REVIEW: ‘Wonder Egg Priority,’ Episode 6 – “Punch Drunk Day”

Wonder Egg Priority Episode 6 is an anime-only series with no prior manga or other forms of media. That being said, this intense, thoughtful series about bullying, suicidality, dreams, and friendship has made its mark and is steadily on its way to being a contender for one of this season’s strongest anime.

Wonder Egg Priority Episode 5 was a slower episode, focusing a bit more on Neiru versus the other girls of the egg quartet. It also built up the world a bit more, fleshing out the girls personalities and their backstories with well-animated, solidly directed scenes that reflected their personalities and solidly bonded them as true friends.

Wonder Egg Priority Episode 6 refocuses on Ai in the midst of rescuing another girl born from an egg. We also get introduced to a new kind of enemy: Haters. Born of envy and spite, the Haters chase after the heroes that they loathe. In this case, that’s Ai and anyone who can free girls from the eggs and save the day. 

I’ll admit, the name “Haters” is a bit on the nose, but honestly, aren’t a lot of monster names? I think it’s kind of fitting seeing as this is a show focused specifically on female teenagedom. Wasn’t everyone a bit silly as a teenager? I know I sure was.

Outside of her dreams, Ai continues to move through the world a bit more freely. She’s starting to leave her room more often, starting to engage once again. Her mother offers to make sukiyaki, which Ai knows is reserved for special days. The scene is sweet: they’re bonding and finally, finally -from Ai’s mother’s perspective- she’s starting to return to who she once was.

Then Ai’s mother asks her if she wants to talk with her homeroom teacher, and things get tense. It looks like Ai won’t be confronting him, or even talking to him, anytime soon.

The scene leaves both viewers and Ai’s mother on a cliffhanger: will Ai ever confront Mr. Sawaki? Will she ever even want to talk to him? Viewers won’t get a lot of time to wonder because it’s time to return to the quartet and their mission of hatching girls from the eggs, as well as a new MacGuffin given to them by Acca and Ura-Acca, the Dream World admins.

These MacGuffin necklaces are called pomanders. They add a heaping dollop of magic into the real world that, much like the dreams, transcends into the dreamscapes. To be honest, I didn’t expect the girls to get any kind of magic outside of their dreams. Nor did I expect them to get jewelry that strongly reminds me of Soul Gems, a la Madoka Magica.

Then again, Wonder Egg Priority Episode 6 has upped the strong Puella Magi Madoka Magica vibes, at least in terms of having girls moving through trauma. I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that these “heroes” are finally getting some sidekicks. It’s just… kind of funny that they’re essentially just Soul Gems.

Wonder Egg Priority Episode 6 is certainly an interesting one. We get a lot of plot development, true, but also… there’s not necessarily forward momentum. If anything, there are just more questions, which has me a little bit worried. Like I said in my review of episode 5, there’s still a lot of time left to potentially hurt these girls. When it comes down to it, I really don’t want Wonder Egg Priority to crush these girls. I don’t want the plot to beat them down. I think that would really take away from their on-going healing. 

So far, Wonder Egg Priority has filled in a lot of holes. Wonder Egg Priority Episode 6 actually transitioned us into the next arc pretty effectively; maybe more effectively than episode 5 did. For me, it supplied a very satisfying ending, one that I think viewers have been waiting to see come to fruition.

Still, there’s a lot of plot threads, and I don’t know if Wonder Egg Priority will tie them all up in the end.

Yes, Wonder Egg Priority is beautiful. In fact, Wonder Egg Priority Episode 6 is downright gorgeous at times. All in all, the show’s got a lot going for it. Yet… I’m not sure where it’s actually going, especially with the inclusion of real-world magic. Still, I’m going to keep hoping that Wonder Egg Priority sticks the landing.

In the end, I truly don’t know where I sit with this series. Every week is kind of a new adventure, which is always nice to have in any season. Additionally, every episode of Wonder Egg Priority is filled with lush animation, beautiful scoring, and really good characterization. Ultimately, what I can solidly say is that I really, really like it. If we’re benign really, really honest, I might even say that this is a strong contender for my Top 5 of 2021, which is pretty bold to say in February. Then again, I said that in the series premiere review, and I’m sticking to it. I’m definitely on board to watch the rest of the cour. 

Like I said: I’m just not sure what exactly Wonder Egg Priority is going to say, once all is said and done.

But hey, bonus points for finally doing a title drop in the first minute of the show. I’m a sucker for a good title drop, especially if it’s from the lead characters.

Wonder Egg Priority is streaming now on Funimation.