Monogatari Off/Monster Season – Episode 12

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re winding towards the conclusion of Monogatari’s Monster Season, as our elite team of investigators work to hunt down the life-draining killer stalking their town. With four exsanguinated basketball players in the hospital, a similarly drained Deathtopia at Mayoi’s shrine, and one body still unaccounted for, the race is on to crack this case before Kagenui arrives and just punches everything to pieces.

While our killer remains elusive, the journey so far has offered plenty of thematically resonant touchstones to sift through, presenting echoes of both Acerola and Araragi’s passage into vampirism. Acerola believed becoming a vampire was the only way she could take account for the lives she stole, pledging that each life taken would be as precious to her as her own flesh was to the gourmet Deathtopia. But in meeting and transforming Araragi, she actually fulfilled her previous wish: to discover someone she could truly save, and thereby redeem her own existence. Each found a vessel for their self-sacrificing instincts in the other, and with the validity of their existence affirmed, they were each able to grow beyond those instincts, and discover the ordinary, fundamental truth that if you keep living, good things will eventually happen.

“Happiness isn’t a race,” Araragi once said, and the wandering passage of himself and Shinobu speak to the truth of those words. Though the journey has been arduous, this arc’s glance back towards their origins demonstrates just how far they’ve come, all the great strides towards happiness they have taken. Whatever mysteries remain, the emotional growth of Araragi and Shinobu has never been more certain. Now let’s get to work!

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Spring 2026 – Week 8 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week has seen us continuing our march through the Dirty Pair canon, as we finished the original series, screened their Project Eden film, and then continued onward into the tragically brief second season. It’s going to be tough to say goodbye to Kei and Yuri, but I’m also excited to embark on a new project, and am currently juggling a handful of outstanding anime possibilities. In other news, Critical Role’s fourth season has reached the convergence point of its three wayward tables, and proven anew that Brennan Lee Mulligan is some kind of genetically modified DnD machine. His ability to jump between tables, tones, and even genres is spectacular; it’s frankly hard at times to even draw lessons from his performance, since the prevailing takeaway seems to be “just be a genius, the rest will come naturally.” I’m nonetheless greatly enjoying the ride, and am awaiting the rest of this preposterously ambitious project with great anticipation. In the meantime, let’s run down some films!

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Wicked: For Good

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re journeying back into the fantastical land of Oz, as we explore the followup to 2024’s Wicked film adaptation. Yep, it’s time for Wicked: For Good, as Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba suffers the slander of our Wizard charlatan, and Ariana Grande’s Glinda assumes the mantle of magical inheritance. Having formed an unlikely bond during their days at Shiz Academy, the two have been torn apart by the Wizard’s machinations, and Elphaba now finds herself the scapegoat for all of Oz’s manifold problems.

The first film offered an intriguing stew of thematic variables, touching on notes of classism, discrimination, and the ways skillful propagandists can reshape society in their own preferred image. I’m generally a fan of narratives that frame magic as a fading whisper in the age of man, and the idea that the Wizard is intentionally provoking such an outcome through his attacks on education and rewriting of history is an exceedingly compelling twist on that convention. Additionally, Ariana Grande has proven herself absolutely fuckin’ hilarious, and though I expect this film will provide fewer opportunities for her to make a delightful fool of herself, I’m eager to see where Elphaba and Glinda go from here. Let us return to unrest in the land of Oz!

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Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – Episode 18

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d check back in with Frieren and the gang, as they continue their journey north to the land of souls’ rest. When last we met with our adventurers, they were making an impromptu goodbye to Sein, the priest who’d been accompanying them ever since they convinced him to pursue his old friend. Discovering his objective had wandered in a different direction, he parted with a simple wave, content in the time he had shared with our crew.

His departure served as a play on expectations that ultimately reinforced Frieren’s melancholy themes; though we often think of parties in stories like this as natural, unbreakable units, every journey shared is in truth a happy accident. Frieren has explored the tragedy of taking others’ presence for granted through its reflections on the original hero’s party, but Sein’s brief presence put that discussion in immediate terms, as we in the audience were given barely enough time to get to know him before he was already gone.

But that’s enough melancholy and nostalgia for now. With the first class mage exams presumably ahead of us, I’m guessing we’re moving into some crunchy action territory for the moment, and am eager to see these animators flex a bit. Let’s get to it!

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Shoushimin Series – Episode 10

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we are returning to the scrumptious Shoushimin Series, just after the full revelation of Osanai’s scheme. This was no idle game of deduction for our heroine; with the threat of Isawa’s revenge to motivate her, she decided to go fully scorched earth, conscripting both Sanae and Jogoro into a scheme that would ultimately see Isawa buried under a variety of semi-invented criminal charges. In the end, the mastermind behind Osanai’s abduction was Osanai herself, who knew she could manipulate things such that Isawa took the fall.

That is some truly dark shit, if you don’t mind me saying. Isawa seemed troubled and possibly even dangerous, but “if you threaten me I will destroy your life” is a pretty hair-trigger response, and Osanai seems not only satisfied with this conclusion, but actively proud of her work. There is a violence in her that goes well beyond Jogoro’s occasionally friction-prompting intelligence; his skill is morally neutral and actually quite valuable, whereas her passion seems to inevitably leave scarred victims in its wake. And morality of her talents aside, how is Jogoro supposed to feel about this? Yes, they often mislead each other for the sake of a shared game, but when that deception puts lives at risk, and even makes Jogoro complicit in her conspiracy, how can he continue to trust that she is fundamentally on his side? Is there anything Osanai truly cares about beyond sweets and getting to bare her fangs? Let’s find out!

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Spring 2026 – Week 7 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. It’s been a busy few weeks in our neck of the woods, as we’ve returned to regular weekly DnD sessions while maintaining our usual program of film and TV spectacles. Our new campaign’s party is now battling through a tournament in the pirate city of Westgate, while our previous party has just set off for another sojourn in the nine hells. We’re reaching the point of narrative ambition where we might consider some actual crossover drama, but for now, it’s just nice to be once again hanging out, rolling dice, and incinerating waves of enemies with the force of my mild-mannered goblin’s Spirit Guardians (man that spell is ridiculous). I’ll surely provide more updates on our adventures as they proceed, but for now, let’s run down the week in film!

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Apocalypse Hotel – Episode 3

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m in the mood for some fluffy comfort food, and what could be more soothing than the thought that humanity is over, our troubles have ended, and a courteous robot entourage has been left to pick up our slack? That’s right, we’re journeying downtown to the Apocalypse Hotel, where the service is superb and the clientele extraterrestrial.

After initially presenting a world bereft of human life, where the purposes instilled in Yachiyo and her compatriots only served to illuminate the emptiness of their daily routines, our second episode offered the staff an unexpected guest to accommodate. And though their alien visitor fell a touch outside their expected parameters, his unusual needs ultimately served as a positive affirmation for Yachiyo, reminding her that even her own status as concierge was facilitated as an act of faith, a disregarding of the probable in pursuit of that golden possibility of coexistence. Humanity may be gone, but it seems they’ve left the best of themselves behind to open the doors and wash the sheets. Let’s see what our staff get up to today!

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The Mighty Nein – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to check back in on the trials of The Mighty Nein, or at least whatever portion of its members are hitting the spotlight this episode. As this adaptation’s first episode well demonstrated, Critical Role are taking a drastic approach to reimagining their second tabletop campaign, reordering and reframing and generally attempting to make a coherent, propulsive narrative out of a largely unguided collaborative experience. And so far, I have to say they are absolutely nailing it.

While The Legend of Vox Machina did a fine job of recreating the experience of participating in a tabletop campaign in animated format, it’s clear that they’ve adjusted their goals for The Mighty Nein, and are instead attempting to assemble the best story possible out of the campaign that was. They are not attempting to strictly recreate The Mighty Nein in video format – they are diverging and restructuring in service of the campaign’s potential, rather than its played reality. It’s pretty much exactly what I hoped for from Critical Role’s simultaneously best and least fully realized campaign, abandoning both the inherent limitations of tabletop storytelling (the primacy of the party, the singularity of perspective, etc), as well as the narrative pitfalls of a party and dungeon master not being entirely on the same page. It’s an audacious trick, but I’ve been thoroughly impressed with their adjustments so far, and am eager to see how this new edition of the story unfolds. Let’s get to it!

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BanG Dream! Ave Mujica – Episode 12

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Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m happy to announce we’re returning to the stage of nightmare and delirium that is Ave Mujica, as our heroines attempt to exorcise their demons and find a place where they belong through their collective surrender to visual kei theatrical music experience. Surprisingly, as of eleven episodes in, this doesn’t seem to have worked; practically every member of the group is actually in a worse place than they started, whether professionally, psychologically, or a healthy combo of the two.

Our last to reveal her particular blend of self-hatred, obsession, and dissociation was Uika, born Hatsune Misumi, the daughter of Sakiko’s grandfather and unacknowledged black sheep of the Togawa group. Forced to grow up like a princess constrained in a faraway tower, Hatsune developed a fascination with the darling heir Sakiko that saw her claiming the identity of her little sister Uika, a version of herself that she could allow to betray her father’s directives, and actually become friends with the golden child.

Between her own forlorn existence and Sakiko’s seemingly irresistible aura, Uika’s curiosity soon turned to obsession; and when Sakiko’s life collapsed in the wake of Uika meeting with her father, she was swift to break Sakiko’s fall, her love for her double only matched by her hatred of herself. Now we’ve got Uika in Togawa Jail, Sakiko being shipped off to Switzerland, and our three other foundlings left in a practice room with no AC or music on. Let’s see if Sakiko manages to single-handedly end Swiss neutrality as we return to Ave Mujica!

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Spring 2026 – Week 6 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week I completed my watch-through of the original Dirty Pair TV series, which has left me wallowing in those tragic post-series doldrums of just wanting to hang out with my animated buds again. Kei and Yuri are a delightful pair of rampaging rascals, and nearly every episode of the series offered a satisfying riff on spy, mystery, or space drama adventures. The series was simply top-notch popcorn entertainment, and though I’ve heard their further escapades offer somewhat diminishing returns, I’m at this point invested enough to run through the various other Dirty Pair adaptations and remakes. It’s frankly been a terrific year so far in terms of catching up on outstanding older productions; I’ve marched through Future Boy Conan, Moribito, Aura Battle Dunbine, and now Dirty Pair alongside my Turn A and Katanagatari rewatches, and have had a great time with all of them. I’ll have to figure out what older favorite is up next, but in the meantime, let’s burn down the week in film!

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