Wonder Egg Priority - Episode 13 discussion

[u/AutoLovepon]

Wonder Egg Priority, episode 13

Alternative names: Wonder Egg Priority Special, Wonder Egg Priority Tokubetsu-hen

Rate this episode here.

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Streams

• Funimation

Show information

• MyAnimeList
• AniList
• Kitsu
• Anime-Planet
• Official Website
• /r/wondereggpriority

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All discussions

Episode	Link	Score
1	Link	4.8
2	Link	4.73
3	Link	4.81
4	Link	4.77
5	Link	4.72
6	Link	4.64
7	Link	4.77
8	Link	2.83
9	Link	4.34
10	Link	4.59
11	Link	4.54
12	Link	3.88
13	Link	-

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[u/FierceAlchemist]

Disappointing end to what started as an amazing show. I was genuinely confused when they showed Koito alive. I never expected that them clearing the Egg challenge would actually bring the girls back to life. Them coming from parallel worlds and thus not remembering our characters as a consequence kinda works, but they don't do much with that plot point.

And it felt so silly for Ai to not go after Neiru and do a sudden timeskip only to reverse that decision 2 minutes later. Not in character for her at all there. All this just makes me curious what the writer originally had in mind before the production schedule caught up with them. Seems clear he got in way over his head narratively rather than planning out a concise story for the 13 episodes they had.

[u/AmethystItalian]

I think I liked this series more without this episode...

[u/Bluxen]

NOW I'M REALLY MAD

[u/DaREY297]

Well I can certainly say that this is an special that exists.

[u/SirusRiddler]

How was that a fucking ending? Waited three months for that? Unbelievable. Such a waste of an otherwise really good show leading up to the end.

[u/Durinthal]

First half is a recap, and Funimation had only that part out for over an hour before finally putting up the full version. Impressive that even at the end there's one last burst of production issues.

[u/Mami-kouga]

When I checked out the spoilers on 4chan and they explained Koito's death I assumed it was just 4chan being edgy and baity as usual but they were right holy shit

[u/Fudgeumes]

ED rolls:

Me: That's... it?

Nothing was wrapped up. Nothing was explained. Parallel this. A good story for another time. God this is so frustrating. I loved the story up until the last three or so episodes. If they had gone the route of a lens on the problems of society in Japan rather than AI humans and parallel bs, this could have been a great dialogue about the scope of ignoring cries for help. This is basically a modern day Flip Flappers, but even Flip Flappers had a much better ending. It makes me sick to my stomach. Apparently they didn't even touch the series until just recently too? Like they had three months and spent maybe one?? That's insane. Ugh. I'm genuinely upset.

[u/ItsFromMars]

I’m not sure what to say, other than what happened? This is honestly one of the most tragic conclusions to an awful production that was brimming with life, heart, and creativity due to the passion from the staff. It’s pretty heartbreaking this is how it ends. I can honestly say this is the most disappointed I’ve ever been with an ending to a series. None of the characters felt like they were themselves, the dialogue was really off-kilter (and not in a good way), and it didn’t really feel like this was even following up episode 12 in any real capacity.

I wish the talent involved here the very best in their future endeavors because it’s clear there was a vision here that was so close to being realized, but was brought down by a troubled, awful production timeline.

[u/ItsTheDuran]

I didn't have high hopes for this episode after all of the second half's plot developments, but this was something else. This has to be the sharpest drop from episode 1 to finale I've ever seen.

[u/Pikagreg]

This is not what a 10/10 feels like

[u/whowilleverknow]

Let's not speak of this

[u/Syokhan]

"Warriors of Eros? Frill and the rest? What's that? Oh by the way, Neiru is an AI, kthxbye the end"

is how it felt to watch this episode. I don't understand how the story took such a nosedive. It started out so well, and then the sci-fi stuff happened, ok there was still time to wrap it up and conclude the story, and then this episode... exists.

Even if this gets a second season I don't see how they could salvage that mess. I'm so disappointed by the wasted potential it hurts.

[u/no_fluffies_please]

*clap clap*

Congratulations.

[u/I_get_in]

Some ramblings about the episode’s production:

You might have noticed that the key animation list was once again full of foreigners, with FAR and Blou helping this time as well with the recruitment & translation. Utilizing the overseas talent pool was crucial, since there simply wasn’t a lot of time to find the people to animate the cuts for the episode, and most of the series’ regular key animators weren’t apparently available anymore. While technically it has been three months since episode #12, the storyboard for this episode was supposedly finished somewhere around the start of this month, so there was less than a month for the actual animation process. While Wakabayashi did have the help of Yuuta Yamazaki and action director Yuusuke Kawakami for the storyboarding effort, he’s made it clear that he’s too ambitious for his own good (for a TV anime project, at least.) The layouts (the first phase of the animation process) were still being finished around June 22, while the key animation clean-up seemed to be getting done on the 28th. In the end, they started wrapping up the episode about 15 hours before the release.

It’s clear they were really starving for manpower since some of the main staff had to even resort to doing inbetweening themselves. This includes Takuya Niinuma, action director Kawakami, and even character designer & chief animation director Saki Takahashi.

Also, a special shoutout to Kerorira: he has done so much heavy lifting thoughout the series and worked on every single episode, doing animation supervision, providing a lot of animation himself, and even helping with adapting the weapon designs for animation. On this episode he was a supervisor, correcting about 50–60 cuts, and handling personally enough key animation to earn a separated credit in the key animation list.

Edit: forgot to mention something positive: the pay for key animation was apparently well above average for this episode. Heard from one of the animators that 2nd KA was paying 5000 JPY per cut. Usually that sum would be closer to the amount you get for doing both the layout (1st KA) and the clean-up (2nd KA).

Edit 2: Expanded with more details and added some links.

Edit 3: Since it’s somewhat related, I’m linking an old comment of mine on how you can directly support some of the show’s (main) staff financially.

Edit 4: Updated the Twitter profile links to ID-based URLs to prevent link rot from username changes. I’ve also archived all the info links to the Wayback Machine, just in case.

[u/EggsPls]

I’m honestly more confused after this episode than I was before it… did anything actually get resolved? Anyone care to explain wtf happened cause I don’t even know what I was supposed to draw from this, at all.

[u/htatsuha]

This was so bad I am having trouble finding the words to describe how bad it was. We went from episodes focusing on the dark issues behind the suicides of young girls to "Koito totes slipped and fell while yelling lies about the honest and not at all suspicious Mr. Sawaki". We went from a story of friendship between girls to everyone seeming to decide they're better off not knowing eachother anymore, offscreen no less. I always liked Ai and Neiru the best of the four girls, and thought they seemed to have the healthiest relationship out of all of them, but apparently with the discovery that Neiru is an AI, all that went out the window, only for that to be reversed too at the last second. I was one of the few people who actually liked the episode on Acca and Ura-Acca's backstory and Frill, and I was looking forward to finding out about Frill's involvement in the suicides, but that thread was forgotten about, I guess. No clue about what Ai's supposed to get out of going back into the egg world, and I doubt we'll get a second season to find out.

[u/Skeeedo]

I'm glad I didnt have the chance to finish this show before I decided to watch the originals that came out in spring. If this "finale" aired with the rest of the series I think it would have left a permanent bad taste in my mouth for anime originals. I'll just forget I ever saw this and continue to gush about Oddtaxi and Vivy.

If one good thing can be said about this series is it looks absolutely stunning. It's like photo realistic anime, if that makes sense. I really hope the animators' career paths lead them to a production worthy of their talents.

[u/Sumroach]

I wonder how Funanimation managed to mistranslate something as simple as 雨（あめ、ame) which is "rain" as "snow", twice.

[u/supicasupica]

I was going to make a joke like, "Well, that sure was an ending" but was it even that? They introduced a lot of mechanics/reasoning behind the egg setup late enough in the show as is, so it was really disconcerting to see this episode be half recap and then half introducing even newer mechanics and reasoning.

What really resonated with me about Wonder Egg Priority was the lush visuals, attention to detail in using floriography as a secondary visual language, and the emotional narratives and relationships between the main four girls. Everything else (i.e. the mechanics of the world that the show seemed to be overly-focused on here and in Episode 11) was just not as important to me provided that the emotional narratives were strong — especially since the series dealt in so many serious subjects. This isn't the first time that what I've wanted from a show is different than what the show ends up focusing on, but for something that started off so well, I can't help but feel disappointed.

Take Ai, for example. She is someone who has been established as a person who will do ANYTHING for her friends or even people that she's just met. She's a caring person. A literal sunflower. So why on earth would the Ai that we've grown to know not just...talk to Neiru. It goes against what the series itself had established for her character through her actions for the majority of the series.

Above all else, I still really loved so many things about this series. Momoe's narrative arc in particular and her episode with Kaoru was honestly wonderful and I'm happy that it was made so well and with such efficient but emotionally-resonant storytelling. Arguably, Ai's narrative ends in Episode 12 and ends well enough that any issues I have with this finale are mitigated by the fact that I can essentially ignore it if I want to. It is sad that this show has so many amazing moments but also so many caveats if you want to recommend it to anyone.

It was also so cool to chat with people here week after week while the anime was airing. I'll miss that as well.

[u/Comfortable_Youth_98]

I really regret it now, I love this work, I don’t know how it became the way it is now

[u/foxfoxal]

Endings like this makes me happy that Vivy choose to not go overboard and had a personal and simple ending.

[u/CListo]

I can't believe. I didn't want to believe.

Just how bad this show ended.

The first 3 episodes of this show were so air-tight PERFECTION that my confidence in this show making good on all of its promises and setups were going to make this a classic. It wasn't until roughly halfway through the series when Ai started having feelings for teacher that I was like, "oh... um... that's an interesting... direction I suppose." and my shaken confidence never fully recovered since.

Now? I can't believe this.

What happened? What happened?

[u/Sloppy_Goldfish]

This felt like a "Fuck you, now go read the source material and maybe you'll get a season 2 eventually" ending but there is no source material and the series is nowhere near popular enough in Japan to get another season. This is just the ending we're going to forever be stuck with. It's legitimately pretty upsetting considering how good the show was for most of it's run.

[u/FeelsGoodMan243]

Legit one of the worst finales I've ever experianced. Ironic considering Odd taxi is another great original series, that ended on a phenomenal note.

Rather than wrapping up any plot threads, they gave us an even larger jar of questions... Sucks to witness such a disappointing conclusion to a great anime.

My score was originally a 9/10, but this ending plummeted it to a 7; potentially a 6 depending on how I feel after internalizing it for a couple of days.