At last, the curtain has been pulled back, and the man behind it is a face we’ve seen before. Wonder Egg Priority has finally put its fantasy chips on the table, drawing a direct connection between Neiru’s Plati research and the wonder egg system itself. Acca and Ura-Acca have been revealed as the manipulators they always seemed to be, tormentors dangling salvation in front of these girls in order to either claim their power, or simply gather more research. Parallel worlds not only exist, but can be accessed through dreams – and by harnessing the powers of these dreams, Plati seems intent on mastering reality itself.

But all of that is ultimately secondary to what last episode was actually about. Confronted with the imminent death of her sister, Neiru turned to her friends for help, and at last shared the difficult personal circumstances that have made her who she is. Though she framed Kotobuki’s death in clinical terms, their last meeting proved just how much Neiru cared about her friend, and how difficult it was for her to let go. And as always, Ai was there to support her, sharing the guilt of freeing Kotobuki from her imprisonment, and reaffirming her kindness and emotional strength. Though Ai still grapples with self-hatred and a general feeling of disconnection with the world, her acts of kindness towards Neiru, Rika, and Momoe demonstrate a profound empathy and strength of character.

Of course, this is not your usual magical girl world. This is our world, where virtues like empathy are frequently reframed as weakness, and girls are abused and commodified by a nepotistic structure that assumes male superiority. It’s no surprise that Ai thinks she has no value; society has told her, and all of her friends, that the things which make them great have no purpose in this world. The only virtue they’re asked to perform is submission – but with Rika and Momoe having overheard the scheming of their enemies, I’m thinking the time for politely completing egg trials has passed. Can these four girls band together and fight for their right to happiness? I’m really hoping so; I’m not sure my heart could take it otherwise.

Episode 9

Looks like we’re in for a Momoe episode. We open with Momoe on the train, with shots capturing her newfound signifiers of confident femininity – the toes she painted with her friends, the hair she styled with their suggestions. All of our heroines have been consistently denied the simple affirmations that make anyone feel they’re valued or valid. Constantly told their base existence is wrong, they’ve learned to internalize that fact, and hate themselves for their alleged failures – but through their new friendships, each of them have at last been receiving the affirmation and simple kindness they’d been denied. More so than their victories in the Wonder Egg system, it is this reliable support from their new friends that has made them strong

Momoe meets with a stranger in a black hat. Both the character acting and cinematography continue to play up a more feminine side of Momoe, like this classic pan up her dress as she catches her breath. And with both a dress and purse, Momoe is already dressing in a more stereotypically feminine manner than her usual shirt and pants

The soft focus does an excellent job of conveying Momoe literally glowing with happiness

Momoe wakes up from this dream, but appears to actually have a date coming up, complete with meticulously plotted date events

Along with her usual selection of shirts and sweaters, Momoe’s closet holds precisely one dress

Momoe clearly has some serious anxieties about always being perceived as a boy, but it also seems like her natural inclination is to prefer traditionally masculine clothing. She is trapped by society’s inability to conceive of a girl who doesn’t stick to traditionally feminine presentation, and thus can only find validation by dressing up in the way society wants

After all this time away, this OP kills me anew. Watching Ai finding joy in the simple beauty of life is such a brutal contrast with the show proper

It’d be a pretty neat trick if the show actually ends on that OP itself, now built into the narrative and reflecting the cast’s hard-fought happiness

Ai and Rika straight-up confront Acca and Ura-Acca

Neiru has received her character development haircut, and of course gets flustered when the other two compliment her

It seems she always knew who Acca and Ura-Acca were: the founders of Japan Plati. I love that this isn’t a perspective-reversing shift, but just an incidental piece of hidden information; plot twists are cheap, and Wonder Egg understands its dramatic fundamentals are grounded in its character journeys and unambiguous perspective on society

“For real? Acca’s totally hot.” Bless you Rika

“We abandoned our bodies and kept just our brains”

“Well, I’m sure you have a lot of questions-” “Oh, it’s Momo.” I love it. Even the cast aren’t particularly impressed or concerned by this twist, and are more interested in how Momo’s doing. Wonder Egg really does share my own dramatic priorities

Placing text messages on the screen in a bubble has been a generally good anime innovation, and I love how this scene takes that a step further, and makes a joke out of their rapid texts after hearing Momo got asked out. A very “several people are typing” moment

Oh my god, Rika looks so proud of Momo. I love this crew

Just a parade of great Rika faces for this scene. The animators must have had so much fun with her

Oh nooo. The boy who asked her out actually thought Momo was a boy, and was thus horrified when she showed up in this feminine attire. Agh, just another knife right through the heart of her anxieties

We cut to Ai with Sawaki at school. Apparently, he’s quitting as a teacher and hoping to make it as an artist full-time. He invites Ai to his solo exhibition

Oh my god, his exhibition is called “Latent Heat,” and presumably it’s all his drawings of his adolescent students? With even the title drawing attention to his preoccupation with adolescent sexual awakening? He continues to toe the line as far as he can in terms of actively predatory behavior, offering a slight degree of reasonable doubt, but nonetheless abusing his position of power in order to make these girls into objects for his sexually charged artwork. He’s at the point where any reasonable administration would likely either fire him or at least conduct an investigation, making me wonder how voluntary this career shift actually is

“It must be nice, not judging by appearance.” Even when Momoe actually caters to society’s expectations, she gets punished for it

Momoe’s next target is Kaoru Kurita. Momoe immediately notes his masculine voice, and his jacket is literally the trans flag, so it looks like we might actually have our first trans character!

“Don’t worry, you look plenty feminine. Or are you playing up the contrast?” Ah, Momo. Kaoru’s initial stance is all defense, with his cap pulled low over his face. But when he hears Momo offer not bafflement or scorn, but instead understanding and affirmative curiosity, he relaxes and actually raises his head

“Tall, cool beauties like you are totally my type.” And in return, Kaoru immediately validates Momoe’s own gender presentation. Love it

Wonderful to see an anime broaching such fraught but vital subject matter. I know people have described this show as potentially insensitive, but frankly, I’ll always be in favor of more media embracing tough subjects, attempting to earnestly engage with them, and accepting the possibility of making some painful or insensitive choices. More often than not, sensitive topics are either treated with kid gloves (“we’ll approach this indirectly, or set it in a world where prejudice doesn’t exist”) or left absent entirely. Media has no obligation to model perfect moral perspectives and behavior – media is how we explore these topics, how we distance ourselves from them in order to examine them. That process can be painful, but it’s also one of art’s highest callings

I appreciate Kaoru’s frank “so she’s a lesbian.” Kaoru clearly has fewer hangups about identity than Momoe, who still seems entrapped by more conservative ideas of what boys or girls are “supposed” to be like

“Inside, I’m a boy.” Yep, Kaoru is trans

Momoe named her crocodile Panic

Their enemy is a transphobe who loves Kaoru for his “delicate” features, and claims “no one could believe you’re a ‘boy on the inside!’”

“My kendo club advisor. I went to him for advice. I thought he was a good teacher.” As ever, the “role models” and support structures that are supposed to help these kids are instead their oppressors, using their institutional power to trap and abuse them. The problem is never that “girls are prone to outsized emotional reactions” or specific kinds of suicide, as Acca and Ura-Acca claim – it’s that they exist in a world that relentlessly dehumanizes them, and condemns them for ever stepping outside their socially prescribed roles and identities

Love this cut of Momoe being tossed across the subway, creating a dramatic frame with the silhouetted pillars

“I’ll kill any man who makes passes at my Kaoru.” Kaoru is framed as something to be caged and possessed, a very common ideal of “masculine chivalry” among assholes. Our society still validates this view of women as pretty birds to be caged and admired – you’ll still get sitcoms making jokes about how a father is going to kill his daughter’s boyfriend or whatnot, with the joke inherently implying that women should not be afforded personal agency. The idea of woman being objects that their fathers “give away” to their husbands is coded into our base romantic rituals, from debutante balls to weddings

“It’s all the way in the back. I really want you to see it.” God, Sawaki is so menacing. Every shot of him is like a masterclass in motivated presentation, conveying him as this ominous tinkerer highlighted against the window, surrounded by the mislaid refuse of his crafted dolls

Even entrapped, Kaoru is providing key support to Momoe, by assuring her that her gender identity should not be reliant on the approval of others

Yeah, this episode’s getting a lot of dramatic mileage out of these multitiered subway shots, with the refuse and pillars offering a frame for the action

“Next time I’m reincarnated, I’ll be the one protecting you.” “Don’t get the wrong idea. Not all girls want to be protected.” Aw, Momoe seems so much more confident now! Actively asserting her feelings, and defining herself on her own terms

And at last, a boy actually propositions her as a girl. Have more confidence, Momoe!

Suddenly, Momoe’s original friend Haruka appears, only to float through her and disappear. Haruka’s gone, but so is the statue – Momoe has apparently cleared the game

Given the obviously untrustworthy intentions of Acca and Ura-Acca, at this point they might just be trying to separate the group

Ai actually dresses up as well, in order to attend the gallery showing. A natural parallel with Momoe’s nervous self-presentation at the start of this episode

There’s a painting of Ai herself, except grown up. “Someday you’ll be a wonderful adult woman, like your mother.”

His act is convincing enough that Ai finally asks the key question: “why did Koito die?”

Our overseers state that “to confront Thanatos, we need warriors of Eros, his polar opposite.” The god of death and the god of love – or alternately, the absence and presence of hope for the future

“I’d like to let you go. But you see, Frill would get mad at me if she found out.” Who is this character? Momoe is confronted by a figure with a schoolgirl outfit and menacing, insectoid mask, wielding a massive scythe

Her head is actually a butterfly. She swiftly butchers Panic in front of Momoe

And now Momoe can’t sleep at all, for fear of seeing that creature again

And Done

What was all that? We didn’t really have a clear idea of what would happen if any of our heroines cleared their trials, but apparently the path ahead is even more terrifying than the one behind. But new enemies aside, this episode was a fantastic followup for Momoe’s journey, and expanded on her trials with gender representation to additionally yell “trans rights” in its loudest voice possible. From his color-coded jacket onwards, Kaoru was a proud and defiant representative of the trans community, and served as the perfect guide to help Momoe feel more comfortable with her own identity. Of course, the system can’t have that, and is now working overtime to re-isolate her. Here’s hoping that like with Neiru, Ai can reach out to her friend in time!

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