Wonder Egg Priority

Title:Wonder Egg Priority
ワンダーエッグ・プライオリティ
Overall:Watch
Keywords: , , , , , , ,
Notables: AIKAWA Kanata
Animation - CloverWorks
KUSUNOKI Tomori
SAITOU Shuka
TADOKORO Azusa
YANO Hinaki
Ai scores a “Wonder Egg” from a gachapon machine at a deserted arcade. But now when Ai falls asleep a girl emerges from her Wonder Egg, the worlds of dreams and reality begin to collide. And it’s all connected.
(Summary Courtesy of Anime News Network)


12-episode TV anime that premiered on January 12, 2021.
Animated by Cloverworks.
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Rent 9 8 8 7 7 8 Ggultra2764 [series:4243#1552]
Wonder Egg Priority was a series that I did want to get into considering its premise revolving around social issues affecting Japanese teens explored within its fantastical premise. The focus on teen suicide and other issues revolving around it as causes contributing to it such as gender identity, bullying, and sexual assault are true to life given Japan's high suicide rate and the social issues that come about from the country's collectivist social structure. Wonder Egg Priority uses these issues and the topic of suicide to explore the developments of Ai and three other middle school aged girls who have to contend with mysterious creatures within a dream-like world that are the manifestation of the internal stresses of suicide victims with what each experienced in their past lives before killing themselves. All four have those close to them they are attempting to bring back to life who committed suicide in the past through their adventures in the dream world and come to better themselves and develop close bonds with one another as the series progresses. The potential for strong character development is there with the time the series takes to explore the personal lives and problems of each of our four teen protagonists.

Unfortunately, the series has a major stumble in its final few episodes with the introduction of a new set of antagonists that were not hinted to within earlier episodes of Wonder Egg Priority that is related to the mysterious two guides for Ai and her companions. This led me to the impression that Cloverworks, the animators of this series, may have had a larger vision with the story direction of Wonder Egg Priority intended than what a one-cour season could reasonably provide. This appears to may have been the case as parts of the final few episodes felt rather rushed in trying to implement this new plot element into the series story proper with large segments of a couple episodes were devoted to infodumps explaining relevant details of the plot and new characters which were revealed. Between this and production issues that led to a TV special that left things unresolved with Wonder Egg Priority's story, it did leave me feeling rather bitter with the series considering how strong it otherwise had been going throughout the first two-thirds of its run.

Overall, Wonder Egg Priority is easily among the biggest disappointments I had with seeing a series within this year thus far. The strong character focus and themes offered for much of its run gave it potential to be one of this year's personal favorites for me. But its final few episodes stumbled when it became clear that there was a larger vision intended for it than what its one-cour length could reasonably accommodate and its lack of a conclusive ending only made things all the more disappointing for me. It is still worth checking out based on the strengths of its earlier episodes. But be warned that its lack of a proper ending and feeling rushed with its addition of new antagonists may leave a bitter aftertaste once you get through the series.

Last updated Wednesday, June 30 2021. Created Wednesday, June 30 2021.
Watch Stretch [series:4243#628]
(All episodes watched):

Nothing if not original. Ai is bullied and ridiculed at school (in part because her two eyes have different colors), considers herself to be ugly, and blames herself for her friend's recent suicide. In a dream-like experience she gets the idea that if she does enough good deeds in this alternate reality her friend, Koito, will be resurrected. The implication (If I understood it correctly) is that this is a means of helping people who killed themselves. Ai needs help almost as much as they do, which makes her a humble, likable hero. The most intriguing bit was the comment that what seems like nothing more than a dream to Ai (she cannot be killed during these experiences) is quite real to the girls she is trying to help. Are they in some sort of purgatory as punishment for committing suicide? Whatever is going on, I found this show to be intriguing and was eager for more.

I found episode two to be slightly frustrating because it basically did not clarify anything. Ai has another alternate reality experience but doesn't learn much about how this system works (except that running away isn't good enough). I hope the main thrust of this show will be figuring out WTF is going on (or at least how to genuinely help these people), not fights-of-the-week against bizarre opponents. At the beginning Ai is walking with Neiru(I think), a dark skinned girl, and obviously knows that this girl is aware of these strange eggs, and I wondered if this was in fact episode three, because I didn't recall this person appearing in episode one. I had been looking forward to another episode of this series but this one wasn't as much fun as I had been expecting.

In episode three we meet Rika, another girl who is aware of these supernatural eggs and is on a quest. She's outwardly selfish and obnoxious, but turns out to be not so bad after all. WEP is often considered a 'horror' story, but I'm not so sure that label is appropriate. While it can be disturbing at times, the good deeds these girls do and their inner willingness for self-sacrifice seems to me more uplifting than the rest of the show is horrifying. And their opponents are so bizarre that it's kind of hard to be horrified by them. Indeed, the girls' real-life experiences are often more horrifying than their alternate reality ones.

In episode four we meet the final member of this team, Momoe. She's not very effeminate and is often mistaken for a boy. Now that the team is complete, surely some big problem which they must solve will emerge--or perhaps for the time being they'll move closer to fixing Ai's basic problem, namely resurrecting her friend who committed suicide. If I understood correctly, Momoe may have a link to that person. Will someone suggest that maybe the four of them can work together to achieve their supernatural goals rather than each go it alone? Like, take turns to all go on these adventures together (if that is possible) to accomplish a goal for one member? These solo fights with freaky opponents are getting a little tiresome and it doesn't look like there will ever be an explanation of how this all got started. In episode five the girls strengthen their friendship and we see a venture Neiru once took. On a side note, I noticed that I'm currently watching several anime in which all of the main characters are girls--Otherside Picnic, WIXOSS Diva(A)Live, D4DJ, and this show.

I was slightly surprised at the two guys, Acca and Ura-Acca, with largely blank, puppet-like faces who instruct the girls on what they can and can't do and stuff like that. They seem more-or-less friendly and cooperative, whereas I had sort of assumed that like most horror isekai shows the girls would be forced by some cruel and heartless entity (which might well remain a complete mystery) to do something they don't want to do and which seems hopeless. You would think the girls would ask these two if it really is possible to revive their friends and just how many missions they must complete to do so.

Episode eight is a refresher course on who is who and what has happened so far. These come in handy in shows which have complicated and confusing plots, but I'm not sure that one was needed here. Though it is bizarre, what's going on here is pretty clear and nothing in this episode surprised me (though I was reminded of a few things I had forgotten). Much more significant is episode nine, in which we learn that Acca and Ura-Acca haven't been completely honest with the girls after all. I was never completely confident that I understood the basic deal here (if you succeed in enough of these missions someone you like who committed suicide will be revived), and now we learn that even that may not have been true. So, what is the real purpose of these forays? Will the girls somehow, by sheer willpower perhaps, achieve the goal they were told they were working towards? Neiru reveals a strange case of a friend who's not quite dead, but is otherwise in the same situation as Koito. This person seems to have committed virtual suicide voluntarily, rather than out of deep depression, in order to explore the alternate reality. Episode ten annoyed me because sensational things happen, but we get little or no explanation. One of the girls meets the requirements to revive someone she cares about, but the revival (if it can be called that) doesn't exactly go the way we were expecting. What really happened? I have little idea. It sort of reminded me of the early seasons of WIXOSS, in which a person who has been promised a generous reward if they meet a goal is effectively punished instead. And what was the deal with this new character (the grim reaper?) that appears? It makes little sense yet I must remember it for a week until the story continues.

Episode 11 made even less sense. While watching the first scene the thought occurred to me that this was looking more and more like some sort of LSD trip. Most of the episode is about Ai's discovery of Acca and Ura-Acca's backgrounds. We are told of an amazing thing they once did while human (apparently in their spare time): they created an artificial girl who is indistinguishable from an ordinary one. Wait a minute, I cannot suspend enough disbelief to buy this. Is this show trying to be science-fiction all of a sudden? Wouldn't it have been much easier to come up with a (much) more plausible explanation than this far-out one? Even attributing everything that has happened so far to magic or the supernatural would have been more believable than this. I don't get it at all.

Episode twelve was... confusing. While on one of these missions, Ai basically encounters herself. This was explained well and actually made perfect sense within the framework of this show. And, since the Ai we are familiar with is dressed in her usual bright yellow jacket while the new one is in school uniform, we know who's who. But at some point and for some reason they're both in uniform, and I lost track of who was saying what. We bounce back and forth between God only knows how many dreams and alternate realities and whatevers, and have no way of keeping track of what's going on. How did uniform-wearing Ai recognize Koito? I thought they'd never met. The episode isn't a complete disaster, since we clearly see Ai's determination and empathy, but at the end the story is clearly far from over and it's hard to say where we stand.

According to ANN, there will be a "Special Edition Broadcast" to conclude the story on June 29. Apparently the makers fell far behind schedule and the twelve episodes as they are don't come anywhere near wrapping things up (the refresher episode was hastily thrown together to buy some time). What exactly a Special Edition Broadcast entails is unclear; it may be one additional episode, or it might be something more. Anyway, WEP is a story which has a lot riding on how it concludes--with a premise as bizarre as this, there has to be some sort of semi-plausible explanation. This one episode could easily make the difference between it being brilliant and being a major disappointment.

Sure enough, 'episode 13' debuted on schedule in late June. This was twice as long as the usual episode, with the first half consisting of a refresher course on where things stand after episode 12. I noticed that the bulk of the 'refreshing' had been about the last third or so of the series, when things had gotten weird in a hurry. I also noticed (or re-noticed) that if it weren't for Ai's admirable determination to fix problems, this would be a very dark and disturbing show. So, when a girl is revived she is replaced in this world by a duplicate of herself from an alternate reality? And that's why they can't remember their friend who saved them? Why is that? What purpose does it serve in the plot? I thought at first that Ai had been hurled into another dimension when Koito and Neiru claimed not to know her. And you must 'sacrifice' your pet in order to survive yourself? Why is that? But it looks like we will not get any more answers, because episode 13 abruptly concluded with 'the end' (and no promise of a second season) after Ai vows to keep on trying. This is nowhere near a definitive conclusion. What about Frill? What about the bizarre creatures who killed the pets and screwed the girls over? Will they get away with what they've done scot-free? What about Ai's reunion with the Koito she knows? This is just a mess, not a conclusion. It looks like the final verdict will have to be 'major disappointment'.

Last updated Thursday, July 01 2021. Created Monday, January 18 2021.

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Official Japanese Series Web Site https://wonder-egg-priority.com/

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