The Egg and the Magical Girl:

2024-08-14

Hello everyone! I hope you've all been well. I've been on my own for about a week and managing pretty well. Recently I discovered pearl barley and the texture has been all thats on my mind >w< I love little chewy things like tapioca, brown rice, or nata de coco, particularly when they have that slightly earthy taste to them, so I've had a lot of fun making all kinds of soups and stews with it. If anyone has any recipes they could recommend I'd be really happy about it!!

For today's post, I really wanted to talk about one of the most common recurring symbolic elements in magical girl media... The Egg.

WARNING: this post will include minor spoilers about a wide variety of MG anime, with the most recent ongoing one being WONDERFUL PRECURE. Other vague anime spoilers include Madoka Magica and a handful of others.You don't need to know too much about any of these anime to read this post though, just be warned!

[Above: Wonder Egg Priority]

This post isn't going to be a comprehensive guide of any kind, but is more going to be me talking about the different ways eggs are used and portrayed in magical girl anime that I specifically have watched. Even so, just from this one person's pov (me) there's a staggering amount of eggs in these anime! This in a sense isn't super surprising though, as one of the main tenants of magical girl anime is transformation, both inward and outward. The transformation from childhood to adolescence is often times the reason eggs are utilized in these anime, but the implications behind the egg, what is says about the changes girls go through, is incredibly varied between each individual anime.

(BTW transformation in itself is a super interesting multi-faceted concept which I might tackle in a future blog post, and I have one particular artist-friend of mine in mind who I might interview about it, but that's for a future blog-project >:3c!!)

Eggs have been a common religious, spiritual, and cultural symbol for an incredibly long time. There's such a rich egg-history that I could probably research and talk about it for ages, however for the purposes of magical girls I feel like there's two main ways that eggs are visually shown. In a sense that visual difference can sometimes tie pretty heavily to the themes behind the eggs as metaphor, so I will be looking at them as such.

[Above: Jewelpet 'Jewelcharms' and Fabrege Eggs]

Bejeweled Eggs - Eggs as a treasure to be protected

The first of these two visual categories are more in line with the aesthetics of Fabrege eggs. These are often beautiful, and designed with the intention of later being used as physical charms or toys IRL. While I couldn't personally think of many anime with this kind of motif, I'm sure there's likely more of them that I just don't know of! Of the three anime I do know with this kind of egg: Jewelpet, Madoka Magica, and Wonderful Precure; all three put a massive emphasis on how precious the eggs are, and the importance of either keeping or protecting them. Beyond this, the three are as different as it can get in how and why the eggs are used.

[Above: Wonderful Precure's 'Niko-sama' and Jewelpet Twinkle's 'Labra']

Wonderful Precure is the most straightforward of the bunch, and while (as of writing this) it hasn't yet ended, I can make some good guesses as to why eggs are used as a motif. I might sound stupid as all hell saying this, but to state the obvious, animals lay eggs... shocking I know! More importantly though babies are born from eggs, this means that its pretty common for childrens media (as well as schools and beyond!) to use eggs as a more PG example of childbirth and a way to learn more about empathy, responsibility, and the circle of life. Wonderful precure puts massive emphasis on coexisting with animals and one another, animal care is actually shockingly well explained which is super cool! In this way, WonPre's eggs aren't metaphorical but very literal! Children and animals are a treasure that must be cared for and protected, a sentiment (often... but not always) shared by Jewelpet as well, with multiple Jewelpets (with Labra, the baby Jewelpet in particular) needing humans to care for them and guide them. It's through care and love that the eggs in these series are able to bring out their true power, and while we don't necessarily need eggs to express this sentiment, the eggs are just aesthetically cute and fun enough to make them appealing to kids of young ages. Much like Kodocha's Sana-chan giving a chick to her friend's sister in place of a real egg :3.

[Above: 'Hatchimals' and 'Rainbocorns' Kittycorns'

Another last-minute addition to this point I wanted to make is that recently there's been a massive boom in egg-toys in the western world specifically, with brands like Hatchimals and Rainbocorns being all over the place. The idea of collecting egg-shaped mystery toys like Jewelpets or... Unicorn eggs... is a no-brainer for kids toys! I mean we've had dinosaur egg toys since the 2000's and tamagotchi since, uh, before I was born (sorry 90s kids!) so it's not surprising that Sanrio and Toei would capitalize on the Egg. Actually I personally love hatchimals, and the recent 'Hatchimals Alive!' toys are ridiculously cute, but that has nothing to do with the current topic and everything to do with my obsession with toys ahaha.

(No, but really though, there's no way they designed Niko-sama without knowing about these unicorn eggs right??)

[Above: Puella Magi Madoka Magica's 'Soul Gems']

While we've mostly talked about these pretty jeweled eggs in terms of anime aimed at children, as you can imagine Madoka takes a pretty different, but kind of similar route. In some ways I think there are actually way more similarities than you'd expect, and maybe this is just because I've seen way worse but I don't actually believe that Madoka is nearly as grimdark as people say it is. At its core I think that Madoka is about the fragility of human beings- girls in particular- and how nurturing love and care can bring out their true power. See the similarity?

While the Soul Gems are a lot more of a symbol of RE-birth than childhood, the difference in Madoka and Homura's power and abilities by the end of the series (and the third movie) lies in their experiences. Madoka, who is loved, cared for, supported, and shielded from pain, grows into an impossibly strong entity who is capable of bringing more love to everyone around her. Homura on the other hand, who is decieved, tricked, hurt, and isolated, grows bitter and weaker per iteration. Though she still gets love through her friends and Madoka and is able to somewhat be reborn, her 'childhood' leaves scars that warp her perception of people regardless of how kind and loving her original goal was.There's similar character arcs in Jewelpet to this as well, with multiple Jewelpets (Coal, and Diana as an example) falling into despair and becoming 'evil' as a result of having no one to truly love and care for them. One thing I found interesting about Madoka Magica in particular is how Madoka's family is extremely loving and kind to her, while we see no one in Homura's life. It's the implication that the reason for their 'fates' being really closely tied to the way they were brought up and the kind of parenting they got that I find most interesting. Just like before, the egg being a way to express ideas of childcare come through the cracks. (pun not intended)

Another honorable mention to add to this point is Magical Girl Raising Project's Magical Phone egg thing, which doesn't suit the visual category I used before, but is most likely directly heavily based off Madoka Magica. The use of it in the show is mostly as a way to make the competition between the girls more obvious, which is pretty close to how Madoka uses the magical seeds but taken to an extreme. I personally don't think there's any actual metaphors to be found in this phone being an egg, or much of any visual decisions made in this anime, but it makes for an example of eggs in MG either way. In general Magical Girl Raising Project is a pretty obvious and straightforward response to Madoka, and I'm probably gonna talk about it in a future blog post cuz I really liked it despite everything!

As I go onto the next visual categories, there's gonna be a lot more similarities in egg-metaphors, but I do think where the line is drawn is that difference in permanence and eternity. Of the three series/IP's I named all three have immortal egg holding beings, Niko-sama, the Jewelpet, and the girls in Madoka are (to my knowledge) eternal. Even more importantly, these eggs aren't layed, they're not born, they're either created or forced out of someone. At the end of the day, they are a physical treasure! This in itself introduces a fragility, that is different to living eggs. I don't know if you guys have ever seen videos of people trying to crack an egg in their hands but it can be surprisingly difficult to do, despite how fragile they are. In comparison, these beautiful jeweled masterpieces don't have that natural strength to them, and regardless of how strong the material they're made of is, there is always a chance to introduce weak points with objects that are bedazzled and made by hand. They are, after all, made to be ornaments and not to protect a growing being. They don't need the strength to avoid predators, nor do they need to be easy to break out of with an egg tooth. Even with Niko-sama who will probably hatch in a future episode, that's not exactly the design of a safe egg, it's the design of a (suspiciously similar to another toy) children's toy. Jewelpet don't die if they can't get out of their shells, and the girls in Madoka aren't even trying to leave their eggs' shells. At no point do they grow up, nor do they age. Soul gems are a representation of the eternal beauty given to these girls, girls who die and are perserved at their 'most beautiful' for lack of a nicer way to put it.

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