Japanese anime television series
, often stylized as "WONDER EGG ✦ PRiORiTY", is a Japanese anime television series created and written by Shinji Nojima, and directed by Shin Wakabayashi. Animated by CloverWorks, it is a co-production of Aniplex, Nippon Television, and D.N. Dream Partners, which aired on Nippon TV and other channels from January to March 2021. Additionally, a special episode was released in June of that year. The story follows Ai Ohto, a teenaged hikikomori girl who has ceased attending school after the apparent suicide of a friend. After finding a "Wonder Egg," Ai finds herself in a dream world where she and three other girls whose friends also fell victim to suicide battle to protect various female suicide victims from the monstrous "Wonder Killers," grotesque representations of individuals involved in their trauma. In so doing, the girls hope to revive their lost friends.
"Wonder Egg Priority" was the first anime project by Nojima, known for writing several live-action television dramas. Nojima became interested in writing an anime series as he desired to reach a younger audience than he had been able to previously and to write a story which would not be feasible to achieve in a live-action production. He conceived "Wonder Egg Priority" as a coming-of-age drama that would blend the realistic feel of live-action television with the more exaggerated "fantasy" qualities of anime. Series director Shin Wakabayashi, in his first time directing a television anime, was recommended by a producer at Nippon TV as an ideal director to realize Nojima's vision for the series. Wakabayashi recruited numerous other young animators, often with minimal or no experience in directing television anime episodes, to join the production staff.
Upon commencing its broadcast, "Wonder Egg Priority" received critical acclaim from western audiences, with praise for its high production value, elaborate narrative, characters, themes, and handling of controversial subject matter. However, reviews of the series after the conclusion of its broadcast have proven more polarized, with the eleventh episode's focus on the backstory of a previously unseen character and the special episode's conclusion to the story, often seen as unsatisfying, being particular objects of criticism. The series was also widely noted amongst industry experts and anime-focused publications for facing significant production challenges due to its small and inexperienced animation team coupled with an unaccommodating schedule, leading to the production falling behind as the staff struggled to maintain the anime's high production value. Later in the production cycle, hobbyist animators from abroad were recruited via the internet to help finish some episodes on time. Some critics correlated their polarized responses to the troubled production.
Plot.
The series follows Ai Ohto, a junior high school student who is temporarily not attending school, following the suicide of her close friend Koito Nagase. During a late-night walk, Ai is guided by a mysterious voice to a deserted arcade, where she finds a gachapon machine that dispenses a "Wonder Egg". That night, Ai gets drawn into a dream world where the Wonder Egg cracks open to reveal a girl, whom Ai must protect from a horde of monsters called "Seeno Evils". When the voice tells Ai that saving enough people in this world may bring Koito back, she resolves to continue buying Wonder Eggs and protecting their inhabitants. Along the way, Ai meets three other girls in the same situation as her: Neiru Aonuma, Rika Kawai, and Momoe Sawaki.
Voiced by: 
A 14-year-old girl with heterochromia, which has led her to be the subject of bullying. In the past, Ai became friends with Koito Nagase, a girl that had newly transferred from another high school. The two became close, as they only had each other. Tragedy ensued when Koito unexpectedly committed suicide by jumping off the roof of their school building. Following Koito's suicide, Ai ceased attending school. Ai is buying Wonder Eggs in order to bring Koito back to life, as well as discover the truth as to why Koito committed suicide. Her weapons of choice are a four-color ballpoint pen that can transform into a giant mace, a long, yellow-colored glowing ribbon-like bladed whip, two yellow penlights (light sticks) that can be used as double-bladed weapons, and prayer beads that allow her to see invisible Wonder Killers.
Voiced by: 
A quiet and reserved 14-year-old girl who makes no initiatives to get to know people. Despite her age, she is the president of a large company. Sometime in the past, Neiru was hospitalized after being violently stabbed by her sister. While recuperating from stabbing in the hospital she was informed that her sister committed suicide after assaulting her by jumping off of a bridge. The assault left Neiru with painful scars across her back, as well as complex feelings regarding her sister. Neiru is buying Wonder Eggs in order to bring her sister back to life. Her weapon of choice is a compass that can transform into either a great sword, two gigantic pliers with reactors, an assault rifle, a sniper rifle, or a pistol.
Voiced by: 
A brash and outspoken 14-year-old girl who does not hesitate to say what is on her mind. Rika previously was a junior idol, and amassed a small fanbase. After discovering one of her biggest fans—an overweight girl named Chiemi—was shoplifting in order to give her gifts, Rika tried to stop Chiemi's shoplifting by insulting and lying to Chiemi in an attempt to turn Chiemi on her, claiming that she could not be friends with a fan and "would be embarrassed to be seen with a fatty." She would later discover that Chiemi died after starving herself thin. Rika is buying Wonder Eggs in order to bring Chiemi back to life. Her weapon of choice is a pair of two box cutters that act as swords.
Voiced by: 
A 14-year-old girl who is often mistaken for a boy due to her androgynous appearance. She is the niece of Ai's homeroom teacher Shūichirō Sawaki. Momoe was once close friends with a girl named Haruka, who was the only one of her classmates that recognized she was a girl and treated her femininely. One day, however, Haruka made romantic advances toward Momoe and requested that she touch her. Momoe rejected Haruka's advances and Haruka later committed suicide, leading Momoe to believe that she may have been responsible. Momoe is buying Wonder Eggs in order to bring Haruka back to life. Her weapon of choice is an umbrella with a spearhead at the end.
Voiced by: Azusa Tadokoro
Ai's best friend. Before the events of the series, she was killed when she accidentally fell from the roof of her school in an incident initially believed to be a suicide. She is also the main reason why Ai is searching for Wonder Eggs so that she can be brought back to life.
Voiced by: Masatomo Nakazawa
Momoe's uncle who is also Ai's homeroom teacher and the club advisor of the art club. He later becomes Ai's mother's fiance.
Voiced by: Yūya Uchida
 A mannequin-like humanoid who guides Ai and the others to fight in the Egg World for unknown reasons. He is capable of communicating with them telepathically through any object or creature in both the real and Egg World. Compared to his counterpart Ura-Acca, he is more professional, formal, and strict.
Voiced by: Hiroki Takahashi
 A mannequin-like humanoid who guides Ai and the others to fight in the Egg World for unknown reasons. He is capable of communicating with them telepathically through any object or creature in both the real and Egg World. Compared to his counterpart Acca, he is more laid-back and willing to let the girls relax. He also seems to be more directly supportive of the girls search for truth, as demonstrated by him "coincidentally" giving Neiru Kotobuki's Egg.
Voiced by: Megumi Yamaguchi (Japanese); Felecia Angelle (English)
Frill is an artificial human created by Acca and Ura-Acca in the past. She is also the creator of the humanoids , and (all voiced by Ikue Ohtani). According to series writer Shinji Nojima, Frill's story arc was inspired by Pinocchio.
Production.
"Wonder Egg Priority" is a co-production between Aniplex, Nippon Television, and D.N. Dream Partners. It was directed by Shin Wakabayashi, written by Shinji Nojima and features character designs by Saki Takahashi. Taracod served as concept artist, Keisuke Kobayashi as core animator, Yūki Funao as art director, and De De Mouse and Mito as music composers. The series was Wakabayashi's first time serving as series director for a television anime; he had previously directed the web short series "." "Wonder Egg Priority" also marked the first time Kanata Aikawa had been cast in a leading voice role, and De De Mouse had been a music composer of an anime work.
Shinji Nojima, a well-known writer of live-action drama television, first conceived "Wonder Egg Priority" when he observed that live-action dramas had recently been less popular with the younger audience that he wanted to target with his next story. Nojima was attracted to the medium of anime due to his interest in reaching its engaged fandom that would often express their own interpretations in fan works, and his desire to tell a story that would not be feasible in a live-action production. Feeling that many anime leaned too far towards the fantastical, Nojima desired to find a middle ground between the realism of live-action dramas and the more exaggerated qualities of anime. As Nojima lacked familiarity with the anime industry and did not know who would be best to realize his vision, a producer from Nippon TV connected him with Aniplex, Cloverworks and Shin Wakabayashi, who would come to direct the series. Nojima said he did not consult Wakabayashi and the animation team about the scripts, as he was confident in their ability to realize his scripts as a high quality animation, and placed his complete trust in them to realize the story as they felt best. The difference in the half hour timeslot typical of late night anime as opposed to the one hour timeslots for live-action dramas that Nojima was used to was not a major creative consideration for him, as he was confident in his ability to pace the story effectively and therefore instead focused on the number of episode scripts. However, as the plot grew in complexity, he realized it would not be possible for him to finish all of his envisioned narrative in only twelve episodes, and thus some of the plot was cut from the final scripts as a result.
"Wonder Egg Priority"'s visual style was frequently compared by critics to the works of Naoko Yamada; Wakabayashi had previously worked with Yukiko Horiguchi, who formerly contributed character designs to "K-On!" and "Tamako Market", both directed by Yamada, as she also provided the character designs for "22/7". Kevin Cirugeda of "SakugaBlog" said that though many directors, most recently inspired by Yamada's 2018 film "Liz and the Blue Bird", had tried to emulate her style, Wakabayashi's collaboration with Horiguchi enabled him to replicate that style more accurately than any other director who had previously attempted such. Cirugeda did note, however, that Kyoto Animation's unique production pipeline inevitably made a perfect replication of Yamada's style nearly impossible, but that for "Wonder Egg Priority", Wakabayashi and lead animator Keisuke Kobayashi had settled on a distinct style of "over-articulation" that was perceived as having "raised the volume" to distract from the small imperfections. The series marked many young animators' debuts in certain production roles, as Wakabayashi and his team recruited such new talents as Yuki Yonemori on episode 3, in his first time working as an episode director, and Yuzu Hori and Yuichiro Komuro, performing episode direction and storyboarding duties, respectively, for their first time on episode 4. Episode direction and storyboarding work on most of "Wonder Egg Priority"'s episodes was delegated to a single animator, which Cirugeda believed was ideal as the team "dyed each episode with their own unique flavor," although he noted the possible drawback of overwhelming the inexperienced animation talents recruited to the production.
In planning "Wonder Egg Priority"'s cast of characters, Nojima gave minimal details in the script and outlines to give the animation staff freedom to flesh them out according to their interpretations. Wakabayashi selected Saki Takahashi (who also came to debut in the role of Chief Animation Director on the series), an animator previously known for her work on "Darling in the Franxx" and "Her Blue Sky", to do the character designs, as