Category Archives: Episode Writeup

Skip and Loafer – Episode 12

Posted on by
Reply

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I come to you bearing melancholy tidings, for while I am thrilled to be returning to Skip and Loafer, I am sorry to admit that this is indeed the last episode of Skip and Loafer, at least until a sequel gets announced. Yes, today we must bid goodbye to Mitsumi and Shima, who’ve been such emphatically charming company as they navigate the gentle hurdles of adolescence.

Mitsumi arrived in Tokyo bearing enormous dreams of scholastic achievement and civil service, and so far I’d say she’s more than proven herself as a cosmopolitan big-city gal. Well, perhaps not exactly, but she’s certainly proven she doesn’t need to reinvent herself in order to find a comfortable home in the city. In fact, over the past six months, it’s largely been her own earnest, optimistic personality that has drawn others towards her, disarming the natural defenses of Makoto, Yuzuki, and even Mika through her courageous commitment to being herself. Her example has even led a boy as scarred by past sincerity as Shima to believe he could earnestly pursue his passions – and with both his family and old flame gathered at the festival, it is clearly time to put that faith to the test. Let’s get to it!

Continue reading →

Uzumaki – Episode 3

Posted on by
Reply

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we are returning to the ill-fortuned terrors of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki, as we sift through the wreckage of this once-promising adaptation. After a first episode that saw Hiroshi Nagahama wielding his singular yet undeniably laborious Aku no Hana-adjacent aesthetic to marvelous dramatic effect, producer meddling and presumed merger-prompted impatience on the American side has left the production floundering, wielding every cost-saving measure in the book to ensure its profoundly limited animation crosses the finish line. We’ve seen single-frame imitations of movements, cutaways to avoid animating faces, and walk cycles with perhaps two frames to their name, a grim parody of the meticulous animation style employed in this production’s first episode.

And yet, the inherently compelling nature of the material remains, alongside the production’s excellent background art, soundtrack, and foley work. The thing about Junji Ito’s stories is that they straddle the thin line separating horror from farce even in their original form; hell, stories like Kirie’s brief hostile hair fiasco don’t really have any interpretation other than comedy, so divorced are they from anything approaching a relatable human anxiety. An aesthetically compromised adaptation makes for an oddly compelling rendition of Ito’s tonally discordant vignettes, and Uzumaki’s tales are certainly never boring. With expectations appropriately tempered, let us return to the spiral!

Continue reading →

Big Windup! – Episode 14

Posted on by
Reply

Hello folks, and welcome on back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to Big Windup! just in time for the first match of the summer tournament, as our boys face off against the actual winners of the previous year’s tournament. The unfortunate results of the tournament lottery have left them with an absurd challenge ahead of them, and given this tournament’s single elimination format, it’s more than likely their brilliant, ephemeral summer dreams will end just as soon as they’ve begun.

Fortunately, our team is well-equipped with both underappreciated talent and expert conditioning. Our core battery of Mihashi and Abe both flew under the radar in middle school; Mihashi because he had no proper training or support, and Abe because he was paired with a pitcher who had no interest in collaboration. The two of them had learned to see their teammates as either obstacles or objects of fear, but here at Nishiura, they have found both accommodating allies and trustworthy instructors, furnishing their initial talents with the confidence and mutual trust necessary to succeed. Still, there is simply no way to overcome the experience gap between them and their competitors, and it’s clear their opponents are prepared to take them seriously. Let’s see if our boys can triumph over the odds as we return to the field!

Continue reading →

Spy x Family – Episode 35

Posted on by
Reply

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to dive back into Spy x Family, and join the Forgers for some actual goddamn vacation time. So far, their cruise ship journey has been defined largely by high-stakes action spectacle, with Yor defeating countless assassins while Loid disables a scattering of explosives. It’s always fun seeing the Forgers flex their formidable faculties, but the heart of this production is the interplay of these found family weirdos, and I’m thus hoping we at least get a sampling of their activities on the final day of the cruise.

After a long stretch of lacking a comparable motivation to her so-called husband, this arc successfully aligned Yor alongside him as a steward of the future, a warrior who fights so that other families can enjoy the comfort she has found. Yor’s dubious motivation and general lack of interiority has always been one of Spy x Family’s greatest weaknesses, so I’m quite happy we’ve dedicated a full arc to her emotional growth, and look forward to seeing how her new perspective impacts her approach to family life. Let’s get to it!

Continue reading →

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – Episode 7

Posted on by
7

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to return to the wanderings of Frieren and her companions, as the warrior Stark joins them on their journey to the land where souls rest. Having bound himself to one village due to his fear of unsuitability as a warrior, Stark ultimately learned he was far stronger than he’d imagined, dispatching the dragon that haunted him without ever requiring the assistance of his accompanying mages.

Stark’s tale served as a fine embellishment on Frieren’s core themes, emphasizing how easily our perspective can become bound by self-imposed limitations, but also how a happy life can be found practically anywhere, so long as we remain open to experience and present in the lives of those around us. It was only Stark’s untested self-image that kept him tethered to his village, but fear soon shifted to a sense of responsibility, and from that to a genuine love of his community. Whether we roam widely or commit ourselves to our homes, the world is full of wonders that only ask us to keep our eyes and ears open, ready to appreciate what is precious in each new day. Let’s see what our adventurers ramble into this time!

Continue reading →

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You – Episode 9

Posted on by
Reply

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I figured we’d stop back with Rentaro and the gang, and see how his sacred quest to acquire one hundred girlfriends is proceeding. Though this production has normally managed to combine preposterous farce with some unexpectedly thoughtful reflections on communication and healthy partnerships, I have to admit that it has been absolutely lunacy ever since our latest girlfriend Kusuri joined the picture. With her fondness for Rentaro only matched by her passion for mad science concoctions, Kusuri has propelled our polycule through one preposterous predicament after another, culminating in an episode-long Resident Evil parody courtesy of Kusuri’s kiss-mania serum.

Considering I’ve had multiple readers define this series in terms of its pre- and post-Kusuri tone, I’m guessing that things are only going to get more ridiculous from here on out. It seems likely the show will essentially shift into two primary modes: a somewhat more emotionally grounded style for the individual wooing episodes, and then the utter chaos of the last episode for the group escapades. Regardless, my main hope is 100 Girlfriends maintains its flourishes of genuine thoughtfulness regarding the crafting of an honest, mutually enriching bond. That’s the secret ingredient that actually makes this show special, so let’s see how Rentaro manages this balancing act as we get back to the action!

Continue reading →

Monogatari Off/Monster Season – Episode 1

Posted on by
Reply

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to announce we’re returning to the Monogatari franchise, the series that more or less began my journey as an anime critic. I’ve written about Monogatari for reddit, twitter, Crunchyroll, Anime News Network, and you folks here, and yet the series still manages to surprise me, offering fresh psychological insights and aesthetic flourishes after all these years.

It’s little surprise this series means so much to me. Monogatari embodies anime’s unique capacity to project our internal lives as ecstatic visual theater, combining a thorough exploration of human psychology with playful visual storytelling and Nisio Isin’s profound talents for thematically resonant drama and character voice. Monogatari’s characters feel both alive and compelling in a way few works of animation can match, and his insights regarding our ability to understand ourselves, each other, and the nature of a “life well lived” inspire me to seek such thematic richness and humanism in my own work.

Monogatari’s central narrative regarding the self-actualization of Koyomi Araragi has at this point concluded – though of course, as Nisio Isin is quick to assure us, everyone is a work in progress, everyone is “learning how to be happy” at their own pace. Nonetheless, Araragi’s resolution of his immediate psychological block, his long-time refusal to engage with his own self-destructive nature, has left the stage clear for Monogatari’s many other compelling characters to take the lead, and demonstrate the playfulness, compassion, and insight with which all of them have been brought to life. Let’s see what rambling adventures await in the off season!

Continue reading →

Galaxy Express 999 – Episode 5

Posted on by
Reply

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am impatient to continue our journey aboard the Galaxy Express, and see what wonders await us as the edge of the solar system. Our last adventure featured an impromptu trainjacking by the Great Space Pirate Antares, who actually turned out to be a perfectly reasonable sort of guy. All he really wanted was to steal luxury items from the rich and catch a ride home, which Tetsuro and Maetel were ultimately happy to assist in. In this harshly stratified universe, the have-nots must band together if they are to survive; and as that last episode made clear, the Galaxy Express itself is not just an impartial observer of the cosmos.

The loneliness of space, the impersonal bloodlessness of a metal body, and the desperation for, if not a good life, at least a proper death – Galaxy Express 999 is as melancholy as it is marvelous, offering a vision of the future whose substance is as grim as its surface fantastical. It’s an intoxicating mixture that quite understandably stoked both the imagination and social consciousness of a generation of viewers, and I feel fortunate to explore it with all of you. Let’s hop aboard!

Continue reading →

Yuri is My Job! – Episode 4

Posted on by
Reply

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I am eager to return Yuri is My Job!’s fanciful Cafe Liebe, and see how Hime attempts to disentangle her latest foot-in-mouth insertion. She was actually doing quite well last episode, with the accidental reveal of her private performance ultimately resulting in a moment of genuine honesty between her and Mitsuki. Hime was even driven to admit to the past trauma that had convinced her only a flawless, all-encompassing social performance could prevent her from being despised and abandoned; unfortunately, it turned out Mitsuki herself was precisely the person who instigated that trauma, prompting a fresh rift between them.

Nonetheless, even this new conflict seems like a healthy step forward for both of them. Coming to truly know about others’ feelings will inevitably invite friction, the kind of friction that might prompt you to hide within a loveable facade like Hime, or gravitate towards ritualized performances of intimacy like the Cafe Liebe crew. But it is only by continuing to invite that friction that you might find true, earnest companionship, and discover that everyone else is muddling through just as awkwardly as you are. We cling to scripts when we believe everyone else already has one; the truth is, everyone engages in a combination of performance and sincerity every day, all of us seeking an emotional safe harbor for our flawed, imperfect perceptions of self. As with the initial reveal of her performance, Hime has once again ripped off the band-aid accidentally, leaving a raw mark to tell of her painful prior experiences with Mitsuki. This leaves them both more vulnerable than before, but it is only through embracing vulnerability that we might arrive at genuine mutual trust. Let’s see how spectacularly they fail to manage it!

Continue reading →

Yuki Yuna is a Hero (Washio Sumi Chapter) – Episode 2

Posted on by

Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re continuing with the journey of Togo, or “Washii” to her new friends, as she and her companions fight bravely in defense of the Divine Tree. Having defeated their first Vertex with only moderate difficulty, the trio have since bonded over some delicious mall gelato, where Nogi assigned Togo her fateful nickname. Thus our long march off a short pier continues, our only assurance being that things will soon get much, much worse.

I’m already steeling myself for that blow, but in the meantime, I’m also quite enjoying this season’s distinct conception of the relationship between heroes and the Divine Tree. Rather than the oblivious Yuki and her friends, Togo’s group have been fully briefed on their responsibilities, and are seen as heroes by their fellow students. Given what’s coming down the line, I could imagine that their fates actually resulted in the dismantling of this hero preparatory academy system; after all, if their classmates can directly connect the deterioration of their friends’ bodies to their work as heroes, it seems far less likely they’d be similarly inclined to sacrifice themselves for a faceless god. Let’s see if that prediction bears fruit as we return to Washi Sumi Chapter!

Continue reading →