One thing I love about the anime world is that, while most shows fit neatly into one of the major genres like idol, harem, sports, ecchi or isekai, there’s always room for a good experimental anime concept. Want an idol anime about an art student who forms an idol group… with four stone busts from Ancient Rome? It’s a thing! How about an anime in which the cells of your body are characters, running around delivering oxygen and keeping you safe from diseases? Sure! There’s even an anime about Jesus and Buddha chilling out together in an apartment in modern-day Tokyo, because why not?
Another outstanding experimental anime is Wonder Egg Priority, the story of four girls who are battling demons, both internally and in an alternate world as they try to work through past traumas and perhaps save their dearest friends. It’s a strange show, but a brilliant one too!
Wonder Egg Priority is a Gorgeous Experimental Anime
Ai Ohto is a lonely girl who’s become a hikikomori, a shut-in who refuses to go to school, because of bullying. One day she’s given a mysterious egg that’s extremely hard and difficult to break. When she finally breaks the egg, it expands in size to reveal a friend, a girl named Kurumi who Ai must protect from horrible Langoliers-esque monsters who appear in the school. There’s also a “boss” monster called the Wonder Killer that represents the thing that’s been tormenting Ai’s new temporary friend, who must be defeated. In this alternate place, Ai herself can’t be harmed, but she must fight hard to keep her new friend from being killed.
There are three other girls who can receive these mysterious eggs and gain temporary friends to protect: the dark and enigmatic Neiru, a selfish former idol named Rika, and a handsome and tall tomboy named Momoe. We learn that each of these girls is visiting the egg-place and doing battle with the monsters because they’ve lost a friend and believe that they can bring them back if they successfully protect enough of the egg-friends.
Three Reasons to Watch Wonder Egg Priority
First, the animation is top-notch, done by CloverWorks, who has really been hitting it out of the park with shows like The Promised Neverland, Horimiya, and Bunny Girl Senpai. Just as I’m drawn to support pretty much anything Kyoto Animation makes for us because of the beautiful visuals, the production values of this series alone make it worth considering.
Next, the characters are all fascinating, gorgeously designed, and animated… and seemingly all flawed. In the same way, I’m appreciating the moral ambiguity of the characters in Mushoku Tensei, I find all four girls to be wonderfully complex, with interesting stories that unfold slowly for us. And we’re only on episode five!
It’s yuri-tastic. Obviously, I’m a guy who likes some sexual tension between females in my anime when I can get it. I think Momoe, the girl who looks like a boy and who can’t stop breaking girls’ hearts wherever she goes, will become a fan favorite.
Wonder Egg Priority is why Late-Night Anime Exists
While a few of the popular anime you might watch are aired during prime time programming slots (mostly seinen shows like My Hero Academia, for example), most of the anime we all watch airs late at night, around 2 a.m., which is a time-slot known as shin’ya anime or late-night anime. Because it’s on at such a late hour, this means that anime is free to explore stories with extreme themes, including socially delicate subjects. Well, as long as it’s not as over-the-top as Interspecies Reviewers was.
Before it defined the block of adult-focused anime and other shows on Cartoon Network, the term “adult swim” originally meant a ten-minute period when children were required to get out of the pool and let the adults swim in peace for a short time. And that’s what the shin’ya anime is all about: a time where stories involving more grown-up themes can be explored because the children are all in bed.
In The Dark Knight Returns, one of the Legendary Four Graphic Novels of the 80s (the others being V for Vendetta, Watchmen and Elektra: Assassin), Bruce Wayne funds the treatment of Harvey Dent because “we must believe that our own private demons can be defeated.” That really sums up the concept behind this anime, and I love learning about the four girls and rooting for them to find a way to bring their friends back.
Thanks for reading my post recommending that you watch the Wonder Egg Priority experimental anime. Are you going to watch it, or is it not your cup of tea? Tell us below, or on Twitter!
In addition to our detailed interview with former JAV star Kaho Shibuya, we’re selling her awesome new photobook, Fun + Lingerie = Fungerie, filled with all-new cosplay photos. Everyone who buys the book will get it personally autographed by Kaho with any message you want from her.
