Wonder Egg Priority: The Finale Is NOT the End

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Wonder Egg Priority, Episode 12, “An Unvanquished Warrior”, now streaming on Funimation, as well as discussion of suicide.

Wonder Egg Priority was scheduled to be a 12-episode series, but since Episode 8 was a recap, it doesn’t count towards the plot. Some have speculated that if the series is not cut short there could be an OVA episode to finish up the story, and that's exactly what’s going to happen. Prior to Episode 12's airing, Wonder Egg Priority’s official Twitter announced that a special episode will be released on June 29, and it will be “beyond the story.” The episode will even be included in Vol. 3 of the Blu-ray, confirming the series is not yet complete.

Continue scrolling to keep reading Click the button below to start this article in quick view.

Start now

For two weeks in a row, Funimation’s streaming schedule suffered delays due to “material delivery,” meaning that Wonder Egg Priority’s production is finishing up the episodes at the very last minute, and the stories of the production troubles are painfully real. Yet the quality of the animation has impressively maintained a high level of fluidity and nuance. Now that the production team has until June to finish up the series, it should result in a much more reasonable schedule and an even better animation.

In a sense, Episode 12 still marks an end -- the end of Ai’s journey to discover the truth about Koito’s death. The surprising appearance of Ai herself as an egg girl is also the clearest indication of a parallel universe yet. The egg version of Ai doesn’t know Koito, and without this emotional support, she committed suicide after being bullied. The comparison of the two Ais also shows how much our protagonist has grown over the course of the series: she is now happier, more confident, more fearless and more honest about her emotions. The best way to tell the Ais apart, however, is through their hairpins. Ai wears the green triangle and egg Ai wears a grey X like she used to before Koito died.

Unsurprisingly, Ai’s Wonder Killer is Mr. Sawaki. The series hinted at Mr. Sawaki's evil nature multiple times, but this episode shows that those suspicions are simply Ai's own bias. As Neiru suspected, Mr. Sawaki was her first love and she even confessed to him. But finding out that he started dating her mother was the final straw that broke Ai’s mental state.

This Wonder Killer’s power is to create illusions, which allows Ai to see Koito again. Ai realizes that she didn’t really want to know the truth about Koito’s death, but rather, wanted an opportunity to thank her for being there when she was alone and depressed. Ai knows now that Koito reached out to her simply because it was a way to get close to Mr. Sawaki, but she nonetheless helped her. Ai is able to break free of the illusion and save her egg self, who is also able to admit her regrets about the suicide.

Monster Sawaki continues to try and drive Ai towards death by telling her that her mother is being selfish by dating him. But Ai remembers her mother’s support for her when she stopped going to school and defeats the monster by rejecting her own self-doubts.

With this victory, Ai has finally cleared her mission. Unfortunately, another one of Frill’s AI monsters shows up. This time its name is “Kirara Rodriguez Matured XVIII Evening Star SS Plum.” Ai’s power is no match for Kirara and she passes out from its attack, but Kirara still wants blood, so egg Ai sacrifices one of her eyes so that Ai survive in one piece. This completes both Ai’s arc as egg Ai is able to find the courage to save herself.

Ai now has a new mission: to be a warrior of Eros and defeat Thanatos. She is the only person that completes her mission without being traumatized. In comparison, Rika, who went through the same ordeal, can’t reenter the Accas’ garden because of her strong hatred, which Frill can exploit. But Frill’s AI monsters are too powerful, so it’s unclear how Ai can defeat them. It’s also strange that neither Rika nor Momoe mentioned the statues they tried to save, so what really happened to them? Hopefully, the upcoming special episode will give us the answer to all these questions.

For more information on the warning signs and prevention of suicide, click here. If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255). If you live outside the U.S., click here for a list of international hotlines.