Author Archives: Bobduh

The Fire Hunter – Episode 3

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to return to the melancholy journey of Touko and her charge Kanata, as the pair navigate the hostile, decaying world of The Fire Hunter. Having been assigned the treacherous task of returning a dead fire hunter’s dog to the capital, Touko hitched a ride aboard one of the mighty forest-traversing trains that connect humanity’s remote villages. Unfortunately, her selfless spirit again compelled her to leave the train in pursuit of the runaway bride Kaho, and her failure to heed the train’s rules has meant she will soon be dropped off, forced to brave the forest and its demons all on her own.

That’s perfectly fine by me; every moment spent exploring this world offers tiny treasures, from the ambiguous, evocative details of humanity’s downfall, to the humble human stories Rieko Hinata so skillfully weaves into its margins. Hinata writes with the confidence and precision of a master, and the show’s character designs and background art are doing a marvelous job of bringing her melancholy world to life. It’s already apparent that this production is having to stretch to make animated ends meet, but I’ll always prefer an ambitious failure over a mundane success, and The Fire Hunter is nothing if not ambitious. Let’s return to the journey!

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Summer 2025 – Week 6 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week I’ve continued to munch through the original Slayers series, though my progress has been admittedly slow of late. There’s a good reason for that, though – after initially setting a new year’s resolution of spending one day writing personal fiction per week, I’ve lately been upping my output dramatically, spending my evenings banging away at what is increasingly appearing to be some kind of actual book. It has been immensely fulfilling to get back into consistent creative writing, and I imagine I’ll have some updates on that front soon, but for now, we’ve got some films to explore. Let us conclude our journey through the Chuckyverse!

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BanG Dream! Ave Mujica – Episode 6

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I announce with great trepidation that we are returning to BanG Dream! Ave Mujica, as our various forlorn mujicians all wallow in their own forms of mental illness. Well, except for Nyamu, she’s thriving, but you know there’s no keeping a good Nyamu down. And of course, Umiri spent the last episode studiously avoiding giving a shit about anything beyond her twenty-nine remaining bands. But the rest of our girls? Hoo boy.

Having attempted through Ave Mujica to foment a rebellion against a life of dependency and self-hatred, Sakiko has retreated in shame, returning to her grandfather’s home and accepting that she may well always hate herself. She is surrounded by reminders of the mother she lost and father who abandoned her, seeing herself as little different from her treasured porcelain doll. Having abandoned Uika and broken Mutsumi, she now accepts what she sees as her destined punishment, a life of staring through the glass at the vitality embodied by those who are truly free.

Uika is a false smile stretched thin over a shuddering doll, still obsessed with Sakiko, and increasingly incapable of maintaining her professional affectation. And Mutsumi has left the building, having retreated so far inside herself that even Mortis seems worried about her, begging her other self to please come home. With our heroines in such dire straits, it now apparently falls to the MyGO girls to rescue them, as the Anon/Tomori combo interrogates Sakiko and friggin’ Soyo of all people reaches out to Mutsumi. Will this collaboration make Ave Mujica better, or only make MyGO worse? I’m terrified to find out, but here we go!

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Dear Brother – Episode 11

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today it is time once again to iron our uniforms and dry our tears, as we return to Seiren Academy for a fresh episode of Dear Brother. In the wake of Shinobu’s harrowing birthday party, our last episode saw the poor girl embarking on some kind of friendship hunger strike, hoping to regain Nanako’s affection or literally die trying. But after a stern lecture from Kaoru regarding the value of her health, as well as a visit from Nanako to her hospital bedside, it seems like Shinobu may well be at peace for the first time in her melodramatic existence.

This is certainly great news for Nanako, who has worries enough without a self-destructive stalker haunting her steps. Instead, we now have the girl who once memorably called Nanako’s bully a “child of a rat-dog” back on her side, ready to escalate basically any confrontation into a manic spectacle. Dear Brother strikes at real anxieties regarding adolescence and our roles in society, but it does so with a melodramatic flare that can always benefit from Shinobu’s exceedingly bad ideas, and perpetual willingness to embody the “my friend got mad at me, so now I am going to starve” intensity of teen emotions. Thank you Ikeda, thank you Dezaki, and thank you readers for joining me on this delightfully histrionic adventure. Let’s get to it!

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Shoushimin Series – Episode 3

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d check back in on the heroes of Shoushimin Series, though I’m sure they themselves would shirk at such an appellation. Claiming a mutual dedication to the pursuit of normalcy, Osanai and Jogoro are determined to not make any waves, with Jogoro asserting that even his acquaintanceship with Kengo is merely an affirmation of their arcane value system. But normal people do not prize normalcy; in their very preoccupation with assuming this camouflage, our leads reveal themselves as distinctive, self-denying oddities.

Our last episode revealed just how much of a mask Jogoro has seemingly adopted, as Kengo grilled him on his transformation from an inquisitive, conceited know-it-all to a self-effacing cipher. Jogoro claims there was no impetus behind this transformation beyond the natural softening of age, and yet fragments of his old self are perpetually leaking through, so much so that even Osanai has preemptively forgiven him for “returning to how you were when I first met you.” So we are left once again with Kengo’s unanswered question, as to what Jogoro is attempting to achieve through seeking “normalcy,” or rather what he is trying to avoid by denying his talents. For Oreki, the fear of embracing his talent stemmed from a fundamental lack of self-worth, as acknowledging them carried an implicit responsibility to make use of them – a fear he would ultimately overcome through his desire to be a partner worthy of standing at Chitanda’s side. Here, Osanai is performing the opposite role, validating Jogoro’s refusal to embrace his full self. But what is it that makes Jogoro so afraid of his own talent, and why is Osanai so attached to this project as well? The mysteries keep stacking as we return to Shoushimin Series!

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Summer 2025 – Week 5 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. With my housemate still away visiting family, I have continued to make rigorous use of my screen monopoly, munching through a bunch of Slayers and whatever horror films I know would normally get vetoed. That generally means “films about dolls or spiders,” and thus this week has seen me mowing down the greater Child’s Play franchise, munching through as many of its far-flung features as possible. The franchise has undergone a couple of major transformations over the years, but has actually maintained its core team and general quality through all of it, making it perhaps the most consistent of all the major slashers. Let’s break it down!

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Blue Reflection Ray – Episode 10

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we stand on the precipice of apocalypse as we return to Blue Reflection Ray, in the wake of Momo’s revelatory confrontation with her former partner Mio. There’s apparently a good reason why Momo’s memories of their partnership are unclear: she actually died in the wake of their final defeat, alongside everyone else in this world. But the universe has provided our reflectors another chance to make good, and this time, Mio is determined to achieve victory no matter the cost.

This explanation does a fine job of explaining Mio’s actions so far, as sacrifices made and bridges burned in order to save those she loves, even if they themselves cannot understand her actions. It also offers more context regarding this whole reflector paradigm, which is apparently an instrument of a higher organization that has somehow spun off its tracks, leaving both blue and red reflectors with no certain purpose. That in turn furthers Blue Reflection Ray’s thematic conflict, challenging Momo’s assertion that the only antidote to trauma is drawing it into the light. As Mio said, that might work perfectly fine for someone as strong as Momo or Miyako, but what about Niina, or Kana? Without a support structure and strong sense of self, simply facing your trauma isn’t likely to resolve it; as such, it is likely that both red and blue reflectors have their place, each a necessary aid in the protection and liberation of those imprisoned by their darkest feelings. Let’s see if these girls can find some common ground as we return to Blue Reflection Ray!

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Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – Episode 12

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today the snow is falling beyond my window, marking our passage into the lean days of winter, when the gray clouds and frost without only makes us tuck all the more closely within, variably ensconced in our blankets and families and firelights. In this way does one year pass gently into the next, ushering us forward in stillness, reminding us that, for good or ill, time’s passage is unabating. Bundling inside cannot protect us against the procession of age; but take heart, for each winter presages light over the hills, and a dawning spring.

That’s more or less how I’m feeling as we return to Frieren, which has similarly just endured a long winter hibernation. The party’s impromptu cohabitation with Kraft demonstrated the show at its best, exploring through montage and attentiveness to incidental moments the crafting of unexpected personal bonds, how even allegedly idle time spent waiting for the weather to change can still shape our identities. The transformative power of such time spent was neatly contrasted against Kraft’s personal faith, his desire to have someone acknowledge the worth of these days, just as he has come to acknowledge the days of shorter-lived companions. But spring and partings are both inevitable, and our party now sets forth with renewed vigor, journeying ever onward into the wild north. Let’s depart!

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The Legend of Vox Machina S3 – Episode 8

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to get back to the island of Glintshore, as our friends in Vox Machina have found themselves in a serious pickle. Having tracked the nefarious inventor Anna Ripley back to her remote factory, the team were divided through carelessness, with Vex’s uncertainty regarding her relationship with Percy ultimately snowballing into him suffering a seemingly fatal injury.

As grim as the situation looks, I can’t imagine our boy is actually going to die. Character death in DnD is an extraordinarily harsh cost, forcing a player to give up all the investment they’ve placed in that character both emotionally and mechanically, and asking them to start over fresh in a way that somehow integrates with the other characters’ ongoing narratives. Maintaining the threat of death in any given encounter is “realistic,” but realism and narrative drama rarely get along – if the protagonist of a novel you’re reading got unceremoniously killed by falling rocks, you’d be rightfully upset at the lack of payoff for your investment in their journey.

There is an argument to be made that random, unlikely deaths can add a certain spice to your tabletop narrative; I can see that point, but I frankly couldn’t imagine valuing such unpredictability over a certain coherency of drama. And DnD itself seems to acknowledge this issue on the far end, by providing a variety of magical methods for overcoming character death, to the point where it can actually become difficult to ensure even NPCs remain dead and buried. Thus the on-book answer is “death is common but merely inconvenient,” whereas I much prefer “death is rare but permanent.” It’s a point of contention as unresolvable as the vast array of passions players can bring to the table, answerable only to a group that has collectively affirmed they’d like to play a roguelike, or a court intrigue simulator, or simply ride a rollercoaster and slay a dragon at the end. All of these tensions are what make DnD so mercurial and fascinating, so let’s go ahead and find out how our heroes deal with this latest catastrophe!

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Summer 2025 – Week 4 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week I have finally finished up Death Stranding 2, after spending far too many of my precious, fleeting hours trudging through snow and putting materials in boxes and receiving different materials to put in different boxes. I jest, but to be honest Kojima has got this gameplay loop down at this point, and has successfully merged Death Stranding’s mechanical fundamentals with a functional, Metal Gear-reminiscent combat system. The game is nowhere near as finicky or austere as its predecessor, which frankly left me with mixed feelings – Death Stranding 2 is a much more consistently dopamine-depositing game than its predecessor, but far less of an emotionally challenging, potentially transformative art experience. And considering the gaming industry is full of column A and sorely lacking in column B, it feels a little sad that one of our few reliable auteurs “just” made a solid videogame.

Anyway, I still quite enjoyed it, and will undoubtedly be returning to the roads of Australia for one of my final segments of these games: enjoying the fruits of my infrastructure work, riding the highways that now extend all the way across the continent. In the meantime, let’s break down the week in films!

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