy. Well then, let us play one of his song and let the enemy jam as well.
This just showed, a certain obsession in a random time could disrupt our current train of thoughts.
Just like in the previous episode, the stalker monster just regenerated herself to attack again Ai, and this is when Rika made her entrance. With an "idol unit" formed, they united again in fighting and finally defeating Ms. Tentacles for good.
Naturally, the duo gained fans as well, thus the conclusion of this mini-arc.
We are just half-way yet of the episode as the remaining screen time continued to Neiru's background.
She was scheduled to go out from the hospital, and proving it by flexing a somersault out of nowhere. Is she a gymnast or a diving athlete perhaps?
It was already hinted before in episode 2, that she has an executive status in a company based on the business card she gave to Ai. Apparently, Ai did not give much thought to it and just realized it, when Neiru's secretary addressed the "President."
In the next scene, Momoe had a talk with Acca and Ura-Acca, who were encouraging her to be closer to the other three girls for the same goal.
And Momoe finally met Neiru and Rika. And they mistook her for a man as well.
Confused, Neiru asked Acca why there was a male in that place. Now, we are getting some info about the reason why Wonder Eggs exist in the first place. Since from the start of the episode, it was unknown as to the gender-requirement for their situation but so far, we are only getting female Wonder Egg users. So, why only girls though?
Apparently, their answer was unexpected as it seemed biased and not conclusive at all. That is my first impression but I am trying to understand further their basis.
So I did a bit of research as to the gender differences in suicide rates. I found, that the complete suicide rate is higher on men compared to female but with more suicidal attempts on women than on men. This is what they call "suicide paradox" and figures were generated from different studies to back this up. I find this fascinating because gender might have a relevant role in this social issue. Please see this link for further details. I have now an idea why their premise is made like that, not logically true but only statistically shown.
Moreover, Acca gave a brief origin of their place - to return children who simply gave in to the "temptation of death" rather than those who committed to goal-oriented deaths. As much as I wanted to know more, this is already a great insight on how and why Wonder Eggs exist. There are still more questions, but I will let the next episodes to clear everything more.
The scene, then moved away to Momoe crying, because of another "gender-appearance" mistreatment again but not in case of Ai, who has an open mind and appreciation for different female physiques. The two met, and later joined by the other two, casually talking about their preferences in appearances, hence ending the misunderstanding towards Momoe. I can finally infer then, that Momoe is definitely feminine inside.
Finally, the squad is now complete to save more Wonder Eggs.
Overall, this is my personal best episode yet. Aside from the new social issues, new character, and new story details, I appreciate the dual perspective switching in the first half of the episode, which were intentionally done to get things more interesting and intense without suffering from incoherence, in this case specifically where both perspectives showed the "lure" strategy against their opponents on top of some flash action frames of their fights, which were definitely better than the previous episode. Since the gang is now complete, I wonder how the series will go forward from now on. Would it be the same format as the last episodes? Or probably, all four of them synchronizing in the same map? I could not really tell, but I have a guess, that the next episode will be focused on Neiru since we have yet to see her in action and her dream map, would be in a office building setting, which would make sense right?
Anyway, did you like this episode as well? Do you have certain predictions on the next episodes?
Please share your comments as well.
Thanks for the visit and keep safe!