Our yearly animation awards have once again gathered animators, directors, producers, writers, translators, fans, and everything in between to pick the greatest contributions to anime and the world of animation in general for the year 2021—enjoy!
SK8 The Infinity and Wonder Egg Priority are two original passion projects, both also being high-profile productions that have been in the works for a long time. Despite being exactly what anime needs on paper, they have crashed to the point where only extreme crunch might allow them to make it to the goal by the intended date. Understanding their distinct issues will help you grasp the nuance of TV anime’s structural problems.
Most Wonder Egg Priority episodes so far have been fantastic first time showings by newbie directors, but what is it about this team’s approach that allows them to channel fresh creative energy so much better than their peers? And at the same time, what are the logistical and even thematical problems derived from their approach?
The third episode of Wonder Egg Priority is an amazing directorial debut, capable of modulating its delivery to adapt to a character protecting her wounds with a façade, but also of developing a language of touch to deliver subtler truths. So, who’s the prodigy behind it?
Wonder Egg Priority is a truly unique show, an effort by an up-and-coming star to repurpose the creative language of one of anime’s greatest directors in a way that fits his own circumstances. Grasping its context only makes its quality even clearer.
Enjoy this deep dive into the unusual Winter 2021 anime season: let’s talk about its extraordinary concentration of brilliant creators and robust teams capable of supporting their ideas, but also the huge yet uneven impact of the pandemic, widening the already existing inequality rifts in the industry.