Wonder Egg Priority Episode 7 Discussion

Sorvarin said:
wow this episode triggered me so much. especially the part where Rika tells her "friends" about her home situation thinking that they'd comfort her on her birthday and they instead of comforting her either looking awkward don't know what to say, or the worst - tell her that she is codependent and that she shouldn't trash-talk her mom because her mom has her own reasons. damn. don't ever tell abused kids shit like that. unless you want to add to the abuse.
that's good that Ai decided to join her after that but i wish the other two apologized. yes Neiru is an orphan but if you have it worse it doesn't give you the permission to be a jerk to others.
also, once again i don't like this show pushing the gender stuff. like only women can act on emotions and only guys operate on "logic" (Neiru: "i don't fit in the women society"), that's such ancient bs i can't even... and by the way Neiru's answer wasn't even "logical", it was an emotionally-detached, cold, unnecessary and inappropriate answer. logic my ass, as a guy i'd hate to get that kind of response to me sharing my life situation, it's ground-breaking but all humans want and need compassion.

i love the message that if you cut you are not weak, you are strong to find a way to survive despite everything. and also love the Rika's resolution to become a different woman than her mom is, and eventually leave the house.

Xenocrisi said:
My favorite episode so far

Some triggering stuff aside, this was a great development for Rika. It was a close one for tho, I totally expected her to give up there and die. Thank god it wasn't the case.
Mannen came in and saved the day!

Slimbo101 said:
triggered???? y?

ceramexis said:


What are you doing here if you haven't watched the episode? There's quite some self-harm imagery in this episode, no blood or actual wounding though.

Anyway I liked this episode. I like how all the characters have flaws. Like that scene where Momoe and Neiru reacted so harsh to Rika when she was talking about her mom and dad, I felt so hurt for Rika. And to think I used to dislike her when she was first introduced. The fact that they all have flaws makes it more interesting. I wouldn't want to be friends with any of them, except for Ai I guess, but up to this point they are all well written characters imo.

Slimbo101 said:
if u go to my list u can literally see I watched the ep.............

so self harm is triggering u? y, its part of the who theme of suicide and worthlessness, which are themes and messages of this show.? what are u some twitter sjw who wants to cancel this show now?

Slimbo101 said:
if u go to my list u can literally see I watched the ep.............

so self harm is triggering u? y, its part of the who theme of suicide and worthlessness, which are themes and messages of this show.? what are u some twitter sjw who wants to cancel this show now?

bethxxx said:


OP never said anything about wanting the show to be cancelled or anything, they even said they felt it was “great development”, I think you may be misunderstanding what is meant when people say the episode was “triggering” , they just mean that it was upsetting to them, some may have gone through something similar and it brings up those memories for them (it “triggered” their memories) but I won’t speak for anyone as I do not know their personal experiences, and just because something triggers someone, it does not mean they want that thing to be cancelled, as of course the themes of this show are very heavy and serious and will be upsetting to people, and may trigger them, but in cases like Wonder Egg, most believe the themes are handled and used well even if they are upsetting. Please try looking into the psychology of “triggers” as it seems to be a word that you have seen people throw around online and assumed that people just use it for something they don’t like and think should be cancelled.

Fafette said:

It seems to make it look like things are way easier than they really are, like for Ai for exemple who struggled with school phobia for a while due to bullying and now can go to school without encountering any important issue. That's unfortunately unrealistic, things aren't that easy and most of the time, someone with school phobia, no matter the reason, will only get better with school by going to another school. Going back to the old one will only trigger trauma (and here I know what I'm talking about, based on my experience but also others').

And about Rika, the overall episode, while a bit too straight-forward and immature was handled pretty well, however the ending left me with a bad taste. I get that the message is about fighting against your struggles instead of giving up and commit suicide, but the way they handled it felt way too much like an accusation towards people who actually commit suicide. I always hate when those people are described as "selfish" because that's not true. What is selfish is to blame them for not being strong enough to fight anymore. But of course, if we can save them, we have to do it, but not through guilt-tripping them, that's some awful thing to do. And the whole thing about self-harm is no better. Yes, if we want to live we have to accept to get hurt, of course. But here the show made some kind of weird promotion for self-harming. I don't think I even need to explain how wrong that is. Understand and sensitize people on self-harm ? Of course that's the right thing to do. But encourage it ? That's a big nope.

the7thfloor said:


I understand your point about Ai's return to to school seeming too easy. I definitely wish that they had explored it a bit more, maybe by portraying more of her actual anxiety and thought process about returning, beyond what we saw in the texts. How she felt in class, including her interactions with teachers and classmates also seems like it would have been important. The way they just kind of brushed it all under the rug, when this was a huge moment for the show's main character, is kind of disappointing.

On the other hand, I don't think her relatively uneventful first day back was super unrealistic either. First of all, she has a group of good friends now, which would understandably give her a support system that would make things easier emotionally. Also, the sudden lack of bullying might not be too far off the norm. When I was 17, I stopped going to school for many months due to depression/anxiety/isolation, and when I came back, people treated me a lot better than before. Those who treated me poorly in the past just kind of left me alone or acted fake nice, because rumors spread, and nobody really wanted to bully someone who was clearly at rock bottom. I imagine that the knowledge that her best friend committed suicide might have a similar effect, although I'm not familiar enough with Japanese highschool culture to know for sure.

In the end, the fact that this wasn't explored more was probably because they wanted this to be more of a Rika episode, but it's still a valid complaint.

Regarding Rika, I don't think that the end message was meant to be pro-self harm. Cutting is a coping mechanism that Rika uses to deal with her pain, and she isn't past needing it yet. Her frank acknowledgement of this fact isn't to say that it's a good coping mechanism. It's more like, she's owning where she's at with it right now rather than beating herself up. This is a lot better than feeling shame about her habit, which was what she was doing before by hiding her scars from everyone. Now, if you take her words at face value then sure, it sounds like the show is promoting self harm, but I prefer to see her more as an unreliable protagonist here whose words are that of a good-hearted but maladapted and struggling teenager, not a wise person giving advice.

If anything, I think it would have been a lot less realistic if Rika denounced her self harm and suddenly turned a new leaf. Life is complicated. Depression is complicated. Relationships are complicated, especially when it involves alcoholics. So we don't recover all at once, and sometimes the best we can do is to "not die today". I think Rika in this episode was meant to portray that, which added a refreshing layer of nuance to the old, tired theme of perseverance. The final conversation with her mom demonstrates this as well, in her seemingly contradictory statement about how she wants to leave her mom behind, but is not quite ready to do it yet. This shit is messy, and takes time.

Quickly, on suicide, so the thing that triggered Rika's decision to not kill herself was that her turtle pet thingy protected her and reminded her of how bad it feels to be abandoned by those who depend on you, right? I can see how that might come across to some people as "suicide is selfish because you're abandoning people". On the other hand, I think there's a distinction between internally feeling a reason to live because you care about others, and being externally shamed into staying alive out of responsibility. Rika was swayed by the former, and not the latter. It stood out to me that no matter how much her well-intentioned friends pleaded with Rika not to kill herself (external pressure), what it really took in the end was inner motivation.

Also, Rika's temptation to give in to the monster and kill herself was portrayed in a pretty empathetic and delicate light. She was sick of being in pain, and this was a way out. Never did the show shame her for feeling this way or portray her as weak or selfish. Hell, if she did end up giving in, as sad as it would have been, I would have understood.

Fafette said:

I wish they made it more clear that what Rika is doing isn't the healthiest demeanor. ... I know someone who initially didn't think about harming herself, but after hearing people saying it feels good she decided to try it, even if it wasn't something she felt the need to do. And when I think about it I'm afraid this episode will unintentionally give the wrong ideas to vulnerable teens.

Fafette said:

But you really opened my eyes on this episode and I'm glad you did.

the7thfloor said:

I think I agree, but I'm just not totally sure what the best way to show that would have been. Maybe something subtle like a line from Rika about how she hopes that someday she doesn't have to cut. I'm not sure.

Properly handling topics like addiction or self-harm is difficult, because it's really tough to strike a tonal balance where you're not being flippant, but also not being preachy. Normally, teenagers and young adults are way less receptive to media that veers on the preachy side, and they probably benefit the most from just seeing someone in a situation that's relatable and validating to them. From that perspective, it's probably best to err on the side of flippancy, but you also don't want to glorify harmful behavior. I think that while WEP's balance here may not be perfect, it does a pretty good job.

Honestly, I don't really know enough about the inner workings of the anime industry to say for sure who the target demographic of WEP is, but I assume that it's actually aimed at adults based on the inclusion of mature topics like molestation, underage prostitution, alcoholism, suicide, and self-harm. These are not typically things that you include if you're trying to reach a younger audience (Attack on Titan, for instance). Also, similar "dark magical girl" shows, even without these topics, like Madoka and Flip Flappers are aimed at adults as well.

Either way, a lot of mature teenagers will still end up watching WEP, but if I'm right, and the show is marketed towards adults, then the creators have a bit more leeway with how they handle these topics. If I had a teenage son or daughter, I would be very careful before letting them watch this, regardless of how they handled Rika's situation.


That's cool to hear!

I also agree that it's pretty rare to see an anime that tries to approach these topics in a meaningful way rather than for shock value. For that reason, even though WEP isn't perfect, I really appreciate what it's trying to do.

kaiki_fan_boy said:
that was amazing, my favorite episode yet.