Author Archives: Bobduh

Why It Works: Animating the Impossible, the Breathtaking Works of Kou Yoshinari

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This week, I actually took my Why It Works inspiration from an airing show, though not one I’m actually watching. It turns out Kou Yoshinari showed up to flex his incomparable animation talents on Sword Art Online, which seemed like a fine opportunity to celebrate just how impressive Yoshinari’s skills truly are. The man makes animation that no other person could create, and exemplifies the simultaneously individualist yet collaborative anime ethos, where any one artist can leave an unmistakable mark on a production. Let’s get to it!

Animating the Impossible: The Breathtaking Works of Kou Yoshinari

Dorohedoro – Episode 2

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Hello everyone, and welcome the heck back. Today I’m eager to continue our exploration of Dorohedoro, one of 2020’s most compelling productions, and the adaptation of a manga that’s been beloved for two decades now. Since watching the first episode, I’ve learned that Dorohedoro creator Q Hayashida actually worked as an assistant for Tsutomu Nihei, which makes perfect sense – Nihei’s vast, crumbling cityscapes are the closest manga touchstone I could think of for Hole’s squalid beauty. But rather than use a setting like that to tell a story of alienation and decay, Hayashida instead has chosen to embrace it as a home; both of them clearly have a great love of grand, intricate architecture, but they employ that fascination in entirely different directions.

All that said, I wouldn’t want to give the impression that Dorohedoro is anything but Q Hayashida’s own invention. She started on this series in her early twenties, and worked on it for eighteen years, refining a cast and world that already seem thoughtfully composed and full of ideas. The gorgeous backgrounds, the alluring, messy systems of magic, the charming bond between Caiman and Nikaido – Dorohedoro is offering a diverse buffet of strengths, and I’m eager to see how it fleshes out its unique world. Let’s get to it!

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Pokemon Sun and Moon – Episode 20

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Hello everybody, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. The summer’s starting to wind down over on my side of the screen, and with the horror show that has been 2020 showing no signs of relenting, I think it’s well past time that we took another Alolan vacation. Sun and Moon’s last episode was actually one of its most technically impressive so far, with Ash’s rematch against Kapu-Kokeko standing as perhaps the most dynamically storyboarded and fluidly animated battle yet. Rather than relying on some of the banked attack animation that Pikachu frequently employs, this fight was all about spacing, speed, and physical contact, lending a tremendous sense of urgency and immediacy to Ash’s toughest fight so far.

Coming out of that battle, I’m expecting this next episode to likely recenter Ash on his Island Pilgrimage quest, springboarding off the renewed focus he exhibited while training. But whether Ash is pursuing fortune and fame or just lounging at the beach, I’m eager to get back Alola, and simply spend more time with this charming cast. Let’s get to it!

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The Big O – Episode 7

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to return to the shadowed streets of Paradigm, and enjoy another finely crafted episode of The Big O. I’ve got a bit of a natural bias against robot shows, or as I’d personally protest, I have no particular bias towards them – the fundamental concept of robots moving or fighting isn’t inherently interesting to me, and thus a lot of scenes in a lot of giant robot shows fall flat, predicated as they are on the inherent grandeur of robots in motion.

Not so for The Big O – when this show wants its robots to feel grand, it is impossible to deny their terrifying, strangely beautiful presence. The Big O’s robots combine the lumbering, not-quite-right scale of kaiju or early super robots with a street-level perspective born of the show’s noir roots, resulting in battles that consistently feel like the end of the world. With last episode’s musical drama having reaffirmed Roger and Dorothy’s relationship, I’m eager to see them continue to unlock Paradigm’s secrets. Let’s get to it!

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Summer 2020 – Week 9 in Review

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week marked the end of an era I commenced several months ago, when I first told my housemate “hey, you should finish Adventure Time so we can check out Steven Universe.” Having at last arrived at the end of Steven Universe Future, I can happily affirm that Steven sits comfortably alongside Avatar: The Last Airbender at the absolute peak of non-Japanese animation. Along with Steven, I also caught on anime’s own current thematic juggernaut Deca-Dence, and even snuck in a viewing of Bill and Ted’s first adventure. Let’s break ’em all down in the Week in Review!

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Fall 2020 Season Preview

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Yes, yes, I know, it’s absurd. It feels like the summer season just began, and now we’re already looking towards the fall? Well, in spite of 2020 largely feeling like a torturous repetition of the One Eternal Day, the calendar has indeed been moving forward, and we now find ourselves with only three weeks until fall premieres descend. Whether we are ready or not, a new season is coming – so all we can really do is assess the far horizon, and gird our defenses for the storm to come.

As usual, my selections here won’t cover every single show in the new season – you can find a resource like that at anichart, along with straightforward summaries of everything that’s coming. Instead, I’ll be focusing just on the shows I think have genuine potential, and explaining precisely what about their staff or source material or whatnot got my attention. Without further ado, let’s explore some upcoming cartoons!

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Hugtto! Precure – Episode 16

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to be returning to the always-charming and frequently visually dazzling Hugtto! Precure – in fact, I’m even more excited than usual, given just how good Hugtto’s previous episode was. That episode saw Emiru returning in a blaze of glory, teaming up with Lulu to teach her about music and friendship and stuff. Emiru rocketed to the top of my favorite characters within her very first opponent, and pairing her with the ostensibly emotionless Lulu was an inspired choice, as Lulu was able to learn from Emiru’s passion and sensitivity, while Emiru gained a bit of necessary self-confidence from Lulu’s support.

Along with last episode’s rich character chemistry and consistently excellent humor, it was also one of the show’s most visually impressive episodes so far, with Emiru in particular being brought to life through plentiful character acting and goofy expression work. But most importantly, while I was busy raving about last episode on twitter, I received a number of responses telling me to keep on watching through the next episode, since they’re apparently a matching, equally accomplished set of episodes. The wait from there to the point where I actually had the next episode funded was agony, but it’s over now, and we’re all set to dive back into Precure. Let’s see what the sequel to Emiru & Lulu’s Big Day has in store!

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Summer 2020 – Week 8 in Review

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to another goddamn Wednesday. I watched a fairly balanced array of features this past week, including an unexpected horror gem, another American classic, and a whole lot of Steven Universe. I enjoyed Steven Universe the first time I watched it, but it turns out my momentum ran out that first time just as the show itself was starting to ramp up. The show only seems to improve as it continues through its third, fourth, and fifth seasons, capping off with a movie that had me bawling again and again. Steven Universe now stands securely besides Avatar: The Last Airbender at the highest echelon of American cartoons, and though I’m sad to leave it behind, I’m glad it’s ending strong, and not repeating Adventure Time’s slow fade of an ending. Anyway, I’m still in the introduction here, so I should probably save some Steven Universe love for the article proper. Let’s break down another Week in Review!

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Dorohedoro – Episode 1

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am excited to be embarking on a journey through one of 2020’s most intriguing properties, the long-awaited adaptation of Q Hayashida’s Dorohedoro. Dorohedoro’s manga has been beloved for many years, at least among my social circles, and I’ve heard it described as an ultraviolent yet somehow cozy slice of life story in hell-world. I’m a fan of cozy slice of life, but don’t really have any love of ultraviolence, so I’ve held off on checking out the manga – that said, great storytelling can sell pretty much any premise, and Dorohedoro’s reputation is lofty enough for me to be expecting great things here.

As for this adaptation, we’ve got an excellent director in Yuuichirou Hayashi, who has more than demonstrated his ability to realize distinctive aesthetics through works like Garo and Kakegurui, as well as a legendary art director in Shinji Kimura, who’s contributed background art to works like Beautiful Dreamer and Akira. The use of CG character models is certainly a little disappointing, but for a work with designs like this, it’s likely the only way an adaptation could have been realized in the first place. With the stage set and my own experience established, let’s see what we find in the first episode of Dorohedoro!

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Pokemon Sun and Moon – Episode 19

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Right now, I’m still mired in what I believe is known as the dog days of summer, where it’s too hot and humid out to even appreciate the sunshine. Meanwhile, with COVID preventing any sort of group outing that might distract from the heat, my current Survival Strategy is to sit within an air-conditioned room, silently staring at the blistering heat outside. This is not a particularly enthralling summer vacation experience, but fortunately, I know a place where the summer heat is always just right – Alola, a special archipelago that just so happens to also house a diverse menagerie of friendly, collectable creatures.

Last time on Sun and Moon, we joined Mallow in her quest for the perfect Alolan soup, a journey that ultimately resulted in Bounsweet evolving into the powerful high-kicking Tsareena, as well as the acquisition of aforementioned perfect soup. After a fair stretch of episodes that have all been episodic adventures, I’m somewhat expecting us to return to Ash’s island pilgrimage today – but if not, I’m also absolutely down for some kind of wacky one-off again, perhaps involving hot air balloons or an angry Miltank. Whatever’s in store, Sun and Moon is always a good time, so let’s dive right into our next episode!

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