If it cannot break out of its shell, the chick will die without ever being born. We are the chick. The world is our egg. If we don't crack the world's shell, we will die without ever truly being born. Smash the world's shell. FOR THE REVOLUTION OF THE WORLD!

The egg is the coffin. The coffin is childhood. In this case, it represents Nanami's fixation with Touga.

Just as Hesse's Demian must emerge from the world of bourgeouisie illusion and ascend into spiritual truth, Nanami must break from her comfortable fantasy of surrogate paternalism in order to find freedom. At the beginning of the episode, she discovers a mysterious egg. Though its origin and intent are unclear, she immediately begins interpreting its significance. She can't figure out if it's supposed to entail responsibility, unpredictability, maternity, or shame. It becomes symbolic of all the ideas that represent adulthood.

Despite her conflict over its meaning, she cherishes and protects the egg - much as she does her childish idealization of her brother. Others attempt to question or attack it. These barrages only make her dogged devotion fiercer. However, in the end, it is that very safeguarding that ends up shattering the shell of her egg (i.e. she squished it under her pillow).

She is freed only when something precious to her is destroyed. Nanami's Egg foreshadows not just what the titular character will eventually endure, but every character in the series. For each of them has their own egg to shatter.

By the way, I retrieved all of this wonderful information from a very reliable source: my ass.

Katzenklavier wrote:

If it cannot break out of its shell, the chick will die without ever being born. We are the chick. The world is our egg. If we don't crack the world's shell, we will die without ever truly being born. Smash the world's shell. FOR THE REVOLUTION OF THE WORLD!

The egg is the coffin. The coffin is childhood. In this case, it represents Nanami's fixation with Touga.

Just as Hesse's Demian must emerge from the world of bourgeouisie illusion and ascend into spiritual truth, Nanami must break from her comfortable fantasy of surrogate paternalism in order to find freedom. At the beginning of the episode, she discovers a mysterious egg. Though its origin and intent are unclear, she immediately begins interpreting its significance. She can't figure out if it's supposed to entail responsibility, unpredictability, maternity, or shame. It becomes symbolic of all the ideas that represent adulthood.

Despite her conflict over its meaning, she cherishes and protects the egg - much as she does her childish idealization of her brother. Others attempt to question or attack it. These barrages only make her dogged devotion fiercer. However, in the end, it is that very safeguarding that ends up shattering the shell of her egg (i.e. she squished it under her pillow).

She is freed only when something precious to her is destroyed. Nanami's Egg foreshadows not just what the titular character will eventually endure, but every character in the series. For each of them has their own egg to shatter.

By the way, I retrieved all of this wonderful information from a very reliable source: my ass.

This reminds me of the girl's egg in Angel's Egg. Part of the main conflict in the film is that the girl doesn't want to crack open the egg despite a man's suggestion to open it to find out its contents. She carries the egg around with her for the majority of the film and it becomes apparent that the egg is precious to her. Even the man says "Keep precious things inside you or you will lose them," which implies the egg being the precious object. I don't know if this is a common trope with eggs being symbolic of precious objects, but seeing this similarity leads me to agree with Katzenklavier's comment concerning the shattering of eggs.

Raven Nightshade wrote:

deeds24 wrote:

Angel's Egg

I'm pretty sure this episode is fully intended to be a direct reference to that. It hits too many similar points not to be.

And the boy in that certainly resembles Dios, both in design- dark skin, pale hair- and in role- a divinity dubiously comforting/helping a little girl.