Feb 3, 2021
So I reviewed Wonder Egg Priority last week out of pure excitement for the series, but it got taken down since episode 4 wasn't even out yet, so I figured I'd come back now to finish the job. Originally I gave the show a 10 for reasons I'll elaborate on in the review itself, but as you can see I've bumped it down to a 9.
I'm going to split this review a little structurally since I feel the series has taken a turn in terms of its consistency. Therefore the first three episodes will be discussed for most of the review before the fourth episode.
Firstly
...
the show looks gorgeous, obviously. Really beautiful main frames, animation that while not always smooth usually delivers great personality for each individual character and varied settings that make the world feel full and cohesive, even if it mostly doesn't feel all that connected at the moment.
The soundtrack and sound design aren't too special, but they do their job alright. The voice acting is great on the other hand, bringing out more personality in these already great characters.
The story is where the show really shined, with its thought-provoking representation of different ideas and great imagery across the board, creating this beautifully dreamlike landscape to explore all these interesting ideas through. The plot itself isn't exactly crystal-clear to understand, but its purpose is all too clear in spite of that. It doesn't reveal exactly everything at first glance, but it reveals enough over time that each scene on its own feels fulfilling and rewarding to watch in some way.
The pacing is also fantastic, managing to achieve so much in a relatively average length episode, it made the first feel like a movie to me.
What I still love most about this anime is the characters, who manage to incorporate so much complexity and relatability into just a bunch of 14 year old girls. Even for how revealing the dialogue is for each character, it all comes together so naturally and feels like you never miss a beat of their personal development as the series goes on. Plus the character designs are amazing, especially Ai's.
And now this is the part where I have to talk about episode 4.
The plot dropped all its narrative tension and instead went down this path of Persona 5-ish corniness that made it feel like some R-rated Saturday morning cartoon rather than Wonder Egg Priority. The fight scene felt dragged on, boring and overall horribly misdirected from where the third episode left off.
And then the worldbuilding had to take that stupid turn when it came to gender representation. Don't get me wrong, I love Momoe and this has nothing to do with her at all. But there was one bit of exposition that irked me more than just a bit, which I'll leave a surprise for whoever decides to watch the show after seeing this review.
Also the pacing was way weaker than the rest of the series too, which left me thinking "That's it?" by the time the episode ending. It wasn't really bad pacing for an anime, but a huge step down from the last few episodes.
Nonetheless, I'd still recommend this show to just about anyone, really. It's cute, it's well-written for the most part and it has this special energy about it that makes it all the more compelling.
EDIT: On further inspection, I have hopes for the worldbuilding still. This show has the potential to pull itself back up to a 10, but for now I can't be perfectly sure, so a 9 will do.
EDIT 2:
It's been a few episodes now, so I think now's a good time to update my thoughts. Not much has really changed about my opinion, and the last 3 episodes (not counting the recap) have been pretty much up to series standard, in fact I'd say 6 and 7 were a couple of my favourite episodes of the series so far; the animation is still very much on-point, and the characterisation has been getting better and better recently.
As for that rather worrying scene, I'm pretty much not bothered by it any more for reasons I'm not going to disclose in this review.
EDIT 3: My thoughts on this series have changed drastically overall since this review, but for now I'm going to keep this up and wait until the end of the series to rewrite it. For now have the new rating as an indicator.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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