Author Archives: Bobduh

Bocchi the Rock! – Episode 1

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Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am excited to announce that we are embarking on a new journey, and exploring a show that has been lighting up the internet for the last few months. That’s right, it’s time to check out Bocchi the Rock!, wherein social anxiety meets musical passion with hilarious results.

In a season that by all rights was destined to be dominated by Chainsaw Man, Bocchi has gone above and beyond in distinguishing itself, offering an impressive mix of thoughtful direction, impressive character acting, and regular feats of imaginative animated fantasy. Though I checked out the first episode near the beginning of the season, I’ve since then merely been admiring its theatrics via the excerpts posted by friends, and am eager to see for myself how all this nonsense comes together. Additionally, I also love performing music and frequently suffer from overwhelming social anxiety, so I’m sure there’ll be plenty to dig into on a more personal scale. Let’s quit with the rambling and get with the rocking then, as we explore the thunderous misadventures of Bocchi the Rock!

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Star Driver – Episode 12

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re going to be continuing our examination of the fascinating Star Driver, which as of now appears to be settling into the rhythm of its second act. After a tumultuous climax wherein Sugata first activated his King’s Pillar, the show rapidly shifted gears, introducing first Mizuno and then Marino as fresh dramatic irritants. But now that both sisters have been reasonably established, it seems we’ve reached a point of relative stability, allowing for the reintroduction of more tangential side stories like last episode’s Simone vignette.

Still, it’s clear that larger forces are rearranging themselves beneath our surface drama. Last episode’s most potentially consequential moment was undoubtedly the meeting between Sugata and former Kiraboshi leader Head, wherein Sugata’s misgivings about his power were ameliorated by Head’s assurance that “talent is bestowed on us by the gods for a reason. To not use it might be a sin.” These words gave Sugata the confidence to activate the King’s Pillar during the ensuing battle, which was lucky for Takuto at the time, but will likely incur more significant long-term consequences. The flipside of “talent is bestowed on us by the gods for a reason” is “my actions are righteous because I am a chosen vessel of god,” which aligns alarmingly well with both Sugata’s self-righteousness and his preordained role in this island’s ritual structure. Takuto and Sugata were able to settle their differences with some old-fashioned roughhousing last time, but with Head whispering flattering devilry in his ear, I imagine there’s trouble in store for our core trio. Let’s check it out!

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Tending the Fire in Outer Wilds

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Standing on the crumbling surface of a dwarf planet, you watch as tendrils of light dance across the earth, chasing shadows as the sun creeps over the horizon. Daybreak sees a glow briefly rising and crashing upon these ruins, the sun their only visitor since times unknown. Camped beside your spacecraft, sifting through the wreckage of a dead civilization, you feel a loneliness more acute than that of total abandonment; the loneliness of absence, of the empty spaces where life once thrived, but no longer. As the light becomes too bright to bear, as the sun reaches a terrifying fullness of form, you think back on your journey, hoping to at least find companionship in memory.

Then, from your scanner, a gurgle of static resolves into a sharp tone: the mournful song of a harmonica. Somewhere out there, someone is watching the same sight you are, feeling that same tug of homesickness, fear, and awe. Even in the darkest recesses of space, you are never truly alone.

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Fall 2022 – Week 11 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. I’m currently in the midst of cataloging all the anime I watched this year for my end-of-year article, and in the process realizing that hey, I actually watched a lot of anime this year! I’ve kept current on One Piece, munched through most of Boruto, checked out some old classics, and even watched a few seasonal productions. And crucially, I haven’t really been watching with any sort of system in mind – like in my early years of anime enthusiasm, I’ve just been grabbing what seems interesting and taking a look. With the preview guide long behind me, I no longer need to care what percentage of a season appears watchable to me; I can just watch the cream of the crop, and leave the demarcation of seasonal cruft to less fortunate souls. You all can look forward to that post coming in a couple weeks, but in the meantime, this week offered its own set of cinematic attractions. Let’s break ‘em down!

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Bodacious Space Pirates – Episode 25

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we stand at the penultimate episode of Bodacious Space Pirates, with Marika having assembled the remnants of Sea of the Morningstar’s once-proud pirate armada. From a position of strength so great they were once relied upon to maintain the region’s independence, these pirates have been winnowed down not by open combat, but by the steady erosion of the economic climate where they once thrived. Once proud privateers, they have been reduced to couriers and theme park attractions, more emblems of local flavor than drivers of martial destiny. And now, they are being targeted practically for sport, their existence deemed an acceptable loss for the cause of testing new weaponry.

It’s a dark day for pirates, to be sure, but they fortunately have the irrepressible Marika on their side. Though a life of piracy initially seemed far-fetched to our young heroine, she now appears to represent piracy’s future, or at least the hope of piracy having a future. With the implacable storm head of capitalism bearing down on her and the remaining stalwarts of piracy at her back, Marika stands ready to make history however this plays out. Let’s embark on a fresh episode of Bodacious Space Pirates!

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The Demon Girl Next Door S2 – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I figured we’d check back in on The Demon Girl Next Door, which at long last is demonstrating some genuine honesty in titling. With both Momo and Mikan taking up residence in Banda Terrace, Shamiko is now literally next-door neighbors with her local magical girls, a development that is sure to accelerate her and Momo’s blooming relationship. With a full summer break ahead of them, our leads are certain to at least enjoy a bounty of shared home meals, if not necessarily make any progress on their larger quest.

And to be honest, I’d be totally fine with that. Between the first season’s last episode and this season’s premiere, Demon Girl has stuffed in more plot development in two episodes than the rest of the first season combined. With both their larger goals (the hunt for Sakura Chiyoda) and personal shifts in circumstance having been sorted out, I’d be happy to see an episode or two spent exploring this new normal, now that Shamiko and Momo are only separated by a thin apartment wall. With a bright summer stretching before our heroes, let’s see what awaits in The Demon Girl Next Door!

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Spy x Family – Episode 10

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. It’s currently a bleak and drizzly day outside, so I’m thinking we disperse these clouds with a sunny slice of Spy x Family. I have to admit I’ve been getting quite fond of the Forger clan over the course of these adventures. Spy x Family possesses just the right balance of deadpan comedy and character intimacy to appeal to me, with its initial hook of “look at these wacky characters in this outrageous scenario” swiftly making way for the firmer, lasting allure of people you know well doing their best by each other (while still screwing up plenty in the process). And with the last several episodes offering a closer perspective on Yor’s feelings, it’s finally starting to feel like all three of our Forgers are equal partners in this grand fabrication, collectively weaving a fantasy of the life that their circumstances have denied them. With Yor’s fears hopefully assuaged and the family closer than ever, let’s get back to Spy x Family!

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Fall 2022 – Week 10 in Review

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Hello folks, and welcome on back to Wrong Every Time. Surveying the takeaways of this last week in films, I am forced to admit that this is indeed something of a Garbage Week, boasting three separate films that I wouldn’t recommend to anyone. That’s alright, though; the release of all those Sight & Sound polls also led me to one of the best films I’ve seen this year, so hopefully that will somewhat balance the selection. I’ve also been rushing to catch up on all the key anime I’ve missed – I’ve raced through both Chainsaw Man and My Hero Academia, and am having a great time with each of them. The work never ends, so I’ll leave off here for now, and let you all enjoy my latest assorted movie gripes. Let’s get to it!

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Rilakkuma and Kaoru – Episode 4

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July debuts in Rilakkuma and Kaoru with an explosion of color, as cut-paper illustrations extol all of Kaoru’s summertime fantasies. Stop motion is such a laborious mode of animation that its aesthetic boundaries are even less fully explored than hand-drawn animation; in scenes like this parade of dreams, we are presented with new horizons of mixed media animation. Felt and clay characters stand atop layered cut-paper compositions, with thick pieces of painted wood or cardboard creating an illusion of depth, as if we’re watching an animated pop-up book. In Kaoru’s dreams, hunks prostrate themselves before her, offering both whirlwind romances and tasty snacks.

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The Legend of Vox Machina – Episode 12

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Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to reach the conclusion of Vox Machina’s first season, and perhaps even more eager to share my own campaign updates. After several sessions of going on various adventures in and around the city of Yhaunn, my party was invited to a royal ball at the castle, necessitating more prep work than I feel entirely comfortable acknowledging. I had to build out the relationships of the royal family, then sketch out roles and personalities for all of the city councilors, then sculpt the personalities of the two delegates from each of half a dozen different nearby regions, then figure out how to give this mass of new characters some narrative structure, lest my party be entirely lost in directionless decision paralysis.

And yet, it worked! It all worked! That session was one of our most successful so far, the party never seemed overwhelmed by the opportunities in front of them, and they even made some personal connections with several of the country’s attendant luminaries. Lightly guided by the attendees they’d met previously, my players made a successful dive into this campaign’s larger political reality, with Captain Chaos himself actually forging some of the strongest bonds with my new characters. It was a clear and profoundly encouraging demonstration of how much my group and I have grown into a functional campaign, with the story finally starting to feel like something they are truly interwoven with, as opposed to something that’s merely being forced upon them.

So yes, I am feeling pretty proud at the moment, and eager to make use of all these new connections the party has made. I might end up posting some design docs eventually if people are interested, but in the meantime, I’m also quite excited to see how Vox Machina’s first season comes to an end. We’re in full boss battle mode at the moment; Vex and Vax have reconciled, Cassandra has been rescued, and Keyleth… well, Keyleth’s in a bad spot, I admit. Having her leap in front of a blast meant for Vex was an exceedingly noble conclusion to their mini-arc, but also very stupid, given she’s now the group’s only healer. Please, druids and clerics, do not leap in front of your damage-dealers, that is partially what they are there for. Let’s see if Keyleth ever gets the chance to make use of that lesson, as we explore The Finale of Vox Machina!

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