English Dub Review: Wonder Egg Priority “The Girl Flautist”

 

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Neiru, Rika, and Momoe meet up at Ai’s house during some down time. Mr. Sawaki comes in and the girls discuss what connection he may have had to Koito’s death, if any. He’s related to Momoe, who vigorously defends him.

Later, they move their play date to the egg world, where they go through a game of bowling much to the chagrin of their mysterious hosts. It quickly turns into a sort of group therapy session, but it can only last so long before one of them can’t take the heat. Rika unburdens some thoughts and asks the question — why fight so hard for girls who may not want to be brought back to life?

Our Take:

In its fifth episode, Wonder Egg lets Neiru step a bit further into the spotlight, leaping across bridgeposts and firing a volley of explosives at the latest Wonder Killer she’s fighting against as fireworks go off in the background. There’s also plenty of screen time for the group dynamic as a whole, along with more speculation about the true cause of Koito’s death.

The episode finally puts all of our main characters together and lets them hang out. There’s plenty to be said about the different personas and the ways the girls bounce off each other, but more serious things come up before too long.

Mr. Sawaki is brought up, since it turns out that Momoe is his niece. He’s definitely the most villain-like person we’ve met so far in the show, at least on the outside. We know what Ai’s seen, which makes him automatically prime suspect number one, but Momoe says he couldn’t possibly do such a thing, despite Rika egging the gang on with accusations of impropriety. We also learn that Mr. Sawaki is a wannabe painter who wants to do a portrait of Ai.

Things are fun for a while, but then Rika can’t help but be a bit of a downer. She’s just found a new friend group and she doesn’t want to lose them to an altered reality that doesn’t care about them. She wonders what they all really owe to the girls who made their own decisions to end their lives. Is it fair for them to risk their own lives to try and bring them back? Like many things in this show, it’s complicated, and that puts a damper on things for a while. But before too long, they’re back buying eggs again and everything’s forgotten… except maybe that weird confession from Neiru about her sister stabbing her before jumping to her death.

The Girl Flautist is a bit of a comedown from the highs that carried the character introductory episodes, but it’s made up for the by the fact that it’s so nice seeing the girls getting to hang out and be around people who finally understand them — at least somewhat. They’re all still very different people with different goals, and that’s where conflict originates. But there’s also bound to be a big bad villain buried somewhere in this narrative, and chances are we’ll find out sooner rather than later.