Review of Wonder Egg Priority: My Priority
It pains me to write this, but the finale of Wonder Egg Priority serves not as a satisfying conclusion to the story of the series, but rather the death knell of the production problems that plagued it and the industry in general. First off, the opening 25 minutes are recap and not worth discussing. The second half is clumsy in its execution at best - full of awkward pauses, editing errors, rushed compositing and stunted pacing, it's painfully obvious the staff still did not have enough time to put the kind of polish on this episode that was present in the beginning of the series andslowly deteriorated over time.
Story issues aside, I put no blame on the fate of WEP in the hands of the hard-working animation staff that spent years putting this together. Many of them are young and have shown incredible potential and dedication in what they accomplished on this series. They did the best they could with the time they had, and I wish them nothing but the best. Overambition may have factored in to this series tripping over itself, but what went wrong during WEP's production are symptoms of much larger problems that have afflicted the industry as a whole for many years. Only now are many coming to understand just how overworked and strained for time anime staff are, and for those interested in how it affected WEP I recommend reading Sakugablog's "TV Anime, A Deadly Landscape" and both "Wonder Egg Priority Production Notes" by kViN, which highlight the people behind the series and the struggles they faced.
As for the meat of the story behind this final episode, one has to wonder if this is the ending that was planned from the beginning. It seems unlikely given how unsatisfying the conclusion is, and how many loose threads were left untied. The wonderful friendship of the 4 main girls withers away with uninterest, empty platitudes and half-baked expository dialogue. At the end, we are left with an open-ended conclusion that one would normally assume to be a hint at a 2nd season - but the likelihood of that considering how we got here in the first place is next to nothing.
All I have left to say is that I am not angry, but disappointed. Disappointed that such a promising and stand-out series with an admirable amount of passion poured in to it ended up this way. Disappointed for the fans who were holding out, hoping it would stick the landing. Disappointed for the staffers, who worked so hard to push the boundaries of what is possible in the absolutely chaotic and unforgiving world of the anime industry. And disappointed that not only have things not gotten better for them, but continue to get worse.
This whole series has left a sour taste in my mouth. I take no pleasure in saying that I cannot recommend it, because all it does for me is build up to nothing of consequence. I hope things don't end here for WEP, but it seems that they do.
3/10 for the OVA, 6/10 for the series overall.