Let's Further Talk About Wonder Egg Priority
This is somewhat a continuation to the pervious short post
~ Disclaimer and Notices! ~
Before We jump right in, I want to give a disclaimer that *This is not Sponsored* and I’m here just to give you guys information and/or recommendation if you guys are interested in the story. I will also review this anime from ep 1 to 12.
Obviously, there will be *SPOILER* all over the entire reviews, but for major spoiler there will be a part that will separate that from the normal review.
There might be some wrong information in this post, so if you find any, I’m sorry. You could always contact me at emilmelater@gmail.com and report or notify me if there’re any mistakes.
And last, this review will go to sensitive topic like Suicide, Self Harm, Depression, etc. *You have been warned!*
~Thank You For Your Understanding!~
Wonder Egg Priority
In this review I will go to the Premise, Character Design, Use of CGI, Color Theme, Symbolism, etc. Then, I will go deep into the spoiler stuff like the Plot, Character Development, Opening and Ending Song, the Ending, and then Overall Opinion and Review.
Premise
The premise of Wonder Egg Priority is that it’s centered around the topic of suicide. We follow the story of Ai Ooto who was left out by her best and only friend, Koito Nagase. Still mourning and adjusting to her life, Ai met a Talking Insect and decided to followed it into a some sort of underground Japanese gacha machine.
The gacha machine dispense an egg, let’s called it the ‘Wonder Egg’. The insect said that the egg could give her whatever she really wants. After that she finds herself in a dream world. Upon cracking the egg she was given, the egg turned big and hatches a girl name Kurumi (Oh yeah, there’s also a talking toilet paper, but we’re just going to ignore it). Not long after, this red mysterious creature that was basically the personified version of Kurumi’s fear appeared.
Ai then learned that if she could save Kurumi from her fear, Ai’s best friend, Koito, will be freed and will be brought back to life. The story then progress from there onwards.
Character Design and Story
(One of) The main character from this show, Ai Ooto, was a fourteen years old girl. She was bullied at her school and doesn’t have any friends. She was bullied because of her heterochromia (Different colored eyes). When she got her only and best friend, Koito, as a typical depressing anime, Koito then committed suicide.
The character design for every character is very unique. It followed the main theme of this anime. Which is very vibrant. From the poster above, we could see that this show uses very vibrant color. For some people that doesn’t really like vibrant color, this show might gave you an epilepsy (Seriously). But for most of us that doesn’t gives a shit about it, the character design is indeed unique.
Get back to the topic of this anime, this type of character design is something that you would see in a slice of life laid back anime, but nope, if you’re coming to this anime completely blind, you’ll be surprised by how much the got to the topic of suicide. So Studio CloverWorks really did something different with this one. Let’s see some other similar genre that they make; Promise Neverland. The art style from that anime and this anime, is completely different, especially the character design. Let’s go in further into the discussion of the color theme in the next sub-topic.
You know, this kind of art style or theme reminds me of Madoka Magica or Made in Abyss that completely have a different meaning to what the anime is all about. >.<
Color Theme and Use of CGI
From my observation, there’s two different coloring theme in this anime. The first one is in real world and the other one is in the wonder egg world. The real world has some natural coloring done by studios these days. The way the background looks and everything. But when it came to the wonder egg world, there’s a change in art style.
When the creature from the wonder egg world comes out, the art style changes to that of a water paint alike. It looks like somebody just splash in paint into the anime. This doesn’t make the anime bad, but it’s the opposite, is that ‘unique’ aspect that I was talking about. You could see it here down below,
Ai Ooto running
Monster from later episodes
When our character is inside of the wonder egg world, our character will meet another character and some monsters. You have to keep in mind the other character our main character met is a dead person. More specifically a person who committed suicide, so giving it the splashes of vibrant watercolor adds in to the anime ‘unique’ factor.
You also could see the monster that’ll appear inside of the wonder egg world in both of the picture up above. These monsters have the same color theme as the wonder egg world. Although with the vibrant and colorful theme these monster have, some of them still gives me chills thinking or imagining them. You could search up ‘Wonder Egg’s Monster’ in google (disclaimer: that’ll spoils some stuff), and you could see just how disturbing some of these monsters really are.
Overall, the color theme is one of I adore. I can’t help it. I’m a kid. What do you want.
Now to the CGI of this anime. To be honest, I don’t really have that much to say about this anime’s CGI, but you could see in the video just down below, that the CGI of this anime was done pretty well. In my opinion, the change of color theme from normal to splashes of color suits well with the use of CGI.
(This video explains basically the highlight of the first episode. I recommend you watched it first, but if you don’t wanted to, you could skip to 2:35 up until 3:00. If you don’t want to get spoiled that much.)
Credit: Akari Akaza
Thoughts and Recommendation
Disclaimer: If you have any mental illness that could affect your life, like; eating disorder, crippling depression, thoughts of suicides, etc. Please watch this show in your own advise.
This section is for people that has not watched the anime ‘Wonder Egg Priority’ and tried to get my recommendation and thoughts before going in into the anime. I think, if you want to know how the anime will feels like, you could watch the trailer for the anime on YouTube.
As of right now, I could only find two trailer (Trailer 1, Trailer 2). But you obviously could sought out the other ones yourself or you could see other people reviews and opinion on this anime on other official website like MyAnimeList (Here), Crunchyroll, etc. (Just be careful for spoilers)
If you’re still here because of my recommendation, first of all, WHY? Second of all, I personally would recommend this to someone that’s actually feeling down on their current situation. Not only that you could understand the show more, the atmosphere that it gives is different (especially to someone that doesn’t really like watching that much long episodic show). If you’re watching this when you’re happy, sure! You probably still going to enjoy it, but if you’re sad or just wanted to feel shocked, disgusted, and insulted, you’re going to have a better time with this show.
“So? Should I watched it?” If the tag of the anime suits you well or you just want a little variations, sure! Go watch it! If you’re still unsure, go find more about this show. But if you’re the type who’s to afraid to spend your money because this seems like not your type of show, but you still want to watch it because of the hype, go watch some other anime that you actually want to watch first. THEN, come back here to see if you’re still interested.
“If I don’t want to watch it?” Then just don’t… It’s simple right?
Warning: Towards the end of the show, this anime will bring in topic that’s WAY darker and more disturbing.
*From Here on out, there will be a major Spoiler from the anime!*
Main Characters and Their Backstories
All main character from this anime all have similar stories behind their action. We’re back again to the main topic, all of them have to deal with either one or if not all of the things about their own depression, bullying, and of course suicide.
All of these characters have their own ‘friends’ that they have to save. The only difference between all of them is that the live in a different environment for example, our first main character, Ai, is suffering from her school, while the other character, have their own work environment that they had to deal with. Therefore each one of them have a different theme in their wonder egg world.
Ai Ooto
If you’re reading 'till this point, you’re probably already quite familiar with her. She’s the one who’s in the poster up above and the main protagonist of this story. She’s fourteen and have her school best friends commit a suicide because she was bullied. Overall, even if Ai’s best friend died, she’s still the very cheerful girl in the main cast (in my opinion).
Ai’s wonder egg world revolve around a school. As far as I remember, all of her wonder egg world revolve around a student committing suicide in her (the students) own school. Her weapons in the wonder egg world is a four ink pen with the color red, blue, green, and yellow that she uses it as a mace.
Neiru Aonuma
This character was introduced right at the end of episode 1 of the anime. But her backstory was explained much later in the story. She’s a quiet and serious girl. The things we know about her in the very start is that she let her sister died.
(I think) The one thing that makes her special is that, she puts her health at risk because she’s doing more than one wonder egg at a time. Resulting in a chance of failing and putting her health or even her own life in danger. I guess she’s in a rush or just doesn’t like to take time in completing one wonder egg at a time.
It is later known that Neiru is a genius and (I think) the president of a corporation of geniuses. And like Ai, she explains that she joins in the wonder egg world is for reviving her sister who stabbed her to death. She also had a friend from the same corporation as her but she’s currently in a coma. She then finally decided to unplug her life support in order to meet her again in the wonder egg world. It is then revealed that Neiru company has some connection with the wonder egg community (Or something like that).
This piece of information finally explains why all Neiru’s wonder egg world is about corporation and that kind of stuff. Her weapon in the wonder egg world is a compass (Math tool) that she uses as a sniper rifle.
Rika Kawai
She’s the ‘idol’ in the main cast. From her appearance she’s a girl that’s edgy and has a rough personality. She’s quite hard to get a liking to, but the information about her is easier for us to know, because she’s not a quiet kid like Neiru and she’s not scared meeting people for the first time. She has a blonde hair and a line of pink hair on the front left side of her hair.
Rika consider herself as an idol, therefore she’s super greedy. Her trauma getting her into the wonder egg world is because of a girl that Rika call ‘wallet’ died because of, again, ‘wallet’ commit a freaking suicide! And she, again, wants to bring ‘wallet’ back to life. The girl that Rika called ‘wallet’ real name was actually Chiemi.
She explains that she’s a chubby girl that’s obsessed with her, therefore giving her money and becoming her ‘wallet’. Rika says that Chiemi was not her friend and she will not have any interest of being a friend with a fat girl, but the fact is that, Chiemi is actually the first person that Rika knew except for obviously her mom and dad. With Rika having said that, Chiemi was found dead letting herself starve to death.
It is later revealed that Rika is actually self-harm to herself by slowly slicing her arm with razor blades. And her mother is actually a prostitute, resulting the divorce between Rika’s parents. She hated her mother because of that exact fact. She’s a drug addict, prostitute, etc.
Because Rika is actually an idol, her wonder egg world revolve around that of someone who idolize an idol or another idol who, again, commit freaking suicide! Her weapon in the wonder egg world is actually a pair of razor blades that she uses like a pair of swords.
Got dammit this is probably the most ‘suicide’ I’ve ever type in a day!
Momoe Sawaki
And lastly, we have Momoe Sawaki. She’s a tomboy girl that other girls sometimes mistaken her as a guy. In fact the reason she comes to the wonder egg main cast is because of a girl that was dating her and even going as far as to wanting to ‘eat’ her actually went went nude and ‘take the lead’. But after the girl finds out that Momoe was actually a girl, she… Guess what… Commit a FREAKING suicide!
Apart from her tomboy appearance, she’s actually the same age as the other girl. She’s the tallest in the main cast and of course, popular within the girls. Her hardships comes when other girls actually finds her attractive and wanting to date her.
Because her hardships comes from relationships and her trauma is because of the person who ‘takes the lead’, … died. Her wonder egg world revolve around gender or sex. Her weapon in the wonder egg world looks like an umbrella that she could use as a spear like weapon.
OP and ED Songs!
“Why did I put this here and not up at the top?”
It’s because the main cast and couple more character were shown here. I’m also quite afraid that there will be some scene that’s actually a spoiler. That’s why I’m putting it here.
This anime also takes a different approach with its opening and ending songs. You see, the opening in this anime was filled with sad and slow melodic tune. While the ending is freaking lit af. If you’re a fan of anime, you know that it’s usually the opposite.
Seeing from the visuals, the opening tries to remind you what kind of show you’re going to watch while the ending is trying to revive you after the show that makes you have an existential crisis. Interestingly, both of this song is created by the same band. I haven’t done my research, but I think the OP and ED are made just for this anime.
You could see the opening and ending song ‘in order’ just down below here:
"Sudachi no Uta (巣立ちの歌)" by Anemoneria (アネモネリア)"
"Life is Cider (Life is サイダー)" by Anemoneria (アネモネリア)"
You could find the full song by yourself because the one I’m pointing towards is the OP and ED of the anime and not the song itself.
Saying that, I’m still not going to go in detail as of what each scene of the OP and ED tells, if you’re interested in that sort of stuff, you could find it in other sources. Why? I don’t know… This is called Trash Anime Reviews right? So why should I explain you this? >.<
Anyways, going back, if you already watch the anime you would basically know what each scene of the OP or ED meant. If you haven’t finished or even started it, the secret will be eventually found out. In my opinion, the fact that you have to find that out by watching the anime is what makes it interesting. So… If you’re still wanting to know, go find it yourself, or watch the anime. (ˉ﹃ˉ)
TBH, you could probably find it on Reddit or something like that.
*Only thy who understand ‘The POP’ shall continue!*
With that out of the way… Let us continue!
The Plot
1. Frill’s Revenge
You know… Frill does seems like she’s the bad guy, but to be honest, I kind of feels what Frill feels. She seems like a normal girl even though she’s not. Acca and Ura-Acca raise her very well for couple of years. Obviously both of them still sees Frill as an experiment, but as the genius they are, they should’ve known that even Frill, an experiment, have emotions. When they neglected her, Frill’s take revenge on both of them, and I don’t really feel anything to Acca and Ura-Acca. It might be because I’m dead inside, but they did such a good job explaining Frill’s backstory that I too feel sympathy towards her. When the show finally takes a dark turn and explains about Frill’s creation, I was quite hyped.
Let’s go back one episode where Momoe got traumatized by Frill’s creation, Hyphen. The time where Momoe finally be able to release her friend, Haruka, Hyphen showed up and straight out killing off Panic. By just this scene, you can clearly see just how strong Frill’s creations really are.
Throughout the entire story, I always had a feeling down in my stomach that somethings 'bout to go wrong someday. Maybe it’s because how the coloring of the wonder egg worlds is beautiful but kinda odd. But even if I was expecting that, I didn’t expect that the first time we see this type of character, it will just literally eat off Panic like a snack… Dude… Seeing that Frill’s creations are really strong and it also seems like they don’t really have any emotions, I was quite confused at that moment.
Anyways, let’s continue to the next episode. After one of the Ura-Acca explain the story, we then knew that Frill is the one who’s controlling the entire dream world all along. The fact that the show implies that Frill is the one causing Acca’s daughter to commit suicide, really makes this show stands out to me. It’s the feeling like a gut punch. The entire story still in the same plot and genre, but it caught me off guard. I didn’t expect that it will take a turn to a much-much-much dark territory. When the episode’s finally over, we conclude that the doll brother (LOL), Acca and Ura-Acca was actually the bad guys all along.
2. Parallel World
When the last episode airs, I was more surprised that the wonder egg world literally uses the Many-worlds theory and interpreted it inside of the wonder egg world.
When Ai, met herself that was from another universe. She learns that the other Ai actually committed suicide because the other Ai has doubts and suspicions about her teacher, Shuichiro Sawaki. Long story short, Ai then learns that Shuichiro sensei is actually not a bad person, in the end.
After defeating Shuichiro-sensei and finally ‘Freeing’ Koito, she finally met one of Frill’s creation, Kirara (The names too long for me to write all of it). The story doesn’t tell much more than that in the next couple of minutes, but after two traumas being afflicted to the other girl, Ai decided to just accepted the fact that Kirara kills the other Ai.
For more discussion or explanation about the last episode of Wonder Egg Priority, I will leave this link for you to watch in your spare time. There’s a lot of question and very few was answered. So if you want to know more about it, you could go to Wonder Egg Priority Fandom or Wiki (here), and you could discuss more about it inside there. I’ll also includes their discord and subreddit.
Final Thoughts
Wonder egg priority from all of its design, art style, and bright color theme goes over a dark topic. The theme of trauma and suicide is dark but in contrast with its cutesy art style the feeling is enhanced. With each episode we’re almost getting introduce to a different character from the wonder egg world. The world teaches us to fight our trauma or problem head-on, as Acca and Ura-Acca mention.
The show is suitable for adolescence who’s facing their trauma and insecurities. As what Acca and Ura-Acca says, we have to face that insecurities and problem our own. We must stand our ground. The show tells that in a beautiful way. Most people would just be too caught up with the art style, but the meaning or the lesson that the show thought is that we must face our trouble head-on.
Saying that, the show doesn’t say that we must face it alone. In fact, the show implies that if we couldn’t face it alone, bring people in to face it together. We could see the character development in Ai’s perspective. In episode 1 she’s a full on hikikomori and by the end of episode 12, she could even face herself and even letting go of her other self sacrifice. In the end, it’s a show about depression and the cost of a free gift, but there’s nothing free in this world. If you want your problem to be solved. The cost of that is that you have to sacrifice your time in solving it head-on, whether that’s alone or with other. Don’t be afraid to seek others help and don’t be afraid to help out others too. Because they will be there when it’s your turn to face the problem.
Getting to the topic of adolescence, they’re the ones that’s has the most unstable mental problem. They have just realize the truth about reality, but they don’t know how to deal with them. They think that what they’re experiencing is unique, but there are many of us who face the same problem. They tend to keep that problem a secret and doesn’t seek out any help. because they don’t know how to deal with it and too scared to seek out for help, they tend to keep it in. A bottle could only be filled until its capped. The emotion of these adolescence is the some, when the water finally spill out or even burst out, they don’t know what to do. In the end, it resulted in their own demise by their own hands.
My overall review for this anime is still 9 out of 10, in my opinion. When you’re watching this anime while airing, this anime have some difficulty because of studio CloverWorks, but after it finished airing, you shouldn’t really worry about it.
With the new Wonder Egg Priority Specials coming out on the end of June, I will obviously watched it. I think because of Frill’s and the Acca’s secret being revealed, the show have a lot more to be explained. With this, I will definitely recommend this to my friends and other anime enthusiast.
Man… I just love they way they reveal more secret at then end of the stories.
Thankyou for reading 'till the end of the news letter!
“It’s my fault that I betrayed you. Even though you were the first friend I ever made.”
- Ai Ooto
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