Wonder Egg Priority – Episode 12

[Alderis]

Wonder Egg Priority – Episode 12

[html]

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we dive into the last chapter of a tangled and frequently devastating drama, with the final plus-sized episode of Wonder Egg Priority standing before us. There is much left to resolve, but after our triumphant preceding episode, I have more hope than ever that Ai will be able to reach and rescue her friends from whatever fate Plati, Frill, or the wonder egg arbiters have in store for them. Isolated within a demeaning, misogynistic culture that seems all but indifferent to their pain, Ai and the others briefly found community in each other – but in the wake of Frill’s rebellion against her cruel parents, their bonds have frayed and left each of them painfully alone.

Or at least, so they believed. Our last episode offered a quiet, insistent challenge to that feeling, that understandable instinct to crawl up within yourself and reject all external stimulus, determined to at least avoid the pain of judgment and disappointment. It is a cruel contradiction that in the depths of depression, it actually becomes all the more important to open ourselves up to potential pain, to seek the validation and unconditional support that might remind us of emotions beyond self-loathing, fatigue, and certainty that life will always be this way. For Ai, that realization came in the form of her own alternate self, the version of her who never found a friend with whom to share her feelings, and thus never wavered from the path towards self-annihilation.

To this new Ai, our own uncertain heroine seemed like a figure of confidence and wonder, a model inspiring her to genuine hope for her own future. And through those unclouded eyes, the Ai we’ve followed was able to recall the gentle, unerring support of her mother, who pledged to love her daughter no matter what path she chose. Spurred on by these unexpected allies, Ai vowed to believe in her own future, knowing that it is only through that irrational, desperate hope for tomorrow that she can find the strength to protect those she loves. With Ai’s own personal trials completed, let’s charge towards the future!

Episode 12

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We open on Ai recollecting her friendship with Koito, offering more reminders of this show’s exceptional color design, staging, and intricate hair animation. Wonder Egg Priority’s aesthetic fundamentals are some of the strongest in recent memory; it’s one of few modern anime that feel genuinely cinematic, each shot staged with deliberate dramatic intent

“After that, I stopped going to school.” This declaration is accompanied by a cut demonstrating precisely how she feels: Ai trudging forward on a treadmill at home, knowing she has to keep walking, but equally certain that she’s not making any headway

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The conceit of these statues of the girls right before the moments of their deaths remains painfully evocative. These statues echo the stasis of our wonder egg girls, capturing the moment their minds have rehearsed over and over, the continuous refrain of “is there something I could have done? Would it have gone any differently if I had been there?” The last moment before they failed in what they perceived as their most fundamental duty, captured forever in these statues

“There was a part of me that resented her. We were friends, so why didn’t she talk to me?” An understandable feeling in the wake of this sort of tragedy, and one that we are likely to regard as callous or selfish – why are we making a friend’s pain about ourselves? But it is perfectly natural to feel that sense of hurt, that tug of demanding an explanation, and even that bitterness that they didn’t reach out when they were in need, trusting in our desire to protect them

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One of the things I most love about Wonder Egg Priority – its willingness to dive into the substance of our most uncharitable yet perfectly natural feelings, to sympathize with both the desperation or emptiness of those who can’t go on, and the ambiguous hurt of those left behind

And this OP still gets me every time. Such a profoundly felt articulation of “hope after the storm,” of staring out at the world and seeing it as a place worth living in, for perhaps the first time in as long as you can remember

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We then run through brief introductions of our other heroines. Rika is defensive and terrible at expressing her more charitable thoughts, but that “this is not Chiemi” at the funeral strikes home. A wail of regret in the only language she can think of, an acknowledgment that her philosophy of beauty was entirely hollow

Then Momo, wrapped up in expectations she can’t fulfill, pigeonholed by society even more than her friends

And Neiru, proud and aloof, but in need of a friend who can bring her back to earth

The reintroduction of their familiars offers a welcome reminder that in spite of its heavy subject matter, Wonder Egg can also pull off some excellent goofy-ass faces

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“I’d like to let you go. Out of respect for the way you’ve risked your life for friendship. But you see, Frill will get mad at me if she finds out.” Having now learned Frill’s life story, this comment from the first of Frill’s own children rings all the more tragic. Frill actually created girls who can sympathize fully with those suffering through these wonder egg trials, but Frill herself has suffered too much to empathize with girls she sees as collaborators of Acca and Ura-Acca. The abuse we suffer from the callous exploitation and indifference of men like Plati’s creators doesn’t just affect our own lives – it is a poison we carry with us, spoiling our ability to feel sympathy for fellow victims, making our interactions with the world an expression of bitterness and despair rather than an articulation of our original personalities

And yet, even in spite of her own bitter perspective on the world, Frill chose to create subordinates who actually sympathize with others. Her children are an expression of her enduring hope, a hope she would deny herself, but which she could not help but offer to her creations

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“Her partner Panic was killed, and she had an overwhelming fear of death implanted in her.” Interesting phrasing, alluding to the fact that it was precisely because the wonder egg warriors did not value their own lives highly that they were able to continue fighting through such dangerous trials. A point that is rarely considered in anime, where the call to action is generally supposed to scan as an inspiring, validating fulfillment of your youthful ambitions, but which informs many of the best narratives in the medium. Chainsaw Man’s Denji fights because he has no other choice in our capitalist hellscape, Evangelion’s Shinji fights because he sees no other way to assert his value to others, and even Hunter x Hunter’s Gon fights because there is something broken inside him, something that drives him to destroy his own body freely in pursuit of his goals. But with their trials over, friends saved, and own lives to lose, Wonder Egg’s heroines now require something more than indifference towards the future to propel them into life-or-death situations

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Among them, Ai is the only one who has taken a step beyond simply surviving the trials, subsequently pledging herself to loving and protecting others. She has a reason to fight in spite of the danger, not just no reason to value her own life

The butterfly heads of Frill’s children seem like an easy enough metaphor – she intentionally made girls who had already “bloomed” through the chrysalis stage of adolescence into their full forms, thus presumably freeing them from the menace of men who simply want adolescent waifs to exploit. Their names, on the other hand, seem to point towards her understandable fear of abandonment – they are mere accompaniments of expressions, dots and hyphens rather than real people, so they will never be favored over Frill herself

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“We tried to picture a being that we could love like a daughter. That would make us forget it was an AI.” Their intentions are corrupt from the start, their language emphasizing the inherent make-believe aspect of what they intended. Frill’s own feelings were never considered in their calculations – it was only “can this simulacrum please us enough to temporarily fool us into believing it is a person.” No surprise that, given their entirely selfish approach to creating Frill, they were equally cavalier about tossing her away like a toy they’d grown bored of. And their behavior echoes all Wonder Egg Priority’s oppressors, who see young women as existing to satisfy their own needs, not as independent human beings who deserve the right to make their own choices, and to grow into maturity without fear of the power-hungry narcissism of adult predators

“We set her age as 14.” Even this choice emphasizes their self-absorbed intentions, creating a girl who can never grow up and gain independence, who is forever chained to their support

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“Not the dark! Not the scary place!” Her pleas as they imprison her reveal that this is actually not something unusual – she has come to know being buried alive as “the scary space,” their apparent regular punishment whenever the so-called doll they infused with true consciousness displeased them. Truly some of the most evil antagonists I’ve seen, and yet it’s such a mundane evil – an evil so common to society that Ura-Acca reveals it freely, seeing nothing that is unusual or contemptible about his story

“Don’t pretend not to see me.” Everything Frill did in order to regain their attention was a reflection of the desires they’d imprinted in her. In turning away from Frill, they sought to deny both her humanity and the crimes they’d committed in programming someone to unerringly crave their attention. Frill’s identity reflects how all of this show’s oppressors see the objects of their desire – existing only as a reflection, without any humanity or independence outside of their utility as a fulfillment of those desires. And they rage against these girls when they dare to “defy” that perception, as if their own selfish desires are their victims’ responsibility. The essence of “she was asking for it” or any other perversely common defense for not letting women simply exist in society without assuming they must fulfill the selfish desires of the men around them

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The birthday cake appears three times across this sequence, once for each of their adopted quasi-daughters, emphasizing the stasis of their perspective, the harsh limits of their intended happiness

Acca is surprised that Ura-Acca would even question his total lack of concern for Frill relative to Himari – he is so accustomed to conceiving of Frill as an object that he doesn’t even consider the alternative

The use of parallel worlds is an interesting flourish for this show; it’s such an open-ended reveal that it could imply basically anything, but it is here used only for highly specific purposes, for helping Neiru and Ai come to terms with the choices that define their own reality

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“I’m done pretending not to see.” A line that, in the context of this recap, could apply to either Ai or Plati’s creators. It was their refusal to see beyond their own convenient perspective that prompted all of this suffering

But that question of “why did Koito die” remains. I can’t imagine we’ll actually answer it, for it is too essential an element of the pain of suicide, the agony of not knowing what we could have done differently, what small change might have made a profound difference

Yeah, her subsequent conversation with Neiru is pretty much exactly that. She no longer needs to know, for she is instead filled with gratitude, knowing that Koito’s presence was essential to her own survival

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“I’ll fight Thanatos, the temptation of death.” I’m curious to see how literally they’ll take this; most of the show has been about overcoming real-world pressures through the solidarity of friendship, so I’m not exactly sure what form Frill’s alleged interference in adolescents’ mental states will actually take

“Good luck, me.” The act of brushing hair to the side and revealing Ai’s blue eye has clear thematic significance – it is the sign of her embracing contact with the world, no longer being imprisoned by the callous words of others, no longer being ashamed of the things that make her unique

With our recap concluded, we then cut to Neiru, who appears to be talking to her bunny slippers. They ask her “are you hesitating” and say “you did your duty. Today onwards belongs to you.” So she has completed her egg trials as well, presumably – of course, there is also the chance that her “duty” refers to some other collaboration with Acca and Ura-Acca, given her role in Japan Plati

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“Selfishness is the domain of children.” “But I think I’m more like an adult.” “Maybe that’s why you’re unhappy.” “I suppose.” God, I love this show’s dialogue. This is definitely a conversation I had with myself as a teenager – staring out at the concerns that occupied my fellow teens, wanting to grasp the same seemingly effortless joy they evoked, but knowing I wouldn’t feel a similar satisfaction in the activities to which they applied themselves. At times, this feeling of disconnect would express itself like Hachiman from Oregairu, a disdainful yet still wincingly adolescent sense of superiority directed towards those who were “living adolescence to the fullest.” But more often, I would feel like Neiru – knowing there is nothing particularly special about not finding satisfaction in adolescent concerns, only that my odd preference for constant introspection and ambitious creative projects would result in persistent isolation. I was fortunate enough to have a strong group of friends that kept me mostly content and normal, but in a different environment I could just as easily have been isolated like Neiru, observing my peers like a scientist observes a petri dish

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Neiru offers an uncharacteristically warm smile as she greets Ai. She’s getting there

Neiru asks Ai to take care of her white mouse, Adam. The mouse basically echoes her own position; a creature so often relegated to being used as experimental fodder, granted dignity and safety through Neiru’s concern

While Neiru seems to distance herself in the wake of the trials, Koito has truly revived and returned to school

When Ai calls out to Koito at school, she questions Ai’s familiarity, saying “it’s not like we’re friends”

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“I always knew Mr. Sawaki was kind.” In fact, this Koito seems like an entirely different person, possessing none of the desperation that seemed to characterize Ai’s former friend

Now Neiru refuses to engage with her either, saying “one-sided affection is a nuisance.” So rather than “saving” Koito, was Ai just transferred to a timeline where Koito didn’t die, thus meaning all of her wonder egg friendships don’t exist? That’d certainly be the sort of thing I could imagine Acca and Ura-Acca doing, though I feel like it leans further into the parallel worlds conceit than feels thematically useful

You can definitely feel the strain of this episode’s production in its slow pans and held shots, as well as the still frames moving against the background that they’re occasionally using to simulate walking

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A charged image of Ai sheltering from the rain under the bridge, a warm mural of children playing in the sun emphasizing her own isolation

Still some fabulous character acting cuts, like Ai raging at her phone after realizing all her photos with Koito are gone. So even if they succeed, they end up isolated anew, trapped in worlds where the people they cared about don’t know them

Fortunately, at least Momo and Rika still remember her

Also an excellent collective “ahhhh” when Ai explains the situation, making sense of Rika and Momo’s own now-distant rescue targets

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Given this, it seems Neiru is likely isolating herself from Ai for Ai’s sake; whatever’s going on with Plati, she wants Ai to have no part in it

It also seems clear this was intended to be paced across two episodes – presumably one of the girls becoming acquainted with their post-victory reality, and a second where they challenge Plati and confront Frill

Ai and Rika want to confront the Accas about this situation, but Momo is unsurprisingly too traumatized to consider revisiting the wonder egg world

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“No matter how bad they hurt me, I’ll…” “I don’t want to get hurt.” Rika sees every threat as a challenge to be met, an affront to her own identity that must be faced if she is to face herself. But Momo has been hurt plenty, and has learned the sad truth of pain: that suffering does not make us stronger, or wiser, or more capable of disregarding future pain. Suffering may harden us, but that isn’t necessarily a good thing either; people who tell us to “just toughen up” always have an agenda to sell, a preferred vision of the world that is incompatible with valuing fragility or gentleness. We ultimately choose the nature of our world through our choices of who to associate with, and Momo does not want to throw herself into a world defined by pain any longer

“I’m sorry.” “No, thank you. For telling me.” Ai is such crucial connective tissue for this friend group, but it’s also persistently clear how much of an intentional effort that is – she’s not the sort of person who would naturally bring people together, but she’s trying very hard for this precious group of friends

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Neiru’s secretary Tanabe calls, saying that the girl she met isn’t Neiru, and that the real Neiru is currently missing

The girl she met was actually Neiru’s sister Airu, meaning Neiru completed her trials

At Neiru’s apartment, they meet a parallel Kotobuki who apparently jumped ship for this world. Yep, I can’t say I agree with the decision to dive this deeply into the parallel world nonsense, which never really possessed any emotional resonance in the first place. Scifi trappings like this can be alluring as window dressing, but they’re rarely dramatically fulfilling – that’s why Evangelion essentially dispenses with all of that stuff as textural noise by the time it reaches its conclusion

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Watching Neiru’s final dream, they see Frill interrupt and ask to become Neiru’s friend just before she would wake

And apparently Neiru is an AI that Airu constructed? So she actually is just like Frill, then

“Neiru’s place really screamed ‘Neiru,’ huh?” Though she is understandably weirded out by all this parallel world and AI nonsense, Rika reaffirms her attachment to Neiru through emphasizing how much her apartment reflected her personality