Summary
Warning: This feature contains major spoilers for Wonder Egg Priority, now streaming onCrunchyroll. Much like the show discussed, it touches upon topics such as suicide, self-harm, abuse, and sexual assault.
From the first episode,Wonder Egg Priorityhad audiences hooked, thanks to incredible music, gorgeous animation, and an atmosphere that was equal parts eerie and fantastical. By the end, however, the love audiences had for this gem became tangled with an ever-increasing list of problems, from a confusing plot to a conclusion that left a lot unresolved.
Wonder Eggpremiered on July 30, 2025, directed by Shin Wakabayashi, written by Shinji Nojima, and animated at CloverWorks (Spy x Family,Promised Neverland,Fate/Grand Order Babylonia). It tells the story of Ai Ohto and her three new friends as they fight through a world of dreams to resurrect people close to them who took their own lives. While there are a lot of reasons that this show earned such a mixed reputation, there is one flaw at the heart of the storytelling that might put the series into perspective for those perplexed. This flaw lies in the conflict between the story that the showwantsto tell its viewers, versus the story that itactuallytells.
RELATED:What Happened to Wonder Egg Priority
A Tale of Two Stories
Over 12 episodes and one hour-long special, Wakabayashi and Nojimaendeavor to tell a science fiction storyabout AI, parallel worlds, and defeating the temptation of death itself. High-concept stuff, for sure, but what the story is actually about is girls combating their own self-doubts by putting the souls of suicide victims to rest. All of this is so that they can bring someone important to them back to life, even if it doesn’t turn out quite the way they hoped.
These stories do technically go hand-in-hand, with the former, ultimate story, becoming more present as the story goes on, but that’s part of the problem. So much of this story’s appeal beforehand hinges on the way ituses its fantasy trappings to discuss social issuessuch as bullying, abuse, sexual assault, and more. From as early as the premiere, the text is critical of the norms present in society that facilitate and perpetuate these issues.
Thus, the catharsis behind this series is in the girls getting posthumous justice for these victims. Perhaps they can’t undo what was done, but they can send the deceased off to the hereafter having vanquished the pain that pushed them to commit suicide in the first place. What sells this is that the audience sees Ai, Rika, Neiru, and Momoe all become closer and more equipped to deal with life’s problems.
Added to that,the show’s queer elements received due praiseand helped strengthen a message of self-love and acceptance that made the show so magnetic despite the darker elements. One of the main characters, Momoe Sawaki, struggles with their gender identity. The queer presence among the supporting cast and Momoe’s own discussions of gender madeWonder Eggfeel remarkably progressive, though even these bright spots would fall victim to the writing later on.
The Frill Problem
As the story progressed, the writers started trying to explain the world and its rules further, because logically the audience wants to know why things work the way they do. It’s a fair assessment given how much people online complain about plot holes when things aren’t made abundantly clear, but sometimes, there are things that don’t need to be explained.
Within the first three episodes,Wonder Eggestablishes its formula pretty clearly: there are Wonder Eggs, Wonder Killers, Seeno Evils, Haters, and so on.It’s a veryPersona-esque approachto modern fantasy storytelling, and in that sense, there’s not really a need to explainwhythis alternate world exists; it just does.
But the storytellers wanted to answer those questions, and thus they began to pull back the curtain. The concept of parallel worlds is introduced, as is the suggestion of traveling between them. Suddenly, everything the audience sees is presented less as magic and more as increasingly convoluted science,thus begging even more questions.
In the process of revealing one’s hand to an audience, writers can fall into the trap of answering questions the audience doesn’t even have or that they certainly don’t need. In particular,Wonder Egg Priorityseems to want to answer why girls are committing suicide as if the entire series hasn’t been quite colorfully illustrating the contributing factors since the start.
By the show’s logic, it wasn’t bullying, abuse, or depression responsible for suicide, but rather an AI named Frill, created by two dudes who decided to grow a daughter in a lab. The two de facto handlers for the main characters, Acca and Ura-Acca, were originally scientists who created Frill only to realize too late that they created a monster. Despite presumably dying, she continues to exist as the main antagonist in some nigh incomprehensible form.
Frillmight be the worst thing to happento the story, and this isn’t to say there couldn’t have been some supernatural big bad. The issue is that Frill is made out to be responsible for every teen suicide depicted within the show as the audience has come to know it. Framing the conflict in this way completely takes the story out of reality.
What Could Have Been
This series is a mess, but a mess wherein a lot of superb stuff sticks out that makes it very hard to hate the whole thing in spite of its numerous flaws. Part of the reason that fans still have an attachment to this series is because of how good the writing can be when it is focused on the girls and their emotional growth,to say nothing of the musicand animation.
There are many profound pieces of dialog, even if occasionally there’s a line that is just flat-out wrong. Episode 4 infamously featured a line where Acca and Ura-Acca suggested that Wonder Eggs only contain girls because girl and boy suicides are fundamentally different. This sentiment was a major sticking point for critics, and it goes to show how early cracks were forming.
The premise of bringing the main character’s dead friends back to life always seemed too good to be true andone of the finale’s best qualitieswas that it confirmed this. Death is inevitable, and people aren’t meant to bring the dead back to life, but as a community, people can strive to prevent things like suicide together.
Wonder Egg Priorityseemed to be building up to its leads becoming stronger, more confident young women who would stand up to bullies and raise their voices when they saw something wrong. Instead, the story became so wrapped up in sci-fi concepts that it lost focus, and the end result was a finale that concluded nothing and has since offered little hope for a continuation. It remains an imperfect gem and one of anime’s most fascinating brief sensations.
MORE:Shows To Watch If You Enjoyed Wonder Egg Priority
