Wonder Egg Priority is a 13 episode original anime. It follows Ai Ohto who has become a recluse, staying at home rather than going to school. The reason? Her best friend committed suicide. We’re quickly shown bits and pieces of what happened, with Ai being heavily affected. Ai feels guilty given that she was too apathetic to the things that were happening to her best friend, which ultimately led to that fatal decision.
The fantasy side then comes into play when Ai meets two characters, who give her an egg and promise that it will grant her wish. When Ai breaks it, she is sent to a dream world where while it’s a dream for her, it’s not a dream for the other people in it. The girls that are in that dream are being hunted down by “Seeno Evils”, which looks like these little evils with a crazy smile holding a knife.
Ultimately, Ai learns that she needs to protect these girls from danger, and the more girls that she successfully saves, the closest she is to bringing her best friend back. She soon meets other girls that are like her that get these eggs and tries to protect others in the dream world. Each character has a different tragic reason behind why they’re doing it. The anime begins in a more episodic manner, as Ai tries to save a different girl in each episode.
Given the episodic nature of the anime, each episode in the first half can be somewhat predictable. In the beginning, she’ll meet a new character to befriend with, then in a later episode, we will see what trauma they each carry within them. We see the reasons for their fighting. It tackles some heavier themes, and it is nothing to make light of, but at the same time, it doesn’t quite work out in certain moments, where it’s trying to be serious but then glosses over other elements.
The plot starts to go somewhere towards the end of the season. All the set up and backstories have finally finished, and it can move on. The biggest mystery of course is about the wonder egg and what its purpose is. Most viewers would suspect something bad, and the anime will deal with that plot thread. Although the pacing in general is quite slow, and it’s not as if it suddenly goes faster as a result.
The anime had production issues, and there are some signs of that, such as the recap episode in the middle of the season, and then half of the final “special” episode also being a recap. However, towards the end of the season, the plot really takes off as we finally get some more insight into the eggs. It’s still grounded in such a way that there is some psychological horror, and there’s a distinct creepiness to the atmosphere as well. The chill and dread that you’d feel as the events unfold was executed nicely.
Unfortunately, that execution and pacing couldn’t be sustained to the end. The ending felt rushed in ways, it closed off most of the plot points, but not particularly well. There are some great concepts there, but it is shown poorly. It seems after the long journey of watching the whole season, none of the character arcs come to a satisfying conclusion. It was messy, confusing and contradictory to earlier themes.
Overall, Wonder Egg Priority has moments where it shines and is full of potential. It collapses under all that expectation though, and we’re left with an inconsistent story that is at times confusing and messy. Even right until the very end, the plot didn’t feel like it could wrap up in time, and it ended up being a rushed job. Wonder Egg Priority is an average anime that gets worse as the season progresses.
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