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Wonder egg priority / ワンダーエッグ・プライオリティ (last episode)

You may recall that my review of Wonder egg priority ended on a big if — would the last, thirteenth episode validate the impression of the first twelve episodes. Well, this episode is now out, actually for a while. What's more, it's an episode of double length — or, more exactly, it is announced as a double-length feature.

However, pretty exactly the first half of this double episode just recaps some of the series' main points, from the initial kickoff with Koito's suicide to the discovery of Acca and Ura-Acca's role of Frankenstein in this dark plot.

What then follows is the real special season under the title of "My Priority". However, for me, it does not really feel like a logical continuation of episode 12, with the two Frankensteins and their monster playing only a very minor role. Instead, we are treated to the theory of parallel universes that already briefly appeared in the last "real" episode where Ai was confronted with another version of herself from a parallel universe. This seems one explanation too many — after going from a deeply unsettling metaphorical depiction of trauma and anxiety to a Shelley-like story of a monster let lose by its unfeeling creators to, finally, a scenario of multiverses.

When the four friends finally succeed in resurrecting those whom they had lost to suicide, they find them "reimported" from another multiverse and hence quite different in behaviour and history. The "new" Koito is no longer Ai's friend, Chiemi no longer Rika's fan. They are for all ends and purposes strangers.

We're then exposed to a number of non-sequitur, at least to my limited understanding of the narration: One of the four teenage friends, Neiru, turns out to be an AI, a copy of a character from another multiverse, and has disappeared. Also, we finally learn the story behind Koito's "suicide", but I won't spoil this.

Like the whole story, the episode is sad, but somehow differently. And even more than the rest of the anime this episode is not one I'd want to watch with my children, not even — and perhaps especially not — with adolescents. It is a perturbing spectacle to see.

Will there be a second season? The very last image of the episode negates this. However, given the jumps in logic, I still wouldn't be too surprised. Would I watch it? To be seen.

Wonderegg priority / ワンダーエッグ・プライオリティ (review of first 12 episodes)

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