Ask John: What’s the Significance of Angel Eggs in Anime?

Question:
What’s the significance of angel eggs in Japanese culture or anime. I never came across this concept until I started watching anime. Off the top of my head, I know angel eggs were a part of both Ah! My Goddess and Angelic Layer. Mamoru Oshii’s movie is also called Angel’s Egg. I’m sure there are other anime that involve angel eggs as well.

Answer:
This is an intriguing question which I’ve never encountered before. Since I’m possibly treading into unexplored territory, my explanation should only be considered tentative.

Christianity accounts for a mere estimated 1% of Japan’s religion. Yet despite Japan having a small number of devout Christians, Christian iconography is rather common, especially in anime. In strict Christian doctrine, angels are the servants of God. Anime, however, has imported a liberal perception of the concept of angels. While anime like Angel Sanctuary and Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan depict angels as actual heavenly beings, many more anime series, like Steel Angel Kurumi, Angelic Layer, Dirty Pair, Tenshi na Konamaiki, Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai, Bakuretsu Tenshi, and Galaxy Angel use the concept of “angel” to represent an idealized woman. Perhaps drawing from Genesis and Milton’s imagery of a war in heaven, the anime concept of angel is frequently applied to valkyries and warrior women like the Lovely Angels, the fighting robots of Angelic Layer, the steel angels, and the Galaxy Angel team.

Since the commonplace anime concept of “angel” isn’t exclusively a divine being, the idea of being able to create, awaken, or hatch a pure, innocent, perfect being becomes viable. The specific imagery of an egg may possibly come from the fact that angels have wings, like birds that hatch from eggs. The concept of growing something exceptional or divine must be a fascinating concept for artists to develop. And the idea of holding and nurturing an egg that will hatch to reveal a perfect, idealized girl is an appealing image for both male otaku that dream of an angelic partner, and female otaku that cherish the idea of mothering something small, perfect, and beautiful.

The idea of the angel’s egg is also relevant to Mamoru Oshii’s enigmatic film because, if the angel’s egg may be perceived as the origin of innocence, it’s a fragile container. One possible interpretation of Tenshi no Tamago is that shattering the nameless girl’s egg destroys her symbolic innocence, leading to her fall or death.