Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to be returning to Pokemon Sun and Moon, and also pleased to report that I have no real clue what we’ll actually be doing this episode. Given Ash just recently completed his first Grand Trial, followed by Kaki’s somewhat delayed focus episode, my assumption is that we’ll be getting the gang back together this time, and enjoying another ensemble episode with the whole class. Beyond that, it’s also been quite some time since Team Rocket made anything but a cursory appearance, so I’m guessing we’re about due for another of their dubious schemes. But however things play out, I’m sure the sun will shine brightly, waves will lap gently, and pokemon will battle fiercely through another Alolan day. Let’s get to it!
Author Archives: Bobduh
Kaiba – Episode 3
Past shimmering stars and an aurora of souls, Kaiba has fled. Pursued by Vanilla, the cruise liner’s bloodthirsty head of security, Kaiba has run through cities and slums, stowed away in luggage compartments, and fired off in an escape pod, seeking a reunion with the one he loves, or perhaps just an escape from this world’s injustices. But in a world like Kaiba’s, there is no true escape from violence or injustice; with capitalism having even claimed dominion over our bodily autonomy, violence and injustice are woven into the system itself. Even in our own world, homes can be stolen, families ripped apart, and lives destroyed, all with perfect legality and systemic support. In a world where even your body isn’t yours to keep, where can you possibly run to, and what can you consider home?
Spring 2020 – Week 10 in Review
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. I’ve got plenty more thoughts on a variety of movies for you all today, opening with even more exploration of Hayao Miyazaki’s early films. I also continued to deeply wound myself through repeated exposure to the filmography of Hirokazu Kore-eda, and even watched through Greg Daniels’ much-maligned new Netflix production. There’s a lot of media to cover and I’m sure you all have busy Wednesdays to get back to, so let’s not waste any more time, as we run down more of film and television’s bounteous treasures in another Week in Review!
Why It Works: Here’s Why You Absolutely Need to Catch Up on My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU!
With the summer season nearly upon us, this week’s Why It Works ended up being unsurprisingly dedicated to singing the praises of Oregairu, one of my very favorite anime, and one of the first shows I fell in love with as someone actively writing about anime. Oregairu’s first season was excellent and second season phenomenal, and if you haven’t actually seen it, you’ve still got a few weeks left before its finale season begins. GET TO IT!
Why You Absolutely Need to Catch Up on My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! – Episode 11
Hello everyone, and welcome back once more to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll at last be continuing our journey through Masaaki Yuasa’s joyous and beautiful Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!, as our crew struggle to complete an alien invasion anime celebrating their unique hometown. Though they’ve endured persistent interference courtesy of their school administration and meddling parents, Kanamori has held this team together, the siren allure of capitalizing on her friends’ talents keeping her dedicated even as the whole world conspires against them.
Meanwhile, her friends aren’t really making things easier for her. Last episode saw them joining Doumeki on a sound-gathering expedition largely because it sounded fun, and Asakusa still doesn’t have a clear overall storyboard, and still hasn’t clarified the designs of the townsfolk’s defenses relative to the alien attackers. I don’t expect this episode to be twenty straight minutes of Kanamori shaking her by the shoulders until a plan falls out, but we’re getting pretty close to that point. With panicked brainstorming and major crunch time on the horizon, let’s get back to Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
Symphogear AXZ – Episode 3
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to Symphogear AXZ, as our team stands on the brink of battle with the nefarious Bavarian Illuminati. Granted, that’s not really saying anything, considering our team has either been on the brink of or fully engaged in battle for basically every single moment of this season so far. AXZ’s first two episodes have been one continuous, ever-escalating action sequence, as the show seemingly attempts to construct an entire season with the no-brakes pacing and rolling action setpieces of your average Symphogear premiere. The show will undoubtedly have to catch its breath eventually, but right now it is soaring like a majestic eagle, scattering narrative tidbits like “the illuminati want to control history” or “Chris’ childhood trauma still haunts her” in the margins between its true passion: illustrating Symphogear users and alchemists beating the ever-loving crap out of each other. I salute Symphogear in its noble mission, and support its efforts to make a season-length run-on sentence out of one continuous action scene. LET’S GET TO THE FIGHT!
Pokemon Sun and Moon – Episode 11
Folks, I am watching more Pokemon and there is absolutely nothing you can do to stop me. While I did indeed only recently watch Sun and Moon’s previous episode, that episode turned out to be entirely taken up by Ash’s first Grand Island Trial. And while I certainly enjoyed watching Ash compete in his first major battle of the series, twenty minutes of straight action meant I’m still feeling criminally deficient in the style of slice of life, vacation-centric shenanigans that I actually love most about this show. Sun and Moon has an incredibly charming core cast, a beautiful aesthetic, and a fundamental understanding that Alola itself can serve as an inherent dramatic reward, whether we’re exploring its towns, beaches, or mysterious jungles. Wherever this episode takes us, I’m hoping the show finds some new ways to celebrate its inviting setting and terrific ensemble cast as we return to Sun and Moon!
Spring 2020 – Week 9 in Review
Alright folks, pile in, pile in. The film screenings were plentiful and excellent this week, as I watched classic crime dramas by Scorsese and Coppola, two Miyazaki masterpieces I’d never experienced, and finally got to Ari Aster’s terrific Midsommar. I’m frankly feeling pretty crime drama’d out at the moment; when looking for classic films that also won’t bore my housemates, I’ve apparently returned to “well, this one has guns in it” a few too many times, and will have to find other ways to keep my overstimulated housemates happy. But for now, please enjoy the fruits of my labor, as I run down a fresh and rewarding set of films in the Week in Review!
Summer 2020 Season Preview
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This is usually the point in this article where I say I can’t believe how quickly the time has passed, but let’s be real here: we’re all stuck inside, time has no meaning, and individual days are beginning to meld into one endless, featureless procession of the eternal Now. I hope you’re all doing your best to cope with quarantine in your own ways, but either way, time has been accelerating all throughout the spring, and at this point it feels like no surprise to already have reached the summer preview.
COVID’s global presence also means that the summer anime season has been dramatically diminished, with a great number of shows either pushed back or cancelled entirely. Fortunately, the surviving properties contain a few shows I’m genuinely hyped for, and frankly, I wouldn’t want all these already-overworked animators putting themselves in any danger, anyway. Without further ado, let’s run down the most intriguing prospects of the summer season!
The Girl in Twilight – Episode 3
Hello all, and welcome back to Why It Works! Today we’re exploring more of The Girl in Twilight, a show whose first episode intrigued me and second episode impressed me, which makes me eager to see how it expands from here. Using the handy motif of shifting between radio frequencies, Twilight has established a world where disruptive choices create branching parallel worlds, with each potential choice forming its own ongoing reality. But rather than get swamped in the nitty-gritty of scifi minutiae, Twilight has immediately directed its conceit towards questions of identity and society, through first shifting our heroes to a world where all women are assigned a marriage partner at the end of high school.
I was excited to see Twilight using its fantastical elements to immediately explore such a charged and identity-shaping concept. The greatest strength of Twilight’s first episode was how quickly and convincingly it established the dynamic personalities of its main characters, as well as the distinctive relationships they share. With that bedrock already set, the show is now able to explore how culture actually shapes identity – how it conditions us to see certain concepts as laudable or alien, and in this particular world’s case, how oppressive societal mandates can essentially grind down our individual personhood.
All this social commentary and reflections on identity are precisely my sort of shit, but we’ve also got a more urgent problem to deal with: Nana, who has indeed been granted her wish of “a universe of hot guys,” and now may not even want to come home. This place is strange, but she is wanted here – in contrast, she already feels like an outsider in her own original home. Let’s see how her friends deal with her current predicament!