Category Archives: Episode Writeup

The Apothecary Diaries – Episode 3

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m thinking we could all do with some thorny palatial intrigue, meaning it’s likely time for a fresh episode of The Apothecary Diaries. The show has proven an absolute delight so far, in large part due to its preposterously charming heroine. Combining a keen intellect and curious mind with a variety of more grumpy, gremlin-reminiscent qualities, Maomao fits into a proud tradition of reluctant detectives, running from modern favorites like Oreki Houtarou all the way back to the indifferent, self-medicating Sherlock Holmes.

With Maomao as our guide, life at the palace has proven a treacherous and fragile balance, a continuous negotiation of loyalties spiced with the threat of venomous betrayal. It’s becoming oddly understandable how Maomao might find comfort in poisons; poisons might harm, but they rarely lie, generally revealing themselves through odor and texture and a certain stiffening of the limbs. In contrast, the nobles of the court are born liars, and that bastard Jinshi the least trustworthy of them all. Let’s see how Maomao navigates this nest of vipers as we return to the palace!

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Rock is a Lady’s Modesty – Episode 10

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Hello folks, and welcome the fuck back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re returning to Rock is a Lady’s Modesty in the wake of our group’s first full band performance, wherein they rocked the faces off Bitter Ganache at an unsuspecting local club. Though the performance started out rocky for both Tina and Lilisa, Otoha’s support was able to drive both of them to glory, as she first threw a lifeline to Tina, and then aggravated Lilisa into her triumphantly selfish true form.

Their performance proved one of the show’s most compelling visual spectacles so far, drawing on the charged imagery of imprisonment, flowers, and leather-bound combat to illustrate our leads rising above their anxieties, and demonstrating their urge for both undiluted self-expression and earnest personal connection through their sound. Their band is not a happy family; they are a vicious nest of rivals, all intent on outshining each other while glorifying their own sound. Also, Tina is there.

Considering my misgivings regarding this show’s characterization of musical rebellion, I suppose it’s no surprise that Tina’s arrival has been a great relief to me. Tina’s lack of technical expertise forces the other band members to play at her pace, to moderate, to share; her inability to keep up demands solidarity from the others, and I was delighted to see Otoha taking the lead in doing so. Now let’s rub this win in Bitter Ganache’s stupid faces!

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Monogatari Off/Monster Season – Episode 12

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re winding towards the conclusion of Monogatari’s Monster Season, as our elite team of investigators work to hunt down the life-draining killer stalking their town. With four exsanguinated basketball players in the hospital, a similarly drained Deathtopia at Mayoi’s shrine, and one body still unaccounted for, the race is on to crack this case before Kagenui arrives and just punches everything to pieces.

While our killer remains elusive, the journey so far has offered plenty of thematically resonant touchstones to sift through, presenting echoes of both Acerola and Araragi’s passage into vampirism. Acerola believed becoming a vampire was the only way she could take account for the lives she stole, pledging that each life taken would be as precious to her as her own flesh was to the gourmet Deathtopia. But in meeting and transforming Araragi, she actually fulfilled her previous wish: to discover someone she could truly save, and thereby redeem her own existence. Each found a vessel for their self-sacrificing instincts in the other, and with the validity of their existence affirmed, they were each able to grow beyond those instincts, and discover the ordinary, fundamental truth that if you keep living, good things will eventually happen.

“Happiness isn’t a race,” Araragi once said, and the wandering passage of himself and Shinobu speak to the truth of those words. Though the journey has been arduous, this arc’s glance back towards their origins demonstrates just how far they’ve come, all the great strides towards happiness they have taken. Whatever mysteries remain, the emotional growth of Araragi and Shinobu has never been more certain. Now let’s get to work!

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Wicked: For Good

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’re journeying back into the fantastical land of Oz, as we explore the followup to 2024’s Wicked film adaptation. Yep, it’s time for Wicked: For Good, as Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba suffers the slander of our Wizard charlatan, and Ariana Grande’s Glinda assumes the mantle of magical inheritance. Having formed an unlikely bond during their days at Shiz Academy, the two have been torn apart by the Wizard’s machinations, and Elphaba now finds herself the scapegoat for all of Oz’s manifold problems.

The first film offered an intriguing stew of thematic variables, touching on notes of classism, discrimination, and the ways skillful propagandists can reshape society in their own preferred image. I’m generally a fan of narratives that frame magic as a fading whisper in the age of man, and the idea that the Wizard is intentionally provoking such an outcome through his attacks on education and rewriting of history is an exceedingly compelling twist on that convention. Additionally, Ariana Grande has proven herself absolutely fuckin’ hilarious, and though I expect this film will provide fewer opportunities for her to make a delightful fool of herself, I’m eager to see where Elphaba and Glinda go from here. Let us return to unrest in the land of Oz!

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Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End – Episode 18

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I thought we’d check back in with Frieren and the gang, as they continue their journey north to the land of souls’ rest. When last we met with our adventurers, they were making an impromptu goodbye to Sein, the priest who’d been accompanying them ever since they convinced him to pursue his old friend. Discovering his objective had wandered in a different direction, he parted with a simple wave, content in the time he had shared with our crew.

His departure served as a play on expectations that ultimately reinforced Frieren’s melancholy themes; though we often think of parties in stories like this as natural, unbreakable units, every journey shared is in truth a happy accident. Frieren has explored the tragedy of taking others’ presence for granted through its reflections on the original hero’s party, but Sein’s brief presence put that discussion in immediate terms, as we in the audience were given barely enough time to get to know him before he was already gone.

But that’s enough melancholy and nostalgia for now. With the first class mage exams presumably ahead of us, I’m guessing we’re moving into some crunchy action territory for the moment, and am eager to see these animators flex a bit. Let’s get to it!

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Shoushimin Series – Episode 10

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we are returning to the scrumptious Shoushimin Series, just after the full revelation of Osanai’s scheme. This was no idle game of deduction for our heroine; with the threat of Isawa’s revenge to motivate her, she decided to go fully scorched earth, conscripting both Sanae and Jogoro into a scheme that would ultimately see Isawa buried under a variety of semi-invented criminal charges. In the end, the mastermind behind Osanai’s abduction was Osanai herself, who knew she could manipulate things such that Isawa took the fall.

That is some truly dark shit, if you don’t mind me saying. Isawa seemed troubled and possibly even dangerous, but “if you threaten me I will destroy your life” is a pretty hair-trigger response, and Osanai seems not only satisfied with this conclusion, but actively proud of her work. There is a violence in her that goes well beyond Jogoro’s occasionally friction-prompting intelligence; his skill is morally neutral and actually quite valuable, whereas her passion seems to inevitably leave scarred victims in its wake. And morality of her talents aside, how is Jogoro supposed to feel about this? Yes, they often mislead each other for the sake of a shared game, but when that deception puts lives at risk, and even makes Jogoro complicit in her conspiracy, how can he continue to trust that she is fundamentally on his side? Is there anything Osanai truly cares about beyond sweets and getting to bare her fangs? Let’s find out!

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Apocalypse Hotel – Episode 3

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m in the mood for some fluffy comfort food, and what could be more soothing than the thought that humanity is over, our troubles have ended, and a courteous robot entourage has been left to pick up our slack? That’s right, we’re journeying downtown to the Apocalypse Hotel, where the service is superb and the clientele extraterrestrial.

After initially presenting a world bereft of human life, where the purposes instilled in Yachiyo and her compatriots only served to illuminate the emptiness of their daily routines, our second episode offered the staff an unexpected guest to accommodate. And though their alien visitor fell a touch outside their expected parameters, his unusual needs ultimately served as a positive affirmation for Yachiyo, reminding her that even her own status as concierge was facilitated as an act of faith, a disregarding of the probable in pursuit of that golden possibility of coexistence. Humanity may be gone, but it seems they’ve left the best of themselves behind to open the doors and wash the sheets. Let’s see what our staff get up to today!

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The Mighty Nein – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m eager to check back in on the trials of The Mighty Nein, or at least whatever portion of its members are hitting the spotlight this episode. As this adaptation’s first episode well demonstrated, Critical Role are taking a drastic approach to reimagining their second tabletop campaign, reordering and reframing and generally attempting to make a coherent, propulsive narrative out of a largely unguided collaborative experience. And so far, I have to say they are absolutely nailing it.

While The Legend of Vox Machina did a fine job of recreating the experience of participating in a tabletop campaign in animated format, it’s clear that they’ve adjusted their goals for The Mighty Nein, and are instead attempting to assemble the best story possible out of the campaign that was. They are not attempting to strictly recreate The Mighty Nein in video format – they are diverging and restructuring in service of the campaign’s potential, rather than its played reality. It’s pretty much exactly what I hoped for from Critical Role’s simultaneously best and least fully realized campaign, abandoning both the inherent limitations of tabletop storytelling (the primacy of the party, the singularity of perspective, etc), as well as the narrative pitfalls of a party and dungeon master not being entirely on the same page. It’s an audacious trick, but I’ve been thoroughly impressed with their adjustments so far, and am eager to see how this new edition of the story unfolds. Let’s get to it!

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BanG Dream! Ave Mujica – Episode 12

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Hello folks, and welcome the heck back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m happy to announce we’re returning to the stage of nightmare and delirium that is Ave Mujica, as our heroines attempt to exorcise their demons and find a place where they belong through their collective surrender to visual kei theatrical music experience. Surprisingly, as of eleven episodes in, this doesn’t seem to have worked; practically every member of the group is actually in a worse place than they started, whether professionally, psychologically, or a healthy combo of the two.

Our last to reveal her particular blend of self-hatred, obsession, and dissociation was Uika, born Hatsune Misumi, the daughter of Sakiko’s grandfather and unacknowledged black sheep of the Togawa group. Forced to grow up like a princess constrained in a faraway tower, Hatsune developed a fascination with the darling heir Sakiko that saw her claiming the identity of her little sister Uika, a version of herself that she could allow to betray her father’s directives, and actually become friends with the golden child.

Between her own forlorn existence and Sakiko’s seemingly irresistible aura, Uika’s curiosity soon turned to obsession; and when Sakiko’s life collapsed in the wake of Uika meeting with her father, she was swift to break Sakiko’s fall, her love for her double only matched by her hatred of herself. Now we’ve got Uika in Togawa Jail, Sakiko being shipped off to Switzerland, and our three other foundlings left in a practice room with no AC or music on. Let’s see if Sakiko manages to single-handedly end Swiss neutrality as we return to Ave Mujica!

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Journal With Witch – Episode 2

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Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m willing to wager that my heart is prepared for another expert pummeling, and am thus ready to check out a fresh episode of Journal With Witch. Our first episode introduced us to Makio Kōdai and her niece Asa Takumi, two near-strangers who were brought together by the sudden death of Asa’s parents. Though Makio had a painful relationship with Asa’s mother, her sympathy for Asa led her to offer her own home to the teenage orphan. Thus we find ourselves with two near-opposites cohabiting, colliding, and collectively attempting to navigate this strange and sorrowful life.

Journal With Witch’s first episode did a masterful job of conveying Makio’s emotional experience, gracefully articulating the shadows and ghosts that populate her lonely world. As a shut-in author who never really learned to get along with others, her daily rituals and hesitant stabs at connection felt painfully well-observed, realized through a combination of precise boarding, understated sound design, and hard-won scraps of personal wisdom. As a character study, the show already feels brutally relatable; as a reflection on life, love, and loss, it’s shaping up to be a poignant and quietly life-affirming journey. Let’s see how our lonely souls are faring as we return to the show!

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