The dark truth behind Wonder Egg Priority’s whimsical facade

Character from the anime
Main characters from the anime (Image credit: CloverWorks)

When anyone starts Wonder Egg Priority, at first glance, the show feels like a whimsical escape. The pastel color palette, wide-eyed protagonists, and dreamlike imagery evoke the familiar warmth of a magical girl anime or a slice-of-life coming-of-age tale.

What I thought was going to be a lighthearted fantasy quickly spiraled into something far more disturbing. Beneath the dreamlike visuals and soft aesthetics, Wonder Egg Priority reveals itself to be a harrowing exploration of trauma, suicide, abuse, and the systemic failures that leave children to fend for themselves.

Honestly, when fans look at the animation, it feels like CloverWorks poured much into the visuals: glowing dreamscapes drenched in blues and pinks, fluid animation, and character designs that seem almost doll-like in their innocence.

When anyone starts this anime, I feel they get reeled in as it offers a sense of calm. It's like the creators knew what they were doing. The beauty of Wonder Egg Priority is a smokescreen. The faceless “Seeno Evils” and grotesque “Wonder Killers” that inhabit the dream world are a jarring contrast to the show’s softness.

Ai, Rika, Neiru, and Momoe as seen in anime (Image credit: CloverWorks)
Ai, Rika, Neiru, and Momoe as seen in anime (Image credit: CloverWorks)

Moreover, the main characters in this show are four girls - Ai, Rika, Neiru, and Momoe. When I initially watched the show, these girls felt like your typical anime cast, each fitting a well-worn trope. But as I got to know them, their stories hit harder than I was prepared for.

For instance, Ai's story begins with the suicide of her best friend, Koito. What starts as a tale of grief turns into a brutal commentary on bullying and institutional neglect. Ai’s social anxiety isn’t just a quirk, it’s a scar. Watching her slowly unravel her guilt was almost painful.

The rest of the cast has equally, if not more, trauma of their own. What shook me was how the show waited to reveal all this. I was allowed to see them as cute, cool, and quirky at first. And then, with no warning, the narrative took a 360 turn. It made me feel complicit in reducing them to tropes before I understood their pain.

I believe the monsters in Wonder Egg Priority aren’t abstract evils. They’re representations of abusers, predators, bullies, and everything society sweeps under the rug. Watching each battle felt more like a form of re-traumatization than empowerment. As I finished the show, a big realization dawned on me: this isn’t magical realism, it’s emotional realism. And maybe this is the reason the effects of the show kept on lingering months after I completed it.


How Wonder Egg Priority transforms a fantasy story into something sinister

While I was engrossed in this show, I was convinced that it could not get worse, but it did. We learn that the girls might be part of a psychological experiment involving artificial intelligence and reincarnation. It was disturbing on a meta-level because suddenly, the girls’ suffering wasn’t just being ignored. It was being used. Again.

It felt like the show was asking me that directly. Like, it was forcing me to examine how media packages pain, especially the pain of young girls, into something palatable, even marketable. I thought I was watching a story about healing. Maybe I was watching one about commodification.


Final Thoughts

I think the most devastating part about Wonder Egg Priority is how it uses whimsy against you. It all feels like a child’s storybook come to life. In my opinion, this is what makes horror work. I won’t pretend Wonder Egg Priority is flawless. Its production issues are well-documented, and the narrative stumbles more than once, especially toward the end.

Despite all that, I think what it tries to do is remarkable. This anime challenges its viewers not to ignore pain, and even though it hurt to watch, I’m glad I did. Because the discomfort it left me with feels important.

Edited by Debanjana