Wonder Egg Priority (ワンダーエッグ・プライオリティ) is a 2021 original television anime series produced by studio CloverWorks and director Shin Wakabayashi with writer Shinji Nojima, character designer Saki Takahashi and music composers DE DE MOUSE and Mito. The series first aired in Japan on January 2021 as part of the Winter season.
Background:
“This is the story of Ai, an introverted girl who’s struggling with her best friend’s suicide. Her fate is forever changed when she acquires a mysterious “Wonder Egg” from a deserted arcade. That night, Ai dreams of helping lost souls combat their past traumas. As other girls obtain their own Wonder Eggs, Ai discovers new friends – and the magic within herself. But all is not what it seems…”
Plot Synopsis via Funimation UK, May 2022.
CloverWorks is a strange studio because the quality of their catalogue is very mixed. You have great anime works like My Dress-Up Darling, the first season of The Promised Neverland, and Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, and then you have some that fell off the landing like Darling in the FRANXX and PERSONA5 The Animation. But with the exception of FRANXX, the others were essentially adaptations of existing material, so when they announced Wonder Egg Priority was another original project it caught a lot of people’s attention.
Wonder Egg Priority actually started off with a lot of promise, with a unique concept, great animation, likeable characters and a lot of mystery to its overall story combined with some heavy themes throughout. Then for some reason the series decided it was a brilliant idea to pile on random plot points in its final few episodes that were baffling, followed by a special episode (which was technically the final episode, but had to be pushed back by a few months due to production issues) that not only was part-recap but made the series look even worse on its concept and story-telling (and the episode was double-length as well).
It’s a shame Wonder Egg Priority fell flat, but honestly if you pretend the special episode didn’t exist the show overall isn’t that bad, there are more positives than negatives that come out of watching this series – but overall I wouldn’t say it was a priority to watch (no pun intended). That said, the opening theme song is great.
Despite being an Aniplex series, Wonder Egg Priority was allowed to be licensed by Funimation and given a simuldub during its broadcast. The UK also received the series via Funimation since the distributor picked up the English-speaking rights as well.
Limited Edition Contents:
Even though it fell flat, the audience was large enough for Funimation to provide Wonder Egg Priority with a limited edition release for home video. Considering this is one of the last titles to be given the LE treatment under the Funimation branding (as going forward it’ll be Crunchyroll), it’s a decent package to wrap up with.
This package offers a rigid box that houses the series in an Amaray Blu-ray case with a slipcase. The artwork on the Amaray is based on the standard edition release rather than the US limited edition version. Alongside the case is a 60-page artbook that includes character designs, staff interviews and a few key artwork from the series. The rest of the physical items are in a separate cardboard box (also housed inside the set for once) which includes 4 Enamel Pins, 5 Art Cards, and a Chibi Sticker Sheet.
The artwork is free of any information and the info sheet that wraps the set covers the information and specification like previous Funimation UK limited edition releases have been doing. Unit count wasn’t specified for this release, while the SRP was £64.99. A standard edition Blu-ray and DVD combo pack was also available on the same day as the limited edition release. I pre-ordered the set over on United Publications for £35.74 plus postage.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with clean artwork and Amaray packaging
- Info sheet for specification
- 60-page Artbook
- 4 Enamel Pins
- 5 Art Cards
- Chibi Sticker Sheet
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Funimation UK
Released: 2nd May 2022
The limited edition release for Wonder Egg Priority contains episodes 1-12 and the special across two Blu-ray discs and two DVD discs, with the encode & authoring done by Funimation. The audio options available include Japanese with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub.
The white subtitles are locked during Blu-ray playback, and the regions are playable to Blu-ray players set to A and B and DVD players set to 1 & 2.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | Yes |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
DVD Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 |
| Video | Standard Definition in NTSC format 1.78:1 aspect ratio |
| Region | 1 2 |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 2:
- Character Promo Videos
- Promo Videos
- Commercials
- Textless Opening Song “Sudachi no Uta”
- Textless Closing Song “Raifu Izu Saidā”
DVD On-Disc Extra Features:
No extras across all discs
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
Wonder Egg Priority is available to order across multiple retailers in the United Kingdom. The limited edition Blu-ray & DVD combo pack can be acquired on Amazon UK, MVM’s Anime-on-Line, and United Publications, while the standard edition is also available in various retailers like Amazon.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)
The Normanic Vault 
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