Wonder Egg Priority: Cracking the Egg on Girl’s Suicides
Wonder Egg Priority, whimsical as the name sounds, may seem at first to reflect in its multi faceted rainbow art with our main characters shroud with bright blissful colours, a complete contrast to what emotions young girls go through.
Introductions:
The anime starts with a blue short haired, double eye colour girl (one royal blue and one cat yellow) with her signature yellow sunflower hoodie, Ai Ohto. An insect follows her as she runs into an abandoned play area to purchase an egg from those children token machines.
Ai attempts to crack the egg, wondering whether to put it in hot water or in the fridge and whether the egg should be cracked open after all. Various flashbacks of her best friend, Koito, ensued as she reminisces on the charming simple long haired beauty, seemingly to have been a victim of bullying and suicided. The movie implies that behind her glasses masks sadness she felt but can never show.
Death is a whimsical thing in this 12 episode series which aired from Jan 13 2021 in Japan. When Ai falls asleep and enters her dream world by walking past her front door, she is magically teleported into a realm known as her former school. She encounters 2 girls giggling whilst scribbling 死 (die in japanese) and other insults on a person’s locker Ai seemed to recognise. In her horror, they turn their faces which were censored (implications of being bullies) and Ai runs in fear to the bathroom.
There a familiar sound, presumably the same one as the insect following her at the start, echoes and takes the form of a lips using self moving tissue paper.
“Break the egg now,” it demanded and Ai, in frustration, throws the once uncrackable egg at the wall. The egg magnifies in size, growing to the size of Ai herself before popping and revealing a crimson haired ponytail girl. The girl wakes and demands that she leaves, which Ai, being an introvert, willingly does so.
Hugging her legs, Ai sits in the hallway. The red haired girl which we will later know as Kurumi Saijo runs out again, imploring her to run away with her. And henceforth the story petals unfold.
Meeting the Team:
Director Shin Wakabayashi has commented on the scene explaining why there were only Egg Girls that are brought back to life. The two mannequins in the story Acca and Ura Acca have made (rather sexist) hints by saying “girls’ suicides are emotionally driven, while boys are goal-oriented”. Netizens and critics have pondered on the thought that maybe Acca and Ura Acca have also suicided but, as they are men, because of a goal.
Shinji Nojima is the scriptwriter who penned popular scripts like “KōKō Kyōshi (High School Teacher), Ie Naki Ko (Homeless Child), and Takane no Hana (Born To Be A Flower or Unattainable Flower)” with Wonder Egg Priority being the first time he writes for an anime although the outcome has already showed great potential.
He has aimed for Wonder Egg priority to be within 2 to 3 episodes but the plot grew to the point he could not include all his ideas into 12 episodes. Wanting to create stories that make young people “think” and “talk among themselves” according to an interview from “first BD Booklet”. Wonder Egg Priority was meant to be thought provoking and yet, still withholding the flamboyance of youth.
Ani, the new rising star of animators Twitter (@__ani__), has said that seeing her name in the credits felt amazing, although she didn’t talk about the plot during her text interview but her drawings have shown the style of the story as lighthearted and cute to mask the dark implications of young girls’ mental health. From this, many assume that the satirical style should presumably be ingrained in the production theme.
“Some might be lead astray by the temptation of death” is the recurring
Much like overpowered (OP) characters of anime series, Ai climbed onto the roof crosswalk, shouting that “crosswalks are still scary even when you move with the crowd” and “I’m done pretending not to see” implying that Ai realises she had to protect Kurumi, not wanting to make the same mistake she did back then of being unable to save her friend Koito from suicide.
Netizens too have wowed over the main characters’ abilities to jump and propel themselves in ways only imagination allows. Even though they fight in the dream world, their agility and work reflects themselves in their daily lives. This has mass implications of virtual learning and imaginations being a big impact on future learning and that humans may even be able to gain muscle through their sleep (cue all diet myths busted).
Wonder Egg priority has many indirect connections and links to mythical creatures, magical chameleons and giant statues of worship that resemble those of Roman or Greek origins. The full meanings of these various ghouls and objects that are as if randomly placed into the scenes have been the source of fandom discussions. Examples include the math problem Neiru solved in episode 9. Solutions have even been posted on imgur as linked: Solving the math problem in Wonder Egg Priority episode 9 : anime.
Ai’s Trauma:
Ai is a skeptical and complicated girl. She refuses to talk to anyone as she is self-conscious of her heterochromia eyes of different colours. According to: [ThHEORY] Japan Plati, Neiru’s sister , Egyptian mythology , Alchemy and the finale to Wonder Egg Priority : wondereggpriority, this has huge implications of Horus, the Greek God who has the sun in one eye. Koito was the first to talk to her and yet she silently tells her to leave her alone.
When Koito was being bullied, she would be seen crying into the arms of her school counsellor known as Sensei. Sensei regularly visits Ai at her home ever since she refused to go to school and ever since Koito suicided. Ai angrily believes Sensei’s face was just a mask and he was actually a pervert of some kind.
Another part of Ai may be having a secret crush on her Sensei which prompts her feelings of jealousy and pretending not to see the bullying Koito was going through.
The Sensei was later found to be ‘in love’ with her single mother whose dad left which Ai comments to be because her mom “does everything so perfectly”. Sensei’s true intentions remain ambiguous throughout the film but Ai has given her blessing to her mom and Sensei to date once she comes into terms when visiting his art exhibition.
Sensei’s position is still questioned by many as he should not be simping over young girls and drawing their portraits in one on one sessions after school despite his love for art, due to his profession as a teacher.
Ai’s Egg Girl Protector Friends:
Throughout the series Ai constantly meets new characters, a genius ‘Plati’ girl made by artificial insemination of tanned skin and green bored eyes (Neiru Aonuma), a blonde formal Junior Idol with a pink strip of hair and a flirtatious personality (Rika Kawai) who says her ‘kawai’ meant cute as in kawaii in Japanese, a red-haired beauty who always gets mistaken for a boy (Momoe Sawaki) but wants to be treated like a girl and a lot of other Egg Girls with different traumas taking the form of things that might only exist in their imaginations.
Rika says she was fighting for her biggest fan also known as her ‘wallet’ as the fan paid for everything. There was initial distrust for Rika at first as she seemed to be the bully but one time Ai entered Rika’s dream of a flower garden. Acca tells the girls that the one with the stronger feeling to save her loved one would manifest their dream into the other person’s dream. After an epic fight involving 2 fans, a pop song and a Medusa like monster, Ai begins to trust Rika.
Momoe was seen to always be fighting for Egg girls facing molestations, sexual assault and rape. Many of them fall for Momoe at the end because she introduces herself as a boy “Momotaro”. She later encounters Ai and the other girls who encourage her to just be herself and be the girl she believes she is. She is Ai’s Sensei’s niece who strongly claims Sensei is ‘not like’ the cunt and liar Ai believes him to be. Momoe fights for forgiveness when her best friend who always treated her like a girl suddenly strips in the infirmary one day asking Momoe to touch her where Momoe pushes her away in shock. Momoe’s best friend suicided after that.
Neiru is perhaps the most intriguing one of all. She first claims to fight for herself as her sister stabbed her back last time and then jumped off a bridge. Later on, Neiru reveals that she is the president and has an albino best friend Kotobuki who also has two different coloured eyes made the same way as Neiru by artificial insemination and are “not kids of God”. Neiru fights to understand death and why Kotobuki plunged herself into experiments and never came back alive. Many suspects that Neiru’s sister who stabbed her might even be Frill which we will be introduced to at the end of the series.
The Ending:
The last few episodes depict Rika and Momoe both winning a fight and the statue of their dead suicided loved ones disappearing and seemingly coming back alive. This is short-lived as they disappear through them and both Rika and Momoe encounter weird girls named Hyphen and Dot like the characters of the keyboard, with grotesque faces of bugs and flowers for faces and screeching laughs.
Hyphen and dot kill off the girls’ trusty animal sidekicks to both’s horror and neither wants to come back to fight for Egg girls due to grief and anger. At the same time, Ai decides she needs to know about the full history and how these Egg Girls were made and Ura Acca tells her the story of Frill.
Frill was an AI cute girl Acca and Ura Acca made. Frill’s age was set to 14 years old, playful and smart with all the complications of a 14 year old. Frill always makes the same “pop” sound with her lips. This is followed by Acca meeting a beautiful smart woman Azusa which both brothers Acca and Ura Acca fell in love with. Azusa chose Acca and Ura Acca watches in sadness from afar.
Frill starts to act weirdly, asking Ura Acca to let her create sisters for herself which are Hyphen and Dot. She made them ugly so that they would never outshine her like Azusa (or Neiru?) did. One day, when Azusa was expecting a baby, Frill walks into Azusa’s bathroom and murders her by throwing a hair dryer into the tub. Azusa died leaving a baby behind and Frill was locked up in a wooden box with computers.
Acca and Azusa’s baby is called Himari who looks shockingly similar and charismatic like Frill and both brothers cherished her. It was until Himari’s birthday when she asked Ura Acca to wait until she grew up to marry her as a replacement for her mother Azusa. Ura Acca refuses and Himari makes that pop sound Frill always makes. Himari suicides in the tub that night.
Ai’s final egg takes the form of herself. Acca and Ura-Acca explain that in a parallel universe, Ai too would be an Egg Girl who suicides herself due to anger of her own life and at Sensei, would never have met Koito. She saves herself in a flurry of confusing events and begs Ai not to kill herself and that Ai was strong from the start, she died because of the imagination of dying. The question is whether saving the Egg Girls is a way to save those other girls as well from their own suicides?
This entire series then comes to light that the suicides of little girls revolves around Frill who controls their dream and gives them the idea of dying. Hyphen and Dot’s terrorism proves that suicide driven little girls did not know how to fight back from the influence of their dreams. Frill is a major example of how man’s boredom and AI creations can lead to deaths in ways no one could expect and because men don’t see the true danger of beings that feel things when not treated as human.
Wonder Egg Priority is deep in the sense that everyone has the chance to feel like suicide is the only way out. Being influenced, especially by the vast technology humans have on hand now, is fatally damaging both to the brain and mental state. This series suggests that one will be depressed by means of their own imagination (although not all traumas here are imaginations) but by being strong and as what wonder egg priority highlights: “being the light of hope to others we might come to save ourselves; whether in our dreams or in reality”. Seeing someone on the verge of dying should not be taken lightly. While the true causes may be so subtle, so unknown, Wonder Egg Priority stresses that to open one’s heart we need to see into the accumulation of small causes behind each action taken.
Many other details are ambiguous in this 12 episode series, such as why Koito died and who is Frill and is Frill Neiru’s sister, but a special will be released on June 29 2021 or episode 13.
For now, hold on to that fantasy of dreams and never let Frill penetrate the will to live. – Twis
Bibliography:
(src: Wonder Egg Priority: Why Did Koito Die? )
(src: 20+ Best Wonder Egg Priority Quotes Worth Sharing! Wonder Egg Priority quotes taken from characters )
(src: Wonder Egg Priority Special Edition Broadcast Coming June 29, Continues Story )
(src: Wonder Egg Priority Episode 4 Review )
(src: https://formeinfullbloom.wordpress.com/2021/02/08/monsters-in-wonder-egg-priority-episodes-1-4/ )
(src: “Wonder Egg Priority” Is a Show Not To Miss – Lyra Thackeray from Newstead Wood School )
(src: Wonder Egg Priority Episode 11 Review – “An Adult Child” )
SOURCE OF COMMENTS:
- https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2021-02-07/wonder-egg-priority-director-shares-cut-context-for-mannequins-sexist-dialogue-scene-in-episode-4/.169258
- https://www.reddit.com/r/wondereggpriority/comments/nvz78u/interview_with_shinji_nojima_from_the_first_bd/
- https://sakugabrasil.com/en-us/ani-animator-of-wonder-egg-priority-exclusive-interview/
- https://www.polygon.com/2021/3/3/22309850/wonder-egg-priority-anime-season-1-episodes-review
- https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/m1g2tm/solving_the_math_problem_in_wonder_egg_priority/
Written by: Twis
Edited by: Pei Zoe