#frill wep | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

georgiasbloom · 1 year

Text

i don’t know how active the fandom is, and i know it’s not related to the doll community whatsoever, but i wanted to post about wonder egg priority!

it’s one of my favourite shows and anime series ever, and i wanted to talk abt this project i worked on a couple years ago (but never finished)

in 2021, i paired the main girls of wonder egg priority with songs from SHOP: A Pop Opera by Jack Stauber. what better thing to do than to combine one of my fav medias with one of my fav music artists?? anyways. on to the pairing!

**TRIGGER WARNING for sensitive topics

Ai x Cheese

“This can't brie

There’s more cheese to choose than I can see

You gouda be kidding me

I can't make these decisions on my provolone

If I act better

Could someone else select my cheddar?

Are these bleus parmanent?

I'll be okay, I’ll look away and let the universe say”

this song covers the five stages of grief (through cheese puns) and i thought it would be a perfect fit for miss ohto ai. she’s the main character of the series, so we mostly follow her through her journey of losses and gains. having lost her dearest friend, she experiences a multitude of (very valid) feelings. “this can’t brie (be)” covers denial, in which ai wanted her friend back very badly, not believing what she had seen. “you gouda (gotta) be kidding me” covers the anger she feels about her best friends death, taking the blame out upon a suspect within the matter. bargaining is discussed within the lyrics “if i act better…” where ai is willing to put herself and other lives at risk at the unsuspecting chance of bringing her best friend back to life. “are these bleus (blues) permanent?” cover depression, in which ai is often seen reflecting upon how she met her best friend and the memories they made together. it’s hard simply to walk in the school setting that she associates with her. “i’ll be okay…” covers acceptance, where ai in the end has to come to the conclusion (thanks to the alternative version of herself) about where ai stands in protecting herself, loving herself, and understanding herself.

Neiru x Oatmeal

“I could have oatmeal for breakfast and oatmeal for lunch

Oatmeal for dinner as well at the sound of a bell

I could have oatmeal wake up and oatmeal brush my teeth

Go to my oatmeal job, oatmeal home, oatmeal sleep

Every day, my oatmeal routine

Time is my master, keep everything clean

Every day, my oatmeal routine

Life would have rhythm and maybe harmony

Circumstance, the unexpected!

How could I have known? Err

Routine, is it human?

Molded in my ways, how would I change?

Disaster, routineless, I adapt to chaos faster

No master”

when working on pairing these songs with these characters, i was working with a friend who was far better at explaining and analyzing these pairings than i am. but we discussed that oatmeal would be a perfect fit for someone as organized and cynical as neiru. i have always thought that her character/arc weren’t properly covered in the series (also, i haven’t seen the special, so i don’t what that was like), so the whole deal with her trying to bring her sister back was confusing to me. being the calculated, analytic one, i thought the theme from oatmeal about rhythm and harmony being found in daily routines was a good fit. it’s later found in the theme of the song that life can still be good without routine, and idk. again, i felt that neiru’s arc wasn’t quite rapped up perfectly. but it seemed a good fit. i rly do need to rewatch this series, it’s been a few months…

Rika x Bread

“I could live in an artisanal house with an artisanal wife

Drive an artisanal car, live an artisanal life

It'd be a treat to see what people think of me

Dressed to the ninth degree, sipping artisanal tea

What's an artisanal me?

Where do my clothes end? Can I stop them?

Which ones are my artisanal friends?

What's an artisanal me?

Do I impress you with my dress?

Who made this? Can I hide behind your success?

Or is it excess when I talk less and I let my things talk for me?

What will I say when they go away and I'm on my own again?”

i love this song, it’s one of my top favourites off of shop. and sure enough, rika is my favourite character from wep! i love this pairing of song and character because it’s one of the best fits in my opinion. rika hides behind this whole “cool girl” facade, which is basically the premise of bread. the theme is letting material items and ideals effect the definition of who you are is not so good of an idea. and that’s basically rika. she was literally a kid idol, i’m sure that career in itself is very much draining from who one truly is. but rika likes to play tough, she likes to be silly, and really, she likes to be mean as well. but deep down, she experiences emotions, too. she has her own problems, too. it’s not to say that bullying and using her supporters for money is a good thing. but it goes along with the whole “letting my fame/image/idealized version of myself to water down who i really am” that bread covers. the common use of “what’s an artisanal me?” throughout the song alludes to the scenes of rika being reminded of her problems, her internalized goal of bringing chiemi back, and ultimately why she self harms. her friends are often calling her out, especially neiru, on her actions, and the constant occurrence of so could lead to rika “being on her own again” (in my interpretation)

Momoe x Coffee

Do I need it? (Mocha)

Am I under control?

Can I beat it? (Wake up)

If it swallowed me whole, would I see it?

I can make you feel alive

I know, but do I need you to survive? (Ha ha ha ha)

Just a sip

Does it still matter which one?

Just a drip (Ahhh!)

Am I dumbfounded when I slip?

You can't believe

I can't believe

You can't believe

I can't believe

You can't believe

I can't believe this happened

Wow

French vanilla, I think I should sit this one out

No no no

Maybe a cup of self control would be the route

But it's the flavor, it's the flavor you want!

Maybe so, but it feels better to check than to reflect

if you can’t tell, this pairing was kind of a case of “the last song and last character” remaining after pairing the rest. i still think there’s some similarity between the two, though. so as of what we know/i remember of momoe, she often took the whole aspect of herself that she appeared like a guy to others to her advantage, and we see multiple times throughout the show that the assumption of her gender is used in relationships/dynamics that momoe falls in and out of. i wouldn’t say she’s necessarily “addicted” to this process, as suggested in the songs lyrics. but the whole aspect of regulating and finding “self control” is what i relate to momoe. she’s a sweetheart at best, and worthy of finding the right love and being perceived in the way she wishes… ps. i know her whole character is just a trans innuendo, but i haven’t yet come to the 100% description of so (because who really even knows what’s going on in this show /hj) ANYWAYS! she lets this idea control her every move, and it’s especially motivated by her sexual abuser. she idolized the abuser, really, even by wanting to bring her back to life! it’s truly a sticky situation that i think momoe is stuck to. she’s a very driven character, too, which i relate to the sense of addiction. but yeaaaa

Koito x Milk

What kind of milk were you?

What kind of life did you live through? (Oh!)

Did you know love? Will you rest in peace?

Did you have a family?

How was the view from the shelf?

Did you ever believe in yourself?

What kind of milk were you? (Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah)

What kind of life did you live through? (Wah-wah-wah-wah-wah-wah)

Did your life drip rich with calcium?

Did they laugh at you or did you laugh with them?

Dairy beloved, your days are gone

The grocery list goes on

i’m getting goosebumps as i listen to this song while organizing out the lyrics. anyways. milk is my favourite song off of shop and a perfect fit for koito. if anything, i think it would be a great fit for ai as well. anyways. the whole theme of death fits perfectly with koito because, well… spoiler alert… she’s dead. THE WHOLE LINE “did they laugh at you or did you laugh with them” FITS PERFECTLY WITH THE BULLYING! again, it could work well with ai!! but koito, too, experienced a horrible amount of bullying. but the “did you believe in yourself?” “what kind of milk were you?” fits perfect in my head because we never truly knew koito. her story was never truly fleshed out (at least in the way that would make sense to me) and even though she helped push ai to love herself and better herself, koito couldn’t live up to her own advice and support. and though “her days are gone, the grocery list goes on” meaning everyone else is still moving along. ai continues waking up every morning. the alleged abuser continues waking up every morning. although she is gone, life goes on, and so does her legacy.

Frill x Paper Towels

Mess!

It's irreversible (ah, ah)

Unraveling, unstoppable

How can I contain this non-stop endless spreading bane?

(Oh no, oh no)

Mess!

It’s rolling out over time

Can I put a halt on mine?

It's an infinite gain but there's a break in the chain

Entropic irreversible remains

Mess!

Process produces naturally

How does one handle callous entropy?

Guess it’s out of my hands

The universe will expand when nothing has a proper exit plan

oh boy… frill is an absolute mess. and that’s funny because that’s the theme of the song! hahaha yeah so diving into this, i wanna start with the lyric “process produced naturally.” there is nothing, and i mean nothing physically natural about frill. but technically speaking, there is…? being artificially intelligent, she experiences emotions like anyone else. she experienced joy, pain, sadness, jealousy like anyone else. she acts like anyone else. the fault in the system begins with the Accas, if i’m gonna be honest (the frill defender in me is peeking out a bit). the Accas had trouble “containing the non-stop endless spreading bane” even after they thought they got rid of frill once and for all. it lead to the whole story line, actually! lol! and that’s where it’s “rolling out over time,” as the story expands, we see how deep everything really gets, and how bad it really is, thanks to miss frill. even if there is “a break in the chain,” there’s still gonna be a mess. and that is the long lasting reign of frill

i hope you guys enjoyed this. i have to rewatch wonder egg priority, tbh. i recently rewatched it at the end of last year, but it had been a long while since before that. it’s hard to form my own understanding of the show because there’s so many layers, so much happening, and so little explanation for me to be able to form even the littlest of an idea of what’s going on. of course i have the premise. of course i understand the plot and the characters, hehehe. it just helped my understanding when i used to dive into the fandom. there’s where idk if it’s dead or not… i haven’t checked. also maybe watching the special will help, idk lol. anyways! if you got this far THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING IT MEANS A LOT! i woke up this morning and this whole thing was one of my first thoughts (and i haven’t thought abt my wep x shop edits in awhile so it’s weird that it just randomly came to me but whatever hehhehe)

PS. here are links to the three edits i made lol

> koito x milk edit

> rika x bread edit

> frill x paper towels edit

#i’d honestly pair Dinner Is Not Over with the entirety of the show #it makes sense right #wonder egg priority #ohto ai #neiru aonuma #rika kawai #momoe sawaki #koito nagase #frill #wep #jack stauber #shop #shop a pop opera

14 notes · View notes

firespirited · 2 years

Text

it’s been over a year and i’m still thinking about how Wonder Egg Priority was going to be an anime cultural reset like we hadn’t seen in years and then promptly Game of Thrones’ed itself. 4 teen girls dealing with survivors guilt and the pains of girlhood written with great care and insight, who find eachother and messily heal while doing magical battle with the embodiment of traumas that caused other girls to feel like death was the only option. It didn’t matter if the magic deal was a trap because they were getting stronger and doing something with their grief, it was not going to be easy and there were going to be falling outs and setbacks but those four characters mattered.

Then hard genre u-turn! This psychological exploration of a misogynistic society is now a generic senseless horror story: you see, suicide happens because you get haunted by the cutesy demon of wanting death. Guess the girls are going to have to fight her or save her somehow! You want answers? Here have rogue AI, student teacher relationships, genetic experiments and evil twins instead. oh it’s cancelled. The end.

I don’t mind genre changes, I like the subversion: oh you thought this was a monster story but the real monsters are in the house with you? Oh you thought this was rambo but no, arhnold is going to be hunted like a final girl. You thought this was a bromance, woops they’re kissing! Love triangle? no he’s my brother. Why’s this evil child tormenting this poor guy? You go evil child!

I mean Battlestar Galactica switched it up regularly between sci-fi and political thriller, dystopia, personal identity and interpersonal drama. It was fine until they had characters going out of character and said this is how the human race started and also you’re going to enact this same thing... because gods are real and they said so.

So this is my plea to the void: End of Evangelion but it’s End of Egg, we retcon some stuff as a lie told by the guys with the eggs or an imagined past by an AI glitch and take it from there. Maybe it’s an unethical psych study but it’s helped them out of their inertia so they bring it to others without that final boss that tries to keep you trapped in game. Maybe the magic is real and each girl taps a new person when they’re done fighting and ready for the acceptance phase. Maybe frill is a sentient system bug or a manifestation of the illusion of agency and the flipside of self blame and it takes all four friends to cure her of her fantasy that she causes/wants death instead of it being a complex social problem. Just 30 minutes, doesn’t have to be seamlessly animated, doesn’t have to answer everything and give us a “ten years later they all were happy with careers and babies”, just that third act of forward movement that undoes the series original ending. WEP the OVA: it was a deception, there is a short explanation and minor resolution, the girls start suicide clubs across schools to destigmatise mental health. ta da.

Edit: I have since found out about the show writer and seen his ugly fingerprints all over the show's undertones. WEP would have to be written and heavily reconned by someone new, preferably a team of women. Maybe someday we'll get a decent show about girlhood trauma that isn't sentimental dreck or misery porn. The Leftovers is excellent: 3 seasons that gradually delve into magical realism and back, including teens and multiple complex women's perspectives.

#saf #wonder egg priority #anime

19 notes · View notes