Watching the episode, it indeed do feel like a much darker and more surreal take of Flip Flappers. I like Ai much more than I expected, a lot of things about her really reminds me of myself so much, she's super gentle to the core, sensible and wants to be respected while being moody and stubborn at times, I don't know what to feel about this but there are very few protagonists who are perfectly relatable to me, I wanted to see her character grow a lot, I'm very attached to her and I'm hoping that she will give all of her strength to make herself a strong person.

Indeed the setting feel quite mysterious, the background art is detailed in normal scenes but shifts to colorful and artsy in otherwordly scenes, it reminded me of Schoolgirl Strikers for a bit, the director just put enough effort to make Ai get surrounded by strange things and how she reacted to it. Indeed the direction seems very vague but the premiere set up enough clues to establish the protagonist and a little bit of the worldbuilding and basic premise that will eventually unfolds: Ai will try to learn what friendship means (a question that I've been pondering over) and question it before she will eventually reach the answer. She's thoughtful and intuitive, as she's looking through a particular answer as for why the concept of magical eggs exist. Eventually she is meeting at least two people who are sorta similar to her.

The production values are almost movie-like, similar to Makoto Shinkai movies with detailed background art and the artwork is slick with impactful scenes being given lots of visual care. The music build the atmosphere throughout and I like it very much. Out of the few premieres I saw this season, I enjoyed it the most and I'm curious to see how it goes.

I don't know what to say much in this episode, but why did Ai suddenly gained courage even though she doesn't fully understand what friendship means to her? She seems to gain one step of characterization faster than expected and she's learning how to be stronger, even helping some young gymnast named Minami who lacks self-esteem. The fight scenes maintain a surreal tone as usual and there's definitively tension prevalent throughout. It's still very heavy in mystery and I'm sure we'll eventually get some good answers.

Neiru is such a mysterious girl, she's silent but surprisingly confident, she looks kinda frail and we learn that her sister committed suicide. We even get to see her mother who is black based on her hairstyle and appearance, so I'm guessing she's an hafu.

The animation quality is still consistent but I feel like the visuals are less detailed than before. I don't like the opening theme, it sounds like it should be an ending, but the ending is at least fitting with a misleading vibe. When I looked at the characters' daily lives it evokes realism, which isn't too surprising because it's written by a J-drama guy with his anime writing debut, so I'll be cautious as to how much his writing style will fit in tune.