Author Archives: Bobduh

Galaxy Express 999 – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to announce we’re embarking on a journey through another beloved classic of anime, the TV adaptation of Leiji Matsumoto’s Galaxy Express 999. Inspired by the fantastical Night on the Galactic Railroad (itself the recipient of a majestic anime film adaptation, to say nothing of its significance to Ikuhara’s Mawaru Penguindrum), Galaxy Express tells the story of a young boy who wishes to live forever, and boards the space train Galaxy Express 999 in the hopes of receiving the metal body that will realize his dreams. Along the way, he joins up with a beautiful, mysterious woman with her own reasons for the journey, and experiences a dazzling array of adventures as he travels to the end of the line.

Alongside Space Battleship Yamato and Captain Harlock, Galaxy Express stands as one of Matsumoto’s most consequential contributions to manga and animation, a classic whose influence can be felt in the scope and style of space operas to this day. His work is also one of my most significant remaining blind spots regarding the history of anime, and I am thus absolutely thrilled to be starting this adventure. As for the staff, chief director Nobutaka Nishizawa appears to be most notable for his significant work on this franchise itself, though I’m intrigued to see this episode’s screenwriter also wrote the harrowing Space Runaway Ideon: Be Invoked. Let’s see what’s on offer as we board the Galaxy Express!

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Spring 2024 – Week 13 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I come to you with a fresh pile of films and more besides, as my house has just recently concluded our screening of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. The show ended up falling significantly below my expectations in terms of overall quality, but it was nonetheless quite interesting to see GAINAX struggling through their first television production, establishing many of the concepts that would go on to inform Evangelion, and otherwise fumbling through an oddly lopsided mixture of Lupin, World Masterpiece Theater, and Space Battleship Yamato. With Nadia done, I’m guessing we’ll be continuing our Gundam journey with Victory Gundam, and also finishing off the surprisingly addictive League of Legends: Arcane. But for now, let’s run down the spoils of our latest Week in Review!

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Neon Genesis Evangelion – Episode 23

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Darkness looms over Misato’s apartment as we return to Shinji’s caretaker, now cocooned in the repetition of a painful, desperate ritual. Instant ramen cups lie unattended and spoiling on the floor, beer cans stack up around her bed, and a familiar voice hangs in the air: Kaji’s final message, Misato’s last connection to the man she loved. His encouragement to “go forward without any hesitation” rings bitterly hollow as Misato hunches over her desk, happier to hunch in this loop of familiar feedback rather than strike out into the cold, lonely world.

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The Big O – Episode 20

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning once more to the city of Paradigm, as Roger Smith attempts to divine what fragments of his past identity he can use to construct his future self. As external invaders continue to pierce the veil of Paradigm’s manufactured reality, Roger himself is coming to doubt the role he has been assigned, knowing full well that his control of the megadeus is not an expression of agency, but a fulfillment of his “father” Rosewater’s wishes. So then, as Roger himself recently asked, “who is my real enemy?”

Well, that’s a complicated question. The easy answer would be “Rosewater,” as he’s clearly the one currently pulling the strings behind Paradigm’s current age of amnesia. But Rosewater himself appears to be channeling his energies towards fighting some external threat, the survivors of a world gone mad attempting to puncture the bubble of Paradigm’s security. Mankind’s hubris will always lead us towards forbidden knowledge, whether it’s the technology that wrecked the world or the sins that were buried forty years ago. Like many men, Roger is a hammer in search of a nail; he play-acts an agent of truth and justice as a “negotiator,” but the secrets he uncovers may prove themselves more dangerous than any of the foes he’s dispatched. Let’s see where his fraught path takes him as we return to The Big O!

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Anne of Green Gables – Episode 15

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to return to Anne of Green Gables, as we catch up on Anne in yet another moment of crisis. Having initially taken to her schooling like a fish to water, she was then blindsided by the arrival of the hated Gilbert Blythe, who had the audacity to not only stare at a strange woman, but also pull her hair! Clearly this would not stand, and so Anne swiftly commenced a retaliatory operation, refusing to engage with either the detestable Gilbert or her teacher Mr. Phillips. And now, her war has come to this: she will not be returning to school ever again, for her pride and very soul demand that she see this injustice righted.

Well, at least that’s presumably how Anne sees it. Marilla is currently tolerating this rebellion purely because she assumes it won’t last the week, and that seems like a perfectly sensible approach at the moment. This is essentially a battle between Anne’s pride and Anne’s curiosity, and though she is indeed fiercely proud, she is even more curious about the world around her. As far as the staff goes, this episode sees the return of the legendary Yoshiyuki Tomino on storyboards, so I’m looking forward to more evocative layouts reminiscent of that whole Marilla’s Brooch saga. Let’s get to it!

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Spring 2024 – Week 12 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Though it is technically the end of the spring anime season, the summer heat is currently reducing my cat to a sad puddle, and I am not faring much better myself. I have been attempting to beat the heat by preoccupying myself with essential anime viewing, and have so far made it just over halfway through Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. The show has been an interesting watch so far, more educational than fully entertaining, but certainly a worthy sort of education. Watching Nadia, it is easy to see elements that Gainax would reiterate in Neon Genesis Evangelion, but also hard to believe how they jumped from this show’s proudly rudimentary characterization to the thoughtful interrogations of its successor. I’ll have more thoughts on that when I finish, but for now, let’s burn through a fresh selection of films!

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Phoenix – Volume 1

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I’ll admit I know embarrassingly little about Tezuka’s life and work, beyond the obvious impact he had as both one of the pioneers of manga and the originator of TV animation. There was short-form anime before Tezuka, but it was the cutthroat bargain he struck in terms of “limited animation” that allowed anime to be in any way financially viable as a weekly television medium. And to be honest, his bargain was itself a pretty loose interpretation of “financially viable,” a labor-heavy yet nonetheless bare-bones adaptive method that still has repercussions in how animators are criminally underpaid today.

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Blue Reflection Ray – Episode 3

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I figured we’d check back in on the drama of Blue Reflection Ray, on the precipice of our first formal magical girl battle. With Miyako’s life hanging in the balance, blue and red Reflectors are squaring off in a kaleidoscopic nightmare realm, intent on either saving Miyako from her self-hatred or conditioning her into a pure avatar of suffering. Can Hiori handle these foes, and will Ruka rise to the challenge and join her!?

Well, probably, though I imagine we’ll be in for some bitter struggles on the road. Personally, I’m intrigued both to see how this show handles a full-on battle, and also just eager to get back to the banter between our leads, particularly if Miyako’s about to join them. Her bitter snark seems like the perfect counterpoint to Ruka’s timidity and Hiori’s false cheer, and I’d love for her to encourage Hiori to really feel mad about her unhappy family life. The show appears to be establishing a binary of positive and negative emotional powers that seems ripe for immediate deconstruction, and with our leads’ circumstances largely established, I’m eager to see more of the show’s actual hand. Let’s get to it!

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Trigun Stampede – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d return to the action-packed Trigun Stampede, for the simple reason that I greatly enjoyed the first episode and am hungry for another one. The always-reliable Studio Orange are outdoing themselves in terms of this production’s energetic storyboarding and expressive faces, and the underlying material has so far offered a confident blend of scifi trappings and western drama. I may have missed the original Trigun during its heyday, but I’m happy to be getting a second swing at this beloved universe.

So far, we’ve received an intriguing mix of narrative variables, with the ambiguous idol of scientific progress appearing central to the story’s thematic ambitions. Scraping by in the ruins of a futuristic empire, the humans of Noman’s Land find what relief they can in the fragments of the old world, with Vash and Knives descending like angels offering either salvation or damnation. I’m intrigued to see how far this “mythology of science” thread stretches, and also on a more basic level eager for more goofy Meryl faces. Let’s see what new hazards await us in Trigun Stampede!

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Spring 2024 – Week 11 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week I’m riding high on the back of another successful DnD session, as I lead my players through a post-campaign island adventure with a clear Indiana Jones coat of paint. It’s becoming a tricky thing to provide meaningful challenges for my party of heroes; DnD is reasonably well-balanced from around level four to level twelve (the point where Baldur’s Gate 3 wisely caps you), but after that you reach the point where rogues simply can’t be discovered, warriors can barely be harmed, and magic users can either fly or teleport past any physical hurdle.

As a result, old standbys like pit traps and pressure plates start to become more endearing than genuinely threatening, forcing me to come up with inventive new ways to either kill the party or trick them into killing themselves. Basically all of my experiments in this regard were successful, so I’m feeling more confident than ever that I can maintain a stream of worthy challenges for my near-demigod-level players. And of course, there was also plenty of time dedicated to screening whatever film features caught my fancy. Let’s check ‘em out!

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