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@planetnameless20
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Created by: Shinji Nojima
Director: Shin Wakayabashi
Studio: CloverWorks
Starring: Kanata Aikawa, Tomori Kusunoki, Shuka Saitō, Hinaki Yano etc.
Number of Episodes: 12 + 1 Special Episode
TRIGGER WARNING: The anime deals with subjects such a suicide, self-harm and sexual assault.
Every season sees an increasing amount of anime series making their debut, one of this past winter’s breakouts was Wonder Egg Priority, by CloverWorks, that caught viewers’ attention for its stunningly detailed animation as well as for its focus on heavy subjects that aren’t often found in such colourful-looking series.
Plot Summary:
Ai Ohto (Kanata Aikawa) is one of our four young heroes and the main protagonist, at the age of 14 she’s lived her life as outsider due to being mocked for her heterochromia (each eye of a different colour) and at a moment when it seems like she’s finally found a friend, Koito Nagase (Azusa Tadokoro) commits suicide on the school’s premises which leads Ai to close herself off and to stop attending school. After buying a peculiar egg during a dream, the following night she finds herself in another bizarre dream that has her tasked with protecting a girl born from such egg, this girl will be taunted by malicious creatures named Seeno Evils with the intention of killing her, if Ai succeeds in defending the girl and defeating her source of trauma, she will get one step closer to bringing Koito back to life.
These eggs Ai buys are provided by Acca and Ura-Acca (Yûya Uchida & Hiroki Takahashi), a pair of brothers who are trying to help girls bring back to life the friends they lost to suicide, there are other three girls that join Ai in her adventure for their own reasons: Neiru Anouma (Tomori Kusonoki), a serious young genius who’s CEO to a company and is attempting to bring back her sister, Rika Kaway (Shuka Saito), a former idol who feels guilty for the death of her only fan and struggles with her mother’s alcoholism, and finally there’s Momoe Sawaki (Hinaki Yano) who’s torn between her identity as a girl and her more masculine appearance, she’s trying to bring back to life the only friend who saw her as a girl but whose advances she rejected.
Review:
Despite trying to summarise the plot, these two paragraphs are only scratching the surface of an anime that mixes different genres trying to explore both the philosophy of death vs life while still infusing Wonder Egg Priority with the action that is expected from anime series. This unfortunately leads this first season to become unfocused and confusing after some strong first episodes.
The first half of the series focuses on establishing and developing its characters, the choice of having a small cast further strengthens these first episodes as each character is given enough screen time to be developed. Ai is the ultimate protagonist but the other three girls each get their own episode that further explores their background and how they got to where they are, and what they’re going to be doing. The strongest element of Wonder Egg Priority is the friendship these vastly different characters create and how such friendship guides them through their tumultuous lives and hardships; despite protecting girls that have suffered from trauma, our four heroes also struggle with their own demons as both Ai and Rika are shown to have considered committing suicide themselves but found solace and strength in each other to continue on.
What might be odd at first is how casually suicide is talked about by these characters but soon enough it becomes clear that the reason for such casual talk isn’t because of insensitive writing, but because they’ve all witnessed so much tragedy and are close enough to be able to let themselves be vulnerable and not treat such subjects as taboo any longer. It’s quite refreshing to see this happen on such colourful series, despite the heaviness of the narrative, these four still find time to experience joy and have a laugh while supporting each other through their shared and individual struggles.
Also, the girls they must protect share what has led them to take such action and oftentimes their situation is consequence of traumatic experiences ranging from deeply rooted insecurities to sexual abuse, none of this is ever taken for granted by anyone and is instead shown for the horror it is whilst still trying to provide a sense of hope and understanding. These girls unfortunately cannot be revived but our protagonists always make sure to be there for them and share their compassion in order to guide them to a more peaceful end of their journey.
Unfortunately, all this becomes muddled midway through the season when the more sci-fi elements of the story are introduced. I won’t go into much detail to avoid spoilers but it’s safe to say that Acca and Ura-Acca aren’t helping Ai and her friends out of sheer kindness, they have their own hidden agenda that is unfolded towards the end and leads to the introduction of a variety of new characters in a very short time. Such change in tone diminishes the more raw and authentic tone of the previous episodes with the show starting to use the trauma behind its characters as tools for its greater plot, a plot that is confusing on its own and isn’t rendered any clearer due to the lack of a definite ending to the season.
Episode 12 is the last episode available to watch but doesn’t wrap anything up, of course not everything needs explanation since there’s consideration of a second season, but final episodes need to at least provide few minor conclusions or hints for the viewers to be excited for its future. Episode 8 also damages the pace by being a 23-minute-long re-cap of what’s happened in previous episodes, in fact the studio has been working on a 13th episode that will be released in June in order to produce a better finale.
Wonder Egg Priority is a genuine attempt at criticising the real world’s struggle with mental health, insecurities and anxieties daily magnified by social media, it’s no coincidence that the ‘Seeno Evils’ the girls fight in their dreams eventually turn into stronger creatures named ‘Haters’. Such symbolism works in its favour, but the plot unfortunately gets lost in its own ambition after a brilliant first half. However, it never treats the severity of its themes tactlessly but instead defies their taboo status through vulnerable yet strong characters, despite its unfocused larger picture.
Rating: 8/10
By @planetnameless20
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