Anime Impressions: Wonder Egg Priority

<p>Wonder Egg Priority is the new <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;anime-impressions-the-promised-neverland-season-2&sol;">psychological<&sol;a> anime from studio <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;anime-impressions-horimiya&sol;">Clover Works<&sol;a> that aims to be the most unique anime airing this season&comma; and judging by the first episode alone&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s certainly succeeding so far&period; Rarely do we see an anime debut that sticks the landing&period; Or an anime that&&num;8217&semi;s able to capture and intrigue its audience with distinct albeit obvious symbolism that depicts a clear message&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;yuriempire&period;files&period;wordpress&period;com&sol;2021&sol;01&sol;ai-holding-a-strange-egg&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Wonder Egg Priority " width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center"> An Intriguing Premise<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The episode starts with our loner heroine Ai Ohto who&&num;8217&semi;s seen walking alone at night and is eventually approached by a mysterious disembodied stranger who calls her attention towards a Gachapon machine full of mysterious eggs&period; She then finds an egg on her bed the next day&comma; and upon realizing the strange event the night before wasn&&num;8217&semi;t a dream&comma; she sets out to return to the place where she got the egg but winds up in a mysterious alternate world instead&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;wallpapercave&period;com&sol;wp&sol;wp8334861&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Wonder Egg Priority " width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center">Sensitive Themes and Symbolism<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The episode shows this supernatural world as a mysterious school that houses symbolic portrayals of bullying&comma; such as creatures called the &&num;8220&semi;Seeno Evils&comma;&&num;8221&semi; which are personifications of those who ignore bullying&comma; as well as a malevolent girl who serves as the perpetrator of said bullying&period;  It is also in this world where Ai breaks the egg she&&num;8217&semi;s been carrying after being instructed to by the pushy mysterious voice&period; Upon doing so&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s revealed the egg contained another school girl named Kuruni&comma; and the two begin their struggle to evade their sinister pursuers&period; After briefly getting to know each other&comma; their pursuers eventually return&comma; but Ai chooses to abandon Kuruni as she’s isn’t their target&period; The anime then uses this as a cue to effortlessly flashback to her past&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ai is also no stranger to bullying due to her unique condition called Heterochromia &lpar;where both eyes have different colors&rpar;&comma; which causes her to be incredibly reserved&period; Though this changes a bit when she meets Koito&comma; a new student who takes a liking to her&period; However&comma; without giving us the full details&comma; we also learn that Koito eventually committed suicide most likely due to bullying from her peers&comma; and Ai has been burdened by guilt ever since as it hints that she most likely did nothing to help Koito in her time of need&period; Just as she&&num;8217&semi;s now done with Kuruni&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Coupled with the symbolic enemies and past trauma&comma; this scene makes the message the anime sets out to tell quite evident&period;  As she recalls the trauma and guilt of not helping her only friend from the very same bullying she&&num;8217&semi;s accustomed to&comma; Ai finally gets a chance to set things right due to this mysterious egg that&&num;8217&semi;s conveniently appeared in her life&period; She finally shows courage by helping Kurumi defeat her pursers&comma; and in doing so&comma; she also gives herself enough hope and confidence to do it again after discovering that the more lives she saves&comma; the higher her chances of bringing back Koito&period; Though this was never really stated as a fact&comma; and I fear it may just be Ai assuming things&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i0&period;wp&period;com&sol;wrongeverytime&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;01&sol;January12143507&period;jpg&quest;resize&equals;1920&percnt;2C1080" alt&equals;"Wonder Egg Priority " width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center">Stellar Production and Direction<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Despite its looks&comma; Wonder Egg Priority is not a light hearted show&period; The anime deals with heavy and sensitive topics and depicts bloody violence and gruesome death&period; The scenes in the alternate world also look like they&&num;8217&semi;ve been ripped straight out of a Satoshi Kon film and is highly creative with its albeit on-the-nose symbolism&period; Production-wise&comma; Wonder Egg Priority is quite a marvel to behold as dramatic as that may sound&period; Its visuals are beautiful and surprisingly well detailed&period; The animation also accurately projects the character&&num;8217&semi;s feelings through their body language &lpar;seen when Ai wraps herself in her yellow hoodie before stepping out and when spreading her hair to cover her left eye when she first meets Kuruni&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Each song heard in the episode also sounds excellent and accurately fits each critical scene&period; All of this is set up by the fantastic direction from Shin Wakabayashi that shows the consistency of a feature-length film&period; However&comma; what I noticed and appreciated the most out of the production is the expert level voice acting heard from the characters&comma; especially from those voicing Koito and AI&period; Azusa Tadokoro and Kanata Aikawa did an excellent job of voicing the characters and portraying their emotions with each slight change in pitch and tone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i1&period;wp&period;com&sol;wrongeverytime&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;01&sol;January12130931&period;jpg&quest;resize&equals;1920&percnt;2C1080" alt&equals;"Wonder Egg Priority " width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h4 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center">Final Thoughts<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; Wonder Egg Priority is the most pleasant surprise for me this season&period; While it tackles a dark and risky subject matter&comma; its message and execution alone are worth it enough to see where this peculiar anime will lead us&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you haven’t seen Wonder Egg Priority&comma; its available to stream right now on<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;funimation&period;com&sol;shows&sol;wonder-egg-priority&sol;the-domain-of-children&sol;&quest;qid&equals;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank"><strong> Funimation<&sol;strong><&sol;a><b>&period;<&sol;b><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Have you seen Wonder Egg Priority&quest; What do you think of our impressions&quest; Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;