Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review: Wonder Egg Priority (2021) by Shin Wakabayashi

A great title, where context and artistic prowess come together in the most impressive way, in one of best titles of 2021 so far.

The latest trend of great anime not based on manga continues with “”, a multileveled title that works across a number of genres with equal success, to a point at least.

The series follows Ai Ohto, a junior high school student who is temporarily not attending school, following the suicide of her close friend Koito Nagase. During a late-night walk, Ai is guided by a mysterious voice to a deserted arcade, where is then guided to a gachapon machine that dispenses a “Wonder Egg”. That night, Ai gets drawn into a dream world where the Wonder Egg cracks open to reveal a girl, whom Ai must protect from a horde of monsters called “Seeno Evils”. When the voice tells Ai that saving enough people in this world may bring Koito back, she resolves to continue buying Wonder Eggs and protecting their inhabitants. Along the way, Ai meets three other girls in the same situation as her, but on rather different personal circumstances: Neiru Aonuma, Rika Kawai, and Momoe Sawaki. As the four of them fight together, they form intent friendships while also maturing.

The most obvious level title excels in is the action. Despite the fact that the protagonists are teenage girls who fight against creatures that are kawaii for the most part, the tension during the battles, the occasional bloodshed, and most of all, the final bosses elevate this aspect to very high levels. Through an approach that reminds of Satoshi Kon's works both in visual style and context, the animation by during those scenes is impressive, as much as the drawing of the villains, who are colorfully extravagant and appalling at the same time. The way pens and cute little animals become weapons that occasionally lead to true slaughters is ingenious here, highlighting both the animation and the excellent drawing and coloring by Saki Takahashi. The difference of the various villains and the level of detail in their sketch is only matched by the backgrounds, while the way the protagonists differ stylistically is equally impressive.

This approach brings us to the next level, which focuses on the social commentary, particularly regarding the lives of teenage girls in Japan nowadays, with each of the girls representing a series of different issues, although all of their arcs also focus on the problem with adolescent suicides in the country. Ai Ohto was a victim of bullying, and so was her best friend, who eventually committed suicide. Not being able to carry the burden, Ai became a hikikomori, a state she tries to get out of as the series begins. At the same time, a bit later, the presence of Shuichiro Sawaki brings to focus her family situation, while his relation to Momoe and a scene between him and Koito Ai witnessed in the past complicates the situation to a very large degree.

Neiru Aonuma is a socially distant young girl, who was hospitalized in the past after being stabbed by her sister, another arc that comments on the concept of family and various psychiatric issues, more of which are revealed as the story progresses.

Rika Kawai is one of the most interesting characters, since she is the exact opposite of Neiru intensely social and talkative, previously being a junior idol, whom the suicide of a hard-core fan brought to the world of wonder eggs. The concept of how much value people place on appearances, the multileveled issue with teen idols, and once more, the concept of family through her rather dysfunctional relationship with her mother, come to the fore through her arc.

Momoe Sawaki is a girl often mistaken for a boy due to her androgynous appearance, an issue that has caused her to be rather self-conscious about her appearance and also frequently finding herself the recipient of romantic notions by the girls, one of which ended up committing suicide.

The individual stories, the antithetical chemistry, and the way their differences eventually bring them together, forming rather unlikely friendships, is one of the best parts of the narrative, also for the way all of them mature through their interactions.

At the same time, the presence of their hosts in the fantasy world, Acca and Ura-Acca, the whole concept of the Wonder Eggs, and the real role of Shuichiro induce the story with a very appealing sense of mystery, which carries on to the end of the season, when a number of revelations come to the fore. At the same time, however, this part could have been handled a bit better by both Wakabayashi and writer Shinji Nojima, with the background of the two hosts and the presence of another, artificial girl, moving the narrative to paths that are somewhat excessive, despite the fact that they remain intriguing through their extremity. In that fashion, the sense of measure is somewhat lost during the end of the season, although the special that will screen in June and will conclude the series, could bring the narrative back together.

Despite this issue, “Wonder Egg Priority” remains a great title, where context and artistic prowess come together in the most impressive way, in one of best titles of 2021 so far.

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

My name is Panos Kotzathanasis and I am Greek. Being a fan of Asian cinema and especially of Chinese kung fu and Japanese samurai movies since I was a little kid, I cultivated that love during my adolescence, to extend to the whole of SE Asia.

Starting from my own blog in Greek, I then moved on to write for some of the major publications in Greece, and in a number of websites dealing with (Asian) cinema, such as Taste of Cinema, Hancinema, EasternKicks, Chinese Policy Institute, and of course, Asian Movie Pulse. in which I still continue to contribute.

In the beginning of 2017, I launched my own website, Asian Film Vault, which I merged in 2018 with Asian Movie Pulse, creating the most complete website about the Asian movie industry, as it deals with almost every country from East and South Asia, and definitely all genres.

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

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