Overall Rating 7.9 out of 10 - Nice deconstruction of the 2010s era.
I recommend watching if you understand literarily analysis and literary fiction.
Yes, literary fiction is like a riddle. Only those who are smart enough can figure out what it is about, while the rest are left to wonder WTF is this shit.
I used to wonder why I like shows like that. I came to a conclusion that it is because I like to bask in my intellectual superiority and such shows give me just the opportunity to do so.
Angel Egg is about the post-Crisis Era of 2010s that I like rave about a lot. However, unlike shows like Macross Frontier, it does not celebrate or acclaim it. Instead, it deconstructs it into components as it fits in the greater picture of changing eras.
It begins with a scene where boy watches a giant technogenic ball with a blue-green eye like-window in the center thinking in the ocean. On top of the ball there are statues of people in glasses clasping their hands together as if in hope or awe and all looking up at something above. There are also a bunch of pipes, pumping out smoke through the old-style industrial steam horns. Finally, there is a que of people, waiting to ascend somewhere.
The ball is an allegory of the now past era of technological advancement. Era when technology developed and men ascendant ever further into the sky. It floats in the sky because it wants to transcend the human origin and reach a higher plain of existence.
The fact that the ball is thinking in the ocean shows that this era came to a close. Instead of ascending, ball fell to the depth of the ocean. Choice of the ocean is no random either. Life first originated in the ocean, before moving to the surface. Going back to the ocean means going back to the past. A very fitting metaphor for an obsessed with the past era of the 2010s, that replaced the era of technological advancement of the late 90s and early 2000s.
Finally, the statue on the ball is a critique of the people of the technological era. A statement from creators that people of technological era were as devoid of life as statues. To that I would like to respond that in the following era people were reduced to mere beasts, scavenging for food and water.
The boy seems subtly glad that technogenic ball has sunk. It gives us a hint that he dislikes the technogenic era and looks forward towards the following water era.
Most viewers tend to think that boy is a soldier. That is probably due to a fact that he was riding a tank when he met a girl. By extension they see the tool he carries with him as a weapon. However, its far too overengineered for a gun.
My personal analysis is that tool is more likely a complex wind instrument such as oboe or Sarrusophone. Fagot (do not be confused with faggot) or Bassoon looks close actually. That will make him a piper that charms people with his pipe like a snake charmer and leads them to their doom.
If the technogenic world was a world of statues, then world that replaced it is a world or ruins, shadows and water. The world that Gilgamesh from Fate/Zero dubbed despicably ugly. Abandoned homes, ancient looking tools and decorations from long bygone eras are littering the place.
Water takes near center role in the whole story. I already mentioned that technogenic ball descended into water. Water flows from many fountains across the world the story is set in. These fountains shaped as grotesque fish or other such monsters.
The other protagonist, the girl, constantly scavengers for water or containers to keep that water. That shows just how low humanity have fallen if even such a basic necessity as water is hard to find.
Eventually water even nearly floods the city.
All that is an allegory of the 2010s era of nostalgia for the past and ever-present confusion. Things are as murky as dark waters. No matter how much you struggle look into the watery darkness to find out who or what is behind the events that unfold, truth eludes you.
There is plenty of rain and even floods going on across the globe too. Almost as if crazy Christian fundamentalists want to imitate the Biblical flood and drown to death everyone who refuses to bow down to their mean, cruel and spiteful god.
Other than water, there are also shadows or illusions. The shadow of the fish is something everyone is chasing in this world. Everyone seems believe the fish is real and they all scramble to hunt it down. As they do so, they cause very real damage to the city.
This is possibly a metaphor for culture wars and other conflicts that characterise this era. Confused and mislead people fighting over nothing.
If the boy represents someone who enjoys and possibly oversees the era of water, then girl is someone who waits for it to end.
Their stance on the issue became clear after the dialogue about Biblical Flood Story. After re-telling the story, boy eventually said that he wished that people would forget about birds they sent to look for land and just continue to live in flood condition. That shows that boy does not want for that era of shadows and water to end. He also works to prolong it as much as possible.
The girl then responded that her egg has that bird that will eventually hatch to inform people of the end of the flood and beginning of a new life. That sealed the egg's fate. After that boy waited for girl to fall asleep. When she did, he took her egg and smashed it, putting his views on preserving era of water into action.
Boy's plans did not work out, however. After finding out that egg was destroyed, the girl drowns herself. However, from her death many more eggs with birds in them emerged, too many for the boy to destroy.
The story ends with subtly upset boy watching the technogenic ball re-emerging from the waters it fell in in the beginning of the show. On the ball people are still the same as always, but girl and her egg are now also among the many on board of the ball. As ball ascends further and further into the higher reaches of the atmosphere it leaves not only boy and his pipe behind, but also the city and everything else. Eventually the whole world on the ground seems nothing more than a pattern on a seedling.
This represents the future where water era will come to an end and next technogenic era will dawn upon humanity. That is something I look forward to.
This is more of a summary than a review, but a show like this needs it more than a conventional review. Otherwise, casuals will never figure out what it is about.
