Info
- Title:: Wonder Egg Priority
- TitleEN:: Wonder Egg Priority
- Studio:: CloverWorks
- Year:: 2021
- Format:: series
- Episodes:: 12
Log
2021-06-08 – 2021-06-19, 2021-07-09
i heard that this one has transmasc representation, and also that it’s a seasonal anime that’s actually good.
truth be told, it was the first of these reasons that brought me in.
Episode 1: The Domain of Children
ok yeah i have a good feeling about this one
already it’s setting up a lot of interesting pieces and themes to explore, and the overall premise is one that i find engaging (even if it is madoka for the lonely).
(except the homura route was already madoka for the lonely)
- you can tell the trans ones because of their interest in “frog.”
also by their hoodies- edit: the transmasc character doesn’t show up until ep10. ai is gorl.
- having someone who seems nice and friendly and engaging still end up committing suicide is, well, it’s real.
- and wishing you could get back the friendships you lost is also nothing if not universal.
- ai is really cute. i would absolutely smash, even if it would be genderweird (would it? i’m too genderweird to tell)
- edit: it wouldn’t be.
- if the school nightmares are a recurring theme here then it gives me solace to think that my church nightmares can be justified in this way too.
Episode 2: The Terms of Friendship
can’t wait for it to be revealed that the egg is a metaphor for coming out of your shell.
- the new girl in this episode absolutely gives me battered women vibes, in a way that’s really heartbreaking to see.
- i’m starting to think that the key to victory just might be paying attention to the other person’s needs and actually trying to make a connection with them instead of just trying to brute-force defeat their demons. just like how therapy works outside of anime too!
- wait, is ai left-handed? (maybe not, since she was just holding her juice in the left hand. but she holds her pen in her right hand.)
- the friends that ai has been making so far only confirm my belief that abnormal people attract similarly abnormal people.
Episode 3: A Bare Knife
one of these hero girls is gonna fuckin’ chomp it soon. call it my madoka instincts.
just based on this opening, i assume the rationale would be that they realize their idol was never really worth saving.
rika is fascinating though.
oh my god i love these characters. even when they disgust me i love them.
- a: maybe it’s never that simple. and maybe that’s what i like about this show. nobody has a purely simplistic motivation, even when someone is presented who you’d expect to have simplistic motivations.
Episode 4: Colorful Girls
opening thoughts:
“oh fuck"
"oh fuck"
"holy shit.”
oh my god queer romance.
oh my god here’s the transphobia.
oh god here’s the internalized transphobia.
oh god time to listen to candy and cry again.
she’s so adorable and it hurts so much and i love her.
- that scene where she catches her reflection in a window and starts crying is basically what it’s like, yeah
- maybe i should be upset or something that they had her deadname herself [edit: wait, does she?] and waver on her identity but i get that! i’ve been there. and i was forced to boymode for way too long and listen to all the gender essentializing shit spouted off by people in the background.
Episode 5: The Girl Flautist
damn the girl here is p cute too…
i wonder if neiru becoming guns girl is a metaphor for keeping her emotional distance.
oops rika is making sense.
Episode 6: Punch-Drunk Day
can’t believe we’re getting the title drop now
also hell yeah they have a group chat now.
also hell yeah they have a thing for each other.
also ooh shit they have a thing for each other too.
god i wish a student would have the hots for me
(though i don’t fully understand this development)
Episode 7: After School at 14
awww this is a really touching episode.
they make such a good friend group.
Episode 8: The Happy Friendship Plan
the recap episode. but actually this one gives us new information (or maybe gives the info in a clearer manner) so i’m ok with it.
- whenever ai pulls her cheeks out it’s really adorable
- i love how the narrator doesn’t out momoe as trans
Episode 9: A Story No One Knows
please let them be friends forever
- oh to be a eugenics baby
- the ending of the op where ai is running her fingers along the monkey bars is such a specific act that happens to capture her personality perfectly
(really the opening is full of a lot of specific acts. the show is too, in general, which makes it visceral to watch to the point of it being slightly painful) - i can’t believe neiru bought the galaxy lamp from a viral tweet
- this episode seems a bit too close to debates about right to death and resuscitation and stuff, and maybe i just don’t know enough about it to take a strong opinion
- i can’t believe that quote phoebe posted was probably taken from here
i’m ready son
Episode 10: Confession
i want to kiss momoe
- oh so this is the transmasc character i heard about, and not ai.
still, leading with his trauma is a bit much. but also he’s pretty hella. - oh yay they packed my trauma in the show too.
- yay.
Episode 11: An Adult Child
it’s been a good while since i’ve had a nightmare.
maybe that means i’ve become more mentally well-adjusted.
i have less to fear.
“we made a girl, for fun” is so powerful.
…
holy shit this lore dump.
did it come out of nowhere? maybe.
does it function well as a standalone story? i think so.
the morning after…
now that i think about it, i can’t help but feel like this revelation actually ruins the show somewhat. like, one of the best things about the show is how it portrays trauma in a fairly sensible and compassionate way, and i think it treats suicide with the same level of reasonability. but the introduction of frill makes the rationale for suicide tantamount to “the devil made her do it,” and that one simple paradigm shift undoes more than one might think it would.
Episode 12: An Unvanquished Warrior
is it bad that my first thought upon seeing the body double is quick, kiss yourself.
awww oh my god.
- koito has a foot fetish confirmed
- that crater hit is really good
…and then it just ends?
(it looks like a special is set to premiere june 30th. maybe that’ll wrap things up)
(or, it better. there are so many loose ends that need resolved)
*fan theory: 2021-06-20
ok so it’s implied that completing the program and saving the girl results in the creation of a parallel universe where that girl lived.
we also see that ai committed suicide in one universe, and in the current universe she still attempted suicide but koito was there to save her.
…does this mean that koito went through this same program to create a universe in which ai is saved?
Special Episode: My Priority
time to be disappointed in another anime’s ending.
wait is this the second recap segment? like, i know this is a special that aired later, but still.
and it’s over half the runtime!
neiru talking to herself with her bunny slippers is really adorable.
and ok so the people saved are returned to this reality.
i can’t tell if the ending is setting up for a second season, but even if it is, what more is there really to say?
it feels like this show had a really cogent point to make about grief, but it made that point sometime around episode 5. the special episode helped develop it from there by showing the most obvious followup question – the “is it still worth it for her to be alive if she doesn’t like you anymore?” – but it didn’t go too far in that direction either. and i want to try real hard to synthesize it all into some grander statement that what we miss in people are the memories we shared with them, but the anime seems more concerned with developing some story about ai humans and parallel universes… but not all the way, mind you.
maybe it especially hurts because it showed trauma and suicides that feel realistic to everyday life, and now that the story has ballooned past the interpersonal it ends up cheapening that trauma as a consequence.
2022-02-19 – 2022-02-??
this time while on vc with chloe, because she really wanted to watch this one.
- i can’t believe that, with that one “temptation line” in ep4, they absolutely foreshadow frill. which means that they weren’t just writing from the hip once they fell behind schedule. they were planning this twist the whole time.