Wonder Egg Priority
Plot. The series follows Ai Ohto, a junior high school student who is temporarily not attending school following the suicide of her close friend Koito Nagase. During a late-night walk, Ai is guided by a mysterious voice to a deserted arcade, where she finds a gachapon machine that dispenses a "Wonder Egg". That night, Ai gets drawn into a dream world where the Wonder Egg cracks open to reveal a girl, whom Ai must protect from a horde of monsters called "Seeno Evils". When the voice tells Ai that saving enough people in this world may  bring Koito back, she resolves to continue buying Wonder Eggs and protecting their inhabitants. Along the way, Ai meets three other girls in the same situation as her: Neiru Aonuma, Rika Kawai, and Momoe Sawaki. Production. "Wonder Egg Priority" is a co-production between Aniplex, Nippon Television, and D.N. Dream Partners. It was directed by Shin Wakabayashi, written by Shinji Nojima and features character designs by Saki Takahashi. Taracod served as concept artist, Keisuke Kobayashi as core animator, Yūki Funao as art director, and De De Mouse and Mito as music composers. During the broadcast of "Wonder Egg Priority", the  staff failed to finish an episode on time, causing episode 8 to be replaced by a recap episode. Afterwards, several overseas animators were recruited to work on the second key animation of the show, with translators Blou and Far assisting with communicating through the language barrier. Broadcast and release. "Wonder Egg Priority" aired on Nippon TV and other channels from January 13 to March 31, 2021. Kanata Aikawa, Tomori Kusunoki, Shuka Saitō, and Hinaki Yano perform both the opening and ending song, respectively, titled and . makes a special appearance in episode 7 as Rika's mother, Chiaki Kawai. During the  last episode broadcast, it was announced that a special episode would be released on June 30, 2021 at midnight JST. The special is one hour long. Funimation licensed the series and streamed it on its website in North America and the British Isles, in Europe through Wakanim, and in Australia and New Zealand through AnimeLab. On March 30, 2021, Funimation announced the series would be receiving an English dub, with the first two episodes premiering the next day. Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll. GaragePlay licensed the series in Southeast Asia and streamed it  on Bilibili. Reception. IGN listed "Wonder Egg Priority" as one of the best anime series of 2021.