/otaku/ - Japan / Otaku / Anime

Well I watched episodes 2-4 today so I'll put some thoughts about them down. Is anyone else watching this?

Second episode gave me much more of an idea about what the show is gonna be, and aside from the fact there's no transformations or explanation on what the fuck is really going on, it seems a lot like a magical girls show with the whole concept of battling monsters based on the girls traumas and hiding the reason for their battle wounds from their parents etc. I really liked the short flashback we got of Ai letting her friend down while hiding in the locker. I'm very interested to know more about their relationship and the way Ai found the strength to save her current egg girl from her past failures was a nice moment. This episode was also the real character introduction of the cute brown girl and I have to say I like her stoicness, the scene where she confirms her friendship with Ai through just a thumbs up text was really cute.

What did disappoint me though was the presentation and design of the monster. For a show that, in my opinion, is doing a pretty good job thus far at having suicide and mental health as a theme, to have such a silly monster of the week looking character with such cliched voice and lines kind of killed any emotional impact I felt about the girl Ai was trying to save or her issues. I'm not convinced this premise even needs physical monsters to fight, as nice as the animation for the fight is. I hope the show gets better about that sort of thing when dealing with characters and traumas that aren't just episodic one-off girls to save.

Episode three now:

I had mixed feelings about 2 but this 3rd episode was really excellent. We get a new character who I think you're initially supposed to dislike, and I was ready to write her off as kind of comic relief. As the episode went on though they did an excellent of job of humanizing her and showing how her personality is just shielding how she really feels, starting with the scene of her in the bath and ending with the scene where she describes her story about who she's trying to save. It was a really emotional moment and combined with the insert song and excellent animation made for a great climax and cliffhanger.

We also get another flashback scene involving Ai and Koito during said climax, and I really like how they're drip-feeding information about their story and relationship to us. Ai clearly has a lot of feelings of inadequacy, inability to save her friend, and maybe even jealousy about whatever happened. I thought at first that Sensei was romantically involved with Ai's mom, given how she seemed upset with him near the start (and that still might be the case just to layer on the suffering) but after the flashback scene it seems like her anger towards him has more to do with Koito and her suicide than anything else.

And lastly big props to this episode for animating Ai's soft hikki thighs in detail. I can't stop thinking about them now…

>>2053
>And lastly big props to this episode for animating Ai's soft hikki thighs in detail
Image wouldn't fit, oops
And while I'm talking about such things, Ai is EXTREMELY sexycute in her sleepwear

4th episode now and the last for today. Disregard what I said about the insert song in episode 3 because I just remembered it doesn't show up until this one… such is the danger of writing about 3 episodes you watched all at once.

Anyways, most of this episode was just wrapping up the fight scene from the last episode and introducing the last of what I assume is the main cast, and having them all meet each other. That said, the finale of that fight scene is done really well here, with an excellently used insert song and more nice animation. I like how it shows us both Momoe and Ai's battles simultaneously, and while I still think the trauma monsters are a little too goofy for the themes the show is covering, they do a better job with it here, especially on Momoe's side. I really liked how the affected girl stepped into the fight to trick the molester monster, and how her doing so gave Monoe the strength to finish it off. It's all power of emotion anime bullshit, but this is all taking place in a dream world about emotional trauma so I'm more than okay with things like that.

The new reverse trap girl who shows up seems interesting as well. This show is doing a very good job so far of making me interested in all of the girls and what their stories are. So far we really only know about Rika's suicide victim in depth and have only hints about the others. We got some flashbacks and a moment of vulnerability that hint at Momoe having some kind of guilt about her appearance and people falling for her even though she's a (very handsome) girl. All we know about Neiru is that she's trying to save her sister.

Also at the risk of sounding too positive about an (admittedly entertaining and very pretty) anime original, I wanna talk about some of the doubts I have about this show. Mainly that I have to wonder what kind of reasoning or explanation they're going to give for the whole weird egg gacha suicide redemption dream thing that is going on. On one hand explaining too much about the rules of why and how the dream shit is happening has big potential to kinda kill the show, but on the other hand I don't think this show is trying to be artsy enough to be going for the "it's symbolism don't question it" route. Even further than that, I have trouble imagining how you're going to make a satisfying conclusion to a show about saving girls who killed themselves. Surely just bringing them back to life would feel cheap, but then again so would grimdark suffering. I think best case scenario is we get some kind of message about acceptance and moving on, but even that I'm not sure I trust to be delivered in a satisfying way, given how corny the trauma monsters have been. Nothing to do but wait and see I suppose, I am indeed enjoying the ride.

It's fun to watch but I'm kind of confused on how seriously this show wants to be taken. Anyway sleep over episode when? Also I don't really know what these guys are supposed to be but if they're supposed to be AI they don't really make AI like moves.

>>2064
>It's fun to watch but I'm kind of confused on how seriously this show wants to be taken
That's kind of my opinion on it as of now. I'm honestly surprised at how well the show does when talking about the girls real world traumas, and I'm genuinely invested in the main cast. But then any emotional impact or empathy I had gets kinda washed away when the episode shifts to them fighting a 20 foot tall neon businessman with gropey hands. Both the emotional and serious half and the well animated action half of the show are very good, but the halves don't mesh very well yet.

I'm enjoying the visuals and animation immensely so far, and the show does a very good job at depicting the traumas of the girls in a way that feels palpable without forcing you to watch something sickening. I feel connected to the characters, and I like the weapons and the monsters. The contrast doesn't bother me.

My main issue right now is that I can't see or even guess where things are going to with the world of the wonder eggs. So far the show has been very formulaic about introducing and then addressing each character one at a time, which I think is acceptable given how otherwise complex a lot of this is, but I have no idea what to do with the intriguing hints at worldbuilding displayed at the beginning of the show or the puzzling words of the Accas when we haven't really questioned it or touched on it since. There are a lot of characters, a very complex world presented, and very few episodes to resolve all of it in.

Another thing I'm interested in is where the show is going to take its LGBTQ+ themes and ideas of femininity vs masculinity. The writer has delved into these subjects in the past and done it well. My hope is that Momoe's arc will be one that effectively deconstructs stereotypes and lets her present herself in the way she wants. Her internal struggle is a clash between her boyish gender presentation and the suicide of her friend that fell in love with her but truly saw her for who she was. Gender and sexuality is a complicated and intertwined thing that I don't think I've ever seen a piece of media address in that way, so my fingers are crossed.

I just watched all the episodes so far yesterday. I'm liking it quite a lot, it reminds me of Madoka, which is a strong favourite. The threads on 4/a/ are awful though, not that I go there much. The OP is very good too. I hope it has a happy ending.

https://oyasumi-chyuu.fun/video/index.php?ID=2608

>>2195
Well, the last episode pretty much cleared things up. Momoe's gender thing was good. Trans rights. Looking forward to seeing the end!

>>2292
>Trans rights
I'm not in any way attacking your views here, but can we please avoid bringing current year social activism quips/slogans onto this website? Thank you.

>>2293
Can we please avoid politics in general? And anything that is currently a political subject?
I am here because I am feed up with it. Sushi is one of the few places without it and I really don't want to carry another place to it's grave.

>>2293
>>2294
I haven't watched this, but I'm just gonna point out that if the anime brings up a topic (political or not), I don't see any reason why the topic can't be commented on in the thread that's literally dedicated to commenting on the anime.

If you read the rest of the thread, you would've noticed comments have already taken place on the LGBTQ+ topics raised in the anime. The other sushi has made a short, relevant, and on-topic remark about it, it's not a big deal and it's contained to the appropriate thread. I know my own post contributes to this, but please don't derail the thread just because someone made an on-topic remark - heaven forbid fiction reflects real life.

>>2296
>if the anime brings up a topic (political or not), I don't see any reason why the topic can't be commented on in the thread that's literally dedicated to commenting on the anime.
Obviously I'm not saying that you can't discuss the themes or characters in the anime. I'm not caught up past episode 5 yet but there's at least one character whose whole deal is that she's a very boyish girl and is conflicted about that, so I'm sure the gender stuff is talked about more in depth later.
>The other sushi has made a short, relevant, and on-topic remark about it, it's not a big deal and it's contained to the appropriate thread.
However, adding "Trans rights" to your post (in my opinion) is no more on topic than if I were to append "ACAB" or "Blue Lives Matter" or some such nonsense to my posts about an anime with police in it. The only purpose for slogans like these and others is to signal where you stand on culture war bullshit. There's other ways to say that you appreciate that the show treats gender issues with respect.

Am I being overly grumpy about what amounts to how a certain sentiment is phrased? Maybe, but I thoroughly agree with >>2294 in that I'd really like to keep this place free of the cancer that's infested much of the rest of the net. I'm more than willing to talk about this more but I think if anyone wants to continue this discussion though it should be done on /hell/ or something.

>>2298
> However, adding "Trans rights" to your post (in my opinion) is no more on topic than if I were to append "ACAB" or "Blue Lives Matter" or some such nonsense to my posts about an anime with police in it.

I mean, the character in the anime literally stripped off her shirt to reveal an undergarment with a trans flag and kisses a character that described himself as a trans boy. It's not like I shoehorned politics somewhere they didn't belong or exist, like you imply. The episode was quite obliquely a positive depiction of trans issues.

With that aside, I can understand the want to avoid slogans, and I apologize for that. In my head, I'd really only seen that one used as a positive sentiment. It's not really the same as expressing a wide-reaching sentiment about wanting to reform or not reform law enforcement in the United States – 'trans rights' is a bit simpler. Still, I totally get that everything adjacent to politics online has been completely pervasive and exhausting in the last few years. I'm tired too. So, I apologize.