Wonder Egg Priority arrives on the Wakanim platform in 2021. Behind colorful attire, the original creation of CloverWorks studios shatters all expectations and causes a tidal wave among fans of japanimation. Back on the WEP Project phenomenon!
The story
Ai Ohto is a lonely girl. Harassed at school, she has not been going to class for several months. His only moments of tranquility consist of long walks at nightfall. It was during one of his nocturnal trips that Ai made a funny encounter… and discovers the power to fight monsters in the heart of his dreams.
My dear Alice…
Wonder Egg Priority immediately gives the impression of a dark and psychedelic reinterpretation of Alice in Wonderland. Indeed, the anime shares the same symbolism as Lewis Caroll's flagship work. After his encounter with a strange talking animal (here a beetle), Ai Ohto must, literally, throw himself into a hole to access the garden of an imposing house. There, are the masters of the place, facsimiles of scarecrows named Acca and Acca-verso (Ura-Acca in VO). They then entrust their mission to the young teenager: to protect the "Wonder Eggs " at all costs. These eggs actually contain young girls, whose trauma will have to be exorcised by the one who has custody of them. And what a trauma, since we quickly understand that all these girls have voluntarily ended their lives. An echo of Ai's own wounds, since her best friend also committed suicide. Would rescuing the unknowns from the Wonder Eggs allow Ai to understand the reasons for his action? Or even to bring her friend back to life?
Wonder Egg Priority: Shock Therapy
Navigating between dream and reality, Wonder Egg Priority places the viewer directly alongside Ai. We discover and understand the rules at the same time as she does. We also suffer at the same times. This narrative process reinforces the attachment we have towards this character. Like a rather hardcore shônen, Wonder Egg Priority pushes its protagonists to their limits. In a kind of uncompromising coming of age, Ai, Neiru, Rika and the others must, in order to move forward, put all their traumas on the table. Those who shaped them as well as those who prevent them from continuing to live. The appearance of the antagonist who seems to be pulling the strings of all this also brings the anime into a new dimension. With a brutal break in the atmosphere, or even a switch to pure and simple horror, Wonder Egg Priority then enters its second phase. Here are addressed questions about transhumanism, the excesses of science and the dichotomous fascination between life and death.
Wonder Egg Priority: an atmosphere that stands out
Wonder Egg Priority immediately catches the eye with its neat and colorful chara-design, signed Saki Takahashi. Adapting a script by Shinji Nojima, director Shin Wakabayashi offers us a fluid animation, alternating smoothly between everyday scenes and Dantesque fights. A certain melancholy emerges from the protagonists, as we get to know them. Like opening and ending, fragmented, both sad and engaging, broken families are revealed, youth confronts the responsibilities that come with adulthood. The viewer finds himself engaged in the quest of these girls forced to risk their lives for others. He is also looking for answers to his questions, many, like Serial Experiment Lain. Unfortunately, this season alone, despite a thirteenth episode of one hour sequenced in two parts, recap and development, raises more than it solves. Could we see the beginning of a season 2? This is what we wish in any case, for this anime that does not hesitate to come and jostle its viewer, both fascinated voyeur and helpless victim of a unique work of its kind. An anime eyeing genre film, Wonder Egg Priority offers a hallucinatory attire. Mixing dream and reality until they become one, this work is not to be put in all hands. Like Ningyo, a new gem from Glénat, Wonder Egg Priority puts sensitive subjects on the table. But thanks to the strength of Ai and her friends, he shows us that overcoming his fears and traumas is possible.
