Wonder Egg Priority Special Ending Explained

Wonder Egg Priority fans were relieved when a Special was announced, given that the twisted ending of the original anime left us with more questions than answers. As it turns out, the Wonder Egg Priority Special, subtitled "My Priority," didn't explain much. It tied some plot threads, then left us to do the rest of the work ourselves. Let's unpack this, then.

Wonder Egg Priority Special Ending Explained: Overview

The first 25 minutes of the 46-minute episode are just a recap, disappointing those of us who had rejoiced at the rumors about an hour-long episode. I had to mention that to make sure you won't leave the Special, thinking it was all a recap. With that clarified, let's look at the remaining 20 minutes.

Credit: CloverWorks

To summarize quickly, Neiru finally completes her wonder egg mission but is lost in the process, while the other girls find out that their rescued loved ones no longer know them. Ai temporarily removes herself from the wonder egg fighting season of her life, but eventually returns, and decides to continue fighting.

Wonder Egg Priority Special Ending Explained: What Happened to Koito and Is Mr. Sawaki the Villain?

Credit: CloverWorks

Much of the 12-episode anime was concerned with the reason why Koito, Ai's friend, died, and whether or not their teacher, Mr. Sawaki, had anything to do with it.

The new content of the Special starts with Ai trying to talk to Koito, who is now alive and back to school. Our main character is devastated to find that Koito doesn't seem to know her anymore.

Ai recalls Mr. Sawaki's explanation about her friend's death; according to him, Koito was in love with another professor who then committed suicide for unknown reasons, although he had a family. Koito then went to the edge of the building saying that she would jump and Mr. Sawaki tried to save her. In return, she started shouting that Mr. Sawaki raped her, before falling down.

Now, is Mr. Sawaki being honest? The anime still doesn't give us enough indications either way, but I'm troubled here. If Koito said that Mr. Sawaki molested her, my first instinct would be to believe her. If not him, I'm at least 90% sure that the other teacher, who committed suicide abused her.

Then again, Mr. Sawaki seems to be genuinely in love with Ai's mother and only seems to care about Ai as her teacher. But not all abusers look like your stereotypical image of an abuser, so I'll still be cautious here. Ai, at least, seems to reject the idea that Mr. Sawaki was responsible for Koito's death. For the rest of us, the mystery will probably never be solved.

Wonder Egg Priority Special Ending Explained: Why Have the Resurrected Girls Forgotten Their Friends?

Credit: CloverWorks

Not only does Ai find that Koito no longer knows her, but Rika and Momoe report similar experiences: Chiemi, a fan from Rika's child idol days is now obsessed with another singer, and Momoe's friend, who was in love with her, is now dating an older boy.

This can be partially explained by the parallel universe theory; when Ai and her friends save someone, this doesn't negate that person's suicide but rather gives birth to another, parallel version of them that didn't die.

In the case of Rika and Momoe's friends, who no longer pay attention to what is believed to be the cause of their suicide, this could also be a comment on mental illness; if these girls had lived on in the first place, perhaps their problem, that felt like the end of the world back then, would not be important anyway in a little while. This isn't to trivialize suicide, of course, but to emphasize the need for prevention.

These girls all had traumatic things happen to them, and they are in no way to blame for what they went through. The good thing about Wonder Egg Priority is that it always treats these issues more sensitively than any anime I've seen, providing food for thought.

Wonder Egg Priority Special Ending Explained: What Happened to Neiru?

Credit: CloverWorks

In the Special episode, Neiru manages to complete her mission, and her dead sister, Airu – apparently a younger twin – comes back to life. Soon after, Ai and Neiru meet, and the latter pretends not to know her.

Ai receives a call from Neiru's secretary, who reveals that the girl Ai met was not Neiru but her sister. Neiru herself went missing. Ai goes to the company, where she meets Kotobuki, who is alive again as well and doesn't remember having died at all.

The secretary shows Ai the recording of Neiru in the dream world, where her mission is completed and she's attacked by Frill and two of her monstrous girls. Neiru wants to go fight them and return to the normal world and her friends, but Frill claims that she understands Neiru's wish "to be human," something her friends wouldn't understand.

Kotobuki reveals that one of the versions of her created an AI in the image of Airu, Neiru's sister, suggesting that Neiru herself is artificial, and a jealous Airu stubbed her before committing suicide. Rika decides to give up the egg mission altogether as she doesn't want to risk her life for a machine. That night, Ai receives a call from "Neiru" but throws her phone away.

Later, she tearfully tells her mother that she did something terrible. Her mother consoles her, and, along with Mr. Sawaki, she decides that Ai should transfer to a different school.

Wonder Egg Priority Special Ending Explained Frill, the Accas, Ai's Future, and Final Thoughts

Credit: CloverWorks

The episode ends with Ai, now a transfer student, having drifted apart from everyone associated with the wonder egg season of her life. However, she has kept the photos of herself along with Neiru, Rika and Momoe, and thinks that nothing will make her feel the same.

In an impulsive move, she runs to Acca and Ura-Acca and asks if she can still buy eggs. The Accas accept but tell her she might not be able to find Neiru. Still, Ai is willing to try.

So, what does this all mean? Perhaps it could be that Ai kept her promise to become the warrior of Eros – of the drive of love, life, and satisfaction – as opposed to Thanatos – the drive of death. Personally, I wouldn't have minded a bittersweet ending with Ai having moved on even though she missed that tumultuous period of her life. Then again, her desire to fight might mean that she has left all death ideation behind and wishes to help others do the same.

At this point, however, I should mention that a lot of things feel unresolved; Frill was built up as a terrible menace and the anime didn't seem to have space to do enough with her. Terrible as she is, she's also a child who didn't know any better and the Accas are villains who treated her horribly. Won't Ai understand that? Will they go unpunished? And what has Frill to do with all these teenagers' suicides?

To say that she has somehow infiltrated the mind of any teenager who committed suicide – apart from Acca's daughter, Himari, perhaps – would be to trivialize the complex reasons that drive teenagers to suicide in real life. And how can the Accas bring the girls back to life if they are just projections in a dream world?

In that sense, the anime leaves us with the feeling that it took more than it could handle, potentially undermining what it's really good at – making difficult discussions about taboo topics and emphasizing the need for support, all while focusing on a heartwarming friendship.

Could these unresolved plot points mean a Season 2, or another Special? Unfortunately, we have to wait to find out.

Related:Why Are There Two Ai's in Wonder Egg Priority Season Finale? Who is the 2nd Ai Explained