Wouldn’t it be wonderful to stare up at the stars, secure and certain of your place within their grand design? To not see the cosmos as a sprawling reflection of all the opportunities you’re conceding, all the moments you’re wasting with every second not harnessed to your true purpose? To truly know who and what you are, your current self and your ultimate intended function? In a universe as vast as our own, the idea that each of us has some destiny that we must seek, some specific route that was made for us among the countless potential paths we might tread, feels more like a hopeless lament than a call to action. And yet some truly do seem to have found their calling, treading confidently forward with certainty at their side.
Author Archives: Bobduh
Hugtto! Precure – Episode 37
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am delighted to be returning to Hugtto! Pretty Cure, for an episode that by all accounts is going to be almost incomprehensible to me. Our last episode involved the main Hugtto party linking up with about half a dozen previous Cure generations, some of whom they were already acquainted with, all of whom were essentially new to me. Having rallied these supplementary ranks, we then saw half a dozen other Cure parties get frozen in time, trapped in the re-unveiling of Dr. Traum’s totally bullshit time control robot.
For long-time Cure aficionados, I imagine these meetups are a familiar element of the Precure package. For me, this has been a somewhat overwhelming but altogether charming journey through decades of design sensibilities, with each new team demonstrating the diversity of what Pretty Cure can be. The franchise appears to possess a gratifyingly straightforward “if it’ll make for a fun crossover, do it” approach to worldbuilding, while the appearance of all these classic Cures likely gives the current animation team a chance to bring characters they grew up with to life, much like how One Piece’s current staff is stacked with lifelong One Piece fans. When you’re given a chance like that, magic frequently results, so I’m eager to see what wonders await in this pan-Precure bash. Let’s get to it!
The Demon Girl Next Door S2 – Episode 10
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to be returning to The Demon Girl Next Door, following up on one of the series’ warmest and fuzziest entries so far. Though Momo and Shamiko’s zoo date ended up sabotaged by their so-called friends, the ensuing trip to Sakura’s shrine proved just the romantic excursion they were hoping for, with Momo embracing greater honesty in expressing her feelings and Shamiko embracing more horniness all around. Plus she won her first demonic battle! A tremendous victory for Shamiko.
On a metaphorical level, Momo’s issues purifying and regulating her magic serve as a fine echo of her personal difficulty in opening up to Shamiko, and figuring out how to orient and define herself as someone within Shamiko’s life. Momo’s life of isolation has taught her to be self-sufficient, and she was comfortable enough doting on Shamiko as a helpless project, but learning how to exist as equals, with all the emotional vulnerability that implies, has been a difficult process. “Who am I when I’m with you” can be a difficult question for young lovers to answer, and for Momo, that question is lent further urgency via the harsh consequences of melding magic. Let’s see how our young couple is faring!
Spring 2023 – Week 13 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Though we’re already near the end of June, this is technically the final week of the spring anime season, making it the perfect time to learn what shows I should actually come up on. Actively watching airing anime is obviously a recipe for tragedy, given how many productions either collapse partway through or never realize their potential. As such, I’ve lately been waiting for seasons to end before checking them out, thus mitigating the likeliness of suddenly running aground on a stretch of war crime apologism or whatnot. This normally cuts down the field significantly, but it seems this season’s Witch From Mercury, Skip and Loafer, Vinland Saga, and Birdie Wing all held strong from start to finish, leaving me with a whole goddamn pile of work to do. Fortunately, with Dennou Coil complete, it’s the perfect time for me to dig into a bunch of recent anime – but in the meantime, let’s run down some films in the Week in Review!
Yasuo Otsuka’s Joy of Motion
Hey folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be exploring a film that falls a touch outside our usual wheelhouse, but which nonetheless seems like an absolutely essential viewing. Today we’ll be watching Joy in Motion, a documentary about the impeachable animation legend Yasuo Otsuka. Otsuka was a crucial figure right from the beginning of anime’s film history, making key contributions to the early films of Toei Doga, and championing a style of animated unreality that would go on to influence countless future animators.
Along with making iconic contributions to early films like Saiyuki and The Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon, Otsuka would also prove to be an essential mentor to the next generation of animators. He served as animation director on Isao Takahata’s landmark film debut Horus, Prince of the Sun, and also worked on early Hayao Miyazaki productions like Lupin III and Future Boy Conan, nurturing two talents who’d come to define prestige anime film productions. His credits stretch across a literal half-century, and his influence even further; rather than inspiring specific individual techniques, it might be more accurately said that Otsuka’s style helped define what cinematic anime would look like in a general sense. Anime would not be what it is without Otsuka, and I’m eager to hear the man himself drop some knowledge on us all. Let’s get to it!
Yuki Yuna is a Hero – Episode 1
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m pleased to announce we’ll be embarking on a brand new adventure, as we check out the first episode of Yuki Yuna is a Hero. To be honest, I don’t know all that much about this series, save its place within the industry’s overall development of genre trends.
Yuki Yuna was one of a number of “dark magical girl” dramas that followed the breakout success of Madoka Magica, typified by shows like Day Break Illusion and Magical Girl Raising Project. Most of these shows landed with little impact, in a heartening rebuke of their producers’ assumption that talent and passion are less important than following genre trends, but Yuki Yuna has flowered into a broad and successful franchise. There’ve been Yuki Yuna light novels, manga, visual novels, and even smartphone games, and I get the feeling that if its American release hadn’t been produced by the hideously overpriced and utterly shelf-averse PonyCan imprint, it might have been a commercial hit here as well.
So yeah, I actually know a fair amount about Yuki Yuna’s commercial circumstances, but almost nothing about its narrative. And as anyone with more than a passing familiarity with the magical girl genre knows, darkness and grief have always stood alongside its aspirational themes, making the optimism its heroes struggle to embody all the more meaningful. Revolutionary Girl Utena, Princess Tutu, Ojamajo Doremi, Pretty Cure – I’ve bawled my eyes out to a variety of magical girl dramas, and hope to find many more with the power to yank at my heart. Let’s see how Yuki Yuna fares!
The Legend of Vox Machina S2 – Episode 7
Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to dive back into The Legend of Vox Machina, and follow up on the chilling conclusion of last episode. After over half a season of gradually nurturing the “Grog is wielding a cursed sword” narrative, all those bad dreams and grim portents were finally paid off, with Grog stabbing right through his best buddy Pike. And with a member of the Chroma Conclave literally breathing (acid) down their necks, Keyleth was forced to cast a hasty teleportation spell, leaving our heroes stranded across multiple realms.
All that made for some delightfully crunchy mechanical drama, and I’m eager to see how these smaller sub-parties illustrate their unique relational dynamics. Though splitting the party can be risky, Mercer’s players are clearly perfectly comfortable riffing off each other in smaller groups – and at this point, I’ve gained enough experience as a DM myself to appreciate just how much flexibility splitting the group provides, as well as its potential for letting individual players shine. Two sessions ago, my team conducted a heist that involved an interrogation on one floor, an infiltration on another, and a charismatic distraction on a third, and it was probably one of the best sessions we’ve ever had. As it turns out, structural ambition is only really limited by confidence – if you can keep the flow going and make sure everyone’s engaged, there’s no limit to what stories you can construct. I’m eager to steal more of Mercer’s excellent ideas, so let’s see what drama’s cooking in the Fey Realm!
Spring 2023 – Week 12 in Review
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. It is currently a muggy, clouded, altogether inhospitable day out, but I refuse to let nature’s frankly childish behavior ruin my afternoon. This has been a week marked by a variety of gratifying personal milestones: I released my last writeup of the excellent Simoun, caught up on both my Witch Hat Atelier and Chainsaw Man articles (currently in my drafts), and finished Mitsuo Iso’s fascinating Dennou Coil, while also plotting out much of the remainder of my house’s D&D campaign. I suppose it’s no great secret that accomplishing things makes you feel accomplished, but it’s nonetheless been a great source of pride and energy to see my “Current Outstanding Projects” pile diminish so significantly over the past half year. I’ve got more fun stuff coming, but for now, let’s explore some fresh films and Mitsuo Iso’s acclaimed production as we burn through the Week in Review!
Chainsaw Man and the Cost of Kindness
It feels uniquely Chainsaw Man-appropriate that three volumes in, Denji could look up and see “Kill Denji” plastered as the volume title of the manga that’s literally about him. The kid just can’t catch a break – not from his enemies, and not from his allies either, for whatever that designation is worth. Aki treats him with nothing but contempt, his other coworkers view him with a mixture of fear and loathing, and the woman he believes he is in love with is simply exploiting his obvious, easily manipulated desires. Pretty much the only person who doesn’t hate or desire to manipulate him is Power, which is an undeniably sad place to be.
Simoun – Episode 26
And so it ends. Having long held the future of Simulacrum on their shoulders, the era of the Simoun Sybillae concludes in acrimony and hope, Neviril and Aaeru soaring off in pursuit of the Emerald Ri Majoon and whatever realms await the eternal maidens. No longer is Neviril seeking to undo the past, or Aaeru to prove her worthiness; they believe in themselves and each other utterly, and this final act is an expression of that belief. Simulacrum’s faith may well have been an arbitrary set of strictures draped over a fundamentally value-neutral phenomenon, but the course of Simoun has proven that faith has a power of its own, regardless of its genesis. Even as Neviril’s companions accept their transition beyond this stage, they are still inspired by her actions – and in that faith, a point of commonality is found between them and their new priestly order.
It has been a poignant and rewarding journey riding alongside Chor Tempest, and though I’m sad we’ve arrived at the end, I’m happy it’s ending with such conclusive, elegant finality. Simoun has always possessed a grace of execution that belies its absurd thematic complexity, and thus it seems appropriate that the story ends where it begins: Neviril and her pair in flight, seeking the infinite in the fulfillment of their love.