Momoe Sawaki

**WARNING:**
Stop right there! This article contains **spoilers**. Read at your own risk.

**Momoe Sawaki** (沢木 桃恵, *Sawaki Momoe*?) is one of the main characters in Wonder Egg Priority. She has a very distinct beauty mark and slim figure. She is often mistaken for a boy, and is popular among girls. Momoe is the niece of Shuichiro Sawaki.

## Appearance

Momoe is an attractive, androgynous looking tall and thin girl with short auburn hair that is swept to the left side. She also has dark green eyes. She has a well-toned figure for her age, and has rather broad shoulders, as the other girls who are more petite state.

She wears a navy blue sweater over a white dress shirt along with loose beige slacks, navy blue socks, and burgundy shoes. She is often mistaken for a boy due to her masculine looking appearance.

## Personality

Momoe is a kind, charming and polite girl, thus she's generally very well-liked by people she meets. Despite her insecurities, she's very selfless and brave. She has a strong sense of justice, is often seen acting selflessly for the sake of other people, and appears to care deeply about those she trusts or considers close to her, sometimes even getting angry or upset when they're unfairly accused of something, as seen when she defends her uncle from Rika Kawai's suggestion that he may have made a student pregnant. Momoe is also shown to be intelligent and perceptive, and appears to act as something of a dampener for people like Rika.

Momoe is very insecure about herself, particularly about her masculine appearance—she cries when looking at her reflection and becomes upset when a Wonder Killer calls her a man. It is one of her main complexes; she's been seen as a boy since childhood solely due to the way she looks. In this regard, many girls she meets say they fall in love with her because of her masculine charm, which seems to worry Momoe very much, since she does not want to be perceived as a boy and believes that she is "deceiving" these girls by misleading them with her appearance.

Despite all this, her own sexuality remains rather ambiguous. On the one hand, the plot hinted several times that she was attracted to males, but on the other, she was somewhat embarrassed by the thought that another girl might love her as a girl, and she seemed to imply that she was not disgusted with the interest from other girls in the whole. This ambiguity is highlighted during her meeting with Kaoru Kurita, a trans boy who claims he's fallen for Momoe while knowing that she's a girl, going as far as kissing her. Kaoru is the first Wonder Egg character from whom she didn't refuse the advances, although she might have been too embarrassed at the moment to give an answer before he disappears.

## Background

Momoe was once close friends with Haruka, the girl she is trying to bring back to life. All of Momoe's classmates saw her as masculine or androgynous, which distressed her. However, Haruka saw Momoe as a girl and encouraged her femininity. Momoe was happy being friends with Haruka, but Haruka confessed to Momoe and told Momoe to touch her. Momoe was terrified by this and completely confused over what to do. She directly rejected her, as she admitted so to the other protagonists. Haruka killed herself soon after for reasons currently unknown, though the previous incident may have been one of its causes. This is likely why Momoe feels guilty and blames herself.

Other than Haruka, Momoe has also refused the advances of other girls who have confessed to her, including her schoolmates and the girls who came out of her Wonder Eggs: Miwa and Mizuki.

Sometime between Haruka's death and her introduction to Wonder Eggs, Momoe started to dress more masculine and started using the Japanese masculine pronoun, "boku". Though she uses this pronoun, she still wants to be acknowledged as a girl. She then began protecting Wonder Egg girls with the hopes of bringing Haruka back from the dead.

Momoe is the niece of Shuichiro Sawaki (Ai Ohto's teacher) and she became friends with Ai shortly after meeting her. She was likely the first person after Haruka to have considered her as a girl after meeting for the first time.

## Story

Momoe is first introduced in the Egg World while protecting a young girl name Miwa who had committed suicide, landing her within the realm of Egg World. Momoe proves herself to be brave and self-sacrificing during her fight against Miwa's Wonder Killer/Trauma, making it clear to Miwa that it was never her fault that her sexual assault happened. Once Miwa's Trauma is destroyed, the girls wait at Momoe's dream-world train station, where Miwa confesses to Momoe that she's in love with her (although Momoe is disheartened by this because Miwa sees her as a boy and not a girl). Momoe uncomfortably holds Miwa in a gentle embrace before Miwa disappears into dust. On her way home, Momoe unknowingly passes by her future friends, Ai and Neiru. The next time we see Momoe, she's back in the Egg World mid-fight with Mizuki's Trauma. The Wonder Killer accuses Momoe of being a boy and tells her she'll cut "it" off if she "takes it out", angering Momoe who cries out that she's a girl. At the Egg train station, Momoe and Mizuki talk, and Mizuki reveals that she would have loved Momoe even though she's a girl. Mizuki leans in to kiss Momoe, telling her she doesn't want to leave before she disappears in a cloud of dust. Later, Momoe touches the statue of her dead friend, realizing it's becoming warm. She experiences a traumatic flashback from her past, one where her late best friend makes sexual advances towards her, frightening Momoe away. Upon leaving, Momoe runs into Rika and Neiru chatting on a bench, and Rika accidentally calls Momoe a boy before Momoe sneaks off as Acca and Ura-Acca discuss the differences between male and female suicide. Outside, Momoe sees a reflection of herself in a window and begins to cry as she regards herself. Noticing this, Ai comes up and introduces herself. Momoe then tearfully asks Ai "what do I look like to you?" and joyfully cries when Ai validates her, telling her she "looks like a crying girl". Ai continues to compliment Momoe's appearance, inviting Neiru to appreciate her "long and slender" neck, calling it pretty. The three girls bond over their shared attraction to boys' Adam's apples, and leave together to buy more Eggs.

The next time we see Momoe, she's at Ai's house for a friendly get together. Ai's mom recognizes her instantly as Ai's teacher's niece, and the girls joke around upstairs about the relationship between Momoe's uncle and Ai's late best friend, Koito. Momoe insists that her uncle is a nice man who rescues cats, but it doesn't stop Rika's jokes or Ai's suspicions about her sensei's behavior. In the evening, the girls venture back to the Egg World, hanging out in a seemingly abandoned bowling/arcade area. Momoe opens up about her insecurities revolving around her masculine appearance, complaining about how girls always mistake her for a boy and hit on her. When Rika jumps up to rile the group into playing games, Momoe teases Acca and Ura-Acca in order to force them to turn on the bowling alley power for the girls to play. During games, Neiru and Momoe chat, and Momoe further opens up, revealing she's not against dating girls or boys, indicating her insecurities stem from her gender expression rather than her sexuality.

Later on, after completing a grueling level in Egg World, Momoe is seen again with her friends and the Acca twins. The girls are exhausted from their battles against the Haters, and the twins offer them gifts or Items that will help them fight off the Haters. Their Items come in the form of jeweled necklaces and specific instructions on opening and bonding with the Item. Momo's necklace appears like a rhombus-shaped egg, with a golden band wrapped around its center and two matching turquoise jewels adorning it. After following Acca and Ura-Acca's instructions, her Item comes to life, revealing an adorable miniature crocodile creature with turquoise skin and a green belly. Its eyes are dark blue, and it appears to have a pink "tattoo" resembling eyeglasses on its face. Its nails are long and hot pink, and its belly is spotted with dark blue dots. Momoe names her Item, Panic.

After another exhausting level in Egg World, the girls meet up outside and discuss Momoe's uncle and his potential involvement in Koito's suicide once again. Momoe insists that her uncle is a good person and would never do anything nefarious, while Rika argues that Momoe isn't listening to the actual topic at hand. Momoe storms off upset, leaving the others to wonder what went wrong.

At the start of the following episode, the girls are all excitedly texting each other as Momoe gets ready for a first date. The episode jumps in between past and present events, showcasing the jumbled way that thoughts get moved around when trauma is involved. Towards the episode's end, Momoe is seen shouting into her Item for Rika to hear her, begging her not to die in her Egg World. Momoe embraces Rika when she sees she's survived.

At Neiru's workplace / home, the girls all watch a video on the technology that allows Neiru's company to access and view the "dreams" of the "virtual" world the girls enter. During dinner, Momoe and Rika excitedly get out a makeover bag to doll each other up and paint their nails together. As Momoe paints Ai's hands, she tells the girls she wants to be a dietician and hopes to go to school for it. Momoe then follows Neiru up to a secret room where Neiru's old friend Kotobuki lies in a vegetative state, and Neiru reflects on her past. The girls argue over the morality of turning off Kotobuki's life support, and Momoe leaves with Rika. In episode 10 it's revealed how Momoe's date from the previous episode had gone. After dreaming of her date, Momoe begins to get ready for the reality. Her friends help psych her up, and she wears a lovely green dress for her date. At her meeting with Ai, Rika, and Neiru, Momoe tells them her date had thought she was a boy when he'd initially asked her out, and that he panicked upon her arrival. Momoe is lighthearted about the situation, but it's clear her feelings were hurt from the encounter. At home in her bed, Momoe talks to her Item panic, asking if it's a boy or girl, and says she would love them either way. When she enters the Egg World that evening, Momoe meets a young trans boy named Kaoru that she's tasked to protect. Momoe bonds with Kaoru over their shared gender expression conflicts, and comes to terms with her appearance by the end. After defeating Karou's Wonder Killer, the two sit and chat at the train station, and they share a kiss before Kaoru vanishes, leaving Momoe blushing and flattered.

On her way out of the Egg World, Momoe runs into a now melted statue of her friend Haruka before the reincarnated girl also vanishes into thin air. With this, Momoe has cleared her level. Afterwards, a mysterious attacker (a strange creation named Hyphen) comes out of the shadows dressed in a school-girl outfit and wielding a scythe. Hyphen's head is a mutated cocoon which unfolds to reveal shining butterfly's wings and a mouth underneath. Hyphen asks Momoe if she wants to die, and Panic attacks the butterfly which results in its body being bisected by the scythe. Momoe is frozen in fear as she watches Panic die in front of her, as the attacker begins ripping into its body and consuming its flesh. Hyphen grabs a chunk of Panic and force feeds it to Momoe as she cries, until it cuts to Momoe vomiting up bits of Panic in her kitchen sink. She is then seen repeating "I can't fall asleep" over and over, traumatized by her experience.

We don't see Momoe again until the four girls meet up on top of a building to discuss what has been happening to them. Rika recounts a similar attack to Momoe, and they wonder what is changing inside Egg World. Momoe frustratingly admits she never wanted any of this, asking Ai "why did you call out to me?" before walking away.

After Ai and Rika have cleared their games, Momoe joins them for a night of karaoke and celebrations. While Rika expresses her desires to go back to the Egg World and avenge her Item, Momoe is fearful. Ai and Rika are understanding in the end, and they eventually part ways to go home and return to their "normal" lives. The last we see of Momoe is her departure from the train heading home.

## Abilities

Main article: Weapons

**Weapon:** Momoe wields a spear-like weapon, but it is still unclear what the original form of her weapon is, although it seems likely it was an umbrella of some kind, given its ability to unfurl into a canopy that functions as a shield.

**Pomander:** Momoe wields a pomander, a creature resembling a crocodile emerges from it when hatched. She named it Panic.

## Etymology

* The name **Momoe** means "peach" (桃) (**momo**) and "favor, benefit" (恵) (**e**).
* Momoe's surname **Sawaki** means "marsh" (沢) (**sawa**) and "tree, wood" (木) (**ki**).

## Trivia

* The nickname given to her by Miwa, **Momotaro** (桃太郎, *Momotarō*?. lit. "Peach Boy") is the name of a popular hero of Japanese folklore.
* Momoe’s username when they went bowling is **Momomo** (モモーモ, *Momōmo*?), most likely registered by Rika.
* Momoe wants to be a dietitian when she grows up.
* Momoe's dominant hand is her right hand.
* Momoe's hobby is updating her SNS.
* Momoe's flower is an Armeria maritima (sympathy).

## Quotes

* (To herself) *“There are more than you'd think, Haruka. Girls like you, who say they love me.”*
* (To Neiru) *“Sometimes you end up enjoying something even though you didn't mean to.”*

## References

1. ↑ Wonder Egg Priority Anime: Blu-ray & DVD Volume 1
2. ↑ Official Wonder Egg Priority Anime Website
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Wonder Egg Priority Anime: Episode 5
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Wonder Egg Priority Anime: Episode 4
5. ↑ Wonder Egg Priority Anime: Episode 6
6. ↑ Wonder Egg Priority Anime: Episode 10
7. ↑ Wonder Egg Priority Anime: Episode 9
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Wonder Egg Priority Anime: Blu-ray & DVD Volume 2
9. ↑ TV anime "Wonder Egg Priority" Retrospective Special