Following the suicide of her best and only friend, Koito Nagase, Ai Ooto is left grappling with her new reality. With nothing left to live for, she follows the instructions of a mysterious entity and gets roped into purchasing an egg, or specifically, a Wonder Egg.
Upon breaking the egg in a world that materializes during her sleep, Ai is tasked with saving people from the adversities that come their way. In doing so, she believes that she has moved one step closer to saving her best friend. With this dangerous yet tempting opportunity in the palms of her hands, Ai enters a place where she must recognize the relationship between other people's demons and her own.
As past trauma, unforgettable regrets, and innate fears hatch in the bizarre world of Wonder Egg Priority, a young girl discovers the different inner struggles tormenting humankind and rescues them from their worst fears.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
nightshadekait
This review mentions sexual assault, self-harm, and suicide. I have rewatched Wonder Egg Priority multiple times in an effort to organize my conflicting feelings towards it. On one hand, it has beautiful visuals, an intriguing aura, and a great first couple episodes. On the other hand, it has shallow concepts, a messy narrative, a lack in direction, problematic messages, poor character development, exploitation of sensitive themes, and a failed execution of ideas. Yeah, the cons definitely outweigh the pros with this one. Wonder Egg markets itself as an odd yet beautiful dream of self-acceptance full of imagery and symbolism. The first scene of the anime introduces usto our protagonist, Ai, in the middle of the street when a strange voice taking form of a firefly brings her to an underground arcade and gives her an egg. Breaking the egg transports Ai to a surreal world that slowly reveals itself as a danger zone where she is tasked to protect a person called a “Wonder” from a creature called a “Wonder Killer”, a representation of the person’s struggles or trauma. Ai then meets friends who also take part on their own journeys to defeat Wonder Killers. Every character has their own backstory and a set of convictions that affect how they act and fight against trauma. It’s a very original and mysterious Ikuhara-esque concept that aims to tackle how we overcome our issues. But with each episode, the anime gets more and more problematic until it completely falls apart.
One of Wonder Egg’s main fallbacks is its use of imagery. Ironically, imagery is the whole appeal of the show and the reason why I admittedly had high hopes for it. But over time, it got repetitive, and I realized that it was due to the constricted nature by which imagery in Wonder Egg is presented.
The wonder killers (victim’s trauma) are always actual beings. There’s the abusive teacher, the abusive teacher #2, the abusive coach, and so on. Not only is this the same thing over and over again, but I find this pattern problematic because when we talk about sensitive topics like self-harm and suicide in real life, trauma doesn’t always take form of one specific event or attacker.
We can see how this issue affects the story in one of the episodes that focuses on Momoe, a tomboyish girl learning to deal with society’s ideas of gender and appearance. Fitting with the theme, the person Momoe was tasked to save in that episode was a non-conforming girl who identified as a boy. This is great. Having Momoe pair up with someone who is also subjected to society’s standards is a very thematic plot choice that allows the opportunity for Momoe to maybe learn something about herself from their encounter. I thought, “Cool, so this whole dream sequence is going to focus on how they accept themselves despite societal pressures.” Perhaps the wonder killer would be a representation of society that they could beat together.
But no. Instead, the Wonder Killer was a rapist… which I found completely random. Yes, rape is an issue. But is it a good issue to poorly tie into the topic of gender norms for no deep reason? Absolutely not. Why suddenly insert a rapist when the topic isn’t about dealing with rape? Doing this just feels like the show is forcibly inserting rapists everywhere. It also feels a lot like the show is just digressing from the initial topic at hand.
If Wonder Egg wants to tackle challenging societal norms, then the issue should be society itself. But this anime consistently uses one specific attacker to encompass the whole issue. In doing this, it only focuses on face-value encounters and makes it seem like the entire problem lies within just one superficial enemy or trauma. It is a wasted opportunity that hinders Wonder Egg from using imagery in a broader way. Had they used the dream sequence in order to symbolize society and its issues as a whole, the anime would have better succeeded in connecting to the bigger picture. Instead, Wonder Egg’s imagery is too narrow, relying on a single person to put the blame on.
Object symbolism in this anime doesn't come with much meaning either. The firefly from the first episode is seen every once and while but doesn’t represent anything. It could’ve been any other bug or small object, and everything would’ve remained the same. Ai has heterochromia which is supposed to show how different she is and tie into the fact that she was made fun of in school. But then the anime contradicts this symbolism by introducing another character with heterochromia who was considered smart and beautiful rather than someone who was made fun of. All of the main girls have different weapons when they enter the dream world, and the show even draws attention to this when Ai first fights a wonder killer with one of her friends. But the weapons barely catered to their backgrounds OR only referenced one small part about their personality. It would be easy to assume that the creators just randomly gave them something cool that would look good with their character design. For the most part, this isn’t a huge issue. But it’s disappointing because the anime sets itself up to be something deeper and because most of these ideas take place in a dream world that’s supposed to be some representation of reality. I love analyzing and reading between the lines, and I thought that Wonder Egg would make me do that with its unusual concepts. But it’s mostly just pseudo-symbolic repetition without thought.
Despite this shallow repetition and narrow imagery, the girls-fighting-against-wonder-killers formula was still a solid one that produced decent results in the beginning of the anime. We got to see girls be badass and overcome their trauma. Everything was running smoothly, and there weren’t any big plot issues. But that’s exactly why when Wonder Egg abandoned this formula, the narrative completely collapsed.
For some reason, the creators of the anime couldn’t stick to one idea. So before we even hit halfway through the series, they started playing around with the messages of the anime. One line that shifted the tone of the narrative was “Boys’ and girls’ suicides mean different things. Men are goal-oriented, and women are emotion-oriented. Women are impulsive and easily influenced by others’ voices.” Suddenly, Wonder Egg was no longer a show that focused on girls simply to show their growth and strength. It became a show that focused on girls because apparently ‘they’re emotional and easily manipulated’. Tying those stereotypical ideas into suicide was a horrible choice. The show tries to make sense of it later on in the anime, but it just ends up being rushed. So the lines came off like something that the writers genuinely believed in.
A lot of the smaller dialogue started relying on similar gender stereotypes as well. For example, some quotes from the anime are “Men who ask women for money are all fake” and “A beautiful woman never needs a wallet.” Both of these lines come from Rika, one of Ai’s friends who is involved in acts of self-harm and lives in a single-parent-household with an alcoholic mother. Knowing this, I assume that the dialogue was meant to show the mindset of a child from a troubled home with absent parental figures. However, I don’t understand why they had to be so stereotypical. There are multiple other ways to display a person’s mindset without having to rely on problematic dialogue. The fact that these messages are repeated throughout the show makes it feel like the anime is exploiting Rika’s background and using these lines more as shock factor rather than to show her growth. This is even more evident when Rika implies that she hasn’t gained a sense of self-acceptance.
After one of her Wonder Killer battles, Rika says “Even if it means hurting myself, I’m going to live.” Anyone who knows how dangerous self-harm can be should understand why this line is a big issue. Not only did the anime actively promote self-harm, but it also marketed it as growth.
Now I like to give shows the benefit of the doubt, so I thought that the line might have just been a part of the story. Maybe the anime is self-aware of how incorrect it is and is only using it to build bigger themes. I tried to think of it as a means for Rika’s characterization to maybe emphasize her troubled background. But I recently rewatched that episode and saw no indication of that line having a deeper connection to Rika’s family life. In fact, that line was part of the last episode of the series that fully focused on Rika, so the anime never clears up the way it poorly handled self-harm. Though I’ve tried to think positively, I cannot find anything to justify that piece of scriptwriting. It blatantly views self-harm in a positive light to the point that I can no longer call this an anime about self-acceptance.
The creators also began flooding the show with too many ideas and cheap plot twists, most of which were crammed towards the end of the anime where the writers didn’t have enough time to cover them all. New antagonists and backstories were introduced in the last few episodes of the series, unnecessary changes to the storyline happened at every corner, and random events were inserted just for the sake of shock value rather than actual relevance to the overarching plot.
Wonder Egg even introduces inter-relational conflicts that never get fully explored. One example of this is with Neiru, one of Ai’s friends. Neiru has a tense relationship with her sister, and when she tells Ai about this, we learn about the sequence of events that led to their complex sisterhood. But the details were incomplete. The anime set it up as a mystery to unfold as the story went along. What really happened? Why did her sister act the way that she did? Even after watching all twelve episodes of the anime, I still don’t know. The show just brings up the issue but never resolves it.
When I expressed these concerns, fans argued that there would be more episodes or at least more content to close things up properly. Though a special broadcast in June has been announced, I highly doubt that the franchise will be able to tackle all of the issues found in the anime and tie all the loose strings together in a twenty-minute episode. The storyline is already a mess and there would be too many relationships to cover. This is a clear production, time management, and story building mistake on the studio’s part. And the need for a special broadcast only emphasizes their shortcomings.
Amidst all of these flaws, I admit that there are still some things Wonder Egg does well. For example, the directing really stands out in some of the quieter scenes of the anime. From the moment we’re introduced to Ai and the world of Wonder Egg Priority, there’s this calming aura of quiet eeriness that pulls you in. The atmosphere is immersive and will keep you hooked to find out what happens next in the series.
Wonder Egg also has stunning visuals. The animation looks like it came straight out of KyoAni with consistent and fluid drawings. The color palette is unique with bold colors that grab your attention, and the artists use this with a good understanding of contrast and tone. Flexible and eye-catching, Wonder Egg’s art is one of the few parts of the anime that remained consistent throughout its twelve-episode-run. Paired with the messy plotline, some may call Wonder Egg an anime that chooses style over substance. And they aren’t wrong.
Looking at it as a whole, Wonder Egg was an imperfect but cool idea that ended up being too ambitious for its own good. It introduced too many plot points without properly bringing them together which affected the messaging and made the show feel less cohesive. While watching this anime, I often found myself wondering whether the creators even knew what they were doing. It seemed like they couldn’t decide the direction that they wanted to go, so they just let the story jump around until they found something that evoked some sort of emotion from the audience. It’s messy writing that falls short in multiple aspects of story building and fails to connect to the initial topic of self-acceptance. Putting aside the solid beginning and fun visuals, I can’t find much to recommend about this show. And though I’m frustrated that we’ll never see how this anime could’ve gone with proper execution, I’ll probably just remember it as another one of CloverWorks’ cringeworthy letdowns this season.
4/10
SingleH
Wonder Egg Priority is baby’s first anti-suicide propaganda. It’s just the next, trendiest puberty anime on the block, and the egg symbolizes bad writing. It’s a teen drama filled to the brim with metaphorical imagery and action which screams their exact meaning so loudly and with so little nuance, they’re nearly literal, and as a result of this, anyone with even the slightest modicum of emotional maturity or life experience will find themselves knowing everything this show is going to say as soon as its subject matter is made so clumsily clear. Minor spoilers ahead. I once said about Nijigahara Holograph, a great thing about crushingyour story under the weight of its own symbolism is that it becomes so interpretive, critics can’t even parse through enough to say it made no sense. However, unless you, the author, actually dare to explain yourself and your imagery, you yourself can’t say it did in fact make any sense either. This is why abstract art isn’t typically respected by critics, and that’s a problem for Wonder Egg Priority, because ultimately, it’s just an artsy student film. It’s abstract art which portrays teenagers fighting personifications of suicidal tendencies in an effort to overcome them in this weird egg limbo to empower the audience who presumably finds their problems relatable, but the degree to which the show actually grasps what it seeks to comment on wavers greatly throughout the show to the point it almost makes these very legitimate adolescent anxiety issues seem laughable as a consequence of how over-the-top the imagery is. Ugly little CG goblin bullies called “Seeno Evils,” other ugly CG abominations called “Haters,” a heterochromic main heroine named “Ohto Ai” who’s name is enunciated “Odd Eye.” I mean, come on people! Explaining this kind of shit to an eleven year old would be patronizing, yet when these kinds of symbols appear in the same show as a very realistic portrayal of someone cutting themselves and a very poignant analysis of why people generally do so, it really begs the question how serious the authors were about tackling either issue. One episode it’s dangerously suggesting all chūnibyōs are medically schizophrenic, another episode it’s outrageously claiming boys never commit suicide for emotional reasons, and another episode it places a transgender boy, a biological girl, in the egg limbo after having established no boys are allowed in the egg limbo…so I guess it’s based and redpilled? My point is it’s extremely hit or miss, but when a show is hit or miss while touching on delicate topics, especially a show like this which is always soapboxing and using its cast as a moral mouthpiece, it just comes across as ignorant and disingenuous.
For a show about dissecting people’s problems and helping them fight their mental hangups, the characters are, ironically, by far the weakest link. In the first episode, Ai completely rejects to the point of physically running away from the cordial and friendly advances of the most calm, collected, and kind girl on the planet, but then immediately afterwards in episode two, she’s suddenly trying her hardest to shamelessly insert herself into the life of the most stuck-up and thoroughly unapproachable character in the show, Neiru, as if we didn’t just watch an entire episode of her being portrayed as unmanageably shy. Momoe is a masculine looking girl who's self-conscious about her appearance and wants to look more feminine. Her problem is even though she's straight, she only attracts girls she has to constantly turn down who thinks she looks handsome and dashing. Men don't approach her because she looks too boyish, and she doesn't approach men because she lacks the self-esteem. One day, a man approaches her and asks her to go on a date, but when she shows up for the date, this time wearing a dress that accentuates her femininity, the man reveals he was gay and mistook her for a guy, and dumps her. The problem is this established Momoe—a character with short, straight hair who for some reason wears a collared shirt under a slim-fit sweater and khaki slacks—can, indeed, look like a girl if she puts even the slightest bit of effort into doing so, therefore invalidating her entire internal crisis. Ai’s school counselor who the show insistently implies is a creep who grooms his students, and who Ai saw after school being intimate with her friend who committed suicide soon thereafter, is suddenly turned into a contrived love interest/father figure when he hooks up with Ai's mom. Even character development that sticks the landing like that of Rika, the final of the four main characters, feels fruitless because it doesn’t change the group dynamic at all, and unfortunately, the plot turns out to be way more important than you thought, and the plot is nothing short of boring.
The writers seem to be under this weird impression that by introducing supernatural elements into their story, you’re not allowed to criticize its internal consistency in any way. The whole egg limbo with all the crazy egg fights and bizarre monster designs never have any thematic weight, and despite the fact what little emotional weight is there usually misses the mark entirely, the big autistic shounen battle speeches they give usually leaves you feeling as if their emotions are all that really matters in this world and not to really mind the details of the allegory since it’s probably shallow anyway. However, given everything I discussed in the last paragraph, trying to dissect the characters typically falls apart, so all that’s eventually left to chew on is those visuals, which the show seems to want to sell you on without actually offering you any understanding of, kind of like how a magician will let you watch their trick a thousand times but never let you touch any of their mechanisms. Now, don’t get me wrong. I'm all for interpretive media, but said media has to actually suggest interesting interpretations. The egg monster representing a rapist has a big dick nose on his face with an unruly mustache around its base, the egg monster representing a coach who body shames their students has giant rolls of fat and absurdly large and saggy tits...okay, cool, so is that it? The issues the show wants to portray are always deeper than the symbolism—let alone its thin characterization—gives them credit for, and when the plot finally rears its ugly head, it tries to lazily wrap everything up by explaining away all the supernatural nonsense with a ridiculous pseudo science fiction plot which takes the time to imply all women who take their own lives only do so impulsively, and if it wasn’t for that fleeting moment of weakness, our villain who we just introduced five seconds ago who can poison people’s minds never would’ve been able to lead them to suicide. Meanwhile, I still can’t decide which is more offensive. That shit, or the aforementioned suggestion that boys don’t kill themselves for emotional reasons.
Unfortunately for the ideologues in charge of writing Wonder Egg Priority, their little snowflake here isn’t special, and the same rules of storytelling which apply to everything else also apply to it. The show always comes down to pacing, but since everything gets shoved towards the tail-end of the story, elements of the narrative which probably wouldn't have been as egregiously melodramatic with proper set-up end up piling up at the end and making the whole thing a total slog, because the empty-headed artsy student film it was at the beginning ultimately didn’t have any legs, and the misguided Flip Flappers/Magical Girl Madoka★Magica/last two episodes of Evangelion/Kara no Kyoukai: Fuukan Fukei rip-off it was at the end did little but make an internal mess of its already externally messy symbols and expose this show for exactly what it is: a largely incongruous anime inspired by those far more genuine and artful than itself. I have an inherent respect for a commentary on how modern Japanese society handles mental illness and suicide, but as entertainment, it’s mediocre far longer than it is interesting. One may argue the show concerned itself more with visualizing its themes than it actually did with being mysterious about what they were, but that would imply any of these images were deeply meaningful, and more to the point, part of a plot which explored them appropriately at all. I’m only now realizing I haven’t said a single positive thing about this show yet, so I guess, if only in keeping with how back-heavy the show itself is, I’ll flip the script and admit this isn’t actually a horribly bad show as much as it is a confused one. Despite a hellish production crunch which resulted in a recap episode and some inconsistent quality throughout the latter half of the show, Wonder Egg Priority is gorgeous, and this obvious passion behind the animation proves the show isn't as much of a grifter as I made it out to be. It’s just an amateur therapist who needs to work though their own problems before trying to help others overcome theirs.
Thank you for reading.
ACasualViewer
It has been a long time since an original anime truly pushed the bounds of the medium and really diverged from standard cookie cutter series. Wonder Egg Priority is not only original in that it has no source material, its original in that its concept has rarely been done before in any other anime series. If you have long been awaiting an anime with a dark magical girl atmosphere similar to that of Madoka or Flip Flappers, along with Mawaru Penguindrum style character designs and color pallets, with all the symbolism included of course, then this is a must check anime from the 2021 winterseason. This review will delve into why Wonder Egg Priority stands out among anime originals and why it is a contender for anime of the season even among one of the most stacked anime seasons in years.
Story: 7
Initially the premise seems like the backstory for a high school set drama, however this quickly shifts during the first episode. At the start the protagonist, Ai Ooto, goes full hikkikomori due to personal issues, some of the issues include a close friend committing suicide and Ooto generally being ostracized while at school. She lives her days full of regret and dreaming about her friend, Ooto knows she should have stood up her for her friend who was being bullied, especially since it was because her friend protected her that she became a target. All of this is just the prologue to the actual story which begins when Ooto picks up an egg which asks her if she wants to change her future.
The story really launches at this point, the audience is introduced to a dreamworld full of the regrets and the personification of inner problems that suicidal girls face, Ooto is given the task to save the girls who are in the eggs. She obtains eggs from a gacha machine and cracks them open, afterwards she needs to find a way to solve their regrets or help them overcome their inner problems. More is revealed about this later on, the plot twists involving the gacha eggs and the system are really well done and the messages the show deliver are executed in a completely satisfactory way. Every important scene is full of symbolism, this is definitely the type of show to watch with your full attention, it is also highly recommended that you pause and reflect between each episode. There are also a lot of heavier themes in place mixed with the lighthearted atmosphere, the themes are handled well and do not conflict with the more easy-going atmosphere outside of the dreamworld events. The director very effectively balanced the show so that it was never oppressively dark or painfully edgy but still carried the serious tone that should be expected given the themes and subject matter. Overall, the story is, until its ending, fairly well executed and one of the most original ones in recent anime, it tells a wonderfully crafted story of self redemption and overcoming inner turmoil, it gets a 7 out of 10 for its creativity and originality but it loses points for failed execution near the end.
Art: 10
The artwork is movie quality, it does not feel like a TV anime at all, every single scene looks like something out of an anime movie. From the background art which looks lifelike at times due do some absolutely amazing tracing work, to the food which looks like it belongs in a Ghibli film with its detail and rich colors, everything in the show has a lot of love and care put into it to an extent that is shocking for a TV anime. Most of the transition scene backgrounds, such as Ooto walking in the rain or the flowers in the fields can very well work as wallpaper for a 4k computer background, it cannot be understated exactly how detailed all the art is for this series. The symbolism is reminiscent of Mawaru Penguindrum and Madoka, while the action is about as fluid as Mob Psycho despite the massively more detailed character design. With a combination of rather unique looking enemies, excellent fight Choreography and cuts during major attacks, Wonder Egg Priority might have some of the best action scenes among recent anime even though action is not even the main focus given the nature of the story.
Character designs for all the girls were quite well done as well, the studio used a very saturated vivid color pallet for each character which can conflict with lighter backgrounds, however the characters actually contrasted in quite a beautiful way with the scenery present. The girls had unique traits such as a variety of skin tones, eyes colors, hair highlights and subtle differences in body type that set them apart from each other in a bold way, the studio did not use cheap tricks like recycling the character model with different hair colors or overdoing the body type differences between the girls to differentiate them. Every girl also has a unique outfit, texting style and accessories that convey their personality, an interesting weapon in the dream world which reflects their trauma, and they all have some of the most detailed reaction facial animations for when the girls are tense, excited, smug, frustrated, upset. Its worth adding that very few shortcuts were used like blank faces during distant convos, characters speaking without being seen, and there was next to no CGI at used at all for character movements despite the intense detail in their character design. Now the combat animation wasn’t perfect in that characters did have a lot of transition cuts during fights, however it was done in a tasteful way that actually added a lot of impact to the hard hits, blood splatter, knock back effects present. Wonder Egg Priority also managed to achieve something only a handful of anime have ever achieved, true horror during a fight scene, anime by design is pretty terrible at conveying a sense of horror due to how difficult it is to make a scene looks revolting, but that crocodile and butterfly scene really does it.
Overall, the presentation of Wonder Egg Priority is spectacular, the show essentially has no notable flaws and exceeds expectations in every way, there is nothing present or lacking that lowers its score and due to this it receives a very rare perfect score for its art production values.
The sound: 8
Interesting OP, an ED that closed each episode perfectly, sometimes in a hilarious tonal shift, but I maintain that it was perfect, the show also highly effective sound effects for fights. The OP itself including both the sound and the visuals really fill the audience with a strong sense of familiarity, it genuinely feels like the richness of daily life and all those small moments we take for granted being highlighted in the form of a warm and slow song. The background music soundtrack by itself was not that impressive, unlike other shows this series is compared to, for example Madoka Magica. However, on its own, it still complements the show well enough, and its memorable, therefore an 8 feels like a fair appraisal of the music.
Characters: 8
The cast is all female, and they are all focused on saving someone they knew that committed suicide, this binds them together and gives them a common background. Outside of the common tie, these girls come from entirely different socio economic and familial backgrounds and they all have entirely different, but complementary personalities. Every girl is well fleshed out and this anime feels like an inverse Bechdel test in ways, there are next to no men present, if they are present, they are either a source of trouble or irrelevant to the cast. In short, the cast is very similar to most magical girl shows; however it goes a step above and beyond in both their characterization and their distinct designs, all of the girls have an important story to tell and they are all in this important journey together.
As noted, before, men in the show are usually portrayed as bystanders or active antagonists, there is not much character development for them except one man who was very relevant for the protagonist. This is a notable weakness for the show, the antagonists are not really solidly fleshed out, the final antagonist was thrown in without any significant foreshadowing. It can be argued that the system itself and the girls inner problems can substitute as an antagonist, but its always nice to have a well characterized antagonist with their own motivations and goals that are clearly explained, while a true antagonist is sort of provided near the end of the series it felt a bit too rushed in to be counted. Despite missing a properly built up antagonist character, the main cast does grow together and complement each other well, they have their disagreements, conflicting opinions on whether or not they really have to undertake the egg gacha, and their moments of coming together after a major event. Overall, the main cast do feel like real characters with a lot of substance and depth, with multiple motivations for their actions and solid foundation behind the friendship they form with each other. The characters are a solid 8, it would have been better if there were solid antagonists and if the secondary cast such as family or the girls being saved had some more interesting moments, but the strength and development of the main cast was still quite well done.
Enjoyment: 9
Between the exceptional visuals, the original plot, interesting cast, and initial great direction, Wonder Egg Priority was easily among the 3 best shows this season. This is despite the fact that some of the most well awaited and popular sequels came out in the same season. Every episode was a fun ride, and it was entertaining to come up with theories on where the show was going to go and ending up being right or wrong. It ranks very high on the enjoyment scale overall, definitely one of the most fun anime in recent history, probably the most fun original anime in years.
Overall: 9
The production values, direction, story, cast all being excellent lead to this show being given a 9 overall. This was one of the best recent anime that made, definitely one of the best original anime in years, it had an excellent approach a lot of hard issues without making the story edgy and outside of the last leg of the story it was executed with perfect direction. If you enjoy visually impressive abstract shows with a psychological thriller plot, Wonder Egg Priority is right for you.
RiriHitosuyanagi
When I first heard about this original anime of the season. I decide to watch it and discover the wonders of the anime. And I really love how gorgeous the visualisation in the anime. But expect some things you'll see behind this awesome animation. The story starts with Ai Ohto carrying a mysterious egg. And then, this is where the supernatural begins. She now found herself in a very eerie school and was convinced to break the egg by a mysterious person. The egg hatches and a person appears from the egg. Now this is where the thrill begins. Yes! A group of small minions withknifes known as "Seeno Evils" emerge and chase down to kill any person that comes out from this egg. And not just that, there's also a huge creepy looking monster known as "Wonder Killer". So yeah, expect some more scary looking monsters that will cringe you out in many episodes. But that's what makes this anime fun to watch.
The anime also has great things like the past of the main characters and many mysterious things happening around our main characters such as the suicide death of Koito Nagase. The anime actually holds 11 episodes instead due to episode 8 being a recap episode. And more things that ruins my enjoyment of the anime such as that weird pedophilia one I saw in one episode. But still, it is good enough for me. If this is the type of thrilling anime you want to see, then this anime will be good for you.
Clement75
So, Wonder Egg Priority. Interesting show to say the least, it's up to interpretation either this show is good or a complete garbage. Well I will explain to you why this is an outstanding show, the best of winter season 2021. Story: Story is pretty simple and you could get it from the premise, but basically it's a bunch of teens fighting against depression and suicidal thoughts in human form. Every episode is a one week adventures, roughly connected with one another. An evil force is mostly metaphorical, rather than being a real thing, but as show goes on we uncover some stuff in reality also. As a standaloneepisodes are really good with giving you an important message.
Art is movielike, fight scenes in this show are the best, very colourful and well drawn.
Each character has unique design which in a way represents their personalities. Everything is fluid, backgrounds are well drawn.
Not much to say about it, other than that being an excellent piece of work from the artists.
Sound design are very good, some scenes are silent than it is necessary, OST as a whole is alright. Opening is unique, cause of how quite it is, that actually works perfectly with the saddest episodes, ending is sung by main cast voice actors, song is upbeat and catchy, idk if it fits, but I was ok with it.
Characters.
Well, characters is something why I enjoy this type of shows, and this one doesn't let me down. Each character has a distinct personality and goal, all of the have their own stuff to deal with.
Trauma is real in this show and it making me feel what the characters feel at the moment of time.
Characters progress, and have more development as the show goes on. Slice of life moments are so good, and these heartwarming moments just making me feel even more sad than something traumatic happens to them.
Enjoyment:
You definitely will enjoy this anime if you enjoying weird psychological dramas like Eva, or Madoka Magica. If you are not fan of these shows than you might enjoy it, idk, but I liked that either way.
Overall:
So that just ended on an... ... interesting point, there has to be another season overwise idk what to make of this. I will give it a ten for now and wait for the some announcement from the studio if there is gonna be an additional episodes or not.
*Update so additional special, was comedically bad, but I won't change this review, cause some people seem to like it.
Thanks for reading my first review!
Enjoy the show.
starlightrevue
Wonder Egg Priority is a self-defacing, indecisive, insensitive, and genuinely insulting car wreck of a story seemingly only able to commit to the author’s insistence that young women definitely always kill themselves because they want to fuck older men. While often stated to be an example of a “strong start, weak ending,” this always feels highly disingenuous. While the opening act is carried by the mesmerizing forward momentum of the flash-and-fire a talented director and hardworking animation team brought to it, their devotion could only carry a horrific script so far. Beneath the facade of a sophisticated art anime lies a blatant continuation of Nojima’strauma-porn fueled daytime tv drama roots. The portrayal of young women’s suffering is at best blunt, on average voyeuristic, and at its worst actively abhorrent. The finale’s reveal of the story of Koito’s death is a thematic poison pill that retroactively rots away every inch of the story as Nojima’s true lack of empathy for the subject matter of his traumatically indulgent shitshow is revealed in full. Even ignoring thematic elements, the final act utterly fails to weave together anything resembling a compelling narrative, throwing new plot points at the wall like a drunken game of darts before it jumps out the window and baits a second season so it doesn't have to pay its tab.
I originally planned to make this a much longer review, but it rapidly became clear to me that Wonder Egg didn’t deserve this level of thought - not when the sum total of it’s cultural legacy has already been reduced to “top ten darkest moments in anime” listicle fodder, and not when Nojima clearly didn’t put anything resembling that level of thought into his own work.
2life
Beautifully animated, a profound story and bubbling friendship. Wonder Egg Priority is one of the bangers of the winter season 2021 and one of my favorites. It’s a story about losing something close, fragile and extremely precious. Its about gaining something precious. It tells a tale while beautifully expressing itself visually and with figurative speech. --- Minor spoilers --- WEP is one of the anime which keeps me thinking about it after I’ve watched an episode. Form the get go it struck me that there was a lot of underlying messages and symbolism weaved through the beautiful animation. It’s main theme which is about suicide is thedriving motive behind this trippy tale. Especially about suicide from young girls. It is a not so happy topic brought forth as something to discover a reason behind it. Was it due to depression, pestering, disease, or simply because death looks better than life (for a moment)?
You follow the main protagonist Ooto Ai on her endeavors to bring back her friend from the dead. With the help of so called “Eggs”. Crack an egg and save a girl who also committed suicide. With the power of some plot armor and a lot of determination Ohto Ai battles the insecurities or temptations which let to ones early death. And something in it looked beautiful to me. Literally fighting of your inner demons, getting a second change at redemption or peace. The funny thing is that the battle is a two stage set-up. Fight of the standard mobs (representing the many doubts/harmful thoughts) and fighting of the final boss (the trauma which caused it). Some of the battles scenes looked really crisp and satisfying.
Next to being the hero of the day (night), Ooto gains new friends. It feels soothing to see her open up like a flower. The darker side of her story where she’s a shut-in is actually muffled away by the sheer cuteness and liveliness of Ooto. And between the meet-ups and giggles different sides of her friends are exposed. Something to think about and touch you as a viewer. Even when on the surface everything looks like its going so well, everyone had or is still fighting very hard to keep their heads above the water. I like it that the friends are there for each other, backing each other up. As they slowly grow closer to each other they become a group which shares their pain and happiness. I love the way how they do things that would seem like they only do to trusted people, to show of close and fond they’ve grown to each other.
Each character feels like a typical character yet at the same time they boast some sort of originality. The best part is that their design looks absolutely adorable. Each of them have their distinct color palette which reminds me of the Konosuba cast
We got the serious and levelheaded figure Neiru. She acts calm and calculated, heck even her weapon is a compass. Being the most intelligent character we see her struggle and clash with the pathos. The emotional side of things. She has a harder time to loosen up or to sympathize with others. Or is this a façade? Set up to hide her true feelings. We only know that she’s as tough as a diamond and she shines the brightest with her friends around her.
There is queen charming. Yes, queen. This beautiful girl is almost as handsome as a knight on his white steed. Momoe is calm but also girly. She shy’s away from typical girls fashion but struggles to be seen as a girl. She’s mostly self-conflicted about her appearance. Her battle is laid out as acceptance. Can she accept who she is? Or does she need people to accept her. I think she would be an ideal tomboy figure.
Rika Kawai, an outgoing girl with a sparkly personality. Being an idol is though, and dealing with fans even more. Are you responsible for them because they follow you? What do you do when guilt trips you over. A princes from the outside and a wreck on the inside. She’s one of those happy get-go characters who are wearing “masks” to hide their pain. They can’t be true to themselves, so they cant be truthful to others. It’s almost scary how she mirrors depressed people.
And lastly we got our sun shine Oota Ai with an odd eye. A rather normal girl, I think. There is not something I can pinpoint on her except that she’s the mc. She’s the most compassionate of the four and she is also very cute. Her hoodie is simply to adorable. What surprised me was that Ooto had more than just one simple side to her. She can be shy, she can be daring, she can be girly, she can make funny faces. But best of all, she can smile so bright. Her battle and struggle with going to school is done very smoothly so that the topic of going to school didn’t stood out as a sore thumb as seen from a story perspective. Its only a shame we need a second season to see this happen. Then again I really want that second season with Ooto and her flashy battle moves. Don’t anger her!
The music and sound effects overall are very good. Its feels natural and fitting of each scene. Music that is either completely blended in the world or really pops out is good. The intro song is also so soothing and does NOT DO justice to the insane cruelty in wonder egg priority. The song is so calming and pleasant it almost makes me forget every week that I watch an anime about battling insecurities and pain. WEP choose blend their music and sound effects in the world. From the crisp sound of transforming weapons to smacking trauma’s to oblivion, it all sounds great. On top of that the voice acting was superb. Every character had their distinct role and effortlessly conveyed emotion.
While WEP has many good points, there were some things I liked a little less. The lack of explanation and the typical “MC saves the day” mechanic. It can make anime boring and not rewarding to watch. The typical “MC gets power up whenever it goes wrong” and some elements which are randomly added at some point were either confusing or unexplained. Until the final episodes hit. Where the story suddenly takes a deep dive into the driving power of WEP and the binding red thread of the story. Why the eggs are there in the first place and what the set up was for saving your friend. But most of all, not the temptation of dying, but the brutality behind it. It set itself up very strongly for a second season but only if it can get rid of plot armor.
Wonder Egg Priority rewards people with patience as the story slowly grows and evolves and let it explain itself. There are some elements to figure out yourself but overall it’s a very satisfying anime to watch. In a way Wonder Egg Priority strives to be artistic and with this, it is not an anime which everyone will like. You may dislike explained symbolism or the theme about suicide and self-harm but all in all, it’s just preference. If you like CGDCT then it’s your call.
Rachiba
"Accept your mistakes, overcome the past and live the present" Wonder Egg Priority is about a girl with heterochromia named Ai Ooto who buys an egg to be cracked in the dream world. When the egg (or "Wonder Egg") breaks, a girl appears whom she must protect from creatures called "Seeno Evils" and from a monster called "Wonder Killer" that represents the trauma of the wonder egg character. However, Ai will not be the only girl with this task. She will also accompany other girls throughout the world of dreams. Among them is Neiru Aonuma, a taciturn girl; Rika Kawaii, a somewhat bully girl and quite sincerewith what she thinks; and Momoe Sawaki, a girl with the appearance of a boy very popular among the girls of the school.
Now, let me extend my review to understand the concept of Wonder Egg Priority a bit:
As I said above, the girls buy a wonder egg (hence the name of the anime) and it breaks into the dream world. Upon hatching, a girl appears who must be protected from the Seeno Evils and the trauma depicted in the Wonder Killer. Apparently every girl on the Wonder Egg is a real person who passed away in real life.
To all this I add that there are also some statues, which appear in each girl's dream, which represent a loved one or friend who once passed away. For these two reasons, Ai, the main protagonist, decides to try harder in this task because she believes that by this means she can bring back to life her only friend, who committed suicide long before the beginning of the anime.
But the premise does not end here.
Although the girl with the wonder egg (that is, the person who hatches the Wonder Egg) seems to be far from the problems of the protagonists, in reality this is related to some hidden characteristic in the personality and past of the protagonist. This can be understood when our characters (Ai, Neiru, Rika or Momoe) strike up a conversation with the wonder egg girl or face the Wonder Killer. Which means that what our protagonists face is their past (Family Relations, Friendships, Harassment, Violence, Sexuality, etc.)
This also makes sense when we note that the statues - that is, the deceased loved ones of the protagonists - have a point in common with the girls from the Wonder Egg: Suicide…
We see throughout the series that the plot alternates between the world of dreams and real life. Within the world of dreams, each girl's dream is different from the other in terms of two things: Stage and the Wonder Egg. The scene is related to the death of the girl's acquaintance (For example, Ai's is in a high school) so the statue is also positioned somewhere. Although it is called a statue for some reason, it has human characteristics such as why the protagonists manage to feel their temperature, for example. The Wonder Eggs meanwhile have already been explained in the previous paragraphs.
Additionally there is a garden that is the center where the protagonists meet and buy the Wonder Eggs. There will be two living mannequins called Acca - who looks like an office worker - and Ura-Acca - who looks like a young university adult - who advise and guide the girls throughout the journey in the world of dreams.
The real world, on the other hand, is practically as we know it. Although we do not see it as often as the world of dreams, we can highlight Ai's house, where current events around the protagonist are constantly shown. Obviously it also works to showcase events from the girls' past.
The first part of the anime has an easy-to-understand running script, all of this handled excellently. I can assure you that although you may predict some elements behind the anime, there will be things that will leave you with more questions and wanting to know more about Wonder Egg.
However, the second part of the anime becomes a bit confusing when adding several elements in one fell swoop and the simplicity that was characteristic at first began to be forgotten in this second part trying to place more concepts without satisfying the viewer preferring to explain everything to the final which is not very pleasant to say.
Production problems also had an influence, such as the sacrifice of one of the episodes to become a recap, which probably caused more pressure on the script. However, this does not make the anime necessarily bad and with many things from the plot to be considered. In fact there are things about this anime that deserve merit:
We have a very dynamic cast, with characters that have different backgrounds from each other. Each one has a story and personality that manages to attract the viewer and feel an interest in why they decided to be part of the Wonder Egg. The friendship they form throughout the anime is a crucial point in Wonder Egg; The four girls spend a moment in real life meeting, talking and having fun times. For a psychological series, the relationship between our girls does not hinder the main focus of the plot. But this friendship is also conditioned because the girls help each other to overcome their problems and traumas, something that we will see when they speak or when they face the creatures within the world of dreams.
Summarizing the previous paragraphs, Wonder Egg seeks to explore other deeper issues within each protagonist, we can see this with some episodes dedicated exclusively to the biography of each one of them. Let's take for example a person like Rika who has a totally different story and personality than what is presented at the beginning. This is good because we better understand the characters and the reasons behind why they decided to do the job within the dream world. The bad thing is that the worldbuilding is so slow that understanding the system and rules that make the whole Wonder Egg theme work generates some confusion for the conventional viewer who usually would not need to think much to understand it.
Finishing my review of the story and characters, let's move on to the technical section:
The first thing that we must highlight obviously is its high quality of animation and soundtrack. There is a very vivid color palette in each fragment of the anime. CloverWorks did an excellent job, perhaps one of the best I've ever done, in animation and design. The characters are aesthetically pleasing and the background environment is, let's say, much more "happy and colorful" if we compare other similar works such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica. It is true that said anime made by Shaft has a much cuter design than CloverWorks, but Wonder Egg Priority mostly maintains the same aesthetic and does not progressively become something darker as Madoka Magica was.
Perhaps many hope that this anime is much darker like Serial Experiments Lain, Neon Geneis Evangelion or Puella Magi Madoka Magica herself, especially since Wonder Egg Priority takes suicide as its main focus, a consequence of different social problems that the series shows. However, the colorful design stands in stark contrast to the subject matter in depth, giving the viewer a lively and eye-catching look with a deep and complex plot.
However, the animation is not limited to presenting us with a pleasant and fresh atmosphere throughout the anime, we can also see an alternation with a more explosive style when the girls fight with the traumas. The fight scenes and the weapons used by the girls are a striking thing in those scenes. The viewer is going to be impressed even with the design of the traumas - The representations of the girls from the Wonder Egg - which get a spooky, but at the same time childish appearance. Even when animation falls into its worst production problems, such a problem does not necessarily spoil the enjoyment of each episode.
We have an Opening that perhaps fits like the ring to the finger to the anime and, perhaps, one of the best events so far this decade: A very relaxing ballad with the group Anemoneria - a group formed by the four main seiyuu for this anime - singing in unison, while our protagonist Ai Ohto walks around the city, fusing animation with some real images. At some point in the video, Neiru, Rika and Momoe appear respectively, although they have a more secondary role. The important aspect here is the emotional part of the song alluding to a farewell to something or someone from the past and opening up to tomorrow. The sentiment in this song is so strong that many could surely cry even though Wonder Egg Priority is not explicitly a melodrama.
On the other hand we have a more conventional ending and with a danceable pop style interpreted by Anemoneria herself while showing some images in photo album format the funny moments that the main protagonists spend giving a happier and more fun aesthetic, compared to the appearance calm and emotional of the Opening.
With all the technical stuff that was generally excellent, Wonder Egg Priority should be one of the best-crafted animes, and perhaps the best work CloverWorks has yet. Unfortunately, the production problems, a product of having made 3 anime in the same season and, probably, due to the pandemic, led the plot to begin to loosen and age not in a good way, placing the last episodes with a series of holes of plot and unanswered questions.
As a fan of an anime like Serial Experiments Lain I can say that the latest episodes were what I least expected from an anime like Wonder Egg Priority and unfortunately it also left me with questions.
But despite everything, I like this anime and it is not precisely because of its animation quality. I liked various things about the anime in general, like the first part of the anime which for me was handled quite well and a nice cast. No matter what type of viewer you are, you are likely to identify with one of the girls, especially since their personality and history are independent. I would go back to see the anime without problems to relive the good and bad moments that our protagonists lived. But I'd like Wonder Egg Priority to add a little more explanation to the plot, be it with more episodes, OVAS, or movies.
Wonder Egg Priority has a lot of potential and could easily be one of the best anime of this decade. Unfortunately 12 episodes were not enough to explain a world much bigger than previously thought.
Kosmonaut
An exemplary lesson of why brainstorming sessions shouldn't be translated 1:1 to a too metaphorical text. What if Madoka Magica met Steins;Gate met Lain met Flip Flappers met Eve no Jikan met Ikuhara met Freudian psychology met Jungian psychology met ghost stories met Japanese insect symbolism met social issues met... met. The above summary sounds promising, right? Unfortunately, it's indeed possible to have too many an idea and too short a time. Even yet, it's indeed possible to have too many an idea, too short a time, and too late a presentation. Still, it's indeed possible to have too many an idea, too short a time,too late a presentation, and too ambitious a writing. Ultimately, it's indeed possible to have Wonder Egg Priority be the product of overachieving painfully obvious metaphors.
This show is what happens when the writers want to have a mostly symbolic plot but don't want to commit to it, because they still want condescendingly to appeal to those that don't like such works. "What if the audience is too oblivious to what I'm trying to say? Let me spell it out for them right after showing them the symbol, then."
What it ends up being after cutting the baby in two is neither a satisfactory abstract work nor a fully-fledged concrete one. No matter how much one throws threads that somehow give the impression of sounding more complex than they are onto the paper, any prolonged look at the metaphors proves itself not only a highly unrewarding endeavor but a meaningless exercise that leads to a disappointing conclusion: the show itself doesn't know what to do with or how to conclude any of the fancy symbols and seemingly thought-provoking questions it provided us with, therefore it's relying on the audience to piece together what it meant, because, after all, that's what makes a show great, right? Right?
Sadly, most of WEP's shortcomings are in the writing department, coincidentally the most important one in any storytelling medium. The art, great. The animation, decent. The directing, serviceable. The character design, memorable. The sound direction, fine. All of these, instead of becoming the redeemable qualities of the show, end up making the directionless, pedantic and non-committing writing even more jarring. Plus, at what cost do these well-done parts come? I don't usually say "production hell", but, after so many delays in delivering the episodes and news of staff burning the midnight oil, it does seem more and more fitting.
Some episodes by themselves, as isolated short stories, were great, coupling all the by now clear good aspects of the production with effective writing. My personal favorite would be the 7th episode, the one immediately before the unplanned recap. The ones after it, however, didn't measure up to the ones that came before. It wasn't great, but it was fine until then. The issues are mostly concentrated towards the end, starting probably when the writers saw themselves pressed for a conclusion when they weren't even sure what they wanted to do with what they had. So far, most stories were one-off, enclosed to their respective episodes, with some overarching questions set up by the show itself lingering over most of its run, being lampshaded or referenced occasionally throughout, either in text or subtext.
However, the direction it took post-recap added more questions, superfluous questions that had nothing to do with the ones that came before, but seemingly superfluous questions the writers' brainstorming came up with that weren't cut, trimmed down, or set aside for another work. This not only blindsights the viewers, but also leads to tonal dissonance between the two halves: the one that sets up a psychological exploration for dealing with trauma and growing up, and the other that wants to be a dark sci-fi thriller. I've read some people call the "plot twists" good; others, bad. I'd be more inclined to agree with the latter, although this isn't a hill I'd be willing to die on. After all, plot twists aren't just about merely doing a 180 for the hell of it. They're about subverting the audience's expectations in a way that services both the themes and the plot. Pulling a - couple of - deus ex machina doesn't expand the premise most of the time. Rather, it showcases the writers' cluelessness on how to tie up or explain what they set up until that point, especially when it's, quite literally, a deus that's also a machina. The shortest lived, most pointless to the ending deus ex machina, it's worth noting. Simple changes would've made the meaningless machina less grating, for example, incorporating its signature move at some points of the earlier episodes, but alas, we don't do setup and payoff properly here... All for the sake of not giving the viewer any chance of predicting what's coming next, because that's what makes a show great, right? Right?
It's a shame to me what became of this show, this ill-defined, objectless metaphorical, overambitious blob of a show. Though it might not sound so by my opening statements, I liked this immensely until about the halfway point of its run. The themes and premise, despite not being novel, were interesting and captivating, engaging the viewer with its universe and characters. Rough around the edges when dealing with some social issues, too condescending with its metaphors or with overly idealistic character writing? Sure, but charming nonetheless. Post-recap, however, not only did it lose what set it apart from other works in the same category, it tried too hard to check the highest number of boxes it could, boxes that contradict each other, lead nowhere and detract from the initial boxes it so passionately catered to and so earnestly built.
This is one of the most unrewarding experiences with the best starting promises I've ever seen in this medium, not because it completely botches the unintelligible landing - plenty of less genuine shows did that - but because it dared fly too high while making us believe it would know better than getting too close to the sun.
dlxuniuniu
How would you describe "Wonder Egg Priority" in one word? "UNIQUE" would be my first thought. What is it all about? Let’s be honest, it's really hard to put it into words. Bully, hate, love, friendship etc. all these important aspects of our life play a major role. “Wonder Egg Priority” isn't just an anime, it's a life lesson. Bullying is one of the worst things that can happen to someone. It takes away all your “joie de vivre”, often leading to suicide in the end. The pain is extremely deep when this person was very important to you. How far would you go to saveand "relive" such a human being?
"Break open an egg to change yourself and your future."
Our wonder story begins with Ai Ohto, a kinda special girl compared to her other classmates. Because of her heterochromia (color differences of the iris) she gets bullied a lot in school. Therefore, she hides at home and doesn't want to have anything to do with other people. Initially, she did not think having friends was important and put in little effort to make them. However, she eventually made friends with the transfer student Koito Nagase, who was similarly ostracized by their classmates. After Koito took her own life, Ai feels very guilty and for Koito’s sake she was ready to fight in the world of "Wonder Eggs".
As the word "wonder" suggests, these eggs aren’t just ordinary eggs that we buy every day in the supermarket. They include a person who must be protected at all costs from the "wonder killers", those are terrifying creatures who want to kill that person. If you manage this mission successfully, you are one step closer to rescuing your loved one.
Ai was the first girl to take on this brave task and fight all sorts of monsters. This was a lifechanging event for her since she met other girls who also had to go through a lot in life and lost an important reference person before. With Neiru Aonuma, Rika Kawai and Momoe Sawaki a quartet emerged that not only support each other in the egg thing, but also as friends in real life. Even if the whole situation was overwhelming and just crazy at first, they were able to keep going through help from each other.
Neiru is calm and quiet, often not actively engaging with others until they’ve gained her trust or her friendship. She is a hardworking, motivated, and diligent person. Although she is still young, Neiru is already the president of a large company. Her goal is to save her little sister and her background story is extraordinary…
“I'm Rika Kawai. Like "kawaii," 'cause I'm so cute.” Rika was once a junior idol who was part of an underground idol group. She met a fan who did everything to support her there. Her most loyal fan, Chiemi, did steal and other crimes for Rika. But one day Rika did an act that she regrets more than anything else. She called Chiemi "fatty" and never wanted to be seen with her again. Rika felt very guilty about this and understood the cruelty of bullying. She wants to protect her eggs so that she can make up for everything she did.
Let's take a look at the last main character: Momoe. She is a kind and polite girl, who is well-liked by many she meets. Momoe is very insecure about herself because of her masculine appearance. She is often mistaken for a boy, which is why many women fall in love with her. The only girl treated Momoe like a female person was her friend Haruka. She also confessed her love to her, but she was attracted by the feminine side of Momoe. Overwhelming of that, Momoe was so shocked that she dumped her and ran away. A short time later the disaster happened…
Every single character in Wonder Egg Priority plays an important role. Not only the people from the hatching eggs have a unique story, but also our two companions Acca and Ura-Acca. They are the one who introduced the girls to the "Egg World". In that world they are depicted as mannequins, but there was a time where both had a human form...All in all, the characters and the whole setting are definitely the elements where you want to know more about.
The story is already crazy enough and yet "CloverWorks" manages to add even more spice with the animation. Every girl has her own weapon, the form of those are more than just unusual. The fought monsters cannot be surpassed in creativity either. The epic battles with them are also portrayed in a brutal way that is definitely different from other animations.
The special creativity is shown again in the OP and ED. “Wonder Egg Priority” is based on many real locations in Tokyo. The transition from a real photo to the animation is the absolute highlight. A story, a moral and decisions with grave consequences develop from a simple egg. The small music group "Anemoneria" consisting of our four main characters has also found the perfect music and song for this.
The rest of the sounds, be it the environment or scenes where blood flows, everything fits.
What is "Wonder Egg Priority" in the end? To be honest, I can't answer it and I don’t know if there is a clear answer. It's so crazy and messy in a way that you can't get enough of it and 12 episode is certainly not enough to tell the whole story. But I agree that this anime is the seasonal sensation in terms of surprise. I never expected a plot like this. There is much more to it than just a simple anime, it also addresses important topics to us that we all have to take very seriously.
It is difficult to say whether this anime is something for you, as opinions are very divided on it. But I can recommend everyone to take a look, you will immediately notice that this is something special.
Finally, I would like to emphasize again: “Wonder Egg Priority” is UNIQUE.
dentistmanual
Wonder egg is a show that started out as a really good one. It brought as a unique world with unique characters in unique situation..... And then it all goes bad. The show starts going all over the place not solving anything and starts being so inconsistent and bad that it almost made me drop the show. The last episode gives us more questions than it gives answers and to say it was a disappointment is a underestimate. The ending is some of the worst i have ever seen and i cant really write anything about it so i wont spoil it.
bulkyhog
Overall: 4/10 Oh WEP, what have you become. What started out as a highly promising original anime ended as a jumbled mess as it quickly blew itself up in the last 3-4 ish episodes. It had everything going for it at the start: movie-like animation and sound design, mature and deep themes/messages to explore, and an intriguing cast of 4 young heroines tackling their own set of problems. And all of a sudden, like the girls they save from the Wonder Killers, everything vanished. Poof. It was all smoke and mirrors. Story: 3/10 TLDR: lots of potential, just like a top 100 MLB draft prospect, but just likemost MLB prospects, things didn't work out and the story ended up as quite the bust.
Initially, I was very happy about WEP's story. The themes they touched were something I, and many others could relate to. We were introduced to this world of magic-realism in a sense, with lots of questions to answer. What are the eggs? Why does this dream world exist? Who are Acca and Ura-Acca? Why did Koito commit suicide? Is Mr. Sawaki a child predator?
Unfortunately, as the series progressed, more questions than answers were brought up, and of the answers, we did get, even more were unsatisfactory or haphazardly stitched together, just like the mannequins. A lot of new, random, and uncalled for plot threads are brought up and the attention shifts there, which was a rather big turnoff.
Pacing basically fell apart in the latter parts of the series. Ep 8 was an uncalled for recap. I get that the animators needed a break and all, but it also really fucked up any shot they had left at sticking the landing for this series: as evident in the last episode and with the announcement of a special airing in June, there just wasn't enough time to answer everything that needed to be addressed.
While some disliked the easily interpretable symbolism, I actually thought it was not that bad. Sure, great art leaves room for interpretation and for you to determine the artists' motif yourself, but that doesn't mean simple and straightforward works can be equally touching or moving: it's all a matter of execution. In fact, I actually thought WEP did a good job of balancing direct and indirect symbolism. There's the obvious stuff like "Seeno evils", "Haters", etc. but there's also nice intricacies you can notice upon further examination. The use of flower language and framing for a variety of scenes including the girls was one that I found particularly interesting, and the Rubin's vase in the background during Momo's episode where she meets the transgender boy was a highlight for me.
But for me, the biggest turnoff was the change in direction for the series in the final 2-3 episodes: the true "villain" (if you can even call Frill that) is revealed, and the series shifts away from very real problems faced by real people into a world of sci-fi, with AI-created children, consciousness/brain transplants, and parallel universes. You just cannot throw this shit in during the final 3 episodes of an 11 episode season and expect a meaningful conclusion. Even now, I doubt whether the June special will be able to tie these plot threads together and I seriously question if the series will finish with the same goals it appeared to lay out in the first 4 episodes.
Art: 10/10
I don't think anyone is complaining about the art here. Everything, from still shots, exposition scenes, and wonder killer battles are animated beautifully. There's a good balance of color/vibrance and darkness/gloom across all the episodes. For me, at least, I also enjoyed most of the symbolism employed in the background, especially the flower language and framing of a lot of scenes.
Sound: 10/10
De De Mouse really killed it with the soundtrack, and I have nothing but praise for it. The OST for all the different scenes is a huge boost, and gives it that extra magical-realist feel that's hard to find. OP and ED are also very good, although the ED can be a bit unsettling when it comes in all happy-go-lucky after a dark and trauamtic episode (see Momo post-Mannen).
Character: 3/10
Just like the story/plot, the characters had huge potential that was mostly wasted. While they're all categorized as "main characters", I definitely think we can only consider Ai, Rika, and Momo to be true "main characters." Neiru, more or less, is in the background for the entirety of the series. A lot of the interesting things about here are never explored, and the series never bothers bringing it up either: we see everyone more or less resolve their wonder journey in these 11 episodes except for Neiru.
I won't elaborate too much on how the characters went bad, since it's the same problem as everything else in WEP. Great hook, promising potential, but everything was left untapped and half-open when all was said and done. Rika and Momo, were for me, the most interesting characters and to see all the potential problems, messages, themes, etc. that could be discussed through them casually resolved or thrown aside was not very cool. I'd imagine it feels even worse for people who actually physically or mentally relate to either of the two. I will say though, that Momo's arc was at least slightly better than Rika's, but not by much.
Enjoyment: 4/10
Even considering the absolute bomb the last few episodes were, I still found WEP to be decently enjoyable. The first 5-6 episodes were amazing. Everything afterwards, not so much. It certainly helps that the animation and sound design were so fucking spot on, and that the characters were quite good up until the final 4 episodes or so. If I had to rate the final few episodes, I'd prbly give it a 2 or 3, with the first few being an easy 9. I despise recency bias, hence the (somewhat) weighted-average of 4.
At the end of the day, WEP started out as something with huge potential to be a masterpiece, and I was all for it. But now that I've finished the series, I'm asking myself: what was it really all about? How could things go so wrong, so quickly, for something that a lot of people put so much time and effort into. I guess that just goes to show, simply performing hardwork just isn't enough sometimes.
CodeBlazeFate
*spoilers for Wonder Egg Priority* Watching a critical darling turn sour over the course of its run never produces a good feeling. Instead of getting excited for a work that will satisfy you or blow your mind, you begin dreading it, perhaps even looking forward to it out of morbid curiosity instead. It’s a Hindenburg, a Titanic in slow-motion, as the cracks begin to show and the behind the scenes production troubles start coming to light. The show was on fire, and it was never gonna amount to what it promised. This is the story of Wonder Egg Priority and its decline in both quality andreception.
Let's start with the good and promising aspects, first.
One of the things WEP didn't get a lot of praise for, even back during the glory days of the first 7 episodes, is its OST. DÉ DÉ MOUSE combines a lot of trippy, artsy, and sometimes even distorted tracks with electronic music and even grindcore. These tracks are often dynamic, and even the more lighthearted tracks have a sinister, dreadful undercurrent to them. This in turn, fits both the lighthearted and frenzied sequences well, at least for the most part. Towards the end of the show, the placement of the tracks falters significantly at points, but for the first 10 episodes, it's used appropriately. Admittedly, the OST also does feel a bit overplayed by the end as well.
Then there's the OP, "Sudachi no uta'' by Anemoneria. It's a tranquil, fragile melody that blossoms into a beautiful chorus by the seiyuus of the main 4 girls. It's easily one of the best OP themes of Winter 2021, and one of the standouts of the year. The same can't be said for the more forgettably produced ED, though.
What immediately caught everyone's eye was the fact that this is a CloverWorks production that actually looked good. This is easily their best work to date, often boasting bombastic and impactful action sequences. The colors and character designs were also vibrant without feeling oversaturated. Shin Wakabayashi's direction is also fairly strong at points, both with the dynamic fight scenes, and when the story wants to punctuate some of the heavier moments with interesting shots. The best example would be episode 7, where we get to see Rika grappling with her hatred for her mother as well as her own suicidal tendencies. These sequences are visceral yet tastefully done. The art style is also rather solid, and works for some particularly fun facial expressions here and there.
That doesn’t mean the visuals were amazing. Oftentimes, whenever any liquid is animated, it's horribly choppy, sometimes holding on a frame for over a second before any movement occurs. Environmental CG and textures are both about as bad as one would expect from the studio if they’ve ever seen the likes of Bunny Girl Senpai. Following episode 1, a lot of weird motion-blur backgrounds get used to sometimes jarring effect. By the end of the show, sometimes visceral moments are just shown off in the distance instead of being given the full, on-screen treatment. The show doesn’t look bad, but perhaps it doesn’t look quite as amazing as Twitter often painted it as when it started.
Then we come to the characters. The best part about them just so happens to be the interactions between the 4 main girls: Ai, Rika, Momoe, and Neiru. Their chemistry tends to be rather rock-solid, and the show really captures what it’s like for teenage girls nowadays to just hang out, chat shit, text, etc. without coming off as out of touch pandering. The personalities of Ai and Rika can be quite endearing and audacious, respectively. Rika in particular, can be comically morbid, especially when the airs she puts up paint her as an exceedingly bad person compared to who she actually is.
Unfortunately, this is where the tone of this review takes a dramatic turn. To explain why, let’s discuss what Wonder Egg Priority is actually about. The show is about girls who have to break eggs to then protect the girls that hatch out of them. They protect them from not only evil minion creatures, but the physical caricature and embodiment of whoever/whatever is responsible for or most associated with their suicide. The show uses this for visual metaphors often tangentially related to the girls’ traumas. One of the biggest problem with the show is that it sets up a bunch of bleak or hot topics for its character to winge over such as suicide and bullying, only to not follow-up on them very well and in some cases, ultimately just abandon them or treat them without the level of tact or grace required. As for the lack of exploration, there are two exceptions (one of which is bad) and two examples that really embody this.
Let’s start with one of the rules before we get to the exceptions. FIist, there’s Momoe’s experiences as a trans girl, and just how the show handles trans representation and strife in general. Momoe is a trans girl but some one-off antagonists don’t consider her such and she beats them. Sounds fine and dandy, but then some weirdness comes into play. For one, every episode that involves her identity in a major capacity also involves rape and sexual assault of those she’s trying to protect. While the handling of those issues isn’t the worst thing in the world, it is a bit scuffed that those only ever come into play when Momoe is the focus. Additionally, after her introduction, Rika and Neiru, two of the other main girls, get suspicious and misgender her in an accusatory fashion, believing her to be a guy. This results in her eventually breaking down in tears when she leaves, although it never gets brought up again, and they never apologize. It’s as if nothing ever happened. There’s also the fact that these things only ever came up in episodes 4 and 10, meaning that for the rest of the show, it’s not even touched upon outside of the backstory of the person she rejected who killed herself. While it can be seen as a nice thing that the main girls just accept who she is and never seek to deny her the identity she has, it’s indicative of how the show treats its themes and subject matter that her identity and issues barely come up at all outside of the episodes primarily focusing on her and the concurrent rape and sexual assault stories she has to learn about.
As for the exceptions, let’s go to something positive again for a moment. Rika’s story is probably the best of the 4 main girls. The idea that she’s grappling with cutting herself and perhaps committing suicide due to a combination of her neglectful drunkard of a mother, her search for her elusive dad with only clues of 5 possible men to go off of, and the guilt of being a former idol responsible for an obsessive fan’s suicide is interesting. In episode 3, we see the latter get explored via a reveal after Ai and the situation the two find themselves in make it so she can no longer put up airs about her “wallet” she’s trying to save. In episode 7, we explore the latter and how in two specific moments, she contemplates giving up on life. One time, she attempts to cut herself but can’t bring herself to do so. The next, she’s giving into a suicide cultist responsible for the death of the dead person she has to protect this episode (and we’ll get to that idea later). The execution of her friends’ intervention getting her to break out of that and moralize about life does feel a bit rushed and obvious, but there’s nonetheless adequate exploration for the most part.
Next, there’s Ai’s feelings for her teacher, Mr. Sawaki.
ugh
For some god-forsaken reason, this is the plot point that gets by far the most focus. Her teacher is in love with her mother, but she finds herself jealous about it. As it turns out, her dead friend, Koito, may have had a thing with her teacher according to speculation from her, so the teacher thinks she must hate him for that. She doesn’t, but hates the fact that he and her mom are dating because, no matter how many times she tries to deny it in front of her friends or suppress it when he invites her to check out his art of her at a gallery, she loves him. That’s why, in the TV finale, it turns out that in an alternate universe, her unrequited love for him is why she committed suicide...rather than because of the bullying she received for having heterochromia, which never comes up past episode 1. Several episodes in the back half of the show focus on this and it’s the final battle of the TV run where Ai has to protect her alt universe self, come to terms with the fact that if not for Koito’s weird attempts to befriend her before her own suicide following her (at this point in the series) unknown history with him, this would have gotten her killed as well and…
Oh fuck, we still have to talk about parallel universes, which means it’s time to discuss how the overarching plot reveals itself to be a scrambled mess. Actually, there’s still Neiru’s deal with her sister who tried to kill her to take over but failed and offed herself, which outside of brief dialogue describing it and why that’s part of Neiru’s motivation, never comes up for anything major. Instead, in episode 9, we’re introduced to Neiru’s veggie friend, Kotobuki. It turns out that upon one of her death-defying experiments that went wrong, she learned that there are parallel universes. Therefore, even if they’re dead in this universe, there’s still a parallel version of them who isn’t and vice-versa. Also, Neiru is infinitely more emotional around her than she’s ever been throughout any point in the show, before or after. While you can justify it with her being close to this person, it’s a bit of a stretch when aside from that, the most emotive she’s been was when Rika kept being annoying in episode 3 and she was thoroughly unenthused.
By the way, if all that wasn’t enough for everyone, then we get to the last 3 episodes. This is where the show completely falls apart. The show has reached its final quarter. Some of the girls have completed their tasks and now those they were trying to save have been revived. There was never any sense of progression after the first time where we learn doing this makes their statues a little bit warmer, but here we are. Then, out of nowhere, a girl with a fuckin insect face or whatever comes up, wrecks Momoe’s shit, kills a pet thing she and all the other girls each received to help them in the 2nd half, and fucks off while speaking of “Frill”. The same thing happens to Rika at the start of the next episode. We are 11 episodes into a 12 episode show, and the true final boss has been namedropped by two of her cronies. At the 11th hour, we’re given set-up for what could probably be a slightly shorter 2nd season. Then, we go to Acca and Ura-Acca, two shifty dudes who roped the girls into this whole plight. They and Neiru's assistant have been shown to be apparently evil and conspiratorial, except forget that first part of the sentence cuz the show clearly did. The Accas are about to explain the Frill’s backstory to AI.
SO! Frill was an artificial lifeform created by these two back when they were human instead of humanoid sack things implanted with their brains. This happened all under extreme surveillance cuz clearly their government would let THAT happen when they’re creating a humanoid entity to pass the time and escape their stress. They made her smart and compassionate but also filled with flaws such as jealousy. After a while of spending time with her, they also make friends for Frill, and are eventually met by a beautiful scientist lady who starts living with them and eventually fathers a kid with Acca. Frill gets jealous so she kills her as she’s pregnant, by way of throwing a blow-dryer in the tub she was in. Somehow, the charred baby survives but the mom dies. Out of sheer rage, Acca throws her in a box in the basement. Eventually, the baby becomes a teenage girl who proclaims to Ura-Acca that once she’s an adult, she hopes to wed him just as her mother did Acca. He rejects this so the following night, she commits suicide, with the only clue to anything being a little popping sound she made that Frill used to make. Broken by this, he confronts and berates Frill, who has become a sort of supercomputer AI at this point, and Frill still cannot understand what she did wrong or why she’s been locked up for so many years. The two start looking up girls’ suicide rates and concocts this whole plan to defeat Thanatos as well as Frill via warriors of Eros because they can’t just kill Frill or whatever.
Was that a lot to take in? Surely it was. You can also sense how despite being a potentially fascinating and horrifying backstory for Frill, it kinda ultimately made no sense. Keep in mind that this was all dumped in the 11th episode...out of 12. This isn’t a game-changing reveal in the middle of the 2nd cour so we can transition into endgame where the girls must beat Frill and her posse while finishing up all of their character arcs and whatnot. This utter logistical nightmare comes at arguably the worst possible time to do so when there’s no guarantee for a 2nd season. The TV finale hardly does anything with this information anyway. It isn’t even implied that Ai told anyone about it since when Momoe unceremoniously leaves the show by declaring she wishes she never got into this traumatizing mess, neither her nor anyone’s reactions to Ai calling everyone here seem to reference this information or imply that it was told to them. They’re just regrouping to discuss the OP girls that fucked them up, and Ai will have to deal with one at the end of the episode. Neiru doesn’t even encounter one at any point. This begs the question: what was the point of all this?! Why add all this out of left field nightmare bullshit instead of actually beginning to tie up any loose threads?!
Wonder Egg Priority is a mess. Audiovisually, it’s pretty and intriguing. Narratively and thematically, it’s sloppy. It doesn’t have enough focus on its characters’ traumas or arc to have them not feel incredibly start-stop compared to the likes of Ping Pong or SSSS.Dynazenon which has several character arcs running and interacting concurrently. Its handling of suicide, self-loathing, trans acceptance, etc. are almost minimal given how barely explored most of these concepts are. It does have nice character chemistry, and it demonstrates how having an actual support group of friends is a genuine way to help combat suicide. Still, despite its interesting audiovisuals, M-rated Balan Wonderworld over here just reveals itself to be shallow and incredibly slap-dash, barely doing anything with the concepts it wishes to touch upon, and that’s before the last 4 episodes cement that while adding mountains of inane shit onto everything. It’s frustrating to see a show become undone like this while keeping everyone on-edge. No wonder people were desperate when CloverWorks announced a double-length finale special that would air 3 months after the show’s conclusion.
SamayuJung
I watched this anime back almost two years ago when it was airing, yet my love for it has never changed. Wonder Egg Priority (2021) is a memorable anime, in the sense that it is one of the few shows amongst the anime community that deal with sensitive topics to this day. This anime is not meant for those who are easily triggered, and instead, is for those who want to feel like they aren't alone. Let's start with the obvious. Yes, I did in fact rate this a 9/10. This is because whether you like to face it or not, teenagers like this existin the real world. And Wonder Egg Priority (2021), does an amazing job representing the topics of suicide, self harm, sexual assault, and depression.
Japan very rarely talks about mental health, especially in their anime and manga. Which is why I do think that Wonder Egg Priority (2021), follows a concept that more anime and manga need to follow.
Story:
The story was realistic, with it still being unpredictable. The ending on the contrary, was a tad bit confusing to keep up with.
Art:
The art style was impeccable! The use of in real life photos and videos being used in the opening tied the story together and gave the viewer a warm welcome. None of the character designs clashed together, with each and every character feeling more detailed than the next!
Sound:
I watched the sub, and I'd have to say that Wonder Egg Priority (2021) had amazing voice acting. The emotional music build up when the characters are crying, is just so intense I want to cry along with them.
Character:
Each of the characters represented a different form of mental illness. They each had strengths, flaws, and goals, and it makes the viewer excited to see their favourite character(s) grow as the series continues.
Enjoyment:
This show is one that will be remembered for years to come. Personally, I have rewatched clips of it, and think about it sometimes. Furthermore, Wonder Egg Priority (2021) is an anime I would recommend to weebs struggling with mental health and want to feel less alone.
KyleRiley
So it took me a few days to get my thoughts in order but I think I'm finally ready to write a review about this anime. This review will however be a bit different. I felt that I wouldn’t be able to properly convey my thoughts if I was to split everything up into neat categories so I’m just going to discuss the things I liked and disliked about this anime starting with the things I liked. SPOILERS Things I liked: The art was pretty good all around and the sound design wasn’t terrible. The concept was interesting at first and the main themes the show deals withare important ones (in theory).
That’s all.
Things I did not like:
So where to begin? This anime is kind of a mess and I don’t quite understand the hype it is getting. Just because it covers a darker, more mature concept than other anime does not automatically make it better. First off, the genre is a huge question mark for me. You can go ahead and say it is a fantasy anime but that’s not very descriptive. Is it a sci-fi anime? Is it a magical girl anime? Is it a slice-of-life? Horror? It feels like it’s trying to shove a million ideas into a single 12-episode anime and it just doesn’t work. At first you think “oh so this is supposed to be like a psychological thing?” and then “wait this is kind of a bit like a magical girl thing” and then it turns into a science fiction drama with slice-of-life elements and melodramatic moments. The melodrama is to be expected but can anyone clearly state what year this is supposed to take place in? It looks to be incredibly similar to our everyday but then they have A.I. and dream scanning/screening, and girls popping out of eggs (LITERALLY). Every episode feels like they are just trying to see what more crazy shit they include, and I did not enjoy it at all.
Speaking of the science fiction aspect… So Frill is like this perfect little girl that these two grown ass men didn’t think to give the proper personality to not be a killer? They made her sweet, funny, intelligent, stubborn… but they did not program her personality to be not insane? She was supposedly raised perfectly fine (in seclusion but that’s neither here nor there) and as soon as she learns that one of her “fathers” got his wife pregnant she kills her. Okay, that seems very logical. She shows no remorse or guilt or anything. These “geniuses” programed an A.I. that turned into a killer even though they had full control over what her personality would be. Okay.
I didn’t find anything scary except for the one scene in episode 12 where the big head was peeping out of the pool. Very underwhelming even in terms of horror anime, which are never very scary to begin with.
Also are we really sitting here and saying an anime that implies an evil A.I. is where girls commit suicide? That's what the anime claims. Hopefully in the final special they explain that's not actually the case, but as of right now that is literally what the anime is saying.
I didn’t really like any of the characters. Ai was pretty annoying and her crush on her mother’s boyfriend kind of feels like it comes out of nowhere. It doesn’t seem implied or hinted to at all until someone tells the audience that Ai has a crush on him. The other three were pretty meh. Neiru started out okay but when it turned out she was the head of this big company I laughed out loud. That’s so ridiculous and so stupid. Rika was annoying. I understand her mother drinks and she wants to know her father but jesus is she really dramatic. Momoe was fine I guess, though not really sure how anyone would think she’s a guy. The way they drew her she looks like a girl with short hair and masculine clothes, yet everyone (expect Ai of course) think she’s a boy.
Wonder Egg Priority seems like it’s trying to be this deep anime but it’s really not. Making episode 12 somewhat of a mind fuck near the end doesn’t help either. Yes I get that you are supposed to watch for which hairpin Ai is wearing to determine which Ai it is, but why did main-Ai’s clothes change?
Ooto Ai is a dumb name.
I have a question, if anyone is able to answer. Why was the red-haired girl in the first episode so knowledgeable about what was going on with her and the Seenoevils yet every single other girl that comes from an egg afterwards has no idea what is happening? Was it to explain it to Ai, thus also explaining it to the audience? Because that’s lazy. Very, very lazy. Why does this one girl know everything yet no other girl does? It doesn’t make sense.
I was not a fan of this anime from the start and it quickly went downhill. As soon at it started to delve into the science fiction stuff out of no where I knew this anime wasn’t for me. I like sci-fi, don’t get me wrong (some of my favourite anime are sci-fi), but this anime had no indication that it was a sci-fi at all until the group visits Neiru’s business. So dumb. It comes out of no where and the world building in Wonder Egg Priority is atrocious.
4/10 I don’t understand the hype at all
ThatAnimeSnobRE
Wonder Egg Priority attracted attention during its airing by having three things that always create traction: beautiful animation, mysterybait and queerbait. Those are enough to hook a lot of people early on, but keeping them invested by the time a show finishes is a whole different story. The pretty colors don’t mean anything if there is nothing going on, the mysterybait becomes hollow if it’s just there for speculating stuff without ever getting rewarding answers, and the queerbaiting ends up being virtue signaling if it’s just representation for representation’s sake. Well, guess what went wrong. There is nothing going on in this show. The initial hookis the characters that are defined by some tragic thing that happened to them and their friends. It’s enough to get you invested in them, but then the show doesn’t do anything with them and keeps jumping from one thing to another without actually going anywhere with them. They mention a lot of problems teenage girls are having, they fight a monstrous representation of the person they fear the most in some dreamland, and then we jump to something else.
The dreamland portion is the most intriguing aspect of the show, since it’s full of gorgeous looking fight scenes and a lot of flower symbolism. At the same time it’s also the most bullshit aspect. Nothing is explained right away and you have to figure it out on your own as you watch. The more you watch the more you realize there is nothing going on, which makes theorycrafting to be a waste of time. If you wonder about stuff such as the reason the dreamland exists, who created it and why he gathers the girls and hands them the eggs, the last episodes provide an answer to all that and it’s as lame as it gets. Like, what’s the point of doing all that supernatural bullshit when the solution can be something very simple?
Even if you ignore the supernatural aspect of the show and you stick to the slice of life aspect, you are not going to get anything more than cute girls doing cute things, but with a lot of touch subjects, ranging from social anxiety, to bullying, suicide, sexual molestation, and being transgender. But all these issues come down to punching an imaginary bad monster really hard, and then forgetting all about it. There is no consequence in the actual world, since the girls are immortal, they can’t lose, the victims they are saving are never seen again, and on top of that they are not even real. They are possible versions of suicide victims, meaning they are already dead versions of existing people. So basically they are not helping themselves or saving someone’s life.
They don’t even bring back to life someone, which was supposed to be the objective. Because the show is left incomplete and nothing is resolved. There is supposed to be an OVA sequel in the future that wraps up the story, but it’s already too late. The show didn’t do anything with its themes and one extra episode after months when most will have forgotten all about the show is not going to save face.
So yeah, it’s just another one of those progressive shows that think they are smart because they stuff their plots with first world problems, and as it usually happens they treat the whole thing very superficially by making it all taking place in some fairyland where nothing of substance comes out of it. They do nothing with the subject matter besides teasing the viewer to think about bland characters with zero development. There is no theme exploration, they don’t offer possible solutions to these problems, and therefore the show is not deep. It’s vapid miseryporn for people who take pleasure in the suffering of others.
Oh, and the queerbaiting part is pure indulgence. Every girl has the hots for the one who identifies as a boy, as if the creators are telling you everyone will want to have sex with you if you are transgender. The gay aspect of the show comes off as fan fiction for fujoshis. For the rest of us normal people, the show is just pretty colors and bait for seeking lesbian doujins.
rvdboom
Trying to write if Wonder Egg Priority is good or bad is a difficult exercise, because most of the reasons why some will love this show are the very ones why others will loathe it. My take will be to try to give some hints that will hopefully help you to decide if you're likely to like it or not. No need to waste 6 hours of your life if you're not a good candidate for this kind of shows. This review should essentially be spoiler-free. I believe you might like this show if: 1/ You're fine with non-linear storytelling Wonder Egg Priority doesn't tell a story in a straightforwardway. The plot inside a given episode will move from dream to reality and back, will not always present events in a chronological order, may show you how things really happened or how things were perceived by the involved character instead. There are always some hints to allow viewers to sort out this apparent mess, but it takes some thinking and possibly additional visions of the episode. This is made even more complicated because some topics that seemed very central in one episode can be basically forgotten after that, their resolution being only suggested by some hints two or three episodes down the line. It is a very sophisticated writing but it will put off a lot of people who don't want to turn a detective to enjoy an anime show, which is perfectly understandable.
2/ You're fine with having loose ends and unresolved topics
The show tends not to explain anything. A lot of events occur and there are here and there hints to understand why they took place, but it is very rarely strong evidence and almost always subject to interpretation. This can be frustrating to some but it also gives a powerful sense of reality and insecurity, as the watcher is almost as lost as the characters.
3/ You're fine with going with the flow
The writers obviously decided to play with the habits of anime viewers to categorize characters, behaviours and anime styles. They take a nasty pleasure to bait viewers with apparent evident behaviour or character type, just to fool them in the next episode. The fact is the show is completely unpredictable, always going where nobody will expect it to go, changing the mood, even the style along the way. Going in with a particular expectation will almost certainly be a frustrating experience, as the show will never be what you want it to be, it has its own path. You can only enjoy it, I believe, if you're willing to let go and accept wherever it'll bring you.
4/ You're fine with difficult subjects
Wonder Egg Priority brushes over many difficult topics, suicide of course, which is one of the main ones, but also all of the underlying reasons that may bring young people to this extent: rape, bullying, harassment, despair, and in a more general way how badly our societies tend to deal with females. It does so in a very modest way, never entering into graphic horror, but concentrating on the characters that endured the trauma. That's a very powerful and also very touching way of giving the possibility to talk, for people who, most of all, lacked the chance to be listened to when they were living. It does make the show sometimes very impactful and can be quite shocking. It is usually well balanced with lighter moments, but might still put off very sensitive viewers. How accurate this depiction of traumas may be is difficult to fathom. I can just say that all commentators I read, who claimed to have experienced some of the traumas described in the show, said it was very good at it, while none said the contrary. It seems to me a good indication that the writer did his homework properly.
5/ You're fine with multiple layers of symbolism
The show uses a lot of symbolism all along the way to convey some meanings. Each scene has obviously been given some thoughts on how to be framed and directed to be meaningful, and, although there is an obvious first layer that most people will find easy to decipher, there are many others that are a lot less obvious (check for instance the use of flower language described in various articles on the Atelier Emily blog). These lower layers give hints on interpreting what's going on or what some character said, usually illustrating the mood of the character or warning that what he/she says may not be the truth. You need to question whatever is shown, whatever is said, and not take anything at face value.
6/ You're fine with flawed characters
Characters in Wonder Egg Priority are essentially traumatized ones, and as such, they're usually not frank with themselves, let alone with others. They may not actually lie but have just incorrect views on many subjects, because they are biaised, because they are not knowledgeable enough, because they can't face some truth. In short, they are very real. They are at best unreliable storytellers and everything any of the characters say must be questionned and evaluated with the little information we have. This led to some controversies about specific sentences in some episodes, coming from the fact that too many viewers are taking them at face value. Most if not all characters can also be frivolous, unfair, real cowards. They're not heroes.
Wonder Egg Priority is a show like none other, for good or bad. Some viewers will see references to some other animes but that's because they concentrate on one episode or one aspect of the show. I find some similarities with Paranoïa Agent by Kon Satoshi, but that's probably just the non-linear storytelling, both shows are quite different in most other aspects. The truth is that it combines many elements coming from many sources in a very unique way. As such, it takes some radical stands, and I hope that the above hints will help you to decide if you should give it a try.
As for me, this is definitely my prefered show ever. I liked how I've been constantly surprised, moved, sometimes shocked, without ever relying to cheap tricks. I liked how the girls feel real and indeed 14-years old. I liked how all the difficult subjects are presented very delicately, without moral or judgement, but also without shying away from the painful truth. I liked how the edition and direction show a lot of attention to details. I liked how the animation so exquisitely renders teenagers movements and attitudes. I liked the usage of music and the direction of the voice actors. I liked the whole ambition of the project.
But I guess I'm right in the middle of the target audience for this show.
Hope it helps.
AKim714
"Wonder Egg Priority" is so disappointing, it's infuriating. At first, viewers are immersed in carefully woven world, one which animators took painstakingly fastidious effort creating. Unfortunately, all story building components are, in comparison, a letdown from their polished handiwork. The directive vision of the first few episodes muddles what could have been a mysterious and sublime conclusion. Instead, every character is given shallow motivations, the basis of the show generates a plethora of forgettable and irrelevant characters, and thematic elements of tragedy are handled with abhorrent insensitivity. Heroine Ai Ohto loses her best friend, Koito Nagase, in an unfortunate series of circumstances that follow herlife of being bullied and, therefore, isolated. Ohto is originally presented as meek and rebellious, a clear representation of an identity that lasts for around one episode. With the introduction of the other main leads in the series, Ohto suddenly embraces the social butterfly personality in conversation. This example, along with numerous other cases, demonstrate clear character inconsistencies which make rooting for any particular character for their redeeming qualities practically impossible. Although this show doesn't fall into the pitfalls of generalization for sad anime, the attempts to make use of "edgy" and shocking graphic scenes are executed without any careful consideration. Every traumatized girl that spawns from wonder eggs and their dilemmas to face those troubles serve less to offer emotional depth to the show than prove that, yes, the world they inhabit is very susceptible to various injustices. Abuse, sexual harassment, parental absence, and the like all rooted deep within the main and supporting characters are given little second-thought or downplayed tremendously just to meaninglessly provide some action onscreen.
Many questions are left unanswered and the conclusion is hurriedly left on a unfulfilling note. The viewer has to endure hours of episode-by-episode drivel which merits little reward for why character affairs are sentimental. Not to mention that every major character introduction ends up as awkward and without much explanation, especially the victims and their abrupt involvement in wonder eggs. Aonuma Neiru's existence in the first or second episode left me completely clueless as to whether she would even become a character of interest. In any case, when an anime, especially an original work, devotes an entire episode to recap, the equivalent of blindfolding yourself and walking aimlessly into a minefield is an appropriate analogy for how the creators managed the show's overall organization. The show falls in the middle of the pack, 5/10.
Tama5egg
What is Wonder Egg Priority about? This is a story about four girls who, through the extraordinary process of their involvement with Wonder Egg, reveal their own real-life psychology, circumstances, and problems, and then become aware of, resolve, and change their own lives. This is the focus of the story from start to finish. I think it is necessary to be aware of this first. (Various topics such as suicide, self-injury, and sexual violence appear in the course of the story. However, it is clear that attempts to present unrealistic solutions there, to assert the author's values, or to challenge social norms are not what this anime is aimingfor.)
The viewer must decipher the psychology, circumstances, motivations, past and future of the four main characters, which are presented suggestively throughout the storyline. I think that is where the fun of this work is found.
Some people may find Wonder Egg Priority completely incomprehensible or confusing.
I think that understanding the basic structure of the story will help them understand it.
I don't want you to take this wonderful work in a negative way by misunderstanding it, so please allow me to give you a brief explanation based on my own interpretation.
Through the basic development of cracking the Wonder Egg, defeating the Wonder Killer, and freeing the girls from their trauma, the psychology and circumstances of the four main characters are explored, and the girls become aware of themselves and change, which is generally the same process in each episode.
Each of the sub-character girls is important in getting to know the main character girls.
In Ep1, Ai realizes that she has wanted a friend through her relationship with "the girl who has no real friends". This changes Ai to try to make friends in Ep2.
(This is the first time for Ai to try to make friends, as Koito had been her only friend until then, and her awkwardness is expressed in Ep2.)
"Friends" is the part that leads to Ep13.
In Ep2, Ai's relationship with the "the girl who despises herself." suggests that she has a "Needy" side that wants to be cared for by those around her. It gradually becomes clear that the reason for Ai's withdrawal is not only the psychological damage caused by Koito's suicide. This is the part that leads to Ep11 and Ep12 later on.
In Ep6, Ai's relationship with "the girl who can see invisible things" suggests that she is "trying to make assumptions based on her suspicions and not confirming them with her own eyes".
Ai realizes this and runs to see Sawaki. Then, Ai begins to attend school, which is a change.
(Here we are also shown at the same time that Ai has hidden feelings for Sawaki, which are also foreshadowed in Ep3.)
Based on these narrative structures, I think it is possible to organize what each episode of Rika, Momoe, and Neiru is also trying to show.
For example, "the girl who doesn't want to grow up" and "the girl who ran away from home because she didn't have a place to stay" in Ep. 5 are foreshadowing for Neiru and Frill later on.
The above structure is also true for Frill in Ep11.
Frill is a "14-year-old girl" created by Acca and Ura-Acca's idea of "girlishness".
(If there is a prejudice in the two men's lines, it is just an indication that such prejudice exists in the world, or that it is the character's idea, not that the work is trying to affirm it. It is out of line to be upset with the author.)
She was created as a "14 year old girl" and therefore cannot grow from a 14 year old girl, either physically or mentally. Since she was created as a "child" in a position to seek love, she cannot be a giver of love to anyone.
Frill is such a "created girl".
Frill's situation in Ep11 parallels that of AiOhto.
If we view Ep11 in the structure of the previous episodes, we can see Frill as a contrast and a suggestion of AiOhto's psychology. This suggests that AiOhto was jealous of his mother and Koito (foreshadowing of this can also be seen in the direction of Ep6).
The fact that AiOhto is able to say "I want to thank Koito" and "I want to support my mother" in Ep12 shows that he has grown mentally from the "Needy" like Frill in Ep11.
If you think of this Ep11 to Ep12 flow as "trying to expand the story by suddenly starting a new enemy backstory", you will lose the essence of the story.
It is not a deviation from the basic structure of the previous episodes to use Frill, the "girl who cannot grow up" in Ep11, as a contrast to suggest AiOhto's psychology and to connect it to the changes in AiOhto in Ep12.
Also, Frill's existence has been hinted at since Ep5 and is not abrupt.
The fact that Frill is an "AI" is part of the contrast with "Ai" and is clearly not an attempt to expand on the "artificial intelligence" story.
It does not matter if Frill is an AI, a magical girl, or Peter Pan. It is the symbolism that should be considered.
The story consistently focuses on the psychology and development of the four main characters, and if you look at it with this in mind, that it is a wonder egg as a device to portray this, the plot should not seem cluttered. And the story does not stray from its theme until the very end.
Acca and Ura-Acca use the four girls for the purpose of opposing Frill (bringing Himari back to life).
However, the four girls have never used that as a motive.
Even if Acca and Ura-Acca wanted to talk about their purpose, it was never important to the girls.
(This is shown in Ep10, when the four girls put Momoe's love story ahead of what Acca wanted to talk about.)
The girls were only cracking the Wonder Eggs with the motive of "wanting to meet the suicides".
Therefore, it is not surprising that after going through the process where that is no longer their purpose, there is no reason for the girls to continue to be involved with the Wonder Egg in the face of the danger to their lives.
The situation that arose in EP13 with Neiru, who ran away from home because she didn't have a place to stay, gives Ai motivation again, but not to deal with Frill. Ai goes to crack eggs again to meet her friends. That is Ai's priority.
The result of Ai's "Wonder Egg" cracking is a "friend". (This is hinted at in Ep1).
So are Momoe and Rika different? I don't think so. Because Momoe and Rika's initial motivation was also to meet their friends. Therefore, we can expect the four of them to get together again someday. It is a hopeful ending.
If we assume that the story is centered on the girls who are the main characters until the very end, I think the way the story ends can be seen as bringing closure to the fundamental theme of this work.
This work does not present an unreasonable solution to a delicate problem. For example, self-injury does not stop as soon as the person wants to stop, even if you tell him or her to stop. It is important to respect and empathize with the person's will to overcome the problem. Rica's acceptance of herself is an important step.
Also, in this work, the reasons for the suicide are kept as much information as can be inferred, and there is no attempt to simplify the situation by offering a simple answer or solution. I think you have given this part of the story a lot of thought.
As you have said, the artwork of Wonder Egg Priority is unquestionably excellent.
And as long as the focus is right, I think everyone who loves the four characters will experience a great story. The attempt to delve into the familiar psychology of the real world and the humanity of the characters in an extraordinary unfolding story makes this work a rare and worthy one.
The story, visuals, and sound would not have been as engaging without any of them.
If you have already seen it and are unaware of its brilliance, I encourage you to rewatch it again with the story in order.
