An exemplary lesson of why brainstorming sessions shouldn't be translated 1:1 to a too metaphorical text.
What if Madoka Magica met Steins;Gate met Lain met Flip Flappers met Eve no Jikan met Ikuhara met Freudian psychology met Jungian psychology met ghost stories met Japanese insect symbolism met social issues met... met.
The above summary sounds promising, right? Unfortunately, it's indeed possible to have too many an idea and too short a time. Even yet, it's indeed possible to have too many an idea, too short a time, and too late a presentation. Still, it's indeed possible to have too many an idea, too short a time,
...
too late a presentation, and too ambitious a writing. Ultimately, it's indeed possible to have Wonder Egg Priority be the product of overachieving painfully obvious metaphors.
This show is what happens when the writers want to have a mostly symbolic plot but don't want to commit to it, because they still want condescendingly to appeal to those that don't like such works. "What if the audience is too oblivious to what I'm trying to say? Let me spell it out for them right after showing them the symbol, then."
What it ends up being after cutting the baby in two is neither a satisfactory abstract work nor a fully-fledged concrete one. No matter how much one throws threads that somehow give the impression of sounding more complex than they are onto the paper, any prolonged look at the metaphors proves itself not only a highly unrewarding endeavor but a meaningless exercise that leads to a disappointing conclusion: the show itself doesn't know what to do with or how to conclude any of the fancy symbols and seemingly thought-provoking questions it provided us with, therefore it's relying on the audience to piece together what it meant, because, after all, that's what makes a show great, right? Right?
Sadly, most of WEP's shortcomings are in the writing department, coincidentally the most important one in any storytelling medium. The art, great. The animation, decent. The directing, serviceable. The character design, memorable. The sound direction, fine. All of these, instead of becoming the redeemable qualities of the show, end up making the directionless, pedantic and non-committing writing even more jarring. Plus, at what cost do these well-done parts come? I don't usually say "production hell", but, after so many delays in delivering the episodes and news of staff burning the midnight oil, it does seem more and more fitting.
Some episodes by themselves, as isolated short stories, were great, coupling all the by now clear good aspects of the production with effective writing. My personal favorite would be the 7th episode, the one immediately before the unplanned recap. The ones after it, however, didn't measure up to the ones that came before. It wasn't great, but it was fine until then. The issues are mostly concentrated towards the end, starting probably when the writers saw themselves pressed for a conclusion when they weren't even sure what they wanted to do with what they had. So far, most stories were one-off, enclosed to their respective episodes, with some overarching questions set up by the show itself lingering over most of its run, being lampshaded or referenced occasionally throughout, either in text or subtext.
However, the direction it took post-recap added more questions, superfluous questions that had nothing to do with the ones that came before, but seemingly superfluous questions the writers' brainstorming came up with that weren't cut, trimmed down, or set aside for another work. This not only blindsights the viewers, but also leads to tonal dissonance between the two halves: the one that sets up a psychological exploration for dealing with trauma and growing up, and the other that wants to be a dark sci-fi thriller. I've read some people call the "plot twists" good; others, bad. I'd be more inclined to agree with the latter, although this isn't a hill I'd be willing to die on. After all, plot twists aren't just about merely doing a 180 for the hell of it. They're about subverting the audience's expectations in a way that services both the themes and the plot. Pulling a - couple of - deus ex machina doesn't expand the premise most of the time. Rather, it showcases the writers' cluelessness on how to tie up or explain what they set up until that point, especially when it's, quite literally, a deus that's also a machina. The shortest lived, most pointless to the ending deus ex machina, it's worth noting. Simple changes would've made the meaningless machina less grating, for example, incorporating its signature move at some points of the earlier episodes, but alas, we don't do setup and payoff properly here... All for the sake of not giving the viewer any chance of predicting what's coming next, because that's what makes a show great, right? Right?
It's a shame to me what became of this show, this ill-defined, objectless metaphorical, overambitious blob of a show. Though it might not sound so by my opening statements, I liked this immensely until about the halfway point of its run. The themes and premise, despite not being novel, were interesting and captivating, engaging the viewer with its universe and characters. Rough around the edges when dealing with some social issues, too condescending with its metaphors or with overly idealistic character writing? Sure, but charming nonetheless. Post-recap, however, not only did it lose what set it apart from other works in the same category, it tried too hard to check the highest number of boxes it could, boxes that contradict each other, lead nowhere and detract from the initial boxes it so passionately catered to and so earnestly built.
This is one of the most unrewarding experiences with the best starting promises I've ever seen in this medium, not because it completely botches the unintelligible landing - plenty of less genuine shows did that - but because it dared fly too high while making us believe it would know better than getting too close to the sun.
Mar 30, 2021
Wonder Egg Priority
(Anime)
add
An exemplary lesson of why brainstorming sessions shouldn't be translated 1:1 to a too metaphorical text.
What if Madoka Magica met Steins;Gate met Lain met Flip Flappers met Eve no Jikan met Ikuhara met Freudian psychology met Jungian psychology met ghost stories met Japanese insect symbolism met social issues met... met. The above summary sounds promising, right? Unfortunately, it's indeed possible to have too many an idea and too short a time. Even yet, it's indeed possible to have too many an idea, too short a time, and too late a presentation. Still, it's indeed possible to have too many an idea, too short a time, ... 
Sep 7, 2019
Yagate Kimi ni Naru
(Anime)
add
Yagate Kimi ni Naru (or Bloom Into You) was one of my first anime. At the time, I got completely blown away by the complexity of the characters and the amazing story that could be told through this new medium I had yet to know more about. A lot of shows later, heck, a life of art consumption later, let me say and it'll be known: Yagate Kimi ni Naru is a masterpiece of top-notch character writing and character study that doesn't shy away when put to the test of millennia of literature behind and after it. The tag is of a romance and it
...
|
