Author Archives: Bobduh

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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CITY The Animation – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am delighted to announce we are starting on a new yet likely nostalgic journey, as we explore the first episode of the ongoing CITY The Animation. Based on a manga by Nichijou scribe Keiichi Arawi, CITY is also being adapted by the singular team at Kyoto Animation, with Taichi Ishidate serving as director. In predictably KyoAni fashion, Ishidate has spent his entire career at the studio, serving as a key animator since all the way back in their Inuyasha outsourcing days, and more recently directing such lush spectacles as Beyond the Boundary and Violet Evergarden.

Nichijou is probably the best anime comedy that exists, and Kyoto Animation is possibly the greatest animation studio of all time, so my expectations are pretty high for this followup. And so far, I’ve seen no reason to temper those expectations – the previews have all been delightful, embodying that same mixture of warmth and surrealism that made Nichijou so special, and the art design looks incredibly appealing. Nichijou adapted Arawi’s style to something closer to KyoAni’s house aesthetic, but CITY appears to be embracing the comic book stylings of its source material, presenting a world of warm pastels, chunky lines, and flat yet strangely voluminous scenery. It has been far too long since I watched Kyoto Animation flex their powers (alright, it’s actually only been like four months since my last Euphonium binge), so let’s not waste another moment. Onward to CITY!

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The Summer Hikaru Died – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re embarking on a brand new adventure, as we explore the first episode of an ongoing production, The Summer Hikaru Died. Based on a manga by the whimsically aliased Mokumokuren, the story is apparently centered on two close friends, one of whom goes out into the woods alone and returns as a different creature entirely. It’s a classic horror template that I’m quite fond of, one that plays into both our often self-deluding maintenance of social propriety, as well the fundamental folk-horror allure of spirits within the wilderness, beings so wild that even to witness them might prompt terrible transformation.

Wendigos, werewolves, vampires, and vourdalaks all play in this conceptual space, which here seems combined with another favorite topic of mine: the steadily depopulating Japanese countryside, a persistent topic of animated drama which has furnished the narrative of productions like Rainbow Fireflies, Sakura Quest, and even Dagashi Kashi. So yeah, as a rabid fan of folk/cosmic horror and a sucker for melancholy pastoral dramas, I imagine there’ll be plenty for me to dig into here. Let’s get to it!

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Yuki Yuna is a Hero (Hero Chapter) – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re embarking on another long walk off a short pier, as we commence the third season of Yuki Yuna is a Hero, the aptly named “Hero Chapter.” Once again, a squadron of compassionate, idealistic young girls will be thrown into relentless battle, fighting and dying so that a dispassionate divine entity can continue its war against the forces of entropy. There is no victory in this battle; the only certainty is a continuous escalation of conflict, to the point where our heroes will eventually sacrifice themselves willingly to give humanity one more day, one more hour of peace under the boughs of the Divine Tree.

Yeah, it’s a pretty brutal franchise on the whole, made all the more so because it’s so effective at illustrating the poignant bonds between its leads, and how their civic-minded decency could do so much within their own communities, if they weren’t being consigned to such an arbitrary, anonymous fate. Though it could easily come off as exploitative, its genuine celebration of all that is good about its protagonists makes it feel far more angry, angry that they are forced to live in such a world, that just like in our own, the light of human kindness can be so grossly exploited by social convention, patriotism, and religion. Battered and beaten as we are, we still work to make the load lighter for each other, still practice charity in the face of oblivion. Let’s return to the fight!

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Summer 2025 – Week 3 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. This week has seen me burning through a diverse grab bag of anime selections, as with my housemate away, I am once again free to watch whatever the fuck I feel like. I had the clear goal of “consume the entirety of Sailor Moon” in mind for last time, but I have yet to find such an obvious guiding objective for my current rampage, and thus my picks have been a touch more eclectic. I caught up on the first season of Dandadan (reasonable, not my thing), munched through the Ruin Explorers OVA, and have most recently been dabbling in the various adaptations of Masamune Shirow’s manga, including the ‘80s Appleseed adaptation and Dominion Tank Police. Let me know if you’ve got any recommendations I might like below, but for now, let’s burn down the week in films!

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Yuri is My Job! – Episode 11

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re scrambling for good seats at Cafe Liebe, just in time for Yuri is My Job!’s Blume election results to be revealed. Our last episode offered something of a breakthrough in the Sumika-Kanoko drama, though the two are still far from friends. Kanoko was unwilling to abandon her love of Hime, but made it clear to Sumika that it would never be more than that. Kanoko seems to understand that, like the ornate bonds of Liebe Girls Academy, her form of love can only live as an implication; there is no substance to it beyond the fantasy she has invented, and thus she will content herself to live forever in Hime’s shadow.

It’s not exactly a healthy approach to romance, but it at least ameliorated Sumika’s concerns regarding the fate of the cafe. And beyond that, through her conversation with Nene, Sumika was able to mentally redefine Kanoko from a threat to a victim, a girl whose one-sided romance would only end in tears. As she’s so often done in the past, I imagine that’s something Sumika can work into the Cafe Liebe narrative – in fact, isn’t one of the core roles of the elder Schwestern to comfort their little sister, to embrace them and dry their tears after their innocent dreams are denied? I could easily see us proceeding towards a conclusion where a flourish of genuine honesty from Kanoko ends up integrating into the kayfabe of Cafe Liebe, but first, we must crown our new Blume. Let’s get to it!

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Trigun Stampede – Episode 7

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to Trigun Stampede in a moment of crisis, as the Sand Steamer carrying our heroes to JuLai has come under attack from both  Wolfwood’s old companion Livio and a small army of bandits. Confronted with this shadow of the boy he once sought to protect, Wolfwood’s alleged cynicism has been put to the test, as he struggles to uphold the same cutthroat critiques he has leveled at Vash’s idealism.

So yes, we are currently deep in The Good Stuff, matching this production’s most complex action tableau with its most urgent contrast of Vash and Wolfwood’s ideals. Both of them are fundamentally humanists, and both of them are also to some extent hypocrites; Vash’s pacifist values require him to often ignore the second-order effects of his actions, while Wolfwood’s callous odes to self-reliance hide an underlying desire to protect those who cannot protect themselves. But it is neither Vash nor Wolfwood who is truly wrong; these are all simply the consequences of maintaining compassion in a fallen world, where human existence is so fragile that the better angels of our nature must fight to overcome pragmatism and hopelessness at every turn. Whatever shields our leads must develop to maintain that humanist hope, whether it’s Vash’s selective perspective or Wolfwood’s fatalistic facade, it is far better to find peace with hypocrisy than to genuinely harden our hearts. Peaceful coexistence might be an impossible dream, but we must seek it all the same; ultimately, it is only when we lose faith in each other that we are truly lost.

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